Last October, things were looking up for Liam Withnail when he was all set for a two-week comedy residency on-board a cruise ship. However, events took a turn when he was urgently recalled to hospital following a series of tests trying to establish why his bowel movements had become seriously problematic. That life-changing phone call was captured on camera during the filming of his podcast with good friend and fellow comedian Christopher Macarthur-Boyd whose hesitant, sporadically hilarious reactions play as a nice counterbalance to an otherwise intensely sombre moment.
 

Chronic Boom details (and it really does detail) Withnail’s hospital stay following a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. He probes the audience to see if there are any others with inflammatory bowel disease but he emphatically disregards those with mere IBS. Using a whiteboard to chart his progress, he skilfully draws the crowd into his plight. There’s a palpable sense of investment in the room as his blood count slowly trickles down (good) and occasionally spikes back up (bad). Throughout his treatment he battles weight gain and sleep loss, and voices his condition with the appropriately threatening tones of Ray Winstone.
 

Withnail’s storytelling is sublime and this past year has given him ample material. When his every moment away from home has to be strategised to include quick and easy access to a toilet, everything becomes an adventure; an otherwise straightforward journey to the airport becomes an extraordinarily tense contest played out between mind and body. Sometimes shocking, often profound but always hilarious, this is a compelling show about making the best of what life throws at us.
Liam Withnail: Chronic Boom, Monkey Barrel, until 27 August, 7.10pm.