Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017
What’s it about?
Darren takes on controversial topics in a way that may not be PC but is undoubtedly hilarious, challenging subjects such as the gender “spectrum”, class divide and stereotypes.
What makes it good?
Darren’s no nonsense approach to these topics and shrewd observational skills reveal some of the strange but funny cracks in society. From the meaningful chanting of They Don’t Really Care About Us at a Black Lives Matter protest being slightly undermined by Michael Jackson’s trademark ‘heehee”, to likening the ever-increasing gender spectrum to catching up with Pokémon, Darren has the entire audience in stitches from start to finish.
The best bits
Darren’s example of class divide based on wages in different areas: £80k a year in London? “Yeah you’re doing alright”. In Oldbury, Birmingham: “Nah he ain’t like us bruv, he shops in Waitrose!”
The description of how when bored, Darren started to type “How to dispose of a dead body” into Google and the predictive search completed it for him – leading him to a post where someone had gone into the gory details of how to do it, politely ending his instructions with “Hope this helps”.
When discussing the horrifically racist comments found on YouTube videos, Darren came across the chilled response from a YouTuber of Oriental descent who when asked: “How was Hiroshima?” calmly replied: “Wasn’t there mate”.
Photograph: Steve Ullathorne
