Review : Retirement Tour, Andrew White, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, By Hannah Goslin

 out of 5 stars (2 / 5)

This may be an odd title for a 19 year old to name his show. Why would you retire comedy at such a young age?

Andrew White opens up to us, and becomes vulnerable before our eyes with the truth about his title. After a bad gig, admitting he was not right for that audience and of which was due to a booking mistake, White explains to us through honesty and comedy about how this has rocked him, leaving him to consider whether comedy is for him or whether a stint in University is more sensible.

We learn a lot about White – his personal life, his ever changing fight with his own confidence and we see him battle with this on stage as he produces his acceptance letter to do communications at Cardiff University.

At first this reveal of the letter and his sub sequential decision to pursue comedy instead, seems very premature into the proceedings and feels as if he has already revealed his trump card. But this continues onto a series of ever changing decisions, revealing more and more letters, said to be his acceptance. This is a fun approach, and feels as if we are contemplating the decision with him.

White does seem a little nervous on stage. Understandably, stand-up comedy and at the fringe where there is much competition is a tough business and again, we forgive the lack of confidence but will him to continue. Unfortunately this therefore makes his delivery feel more of a TED talk than a comedy set, but we are interested none the less, with comical interludes.

Andrew White: Retirement Tour is an interesting comedy set – we follow him on his battling life decisions and feel honoured to go through this sequence with him. With some great jokes involved, White could go a long way with a little more confidence in his delivery. 

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