Tuesday, 31 July 2018

Show 32: Dan Antopolski: Return of the Dan Antopolski

After a few years away from stand-up comedy, performing as sketch trio Jigsaw, Dan Antopolski returned with his first solo stand-up show since 2013.

After having seen him back then, with a particularly memorable routine involving Maisie the mouse, a popular children’s book series, and a vivid interpretation of her drug-fuelled life as told via examples of the Masie book series, and seen some of Jigsaw’s Edinburgh shows, I was keen to see what Antopolski’s return to stand-up would be like.

He’s still got an eager, almost childish giddy energy about him and his ability to come up with surreal ideas and subtle witty comments hasn’t been lost; his reason for having children is because ‘it’s nice to meet new people’.

However the second half of his show led to a balance from the whimsical and silly gag-packed first half as we move towards more sombre, adult themes of his divorce and the recent death of his mother. A particularly touching finale where he describes unpacking his mother’s house was particularly moving and shows a delicate maturity about Antopolski. Thankfully Antopolski’s two young daughters provide plenty of stories of light-relief to remind him just who is in charge of the house when they’re around.

It doesn’t look like he’s doing a show for 2018, but it’ll be interesting to see how this more mature voice changes over time.

Score: 8/10
Venue: Assembly rooms, George Square Theatre

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