2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Paul McCaffrey review
There appears to be a new breed of stand-up comic: quite posh, tells fairly long anecdotal stories about life, and is generally fairly pleasant company. And this sums up Paul McCaffrey almost exactly. But the more I see these comedians, the more I think there must be more to life... I want them to kill an animal or something, just to inject a bit of bite back into stand-up.
See, McCaffrey was just that little bit too plain. The act was very polished and rehearsed, but this did make things feel a little wooden at times. He could benefit from not always being quite so rigid in his words and relaxing a bit more during set pieces. The stories were told in an engaging manner, but the enthusiasm felt practiced. Although 'banter' with the audience did occur, there were clear distinctions between an 'audience bit' and a 'material bit'. For much of the 'material bits' it did feel we were watching McCaffrey at home practice in-front of the mirror.
A couple McCaffrey's stories were strong. However, he did have a habit of stretching them out too long without intermittent points of humour. The punchlines simply weren't rewarding enough given the length of time it took to get there. There were some fairly standard observations and routines about banks and such like, but his stories about working in Thorpe Park and an office were both great.
The use of the callback is quite an art, especially as Edinburgh audiences are really quite familiar with the old chestnut. McCaffrey hasn't quite mastered this yet, resulting in a couple of slightly shoddy attempts at achieving it, and the end of the show probably isn't quite as strong as McCaffrey envisaged it being. However, remembering that this is McCaffrey's first solo show, this is a perfectly good set by a perfectly good man.
Paul McCaffrey: Saying Something Stupid listing