Carl Donnelly has quickly become a clown that I will always try to catch at the Fringe. I first came across him for the most ridiculous of reasons, we were going through the program whilst impressively drunk and I saw a show that apparently featured the Predator! I had no idea who the other guys were (or why I thought that the Predator would make a good stand-up) but I bought the tickets pretty much on the spot.

We turned up at a cave venue to find the Predator doing the sound for two young clowns, John Robins & Carl Donnelly. They were both far better than I could have expected for a drunken punt but of the two Carl slightly edged it for me and I have been watching and enjoying his shows pretty steadily ever since.

This year, I had my Fringe newbie in tow and thought that he might enjoy this particular clown because they seem to move in similar London circles. I also wanted to introduce him to the idea of the free fringe – it’s a hugely important part of the festival and the quality of the acts who appear within it’s listings seems to only increase each year.

Carl walks out… looking nothing at all like the guy on the poster! He had shaved his head and face which left a few members of the audience a little confused (more on them later). Luckily no Samson effect was experienced, and Carl began with his regular chatty style that you can’t help but warm to.

My instincts about my friend being able to relate to this particular clown were actually far more on point than I could ever have realised. During one particularly amusing anecdote about having had to try ‘bugle’ off a drug dealers’ machete whilst on a stag-do in Eastern Europe my pal was literally the only person in the room nodding away and under his breath I heard him whisper “yup, been there”.

Carl continued through a typically impressive routine covering family, friends, life choices… all of those mundane everyday topics that in the hands of a quality clown can somehow be hilarious. But it was not the routine that impressed me most on this day, it was the way that he dealt with a tricky crowd.

This wasn’t heckling, this was a Swiss woman who didn’t seem to understand that the person on stage wasn’t having a direct conversation with her, or that his questions were rhetorical. Carl took it all in his stride and managed to involve her without insulting her and without losing the crowd. The work of a true pro.

I am writing this up after having seen Kevin Hart at the O2 and a newspaper reviewer who happened to be at both shows said the most amazing thing to me after the Kevin hart gig. They said “It’s ridiculous, a comedian like that who isn’t funny and will literally throw you out of the building if you heckle can charge £100 a ticket and yet you have someone like Carl Donnelly shaking a bucket at the end of his gig. It’s just wrong”.

I couldn’t agree more and if I was offered tickets to both acts again in the future there is only one that I would accept. Catch this clown on tour if you can… and if you happen to have an uninitiated Essex pal kicking about it’s definitely worth taking them along for the ride.

Clown Stars: * * * *

@Laughing Horse – Counting House, Edinburgh