★★★★☆
The Comedian’s Comedian Podcast host tackles everyone’s favourite method of extinction in a funny, therapeutic hour on the climate crisis. Here’s our Spoilers Edinburgh Fringe review.
Stuart Goldsmith’s latest Edinburgh show is about climate change. If that sentence is likely to send you scurrying to the nearest sand bank for a head deposit, then good – you’re exactly the sort of audience Goldsmith is looking for.
Because while Spoilers sounds on the surface like we might be in for a tough hour, Goldsmith manages to stay true to his mission statement throughout. The show doesn’t shy away from the scale of the climate crisis, and it doesn’t offer any easy answers. But with ineffable charm, the veteran stand-up makes a real, tangible attempt to open up the conversation about the thing that might kill us all in the end.
The premise for the show isn’t to remind us that the climate crisis is happening but to get us talking about it. A recurring segment turns Spoilers into something of a confessional, inviting audience members to contribute with their own anti-environment habits. As the audience slowly confesses to leaving taps on while brushing teeth or failing to wash out marmite jars for the recycling, the atmosphere in the room turns into something akin to very nice, unobtrusive therapy.
It’s a relaxed atmosphere which wouldn’t work without Goldsmith’s endearingly earnest charm. His jokes, too (and there are plenty of jokes, don’t worry), cover everything from WhatsApp well-wishes to the terrifying corporations behind “Big Lid.”
All that contributes to an easy-going environment which still effectively communicates that we might all be fucked. But perhaps Goldsmith’s greatest achievement might be that despite not offering any concrete solutions to the problems we face (in hindsight, that might be a bit much to expect from a stand-up show), I left Spoilers with a spring in my step. The road out of climate oblivion might not be easy. But at least, with his latest show, Goldsmith wants us to talk about it.
And if a show is very funny and also helps solve the climate crisis – what more can we ask for?
Stuart Goldsmith: Spoilers is playing at Monkey Barrel Comedy from 15:20 until 27 August. You can view our comprehensive guide to the entire Fringe here.
