John Tothill: The Last Living Libertine

Recommended by a friend, so glad I went to see John’s show. Where do I begin? I’ve never belly-laughed so hard at such a hilarious and cleverly-thought-through stand up routine. Don’t want to give anything away as you genuinely need to hear the twists and turns straight from the horse’s mouth (and I could never do justice to John’s impeccable comedic timing even if I tried!) MAKE SURE you have this on your list to see at the Fringe. John is surely a future comedic star in the making!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The best word I can use to describe this is ‘electric’ — I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ll never see anything like it again. Sadly for John, it means I’m struggling to know what to say about it other than my GOD… It’s one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen, and is completely original, and bizarrely immersive – the world that John conjures is done mostly with words and charm… and I’ve never wanted to stay anywhere more. People are usually terrified of crowd work – I think this was the only show I’ve ever seen where I was desperate for John to talk to me. As was everyone else. John’s always been on my radar as someone doing funny stuff for years, but wow: this show delivered a piece of genius right into our laps. I laughed so hard he asked me if I was having an asthma attack. That’s never happened before, but I really hope it happens again.

Before the show started the sound system was delivering a loud monotonous beat. That is a NO-NO for me so I gave up and can offer no opinion on any other aspect.

What a delightful brainy comic trip through history, the church, and techno music. For all the good looking nerds with questionable moral scruples, Casanova would have loved it.

I adored this show. Gloriously fun and funny. I am recommending it to history graduates, teachers, Catholics (lapsed, cultural, and practising), meal preppers, libertines, and people who went to primary school.

A slutty primary school RE/History lesson, delivered by Stephen Merchant and Prince Harry's lovechild with mannerisms reminiscent of the late great Anna Mann. He really is cooking with this. He works the crowd like an orchestral conductor, whilst using the language of a school teacher. The whole crowd was laughing every damn second. A triumph.