EDINBURGH 2023: Review: STEPHEN BUCHANAN: CHARICATURE, Monkey Barrel

You might know Stephen Buchanan as a regular on the Scottish comedy scene or from being the 2017 runner-up for the New Scottish Comedian of the Year Award. But these days, it's more likely that you'll know him from his viral Tiktok videos.

Charicature is a mixture of straight standup and sketch comedy. He uses multimedia and pre-recorded footage with great effect and for the most part, the sketches are excellent. It's not a perfect show and the transitions aren't entirely seamless but it is clever and very, very funny. 

The first Wednesday of the festival is a notoriously quiet one. Buchanan has packed the room out but the 1.30pm slot means the audience is a little more muted. Having seen him previously, Buchanan is skilled with crowd work but this particular day they're not really giving him much to work with.

Buchanan's real strength lies in straight standup and observational comedy and he really delivers with solid material on Frankie and Bennys. There's some personal material that goes down really well as he tells the audience about his recent engagement and buying a flat in a converted asylum. 

For most of the show, I thought this was going to be an hour of solid laughs but there are some really interesting comments on the "Tiktokification" of live comedy. With 30-second clips going viral so often, it seems that an audience doesn't quite understand the standup element of live comedy. People want quick, punchy clips and while they are present in Charicature, it is the storytelling that makes this show a real gem.

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