The Stage

Adam Bloom - Entertaining the Thought

Published Thursday 26 August 2004 at 12:40 by Chris Wilson

Adam Bloom has changed. Year after year, between 1996-2001, he would come to Edinburgh with increasingly slick and professional shows. Indeed he seemed obsessed by the craft of comedy and determined to make himself the best exponent of it.

Now something is amiss. The show gets off to a slow start and his attempts to redeem himself backfire. Bloom gets up into the audience and tries to banter but it is simply not working.

Furthermore he does not look like the same Adam Bloom who last played the Fringe so successfully three years ago. It is not just that much of his hair has fallen out and he has put on weight, Bloom is not as confident and hints at a major trauma in his life.

All the same, he still has some good material to fall back on. It is just that the bits in between are more desperate and hackish than before. To win a cheap laugh, he asks a 15-year-old boy in the front row: “Got any pubes?” At other times he is waffling, telling an audience member: “I live in London W1.” We wait for the gag but it never comes.

There are times when he is struggling so badly for inspiration, you feel sorry for him. You wonder if he has actually sat down and written a show this year. His recap of gags he had told in previous Fringe shows is a cop-out. And the analysis of his comedy as conceptual, observational or philosophical comes across as self-indulgent.

For all that, there are a few big laughs. The story of Bloom being physically attacked by his former girlfriend is funny and the yarn about swearing in front of his young niece also hits the mark. But far from seeking comedy perfection, here is a bloke who apparently no longer gives a damn. It would be great to have the old Bloom back again.