Edinburgh Fringe Review: Mat Ewins Presents Adventureman 7: The Return of Adventureman, Heroes @ The Hive

At Soho Theatre Oct 12 - 21. Tickets here.

Update 23/8/17: Mat Ewins has been nominated for a lastminute.com Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show. See nominees here.

I had an inkling Mat Ewins would do well this year. His 2016 show was the last show I saw that year and it put a big grin on my face just when I was starting the think that a bucket of MDMA couldn’t make me smile. I don’t know if this year’s show is better, but then for me last year’s show was hard to top. It is certainly as good.

The plot is something to do with retrieving treasure from Africa to pay back debts after ordering too many printers while working at the ‘British History Museum’. But forget that, just sit back and enjoy the verbal and visual gags as they fly past you from start to finish.

Ewins looks a little bit like a speccy Simpsons character and his style if very much post-Groening. Every sentence, every aside seems to be in the service of a stupidly genius laugh. There are stupidly genius names, stupidly genius anecdotes. Blink and you might miss the stupidly genius funniest gag of the whole show. 

This might seem like a silly, throwaway hour but the attention to detail* is astonishing. Hard work has clearly gone into every moment. There is even a passing sight gag when you see the reflection on the nameplate of the museum on the screen. It is important to pay attention, the chances are that even if you think this show is a hilarious laugh riot from tee to green - which it is – you will still have missed a few corkers.

I'm not sure about the brief 'award-winning sensitive change of pace' bit two-thirds through but this show still gets the ultimate recommendation from me – I missed the first few minutes so when I went to went back again just to see what I’d missed I enjoyed it so much I ended up staying. Oh, and just when you think it can’t get any better John Kearns - whose new show, incidentally, was also one of the best I saw this year – has a video cameo telling Ewins to stick a carrot up his arse. 

Mat Ewins Presents Adventureman 7: The Return of Adventureman is at Heroes @ The Hive until August 27. Tickets here.

*****

Read more Edinburgh reviews here.

*Here's another example of attention to detail - it's the only show on the Edinburgh Fringe website with a sub-listing of "(sculpture, tasting)"

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