FINLAY CHRISTIE: Champagne Casanova ★★★★

With more than a million social media followers, Finlay Christie is clearly very much of that generation, and if this sold-out audience is indicative, has a particularly devoted following among men in their thirties. Yet Champagne Casanova is much more than internet-brained comedy. Finlay interestingly explores the comforting lies and myths we construct about ourselves and others – including his belief that his American muggers fancied him and that Kim Jong Un would undoubtedly love him.

There are sharp observations about incels, his naturally Labour-voting well-to-do Islington family, while his attempts to improve his French through performing comedy in France led to an amusing misunderstanding about being privately educated, as that describes SEND schools there.  His own progressive, co-ed East London school may have shaped his outlook, and he assures us he tries not to be a posh twat.

A lengthy New Orleans misadventure, involving being literally taken for a ride and having to phone his other bank - his mother - rounds off this clever, confident and impressive show, which his audience clearly loved.

Monkey Barrel, at the Edinburgh Fringe: August 2026 ©RoxyReviews