Review: Milo McCabe: Kenny Moon This Is Your Life, Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)

This is an ambitious show from character comic Milo McCabe, full of the stuff memorable Fringe hours are made of. That it doesn’t completely come off is down to flaws in execution rather than boldness.

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In various roles, including reprising his character Tyson Moon, the son of an old school comedian, he stars alongside his real father, old school comedian Mike, who’s appearing as Kenny Moon, a bewildered, old school comic being celebrated on This Is Your Life.

Yes, there are several self-referential layers here. And that there may be too many could be part of the problem. With stand-up Chris Henry in the Michael Aspel role, McCabe Jnr’s succession of grotesques spark confused recollections in Moon’s memory, of a career finished because of some unspecified scandal and a family life that was far from settled.

Effectively combining his psychotherapy degree, chameleonic acting skills and autobiography, McCabe the younger offers some neat remarks on the frictions between alternative comedy and what existed before.

Even so, and for all of the obvious personal import here, the full disclosure of Moon’s disintegrating mental state is less revelatory and theatrically satisfying than the initial set-up appeared to promise.

Until tomorrow. Today 5:35pm.