“Aidan Greene: Stop! Stammer Time” – Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe

This is part of a series of shorter reviews from Edinburgh Fringe, August 2024.

Stand-up comedian Aidan Greene returns to Edinburgh Fringe with his incredibly funny, yet heartfelt, routine that discusses his life with a stammer. Aided by a set of Powerpoint slides, Greene begins by recounting his previous shows, if only to get more mileage out of the incredible puns that included “Stutter Island” and “I can’t believe it’s not stutter”. It is at this point that Greene starts to panic that his stand-up all revolves around his disability, and takes advice from Joe Biden to “not let your stutter define you”, resolving to not mention his stammer for the rest of the show.

Instead, he begins to recount an experience from his previous Fringe show, but invariably has to keep pausing to explain why his stammer resulted in certain reactions or events happening. His story also includes some very funny anecdotes, such as the role of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter, who initially has a stammer, but is in the end revealed to have been putting it on to make himself seem incompetent. Greene searches for other characters with speech impediments, but struggles to find any that don’t also use this “incompetent” character trait.

Greene also shares some insights into reality TV, and their treatment of those with disabilities, such as Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. He reveals that he has been asked to audition for BGT several times, but refuses, because they would use his stammer to create some sort of sob story. In the end, Green decides that he is happy for his stammer to define him, but not for it to be seen as a negative thing.

The show ends on an uplifting note, with Greene playing clips of himself as a child in a junior school production of Cinderella. This is not only a very funny stand-up set – this is also a very moving story of a disability that has not always been given the right sort of attention.

Tom Morley, August 2024

“Aidan Greene: Stop! Stammer Time” plays at Underbelly Bristo Square at 8:45pm until 26th August.