This Review is from August 2024

The Canadian comedian and long time Edinburgh resident presents as a traditional shouty North American comic. Big, powerful, alpha male, mic at the chest. If you didn’t already know Tom Stade’s schtick, you’d be forgiven for anticipating an hour of my wife is so fat… material. In fact, this is a joke heavy hour of relatable, dare I say broadly liberal comedy, themed around aging, changing times, and how different generations relate to each other.

The comedian shares his experiences growing up in the 90s. Theres a wonderful and very relevant routine discussing the gender identity of Mr. Potato Head. There’s a lot about language and how the meaning of words keep changing.

Tom talks about the drugs scene, as it was, when he was a younger. He draws parallels between narcotics and religion. In many countries “except here!” pot is now legal, a huge, and the comedian would argue, positive cultural shift.

Later he discusses having a family. There’s a very funny story about a family vacation, “People are talking about diversity. My family is very diverse. Yeah, we’re all white. That’s where the similarity ends completely.” Family members of different ages and genders have very different interests. This Stade family trip to the water park was never going to go smoothly.

As he’s older, he has become suspicious of modern technology, especially the internet, and wonders about “leaving modern society to live off the grid”. His concerns are very real and widely shared, but he finds the funny and we feel better.

The main point of any Tom Stade show is to make people laugh – and he smashes it. He has all ages of this Stand Comedy Club audience howling with laughter.

Martin Walker

Tickets: HERE

Reviews of Tom Stade: Risky Business collated by the British Comedy Guide HERE

Tom Stade’s Profile HERE