Review: Jacob Hawley: Bump

Having newly entered his thirties, the middle classes, and expectant parenthood, Jacob Hawley finds himself in a position many a stand-up before him have built an hour from: who is he now? Where does he fit? And is he ready to grow up and be a father? 

Hawley deals with these themes affably and, when he confronts them head on, effectively. At other points they feel like a slightly tenuous hook for more practiced material; Hawley is at his strongest in gags about performing Grease-themed stand-up at a drive-in cinema and receiving targeted social media ads for male mental health, but these play more like standalone routines than part of a grander narrative. There is a tendency, too, to draw a joke out for a beat longer than necessary. 

That said, Bump at its best is an enjoyable and assured hour with plenty of laughs and lots of Hawley’s trademark charm and honesty. There is much for millennial audiences to relate to, and Hawley is a successful spokesperson for shared experiences of phone addiction, 1990s nostalgia and the various characters to be found lurking in Instagram inboxes. 

There is the sense that the central questions of the show – about who Hawley is as a person and which ‘boxes’ he now fits into – are also true of his role as a comedian. Bump can’t quite decide if it is a moving exploration of identity and late youth, or a gag-a-minute hour of relatable observations. Hawley could probably pull off either if he just decided which to commit to.