Comedy review: Juicer

An intriguing glimpse into the mind of an emerging comic, Sunil Patel's slightly awkward, self-absorbed debut raises the possibility that he might be a psychopath.

Star rating: ***

Venue: Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey (Venue 293)

And it never truly disabuses you of that notion, over a low-key but entertaining 50 minutes.

Faced with having to introduce himself, an Asian man from Bath with no sense of his ethnicity, incapable of even pronouncing his name correctly, he’s asked his female friends to describe him, his motivations not entirely honourable.

Damning him with faint praise and criticising him with enigmatic slights, his efforts to expand upon their descriptions, if anything, makes his character only more unknowable.

Notwithstanding his love of hip hop, what emerges is the profile of someone constantly second-guessing their actions, wondering if they have any emotional engagement at all.

For a comic, this raises the titillating possibility that literally anything can be material and any reaction to life’s triumphs and tribulations justified.

So while Patel’s personality takes a bit of effort to engage with, it’s borne from a genuinely left-field perspective, with solid gag writing craft, exemplified by the titular juicer joke he makes you hang on till the very end to hear.

Until 28 August. Today 2:30pm.

Click here for more reviews from the Edinburgh Festival

Click here for news from the Edinburgh Festival

Click here for guides from the Edinburgh Festival