August 10, 2026 at Monkey Barrel 4
John-Luke Roberts told us that this year, he’s going to eschew his absurdism and experimental stuff in favour of straight stand-up. I assumed that would be misdirection of some sort, so was surprised when this was, in fact, and hour of talking into a microphone with no props or sets or costume.
Of course, John-Luke Roberts is never going to be completely straightforward. There are flights of fancy, there are bizarre characters drawn from thin air, there are sudden poems, there are goblins, there are premises taken to absurd conclusions. There’s a bit of the trademark JLR “take one idea and repeat variations over and over until you’ve twisted the concept beyond recognition”, though less of that than in some previous shows.
This show has taken a significant turn for the darker since the very preliminary WIP that I saw at last year’s festival; that makes sense, considering that John-Luke Roberts has apparently had a very dark year. He discusses grief and a recent health scare; this show has constantly-looming themes around death and mortality, and the fear and avoidance thereof. It also has a running thread about therapy, which helps to balance the darkness a bit.
It’s structured nicely, and it’s interesting to see the principles of JLR’s more theatrical work applied to stripped-down stand-up. Ideas return at unexpected moments, transformed and turned around; some of the lightest jokes get very dark callbacks. It covers more of John-Luke Roberts’ real life than ever before, but it also covers competing philosophical approaches to psychology, and it covers goblins.
John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About, Talking – 14:10 at Monkey Barrel 4 until August 30th. Tickets here.
Dave Baillie