Writer: Tom Allen
This inspired parody of motivational talks is coming to the end of its run at the Fringe but has attracted plenty of admirers. Chad, a Nineties-style slacker updated for the ‘influencer’ generation, expounds upon his sketchy theories of life and wellbeing.
In particular he asks everyone to consider the true meaning of Stoke. In a UK context this translates slightly awkwardly, as Stoke is the centre of our once-great ceramics industry and home to Stoke City FC, where Stanley Matthews – a winger who played at the top level until he was 50 – and Gordon Banks, England’s world cup winning goalkeeper, each played (but never together). Stoke is also famously where singer Robbie Williams hails from, though he supports local rivals Port Vale FC.
No matter. What Chad wants is for us to feel ‘stoked’ – a term that again evokes the industrial revolution, referring to getting a raging fire going to smelt metals or produce steam to power a train engine. It’s apparently also a surfing term to describe the adrenaline rush from riding a big wave – producing an inner fire.
Thus Chad invites us to ‘reclaim our stoke’ and ‘take steps towards chill’ in the hope of becoming ‘impervious to bummer’. It’s heady stuff. The sold-out crowd is lapping it up, unable to take our eyes off this prowling dynamic oracle whose shirt is open one button too low. He tells us how he heroically resisted his father’s calls to get a proper job and shows a series of hilarious slides illustrating his progress through life.
Chad often chooses the wrong words and mangles well-known ideas about enlightenment, self-help and spirituality, invoking his past as a philosophy student. He calls his show a ‘semenar’ and at one point, reflecting on a painful episode, he states: “I was persona non grata… a leopard.”
It’s the deep shallowness of Chad that keeps the laughs coming, along with brilliantly facile humour – much of which he’s blissfully unaware of. But he’s ready to face the sceptics who doubt his methods, with lines like: “The nay-sayers may say… ‘nay’.”
Chad is the creation of LA-based comedian Tom Allen (not to be confused with the English comedian of the same name), an internet star with over a million followers. His performance is energetic yet supremely relaxed, conveying the character’s ‘chillness’ and confidence perfectly.
Runs until 19 August 2026 | Image: Contributed
