All edgy millennial comedians have three subjects for their material, so jokes about the housing market, self-hatred and 9/11 make up a large portion of Alexander Bennett’s Fringe hour. With long dark hair, and black and red shirt, his self-described ‘fake’ stage confidence helps deliver an hour of self-deprecating stories that leave his audience in stitches.

Bennett is undoubtedly a funny man. His crowd work involves comforting uneasy audience members with ‘relaxing’ music when his jokes are pushing boundaries. Although his preventative tactics manage to keep his spectators on-side, there are only so many terrorist and miscarriage jokes one person can get away with before their content becomes unimaginative. 

However, the English comedian ultimately strikes a successful balance between genuinely funny gags and controversy for its own sake. His jokes are supposed to push buttons without doing harm, apart from to himself of course. Self-pitying in a way that is sometimes funny and sometimes slightly deflating, Alexander Bennett is a comic who has his audience flitting between nervous laughter and fits of giggles. 

Alexander Bennett: I Can’t Stand The Man, Myself, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, until 27 August, 9pm.