Comedy review: Dave Gorman, Edinburgh Festival Theatre

FOR better or worse, Dave Gorman is strongly associated with popularising the use of PowerPoint in stand-up and he has fully embraced this by touring with “the biggest screen I could get in a van”.

Having settled into married life, he has forsaken the globe-trotting quests that once inspired his shows, settling for exploring the world via the internet. All very geeky – and yet he masterfully unveils the human quirkiness and inanity behind such developments as commercials for 48-hour deodorants or the misguided marketing of mobile phones, mischievously highlighting and exploiting the fundamental flaws behind their million-pound campaigns.

There’s some wonderfully astute observational material in PowerPoint Presentation, yet the best has deeply personal origins. After a mildly amusing showcase of supposed Gorman-alikes that he has been sent, allowing him to affect a display of exasperation, the gentile comic explodes with incredulity at his position in a list of top Jewish authors, walking a fine line of being offended at the inaccuracy without appearing to be too offended.

Elsewhere, his “found poem” of selected online responses to the news a French firm is to make the Union Flags for the 2012 Olympics is a beautifully rendered snapshot of contemporary bigotry and idiocy.

This is a technically slick, varied and consistently funny return from one of the most highly regarded Jewish comics in the business.

Rating: ****