Dave Thornton has some issues that he wants to get off his chest. These mainly revolve around the figure of his dead dad, but this does not mean that aussie Thornton is going all soft and sentimental on us; on the contrary, his show is full of optimism, camaraderie, sharp observations and laughs. Plenty of laughs.
Never throwing a pun at the expense of his audience, Thornton has the confidence to joke with them, chat and incorporate their jokes and stories into his own routine. His remarks about Word’s font styles join the different sections of the show, and they are a neat and inventive way of linking everything together.
Thornton’s stand-up, though, can sometimes seem a bit over-rehearsed, the delivery of the lines somehow by the numbers. He is far more witty and relaxed when veering from his set material than when he is strictly following it.
To be applauded, however, is the boldness of his last remarks, an ending that brings the joyous tone of his act to a bitter, but honest and sweet send-off. It is because we have journeyed through the whole hour with him, his emotions and his feelings towards his father, that we don’t feel cheated of a last laugh with which to end it all.
This might well be Thornton’s second outing only at the Edinburgh Fringe, but he is a star in the making in the Edinburgh circuit.
4/5 
Adrian G. Velazquez
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