★★★★★
‘What you’ve loads of stand-ups coming out of a cauldron at the Fringe?’ Shouts Edy Hurst to a bewildered audience as he, indeed, does emerge from a brilliantly constructed set that looks like a witches cottage! It’s replete with spell book, bubbling pot and shelves of curios. Playing with expectations at every turn, we open with with the tale of Elizabeth Southerns and the Pendle Witch-Trials. It turns out Edy is a distant relation, or so his Mum has mentioned in a voice-note. Cue a deep-dive that tangles Edy in reams of salt packets, ominous reverb and Vengaboys Trivia.
Hurst is effortlessly funny. A little nod or wry aside is enough to create ripples of laughter, yet he seems almost weighed down by complexity of his show, which although impressive can keep him from that ready engagement. That’s not to say the way Hurst treats the Pendle Witch-Trials isn’t well thought out. I found the courtroom scene particularly engaging.
Hurst excels in that area of comedy which I like to refer to as ‘obsessive analytical detailing’, which is rich in call-backs and tangents. It’s often executed poorly, but in the magical hands of Edy we get treated to a VengaBoys conspiracy that is hilarious!
Edy pulls off a brilliant analogy between witch-hunting hysteria and ableism. There are these glimpses into the real Edy’s life between the set pieces that cut your heart to the quick. That feeling of trying and failing to be part of life when you’re neurodivergent was conveyed with brutal honesty and vulnerability- even if he was wearing a wicker hat at the time. There are some truly perfect moments and sequences which makes the show a must see. I still have its final moments etched in my mind’s eye.
