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Ian Smith received a Best Show nomination this year, as he had two Fringes ago in 2023, but he’s not holding out any hope that his local newspaper will herald his success. His failures, however? They’ll report ’em! It probably doesn’t help much to have a “bland name” that avoids easy searching on Google.
For this hour, it’s a tale of two halves. One half is fanciful, playfully observing a beer garden in the aftermath of a seagull attack,, or offering different perspectives on “all the gear, no idea” as a class-based insult, how “wrong place wrong time” isn’t so bad when considering the alternatives, or imagining the circumstances involved in dialing the triple-digit “helplines” between 1-1-1 and 9-9-9.
The other half concerns his attempts with his girlfriend of three years to conceive a child. IVF treatments, and particularly the awkwardness that comes with semen samples, have become a well-trodden trope for male comedians in the past couple of years, so perhaps I’m less interested than the Fringe judges in hearing this tale told once more, but with a northern English spin. Smith does have a couple of new takes on this premise, though! In his case, he has to handle a 60-minute deadline for the validity of an at-home sample kit. And then there’s the guy caught at the door on Google street view. Oh, to be snapped in the act.
Ian Smith: Foot Spa Half Empty plays Monkey Barrel 1 through Aug. 24, 2025
