Andrew Lawrence:

Reasons To Kill Yourself

Assembly Rooms

THE promo poster featuring Andrew Lawrence glugging from a bottle of bleach should have served as a warning: this was not going to be an easy-to-swallow hour.

But what followed was one of the most unexpected pieces of "comedy" I have ever seen. On twitter, one audience member's reaction was to view the emotional outbursts of the second half hour as "moving", and with the distance that only 24 hours can bring I can almost see that to some people it might have been a "tragic and raw" set with "flashes of brilliance and insights of pain".

Unfortunately for me, as I squirmed in my seat, the pain was all too real - I could touch it.

As Lawrence decried the comedy industry as "toxic", surmised that this would be his final Fringe show, and generally spouted bile about "the circuit", the song Is That All There Is? began to play in my head, in an eerily slow Magic Roundabout fashion.

Was this the point of his Reasons To Kill Yourself set? Was it a self-reflexive piece, perhaps even an existential masterpiece?

At times his asphyxiating outbursts were pertinent, but would I buy a ticket anytime soon? I'd rather down Domestos.

Runs to August 24