Colin Leggo: Leggoland at The Blind Poet

★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
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102793 original
Published 08 Aug 2015

On 19 May 2014 Colin Leggo lost his leg after a 10-year battle to keep it, following on from the loss of a toe to type one diabetes a decade earlier.

As worthy and personal as this subject matter is, it's the sort of uplifting tale of triumph usually featured on Upworthy. Given that Leggo is a standup, he attempts to hit the rich vein of comedy that comes from prolonged personal agony. Unfortunately, he's more interested in crafting eye-rolling dad jokes that might even embarrass your dad. A shame really, as despite the gripping story, the humour garnered from this honest account is juvenile at best.

An interesting tale chaptered by clips of how uncool a name ‘Colin’ is takes away from the real story of what losing a limb can do to a person, and the difficulty of the decision to have it removed. Taking too long to get to any form of punchline, he relies on a powerpoint slideshow that breaks the connection between the human story and the audience there to listen to it. A couple of well-written parody songs make for a strong finish but simply succeed in papering over the cracks of a poorly structured show peppered with low-grade gags.