Much has changed for Luke Rollason since we first reviewed him way back in 2019. Most notably, he’s now the star of a Disney+ original, Extraordinary – but, as the delightful weirdness of his newest Fringe show, ‘Luke Rollason, Luke Rollason, Let Down Your Hair’ makes clear, you certainly can’t accuse him of being a corporate sellout.

This year, the theme of his show is fairy tales (maybe a wry nod to his newfound association with the House of Mouse?) – from the ugly duckling to Pinocchio, none of our favourite childhood characters are spared. The audience isn’t spared, either. As per tradition, Rollason makes audience participation look easy, and is genuinely very appreciative of those who get stuck in – but it goes without saying that, if you don’t want him to make a fool of you (in the most good-natured of ways), you probably want to avoid the front couple of rows.

On top of his crowd work chops, Rollason has got his particular brand of physical comedy down to a science. The one-off gags, the long-running gags, the literal gags… You never know what he’s going to throw at you (and again, we’re not necessarily being metaphorical here), but it’ll be simultaneously grosser and wilder than you could have imagined.

That’s not to say ‘Let Down Your Hair’ is comprised of only toilet humor – to be clear, there’s a plenty of that, but there’s also a strand of genuine ennui woven throughout. Perhaps prompted by his recent career successes, Rollason also muses on the nature of wishes and learning to be happy with what you’ve got. As the hour draws to an end, he challenges an audience member to summarize the key themes of the show; they reply, in a panicked tone, that, ‘it’s got great dramaturgy.’ And they were right.

‘Luke Rollason, Luke Rollason, Let Down Your Hair‘ is at Pleasance Dome – 10 Dome until Sun 25 Aug 2024 (except Tue 13) at 19:10