Mark Dolan: Life Hacks

There's a running Fringe joke about performers who, when brochure deadline day arrives, have still to fully write their shows – hence the crop of show titles that relate only tangentially to the substance. There's a bit less comic prestige around the circumstance whereby a performer hasn't written their show by the time the Fringe actually arrives. Which is exactly what Mark Dolan seems to have done on the basis of this paper-thin hour of phoned-in material.

We begin with a run through the issues and personalities du jour, each treated with uniform predictability. Theresa May is scary; Boris Johnson is a dick; Bill Clinton is a bit of a shagger. A few bugbears are raised and dismissed with minimal inventiveness: people who use "OMG" are daft; vegans are always tired. The section on supermarkets manages to be both dull and woefully out of date, what with the change in Tesco's fortunes and their emphasis on closing rather than building new stores. By the time we reach the "life hacks" section, we're primed for a half-hearted hotchpotch of plain observations based around a very loose theme.

There are flashes of Dolan at his best when he abandons the flimsy material and has a chat with the audience. Suddenly he's engaging and witty, taking audience responses down unexpected avenues. It's also said that comics with successful careers in TV and radio return to the Fringe to get a shock to their comedy system – a way to keep them on their toes. Let's hope it works out for Dolan.