Emmanuel Sonubi at Underbelly, Edinburgh review: comedian and musical theatre fan hits all the right notes

The breakout star of last year’s Fringe has funny bones under his impressive muscles
2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Previews
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Bruce Dessau17 August 2023

If you look on YouTube there is a Live at the Apollo clip of Emmanuel Sonubi where he simply stands on stage and the audience keeps roaring with laughter. For what seems like an age he says nothing and gets a bigger response than many comics get when they tell jokes. This man has funny bones under his impressive muscles.

The north Londoner was a breakout star of Edinburgh Fringe 2022 with his debut Emancipated, which basically told his fans who he is – a former bouncer from a big family who had a heart scare and was always an aspiring performer. This year’s Curriculum Vitae is not so much a handbrake-turn change, more a continuation of the same set, but a very welcome addition.

Sonubi talks about his life up to now in his trademark relaxed manner, comfortable enough to press pause and chat with the crowd mid-stream. This fan of musical theatre hits all the right notes, spooling out stories with ripples of laughter building to winning pay-offs.

His early comedy years doing corporate gigs and entertaining holidaymakers gives him some great source material to play with. He likes to pull the rug, but gently. He’ll tell everyone he has stopped drinking to shocked gasps, because he didn’t enjoy being drunk “when your body stops working as a team.” Then he will wryly qualify the bombshell by adding that he has only stopped during particular times of the day.

He is such an imposing figure you almost expect him to burst out of his shirt at any moment. It’s this physicality that makes it so funny when he talks about his dreams of appearing in musicals. But why shouldn’t he want to be in musicals? He is never heavily political but his humour quietly exposes prejudices.

There is a lightness of touch throughout, whether discussing workouts in gyms or taking his family on what turned out to be the world’s least diverse cruise. Sometimes he sails towards cliché, talking about how comedy is infinitely preferable to working IT and not as demanding as heart surgery, but he invariably navigates towards a fresh take.

It would be good to see him stretch his entertainment muscles more. He does that a little with an ending that owes more to his musical background than his job as a doorman. Maybe he’ll add some interpretative dance to his show next year.

Until August 26; edfringe.com also Leicester Square Theatre, May 25, 2024; emmanuelstandup.com

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