Live Performance Review: Jon Richardson - Funny Magnet  (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Friday 17.08.2012 22:30, Main Hall, Assembly Hall (Unreserved Seating), Edinburgh 

I had checked online for his tour dates, and it had appeared as though 'Funny Magnet' was not coming to Edinburgh. Then lo and behold, I see in the metro on Thursday the 16th that it had been announced that he was doing four nights, so on route to the performance I was going to, I go to the Fringe box-office and get a ticket for the following evening.

This is the second time of seeing Jon perform, having seen him during the festival a couple of years ago, in a room at the Pleasance that was about a tenth of the size of this room, if not less. I was also pleased to see that for the biggest room in the Assembly Hall, it looked jam packed, and given what appeared to be limited advertising, this impressed me.

I enjoy comedy that is concerned with the anxiety provoked and time wasted by being extraordinarily petty about small matters in day to day living. This is an area where he is admirably exposing of his own neurosis, for the entertainment of the audience. I feel he has become more revealing, though this I also feel has become attained alongside becoming more self-aware regarding the things he gets 'stuck' on in daily living. I find him particularly enjoyable as a lot of the peccadilloes he raises, I have sympathy in regard to.

His explanation of the trails of sharing living space with others is acutely observed. This is delivered in a way that you are left with no uncertainty that he sees himself as a dick for getting stuck on the things he does, while also knowing that for his ease of functioning he is right for getting stuck on these things, leaving the dichotomy of behaviour  = dick + right, therefore trapped/frustrated = funny. He ends on an anecdote about observing a commuter eat his packed lunch, which is a surprising though funny end to the show.

He informed at the end that he usually uses George Formby music played as people leave. There is a play in Edinburgh at present called 'Formby', which he had been to see, and he asked the person who plays George in the play if he would mind coming along to do a tune. So we were treated to Ewan Wardrop as George Formby serenade us with 'Blackpool Rock', which was a delightful end to the show.

I enjoyed him when I saw him a couple of years ago, though I do feel he has improved. I am glad I spotted the small bit of info in the metro and that I did not land up missing the show.

Rating: 09/10.