John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About, Talking comedy review – Playful and cerebral
The whimsical comic crafts a more traditional stand-up routine reflecting on life and death
There was a time when John-Luke Roberts was a household name at the Fringe, delivering critically acclaimed, whimsical stand-up year after year about all kinds of personal experiences. Fans will have felt his absence over the past four Augusts but in What I Talk About When I Run About, Talking, Roberts lifts the lid on what’s been going on behind the scenes. Turns out, he’s been very busy living. Or should we say, nearly dying.
Roberts suffered a pulmonary embolism and has had no choice but to grapple with his mortality ever since. In this show, he does this (through the medium of jokes, of course) by reflecting on his own life-threatening experience and a recent loss of a close friend. This is a show about death in all of its forms; how it motivates us, scares us and informs the human condition. His hour features more traditional stand-up than we’re used to seeing Roberts deliver, but the writing stays familiar in its cerebral and playful nature. Moments of whimsy come too as Roberts embodies a Jungian-inspired gremlin and sprinkles in short poems. His ability to pen a gag is still as strong as ever, but Roberts has been weathering a sombre season and this show can’t help but reflect it.
John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About, Talking, Monkey Barrel, until 30 August, 2.10pm; picture: Natasha Pszenicki.