Stephen K Amos: Find the Funny, Festival Fringe Review
Stephen K Amos is probably one of the funniest comedians and certainly one of the best entertainers at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He’s been performing a solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for what seems like an eternity. This year’s show, an opportunity for Stephen to enjoy his usual audience banter and humorous stories, is entitled “Find the Funny”. In a slight difference to previous years, an audience member is chosen to record the number of laughs and rounds of applause, with the total announced at the show’s end.
The themes of ‘Find The Funny’ will come as no surprise to fans of Stephen K Amos. He extracts humour from his race and upbringing; ever willing to tell a story from his childhood and emphasise how today’s youth have it so much better. Stephen performed at last year’s Royal Variety Performance and he gets good mileage from this and his encounter with Prince Phillip. The show wraps up with some edgier jokes, which Stephen uses to demonstrate the show’s title: we should be able to ‘Find The Funny’ regardless of the situation. Throughout the show Stephen K Amos’ delivery is ultra confident, charming and, most crucially, absolutely funny.
After seeing Stephen K Amos’ stand-up Festival Fringe show last year (More of Me), this year’s show felt too much of the same; infact some chunks of content were the same! It’s almost as though Stephen has switched his comedy car to cruise control and is waiting for the occasional TV appearances to become permanent (as he surely deserves). Ironically moving onto bigger and better things, albeit jokingly, is mentioned in Stephen’s routine - with the familiar joke of waiting for an opening at the BBC.
If you have never seen Stephen K Amos perform his solo stand-up show it’s a must see. However if you’ve seen him recently I’d recommend trying something different, unless you’re a devoted fan, of which Stephen has many. If Stephen returns to the Fringe next year I genuinely hope he can move his show forward: he’s too talented to become complacent.
Essential | Worth a watch | One to miss
Stephen K Amos is performing ‘Find The Funny’ at the Pleasance Courtyard until 25th August, at 2140.
