By: Badge Farm Foundation
George Egg is a real foodie, this is his third comedy cooking show and his Snack Hacker Instagram account has over fifty thousand followers. He has been on national TV and radio exalting his non snobbish approach to cooking food and is here at the Warren to cook three meals in front of an expectant Brighton Fringe crowd.
Egg, a Brightonian himself, bounds onto stage in an impish way, with a glint in his eye. Promising plenty of laughter and learning he is keen to get cooking. The first course is the veggie dish, aubergines in tahini dressing. Egg likes to cook this on the train on a very unusual kind of laptop. The comedian regales the throng with instructions on how you can use the surroundings on a train for many cooking purposes, including a hand dryer to toast seeds, if you’ve got enough patience.
Egg loves to use misdirection to gain maximum laughs and he does this to great effect. He’s also a passionate chef. Each dish is lovingly created and he revels in the good and intentionally “bad” jokes as the night goes on. He is a genial and mischievous host who delivers comedy with great glee, sometimes reminiscent of Harry Hill.
In Between courses there is a poem as a palette cleanser. Both verses, one about washing up liquid and the other about sugar, are delightfully buffoonish and create plenty of giggles.
The second course is fish. One persistent seagull makes an appearance and looks like they might snaffle some George’s creation but the performer is non plus, he sees it as an occupational hazard in an open air theatre.
Interspersed with the flame throwing and cooking on engines are lovely vignettes about his life and family, including stories about his mum, dad and daughter as well as segue into cooking on planes, something, apparently, air marshals are not very keen on you doing.
The third dish is chicken with a salad mixed by using a very unorthodox method. The reveal is very funny, as Egg “Bigs it up” to the crowd. The audience responds well, with whoops of appreciation.
Other rib tickling tales are weaved through the act, including a funny story about how to annoy Waitrose coffee drinkers and how to stay warm in a cold supermarket.
Egg is an affable, charming and funny host guiding us through his culinary adventures. Some tips are outrageous, especially the section on acquiring road kill, others genuinely useful to a budding cook. He is a very likeable performer who garners a lot of laughter in this piece.
The only downside to tonight’s performance is that, due to Covid, we cannot taste the yummy morsels Egg has created. Never mind though because this performance has been a feast for the soul, a wonderful, silly ode to food and fun; a must see at the Fringe.
Reviewed on 23rd June
The Reviews Hub Score
A culinary delight
