Comedy review: Carey Marx: The Afterwife

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: At the risk of sounding uncaring (no pun intended), it has been a marvellous thing for comedy that Carey Marx split with his wife of 11 years.

Liquid Room Annexe/Warehouse (Venue 276)

****

Not great for Carey, of course, at least not initially, but he is coming to terms with the trauma, he has a brilliant new show, he has learned acoustic guitar and he can play all the chords from Let It Go. All his ex has seems to have is a new boyfriend. Things have been dark, hitting a particular low getting trapped in a memory foam mattress and walking into lamp posts.

The show is peppered with songs and nearly-songs. There are some flights of fancy here that are Marx at his best – he makes a brilliant argument for immigration and against childbirth, he rails against people who are selfish with their body parts (the man has a genuine point here), there is a juicy bunch of puns and who knew how funny stick insects could be?

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In a world of mild-mannered stand-up-lite, an hour with Carey Marx is a wonderfully rumpled, grumpled experience. There are so many different kinds of laugh in this show and Marx wears his skill as a writer and performer very lightly. I have no idea if the surprise at the end will be there to delight audiences every day but with or without it, this is great comedy from a comedy master.

Until 27 August. Today 6:15pm.