Incompetent, negative, a follower not a leader: Josh Pugh is highly conversant with his own shortcomings. His Edinburgh show chronicles the Coventry man’s diffident journey through life – getting things wrong, shrinking into the background, “not even the headliner,” as he jokes, “at my own therapy sessions.” But there are exceptions: Sausage, Egg, Josh Pugh, Chips and Beans (for so it’s called) also traces Pugh and his wife’s five-year efforts to have a baby, a story given significance here and in which Pugh can’t help but be the leading man. Then there’s his Edinburgh comedy award nomination, which propels this shambling bit-part player firmly into the standup spotlight.
He deserves it, for a show that’s heartwarming and studded with real gems of jokes. Many of them cast Pugh himself as the fall-guy, like the keeper about his wife diagnosing him with ADHD. Some of the very best combine his own haplessness with stealth commentary on the state of the world, like his peachy routine about his text correspondence with a 15-year-old kickboxer. As the show proceeds, details are added to the picture of a man whose faced some challenges in life: broken home (there’s a great gag about meeting his stepdad), mental health difficulties, visual impairment. But the brushwork is never heavy handed. Pugh isn’t trite about that stuff, but his eye is always out for the (usually clever) gag.
Then there’s the “trying for a baby” material, which provides the show’s narrative spine – and its sentimental payoff. It works well as a binding agent for the whole show, as Pugh measures his dad potential against the men who raised him. There’s some likeably blokey IVF material too, as the process reaches its – and Pugh’s – climax, in a hospital, mid-pandemic. There’s so much to enjoy in the show, which is held back only by a slight lack of tonal variety, a sense that – if his unobtrusive persona will allow for it – the 33-year-old might yet dial up the comic intensity. But that’s being picky. Amiable, emotionally honest and rich in good jokes, Chips and Beans finds Pugh fashioning his fecklessness into front-rank standup.
Josh Pugh: Sausage, Egg, Josh Pugh, Chips and Beans is at Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh, until 28 August.
