Edinburgh festival 2023ReviewUnderbelly Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Nominated for best newcomer at last year’s fringe, Sonubi is a warm performer but this leisurely new show lacks shape
‘I never asked to be so goddam gifted,” sings Emmanuel Sonubi, in self-congratulatory mode after his best newcomer nomination at last year’s fringe. Should we all be joining the chorus of approval? There is no denying the Londoner’s charisma, nor the novelty of the backstory he brings to the standup stage. But Curriculum Vitae – now nominated for Edinburgh’s best comedy show – is a consolidation rather than an advance on last year’s breakthrough set, a leisurely stroll through Sonubi’s life and work that stops short of coalescing into a potent show.
That is partly about form – or formlessness. Sonubi’s 60 minutes just about follow a thread, as he charts the jobs he has done, from bouncer to musical theatre star to working in IT. But the thread is faint, and the stories he salvages from that checkered CV are not always remarkable. The show starts with the tale of why our host recently quit pre-show drinking, and ends with that guitar-plucking hymn to his own giftedness – despite arrogance not being a theme previously. Throw in freestanding set-pieces about urban slang, airport security, and his kids, and you have a set with a pretty tenuous identity.
In lieu of that, we get conviviality to spare from an act with a lovely, easy warmth. Sometimes, that warmth is spliced with danger, when Sonubi plays up to his bodybuilder physique. Sometimes, he doubles down on it, revealing the stagestruck show pony behind those rippling abs and quads. The tension between that appearance and reality feels (as it did last year) like distinctive comic territory for Sonubi, which can’t be said for some of his other material here, like the hoary riff on the US immigration form, or the generic routine about Mary Poppins resembling a drug trip.
Much of this standup is delivered from a sitting position, in a show that could profitably tweak the dial from laconic to dynamic. What it never lacks is charm and effortless authority, deployed to fine effect in Sonubi’s routine about the secret sexiness of IT, say, or his number about the relative professional risk taken on by standups and surgeons. The performance is commanding, then – the material, not so much.
At Underbelly Bristo Square, Edinburgh, until 28 August.
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