Show 10: Mat Ewins: What Sorry? My Mistake! The Doors Are Not Open; The Show Has Been Cancelled. Do Not Have Your Tickets Ready!

Having been finally recognised by the Edinburgh Comedy Awards panal last year with a nomination, and an appearance on Live from the BBC with a half hour version of last year’s show, Mat Ewins’ name is surely going to be better known from the rarefied few in the comedy world who espoused his genius.

He’s consistently one of the funniest comedians I’ve seen in recent years and this year doesn’t disappoint again.

The confusing title was made even more confusing when I came to book the tickets as the show was not listed on the edfringe website (initially I thought this was superb commitment on Ewins’ part) – as it turned out the listing was just being updated – it seems he changed venue from The Hive to The Mash House, perhaps to a larger room?

This time round, Ewins is feeling slightly dejected and is looking towards the future. Cut forward to 2068 and suddenly we’re on Mars and he’s setting up a brand new newspaper. From here on in he brings the audience to help write his paper, from an intriguing horror story to an interactive games section and a murder to solve. Along the way we encounter the slightly freaky but adorable alien ‘Bibbles’ and a malfunctioning robot (the victim of the aforementioned murder).

It’s another stunning hour of raucous dickery and technological slapstick – highlights including Ewins pretending to be an angel commuting to work and a rather painstaking task of removing the football from match footage frame-by-frame. What’s new to this year’s show includes using face-recognition technology from a photo and (once he gets the wi-fi to work) internet-found imagery whizzing around on the screen.

This is good-hearted clowning around at its most pure and Ewins is a master at this. Even though his jokes may be childish, he somehow pulls it off with dismay and charm which, in other hands, would seem base and clichéd but with Ewins is pure comic genius. I’d love to see him bag another nomination (though I suspect he’d prefer the anonymity).

Score: 10/10

Venue: Just the Tonic at The Mash House

Dates: 10^th-26^th August

Time: 20:50

Price:  £5 or pay what you want