Danny Bhoy: By the Way

Homecomings are desperately important to artists on the make, and for a boy from Moffat it doesn’t get much bigger than coming home to headline at the Edinbugh International Conference Centre during the Fringe. The last time Danny Bhoy put on a Festival show, the critical mauling he suffered was somewhat akin to wandering through a bear reserve wearing a bacon waistcoat.

Bhoy has only just returned from nine long months touring the towns of the Western Australian dustbowl. There is therefore a palpable sense of occasion to this event, with the capacity home crowd appearing to hold genuine affection for their wayward son, and wishing him well on his return from exile.

They’re the lucky ones tonight; pliant and forgiving, they are immune to the disappointment that the few objective observers in the house must feel.
He’s a likeable fellow, Danny Bhoy; full ready wit and easy banter. He competes, however, for the dubious honour of laziest comic at the Fringe, with material featuring several appallingly executed cultural stereotypes and a handful of lukewarm stories featuring situational humour long past its sell-by date. Clearly without anything to say, he tries to cobble together an edifying message at the end full of pointlessness and pretentious delivery that seems like a parody of itself.

Bhoy has clearly been wounded by his previous encounters with the press, but offers little reason why he shouldn’t be devoured again. This is lowest-common-denominator comedy, and the local boy doesn’t deserve his legion of fans.