Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick review: Surreal, ghastly, ridiculously funny
Edinburgh Fringe
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Edinburgh Fringe 〰️
Image: Sophie Holden
by Zoe Paskett
Basil Crumbwick is a man of deep feeling and particular tastes. He knows what he likes (shepherd’s pie) and what he doesn’t (getting his prostate checked, except under specific circumstances). He’s an absolutely vile and not entirely harmless old man. He’ll say the worst thing you’ve ever heard, and seems only capable of causing some minor issues around town. There’s a hell of a lot going on in his massive head.
The image of his huge bulging blood-shot eyes, twisted nose and tiny rectangular mouth appearing from the back of the room will haunt me for many days. Never have I ever wanted to watch something so horrible for so much longer. Hours I could have sat there and listened to Basil read from the self help book he’s writing, using the power of positive thinking to turn the worst day of your life into the ultimate fantasy.
He walks us through the ups and downs of his life, from his relationship with his neighbour/nemesis Beverley, to his increasingly desperate and degenerate efforts to make friends with his bin man.
Every sentence makes it evident just how brilliant a joke writer Sam Eley is. No line — no clause even — is wasted, and every single joke has that added layer of highly specific detail that sharpens it to a point. The character of Basil is so deeply crafted that any slip out of it (for example to suck water up through his haunting paper mouth-hole) never causes any loss of momentum, if anything makes it even more ridiculously funny.
He has a clever way of inverting well-known phrases into something that you’ve never heard before, and more times than I can count, had me with my face in my hands to stop myself from uncontrollably squawking. He’s made a show that is extremely quotable, though unfortunately, most of it isn’t anything a reasonable human being would say outloud.
Surreal and ghastly. This is gonna be one of the Fringe big’uns.
Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage is at Monkey Barrel Comedy, MB2, 23:25 (not 18th). Tickets here
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