Yianni: Think Big @ The Dram House

One of the most outrageous stunts of this Fringe is the relatively-unknown Yianni booking himself in for a night at the cavernous EICC. Most acts struggle to get 14 people in, but Yianni is hoping to get 1400 for a special, one-off performance. Can he do it? And will it be any good? 

His daily show, Think Big, gives a taste of what's to come. It's played nice and loose with a lot of audience banter, and Yianni is a dab hand at getting an audience relaxed and laughing. But beneath the casual tone is a surprisingly complex show, with some extremely efficient writing. Yianni asks why our dreams get smaller as we get older, which could be a trite message except that he digs deep into his own personal history to find the reasons. A family that killed him with kindness and made him scared of any kind of struggle, plus childhood feelings of jealousy and entitlement (illustrated by the memory of a game of Pass The Parcel), all distracted him from chasing the things he really wanted. 

He's trying to turn this around now, and has made a good start by keeping a packed room laughing for a full hour. Can he hit the jackpot and fill one of Edinburgh's largest venues? Well, a man can dream...