FIONA SHEPHERD :

PLEASANCE COURTYARD (VENUE 33)

CANADIAN comic Sean Collins seems like a nice guy but there’s a slight flicker of mania darting around behind his eyes which suggests he has seen things that no human should have to – and he has one extended anecdote about an anonymous comedian from New Zealand which, more or less, confirms this.

The title of his show is a bit of a curveball – rather than kick against domesticity, Collins has found himself embracing it for the first time in his 40 years. In shedding his irresponsible party lifestyle, there are a couple of demons he needs to exorcise along the way, and what better way to do it than with a gig in a stuffy Portakabin in front of a charmed audience?

Demons vanquished, he turns his beleaguered eye to visa entanglements, wedding preparations, his wife’s father and his bullish older brother, defusing all the stress of his past year in a style that is so deceptively leisurely he almost stumbles across his jokes by accident. This is one midlife crisis which is a pleasure to indulge.