Comedy review: Ray Bradshaw, Glasgow

The second and final instalment in Ray Bradshaw’s high-concept show, I Dare Ray To, plays on the affable comic’s eagerness to converse with strangers and willingness to accept their ridiculous bets.

Ray Bradshaw

Ray Bradshaw: I Dare Ray To - Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow

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With the ground rules that he couldn’t pay anyone for their services, nothing sexual or illegal would occur, and that he wouldn’t hack a limb off following the goading of his brother, his account feels like Luke Rhinehart’s The Dice Man without the possibility of genuine failure, filtered through similarly pointless caper shows by the likes of Dave Gorman, Alex Horne and Tim FitzHigham.

His show stacks up reasonably well against theirs and there is some real jeopardy in his foolhardy running with the bulls in Spain.

But even with the random element of crowd-sourced suggestions, the quest still lacks a bit of uniqueness as he recreates popular dares such as chugging down cinnamon till he’s sick, running a marathon and competing in a Man vs Food style eating challenge.

Even when the dare was incontrovertibly unique – playing Scotland’s oldest woman at Connect 4, it isn’t meaningful of anything beyond being a bit of a laugh.

A warm and engaging storyteller, that laugh rate is certainly consistent as Bradshaw plays the idiot with commitment and conviction. But I’d have appreciated more imaginative bets that better reflected his person, such as his compelling tale of being a pasty, Scottish ginger bloke trying to make it in the Bollywood film industry.

Seen on 15.03.14