There is a certain type of show that you can only find at the Fringe. Gerry Carroll’s ‘Young’ is the epitome of this – the kind of intriguingly random flyer you see stuck to a shop window and think, ‘Why not?’. On his poster, a close cropped image of his face on a plain yellow background, he promises gags, singing and dancing, though not too much dancing, as he is ‘an oul fella’. Just from this last line alone, I was sold. 

You can find Gerry in a dusty attic above a nightclub. The show I attended on a bleak Sunday afternoon had about five people in the audience who had wandered in off the street looking for some reasonably priced entertainment. Gerry is already waiting for us in a scruffy suit jacket and baggy Bermuda shorts. The get up is a clue, hinting at his dual personas. After having spent years as a company man, he decided to turn his hand to comedy. As he takes  a steadying sip of water, there’s a youthful twinkle in his eye, daring us to buy into his silliness… why not?

Gerry’s hour is spent meandering through loosely connected stories about aging: getting called old at the supermarket, the breakup of his marriage, his memories of growing up in Ireland. He relates his own struggles to that of the Irish legend Oisin, who left his home of Ireland to chase a beautiful woman, then returned to find he was an old man, the only one left who remembers the old days. Gerry’s delivery is as breathless as a world-weary traveller, often turning from one tangent to another with little connective tissue, and yet somehow it works. 

Gerry’s comedic timing and physical commitment shows great promise. His affable persona drags the audience along with him even when they might be lost as to the point of  his stories. Once he has the wind in his sails, he lights up, commanding the stage admirably, launching into weighty discussions of death as well as memorable songs about bowel troubles with equal aplomb. 

‘Young’ is not the most dazzling show on offer this Fringe. There are comics with far more experience performing and as such Gerrys’ show may well slip under your radar. What ‘Young’ is is a testament to the power of the Fringe, allowing stories to be heard that  you couldn’t hear anywhere else. If you’re at a loose end in the mid-afternoon you can do far worse than spending an hour in the company of this charming oul fella. 

‘Young‘ is at Just The Attic at Just The Tonic at The Mash House is at Sun 30 Mar 2026