Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Three
An entertaining hour with a comedian on the up.summary
Rating
Excellent
Aaron Simmonds is at pains to tell us he is a big time joker and a top class shagger (if the nickname given to him by a one night stand is anything to go by). Simmonds’ own account is that this is a show about his disability; whether he feels like he has a ‘disability’; disposing of the myth that you either use a wheelchair or you don’t and the shades of grey in between. But that’s just a vehicle for other stories.
Simmonds discovers that he is saved in a former date’s phone as ‘Hot Wheels’; we’re not certain whether there’s a comma in there or not, but it’s a compliment for sure. He tells us stories of shagging in the disabled toilets and of having to choose between climbing three flights of stairs or having good sex.
It’s not ribald and it’s certainly not filthy. Simmonds is clearly a wind-up merchant, with not one but two stories about faith healing and pulling the wool over the eyes of people who don’t know how to behave properly. The audience are entirely on side throughout, and Simmonds earns this approval through being a very funny and charming man. His crowd work is particularly entertaining; he seems to take a deep interest in his audience and can pick up on any detail to refer back to throughout the performance. This is one of the marks of his skill as a comedian.
The format is an anthology of anecdotes on a variety of themes that give us a good look at a very cheeky individual. It’s not the tightest work at this year’s Festival but nonetheless Hot Wheels is a personality-defining show from a good comic making his return to the Fringe, and a good bedrock hour for building an audience for the future. I expect we’ll see him on TV and in much bigger rooms pretty soon.
Written by: Aaron Simmonds
Hot Wheels plays at EdFringe 2022 until 29 August. Further information and bookings here.
