Brett Goldstein was unlucky to miss out on a Foster's Award nomination with his latest show, Contains Scenes of an Adult Nature, in Edinburgh last summer, but he seems to be doing OK without gongs. He is in the Ricky Gervais series Derek, he was in Nick Helm's series Uncle, and he brings his acclaimed live show about the pervasiveness of pornography, to the Soho Theatre this week from March 3 - 8. This review below is an updated version of the review that first ran in the Evening Standard during the Edinburgh Festival.
There was a lot of sex in Edinburgh this year. And not just involving members, ooh missus, of the press. Ex-prostitutes confessing all. Burlesque dancers revealing almost all. Male nudity has been positively in-your-face on the Fringe. But Brett Goldstein’s timely monologue, Contains Scenes of an Adult Nature, comes at the hot topic of internet pornography and society’s sexualisation with a frank, fresh eye.
Goldstein, who played the quiet boyfriend in Ricky Gervais’s C4 series Derek, opens by confessing that he was once an avid user of pornography — “working from home,” as he euphemistically calls it. But with the soft-spoken zeal of a convert whose intellect has triumphed over his instinct, he recalls how a pivotal experience in Manhattan with a cocksure cockney named Cormac during a post-9/11 blackout turned him against the fantasy world.
This is not strictly stand-up, more like highly skilled storytelling, with relevant gags and pertinent points seamlessly woven together.
Goldstein explains how he now indulges in “Misogyny Watch” and argues that James Bond’s attitude to women, under the most casual scrutiny, is found wanting. As for “adult movies”, if they are so adult where is the tedious bill-paying and grown-up household chores?
At times the autobiographical narrative feels too convenient but he tells his tale so well. Any whiffs of dramatic licence are reasonable in the context of a higher truth. Pornography is not just degrading to women, it can damage anyone in contact with it. If it damaged the twentysomething Goldstein, what is it doing to 12-year-old boys on their smartphones? Provocative stuff deftly delivered that makes you laugh without making light of a heavy subject.
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