EDINBURGH 2023: Review: NICK PUPO: ADDICTED, Just The Tonic At The Mash House

Going into Nick Pupo: Addicted, I knew that the show was going to head to dark places. The warnings spoke of “distressing or potentially triggering themes” and the description stated Pupo was going to look at his “turbulent relationship with drugs.” But, it is still labeled as a comedy show, so I went in curious as to how Pupo would make his audience laugh while still telling an emotional and personal story. Is he able to pull it off?

The answer is a bit more complicated than one would like. Pupo is certainly a comedian and has excellent timing, especially when it comes to pauses that lead to twists within the tale. Even though he starts off by debating whether he is a bad person and listing some of the things he’s done, Pupo almost immediately has the audience on his side, making his past self an appealing character who is going through troubled times. But, there are incredibly dark moments within the show that might make those looking for comedy more uncomfortable than they might have expected, including a moment where Pupo reenacts his first time “shooting up” at a party.

The majority of the show focuses on not only Pupo’s addictions (lying, weed, and heroin to name a few), but his closest friend whom he met after out-burping him in grade school. Each time Pupo makes a promise to his best friend, whether it is to never touch his hamsters unsupervised or to stop doing cocaine, you know that the promise is going to be broken. But, somehow, you still root for past-Pupo, hoping that he will learn his lesson and be able to reach sobriety. The ending of Addicted is somehow both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, including one last hamster reference.

Ultimately, Nick Pupo: Addicted is a powerful story about one man’s struggle with addictions; a heartfelt reflection on mistakes from the past and looking towards the future, but rarely is it a comedy. Pupo is a strong storyteller who is able to add comedy to some of his most traumatic moments, so I would argue that the categorisation should be “Storytelling (comedy)” so the audience understands what they are getting themselves into.

Nick Pupo: Addicted runs at Just the Tonic at The Mash House, The Bottle Room at 18:10 from 10 to 27 August (no performance on 14 August).

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