1000 Tiny Birds

Mat Ewins - Mr. TikTok

Monkey Barrel, 2023-08-11

Oh god. I mean what do you say about a Mat Ewins show? An absolute staple of the Fringe since the very first year (and a firm favourite of mine for ten years now), Ewins has somehow managed to - in some way - outdo himself. Within the first 30 seconds he’s done something I don’t think any other comedian has done and I am already practically in tears laughing. From there, it’s what we’ve come to expect, by and large, with some stupidly silly videos and wildly overcomplicated tech. This year, his partner Kate is sending live notifications from “audience members” to the projector, reacting to the show in realtime, and the Ewins chatbot is ever present to remark on audience responses. These remarks, as well as one coming from an audience member’s arsehole, are so specific but yet also clearly pre-recorded, and it remains genuinely impressive how he’s pulled this off. Ewins is clearly enjoying this show more than last year, and has more conviction as a result, making this his best in some time. It might lack a little of the thematic throughline of e.g. Adventureman, but for sheer concentrated strength of material, he’s absolutely done it again.