Chris Dangerfield: Sex With Children @ The Hive

Jackanory For Consenting Adults: in keeping with his previous efforts, Dangerfield has gone with the controversial and to his credit has been entirely open and upfront about the content. This year's offering is based on his sexual abuse at the hands of a selection of adults he encountered in his formative years. Not your usual material for a comedy show, and even by Fringe standards this is largely uncharted territory. It’s hardly surprising that parts of the show come across as a group therapy session and the majority of the audience are happy to play their part; tonight there were only three who took the decision to leave part way through proceedings and they went in a rather half-hearted fashion.

It is only through Dangerfield’s undoubted ability to tell a story that this show has any laughs in it at all, and it does have a surprisingly high number of laugh out loud moments – to be clear no one is laughing at the abuse, it is Dangerfield’s coping mechanisms that are the source of amusement. Unfortunately for any show built around a single issue there will be repetition, and therein lies the problem. Finding humour at all is quite a feat, finding it over and over again from variations on a theme becomes very difficult.

The Fringe is awash with controversial show titles and Heroes @ The Hive should be applauded for continuing to support artists with less mainstream offerings. If you’re prepared for the subject matter Dangerfield is much better than most at finding comedy in the darkest subjects.