Ro Campbell: Uttering Bad Shillings

In 2010, Australian Ro Campbell won the Scottish Comedian of the Year competition, eliciting boos from a partisan Glaswegian audience. This experience, along with a hallucinatory night in the company of an Aborigine friend in the outback, inspired him to dig into his Scottish heritage. Uttering Bad Shillings is the outcome and thankfully the show is better than the clunky title might suggest.

After the now-mandatory English riots quips, Campbell gets down to business, launching into his themed set – a kind of Who Do You Think You Are? with jokes. It’s an often touching hour, with Campbell positing that his Scottishness is not in doubt, particularly since he has actively chosen to embrace the nation that others simply take for granted.

It turns out that his mother’s belief that her family’s ancestors were worthy religious types are somewhat wide of the mark, leading to a nice section which sees the comedian attempt to atone for the actions of his convict forbears. An irreverent take on fellow comedian Kevin Bridges' rise to fame is another high point.

While the central conceit of the show is interesting and amusing, there’s just too much filler here – particularly in the latter half. Campbell is a warm and engaging presence but much of the action seems overly contrived to fit in with the all-important plot arc, sacrificing laughs and spontaneity along the way.

A strong finish can’t disguise the fact that this is a potentially great 30-minute set padded out to fill double that time.