Carl Donnelly: The Nutter on the Bus

Take a trip on a stationary bus

★★★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
Published 08 Aug 2017
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115270 original

If you’ve been a regular commuter on the bus network of any major city you will no doubt have encountered someone, possibly with a foul odour and interesting views on mind control, who has decided to be your pal for the duration of your journey – whether you like it or not. If you haven’t, then you probably are that person and you should pack it in. Or learn to tell a story as well as Carl Donnelly.

Donnelly has a history of mental health problems and has never been shy about sharing his tales of divorce and neuroses at Fringes past, but for this new hour something seems different. Not just the location of the event, (Bob’s Blundabus on Trevorrow makes an excellent home for such an intimate yet trippy tale) Carl himself seems a little more relaxed. More centred, and in true "nutter on the bus" style he’s going to tell you all about it.

What follows is a series of anecdotes about his dalliances with the hallucinogenic root tea Iowaska, and the ramifications of dabbling with some pretty far out spiritual medicines and the visions that follow. By no means an endorsement of playing fast and loose with psychotropics, Donnelly simply tells an engrossing and hilarious story from his life for an hour that might make you a little more open to the idea of leaving that seat open beside you the next time you’re on the nightbus to Meadowbank.