EdFringe Review: Jonno: Here Comes Mr Funny

It doesn’t take long to see why SNL UK booked Daran ‘Jonno ‘ Johnson as their head writer. This is a comedian with a mind overflowing with comic ideas, be they whole-form sketches, ridiculous songs, or flights of absurd, yet conversational whimsy. Here Comes Mr Funny is the Sheeps veteran’s solo Edinburgh debut, and though full of self-confessed fear of solo work, his opening ditty is utterly fearless. It’s a perky little comic ode to an office crush which takes sudden and alarming zoological detours — enough said.

---

He has a superbly conversational approach to stand-up — some of the material, the 38-year-old tells us, he came up with when he was 19. Well, long familiarity with his schtick seems to have lent him confidence when delivering it. Plus, it’s not every comic who can sell things going wrong quite so well, or so naturally. You’ll be expecting some cringeworthy disaster when he declares an incoming ‘comedy rap’, but not what he delivers. This talent for wrongfooting an audience, paired with an invaluable gift for stating obvious things with impeccable timing, makes for an accomplished hour of comedy.

You can see his sketch-based sensibilities throughout — the technical scaffolding of his work is fairly impeccable, though he smartly avoids the show feeling like a sketch show. It’s character comedy of a sort, with a stage persona only millimetres away from the real Jonno. Stage left, he has his ‘honesty’ stool to signal when he’s telling the truth; friends apparently struggle to know when he’s joking on stage and off, and you will quickly see why.

He is constantly weaving bits throughout the show, whether it’s finding another only child in the audience to quasi-bond with or manifesting professional success through outright lies. I have the feeling that there’s nothing extraneous in this show — if it’s there, it’s because Jonno can mine it for laughs again and again depending on audience reactions, or his own mood on the night. I had a strong sense of him trying out material on the audience throughout, and I have confidence this show will be deadlier still after he’s had a few nights to sharpen it on a couple more front-rows.

Here and there, I must say, however, proceedings do slip into the more clever/impressive than outright funny — his self-penned Bond themes, for example, are both smart and entertaining, but they don’t always pay off with a belly laugh. Conversely, his finale is a triumphant piece of comic writing and acting, and worth the price of admission. This is a comedian who knows where funny is, and with the chops to reach it. It’s also not every performer who’d let a reviewer in on the first show of a solo-Fringe debut — and if knowing a critic was in the audience gave him pause, it didn’t show. 

So if you were wondering whether Jonno could only write for others, wonder no more. Sure, he’s left it till he was 38 to make a run at personal stardom, but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if he does make it to the Apollo stage before the hourglass runs out.

---

---