Tom Lawrinson @ Underbelly Cowgate
Buried Alive and Loving It is an unexpectedly sedate sophomore hour from socials star Tom Lawrinson
Tom Lawrinson’s Buried Alive and Loving It is a strong showing of stand-up that feels somewhat dampened by scattershot material and an unexpectedly sedate demeanour.
Gone is much of the shifty character present in Lawrinson’s previous stage and online work (best known for his socials shorts), replaced here for the autobiographical. Lawrinson’s disposition and persona are still in the room; it clings to a great deal of the punchlines, especially in particularly strong material at the opening of the show relating to childhood shirtlessness. It’s weird and inappropriate and encapsulates exactly what you’d expect from Lawrinson.
He ably keeps the wheels on the hour, structured around his family’s left-field emigration to Spain, and easily transcends the stigma of social media stars turning to stand-up. Lawrinson is capable, funny and – despite meandering from the show’s throughline frequently – navigates the ebb and flow of a full set well.
However, the laughs come loudest when Lawrinson goes maundering; his style makes desultory observations and verbalised intrusive thoughts land like punchlines, and he audibly has to course-correct on more than one occasion.
Recurring bits about price-matching supermarkets and a particularly odd use of pound coins keep the callbacks funny, while his relationship to his parents, sisters and their turnstiles of beige boyfriends give the show an empathic grounding. However, Lawrinson could stand to raise his head above the parapet to take bigger swings at the gags baked into the show.
His sketch work doesn’t paint Lawrinson as having a ‘safe’ comic disposition, but much of Buried Alive..., while solidly funny, feels pH-balanced; unwilling to upset the scale that his wily, creepy, TikTok persona would relish tipping.
Tom Lawrinson: Buried Alive and Loving It, Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Laugh), run ended