Adam Bloom: Look at me, Anybody!

Bloom, following a two year break, is back in Edinburgh with the eighth reincarnation of his infamously mutating festival act

★★★★
archive review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
Published 02 Aug 2007

If the soothing harmonies of Mozart's Ave Verum are not exactly what you'd expect to open a show whose title includes more than a suggestion of arrogant self-confidence, you'd not be alone. And indeed, as soon as the twitchy, tickish Adam Bloom blunders on stage, dispensing with his faulty and superfluous mic, whoever read, 'Look at Me, Anybody!' and thought, 'eighteenth century sacred music' might well be found scrabbling for any hymn sheet at all.

Bloom, following a two year break, is back in Edinburgh with the eighth reincarnation of his infamously mutating festival act. This year, a run-in with a hypocritical anger management coach, boasting a list of qualifications Dr Gillian McKeith might find spurious, sparks a detailed and comprehensive tour of Bloom's insecurities. Although at times rambling and hyperactive to the point of distraction, the Fringe veteran's lengthy anecdotes involve hilarious self-deprecation and enough misdirection and snap one-liners to keep the audience chuckling through to the conclusion.

While not one to take in after a long day at work, if you've munched enough coffee granules to keep pace with a performer lacking in any ability to hold his own attention, you'll come away convinced that your problems really are as insignificant as you'd thought.