Glenn Moore @ Just the Tonic, The Tron

This Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated show reveals Glenn Moore's promise, if not always the truth

Review by Ben Venables | 27 Aug 2018

Glenn Moore wants us to know a little more about him this year. He's been advised his specialty for one-liners deter an audience from connecting with him. It becomes something of a premise for Glenn, Glenn, Glenn... to test if stand-up resonating with the crowd necessitates telling the truth.

Anyone who prefers the purity of the one-liner show can rest assured jokes still come thick and fast. And those jokes are often sublimely crafted. Moore strikes ever so fine a balance between set-ups that are just obscure enough for an audience to have to make the effort for, but with enough collective knowledge within it to leave few behind.

The narrative behind of the show blends in and out of his gags fairly effortlessly. This story mainly revolves around his relationships with his flat-mates and the apparently implausible mission to Mars he's signed up for. What is true or not hardly matters; where Moore connects is when a joke takes us to another plane of reality. We truly feel we're riding along with him, forlornly, on the District tube line. There's a James Acaster quality to his storytelling, but it remains distinctively Moore's style.

The show does suffer from a few of the same pitfalls of a more conventional stand-up show. Perhaps he's the victim of his own success because when the odd callback is predictable it undermines a little of the otherworldliness he's created with a clunk. Moore has made a huge impression at this Fringe and it's easy to see why. But, as backhanded as it may seem, our view was this was only the launch of Moore developing his art in a new way – a way that has the potential to take him hurtling into the stratosphere. 


Glenn Moore: Glenn Glenn Glenn, How Do You Like It, How Do You Like It, Just the Tonic @ The Tron, run ended

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