Paul Foot: The Future ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The last time I saw Paul Foot, he was swimming lengths and telling jokes in a Grassmarket hotel pool for a show called Edinburgh-on-Sea. That was in 2008 and it has taken rather longer than I intended to catch him again.

In a packed room at Underbelly, we were quickly drawn into Paul Foot's surreal world. His energy is extraordinary and we were bombarded with a range of, thankfully, largely rhetorical questions and some ridiculously funny observations and thoughts on modern life.

Once we had been pummelled into submission, the pace changed to a more reflective consideration of the future, with moving parallels drawn from the performer's own family history, to offer a glimmer of hope and perspective.

This talented comedian perfectly illustrated that there is laughter to be found in even the darkest subjects, when there is also compassion.

Highly recommended.