★★★★☆

Review by Tony Frame. Venue 17. Assembly George Square Studios – Studio Three @ 16:45

Clive Anderson doesn’t need a review. That was my afterthought after attending his show. We all know who he is, how witty and insightful he is, but I had never seen him live, in person – plus, I had also recently been watching reruns of Whose Line is it Anyway – so I figured that since he was up at the Fringe then this was as good a time as any to go and see him.

The show follows on from the success of his Podcast where a guest comes and sits and chats about their own personal Seven Wonders of the World. The format is pretty similar to the BBC show Room 101 I guess, but everything takes inspiration from somewhere these days.

His guest on the show I attended was Irish comedian David O’Doherty. Some of his own personal wonders were his love of bicycles (he loves them so much that if he were at a party, and there was a bike in the flat, he would stop his drinking and socialising just to fix and improve the said bicycle!), his great grandmother (who if I remember correctly was instrumental in the women’s movement in Ireland in the early 1900s), and the movie Jaws.

The great thing about the show is that none of it is scripted; it’s basically just Clive doing what he does best; asking questions, allowing his guest to talk for a while, before interjecting with some sharp ad-libs and observations, some of which take the conversation to places you wouldn’t expect in the slightest.

It’s an enjoyable format for a show, easy to follow, and Clive Anderson is still as engaging and brilliant and funny as he’s ever been. David O’Doherty’s own personal brand of humour and laid-back demeanour gave the evening a pleasant (almost homely) feel to it. And the full-capacity audience loved it a lot (as did I).

I hope Clive keeps coming back to the Fringe as he’s a good entertainer who’s always on form, one that you can always rely on for a quality show.