Demi Adejuyigbe @ Pleasance Dome
Demi Adejuyigbe returns to the Fringe with an hour of lo-fi, joyous self-expression
A real tonic for the jaded, Demi Adejuyigbe's much anticipated return to the Edinburgh Fringe is an indisputably fun show. He tracks his attempts to milk some kind of profit from the project, chasing sponsorship deals, and exploring dubious routes to success. It's deeply ironic, of course, because Adejuyigbe is clearly an all-round good guy.
He makes some strategic moves with his music-making, trading on nostalgia for existing IP and attempting to muscle in on the profitable country music market. He hawks his Scary Monster Halloween song with some success, catching Netflix's eye. Adejuyigbe makes some negligible efforts to conceal the name, but he clearly relishes revealing the crass messaging and creativity vacuum at work.
Outsourcing self-expression and art to AI constitutes another form of selling out and this time Lockheed Martin is the butt of the joke – with a sequence that evidently satisfies a deep need for mockery directed at AI. A robot rolls wonkily onto the stage and attempts to do crowd work with comically terrible results. It's blankly cheery "this works", as it parks awkwardly, really hits the sweetspot. Instead of the human tendency to self-deprecation in excusing an error, the gag deftly captures the vacancy of machine-style optimism.
Adejuyigbe’s blithely upfront about the fact the show is a collection of bits without much of a throughline, but he throws in a final trick-cum-callback that satisfyingly snaps the shape together (while also fulfilling a sponsorship deal). The larger message, though, is that this is precisely the kind of lo-fi, joyous self-expression that is so crucial in resisting the banal evil of the corporations that govern our world. The very opposite of selling-out, in fact.
Demi Adejuyigbe Sells Out, Pleasance Dome (Queen Dome), until 30 Aug (not 17), 6.45pm, £16.50-19.50