Sean Hughes: Life Becomes Noises

Blue illuminates him as he holds aloft a loaf of bread, and Snow Patrol plays overhead. In a moment he’s sitting at a bedside, ruminating on his father’s changing personality in his last few days of life; and in each instance Sean Hughes is captivating.

The stage is used to signify the house he grew up in, his father’s death bed, and at times his imagination. It might be this creative set, or the subject matter, or just the perfectly balanced delivery, but this feels more like a one-man show than straight stand-up, and all the better for it.

His is such an engaging personality that we are pulled straight into the stories of his childhood and the sometimes awkward moments he endured, and the often hilarious descriptions. When he opens his heart it is touching, yet there is always a joke lurking just behind to keep the show flowing and the audience on side, laughing.

Some say comedy can be made from anything, but an hour’s set based mainly on the death of your father? That sounds a little too hard to achieve, but Hughes pulls it off with aplomb.