Iain Stirling is home, the Edinburgh born comedian clearly taking great delight in returning to The Stand Comedy Club in his hometown. He even brings along a friend to warm the crowd up and Gareth Waugh does his hopes of a sell-out run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe no harm at all with a self-deprecating routine covering the downsides of looking young, and his first experience of a strip club among other his jokes.
But the crowd are here to see Stirling and are not disappointed by the honest accounts of the studio “l’apartement” (aka bedsit) which is all he can afford in London despite his burgeoning fame, his rising hatred for his peers who just seem to accept that everything is going against them despite being labelled “the entitled generation”, and the hilarious pros and cons of emoji culture.
Few stones are left unturned as he covers everything from his unusual career path, to Brexit, and even racist babies! It is a show which the packed Stand crowd would have been happy to listen and laugh to for another hour, although the crowd are distinctly millennial which is the backbone of much of Stirling’s humour.
He has a knack for picking on the relevant, getting plenty of mileage out of society’s current obsession with reaching 10,000 steps on their FitBit and giving a perceptive take on Jeremy Corbyn who he describes as a “nice old man” more akin to being the supply teacher every kid took advantage of rather than a leader.
The Stand is an intimate venue and it is standing room only inside, testament to Stirling’s rising reputation following a string of Fringe runs and an appearance on Russell Howard’s Good News. His early career saw him presenting on CBBC but it can’t be long before this down-to-earth comedian shakes his previous television life and becomes a household name in stand-up comedy.