Jonno: Here Comes Mr Funny (Fringe review) 3 Stars ***

Daran ‘Jonno’ Johnson relishes in awkwardness. As he comes out on stage, he immediately bursts into song about sticking his hands up a camel’s ass at an office job. No one is quite sure what’s going on.

Solemnly, he then tells us that he first played that song for his girlfriend, right after she attempted to have a serious conversation about the relationship. He is, he admits, maybe slightly avoidant. This is particularly so when it comes to the possibility of rejection.

According to Jonno, his debut stand-up show is an attempt to tackle this crippling fear of rejection. The comedian portrays this anxiety through stretching out moments of laughably uncomfortable embarrassment as far as they will go. And of course, whenever things do get too profound on the “chair of sincerity” Jonno uses as a prop, he has an unhinged song to distract us (see alternative James Bond theme tunes for reference).

The ping ponging from sincere self-reflection to absurd musical numbers feel like a direct stream of consciousness and the audience is genuinely invested in what is going on inside his head – it seems like a fascinating place to be.

But the show falls short because… well it was short. Despite being billed as a one hour show, it barely scraped 45 minutes. Before even checking the time at the end of the show, this was noticeable. It felt like something was missing; at the end we were left with some catchy tunes, funny jokes, and disparate existential confessions rather than a coherent hour of comedy.

Jonno’s performance is strong and singular, and the writing is clever – hardly a surprise given he is head writer of SNL UK. But those spare 15 minutes would make all the difference to the show – I’m curious to see if he fills them up.

Jonno: Here Comes Mr Funny, Monkey Barrel Comedy (Monkey Barrel 2), 3rd to 30th August (not 17th), 7.10pm.

Photo credit: Claire Haigh