As the audience queues for admission a bubbly member of staff hands out photocopies of an article from a recent broadsheet, proclaiming that it will ”explain the show a bit”. In retrospect it seems more like a last minute get clause for unsuspecting punters than genuine background, as Killing Paul McCartney has to be most oddly classified show on the Fringe.
The article proclaims to be seeking out a comedy audience, rather than a ‘’stuff old” theatre one yet Nick Grosso’s ”play” is listed as theatre at the Assembly Rooms – could it be any more misleading?
To set matters straight Killing Paul McCartney is a scripted stand up routine performed by a fictional comedian, though that is used in the widest possible sense, as the character is definitely from the Jim Davidson school of laughs and is the sort of comic who never evolves from the regional backwater circuit. There are some genuine laughs in amongst the crude, sexist dross but they are far and few between to make it a worthwhile comedy experience.
However, given the very nature of the show, it is very difficult to give it a proper critique. As a stand up show it would’ve been drummed out of Edinburgh long ago, but as a character piece it is exceptionally derived and delivered in the most impressive manner, as Jake Wood is outstanding as the vile, dislikable comic.
Despite the merits of this piece its actual existence is a mystery, as it seems a most foolhardy decision to invest in a sub-standard comedian when there are plenty of really good ones in the same building.
2/5
Richard Biggs
