Tom Sainsbury – Lessons Not Learnt

August 15, 2026 at Soho Theatre

New Zealand’s Tom Sainsbury tests the crowd fairly early on in the show, asking who’s here because of his Instagram sketches (a large chunk of the audience), his appearance on Taskmaster NZ (fewer, still enthusiastic) and his work on Wellington Paranormal (er, me, and maybe two others). There was no real need for this however, as the audience were clearly all big fans no matter what kind of material he did.

That might be slightly fortunate too, as while undoubtedly funny, the show is something of an unusual mix. There’s plenty of great personal anecdotes about some of the insane situations he’s found himself in (his biggest fan apparently had no idea who he was, corporate gigs can be one long harrowing nightmare, speeding and getting pulled over by the police isn’t great either), but that was followed by a slightly odd section where he describes his instagram characters and how they came about, and at one point there’s even a brief quiz which allows Tom to advertise some cheap merch (his words, not mine).

I don’t want to sound overly harsh though as despite the lack of structure, or a substantial narrative arc, this is a 55 minute set that’s packed with amusingly phrased observations. He has a very strong section on his hypochondria, trips to A&E and the Dentist where each time he was convinced that medical professions were about to tell him he only had days to live, or maybe even hours, and this sharp, polished material quickly and easily won over the audience.

The show ends on a real high note as well as Sainsbury saves the best stories for last, and his final anecdotes about social awkwardness all have fantastic pay offs. It’s here you can notice hints of an overall theme, as Tom’s people pleaser nature frequently lands him in embarrassing scenarios, and I’d have liked to heard more of them as they’re so funny. Still, maybe next time that might be the case, or he might just decide to muck about on stage for an hour, and either way I’d still happily buy a ticket.