“Excellent comedy that is bang up to date”
This is part of a series of shorter reviews from Edinburgh Fringe, August 2026.
Sean Morley’s show opens like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, as before our very eyes Morley drops dead on stage and the audience are left to decide whether to react or not. Their reaction (or lack of it) allows Morley to create a show that is akin to a social experiment, as he explores exactly the lengths we will go to to help strangers, or otherwise.
He does this through use of technology. One section of the show sees Morley ask everyone to use their phones to send anonymous comments about the performance. There are a mix of nice and nasty comments (some from real audience members, others pre-loaded onto the app via a bot). Other comments can be straight up weird, and it is in Morley’s desperate reactions that the comedy is generated.
The show never quite lives up to the high bar set by its opening scene, but it is none-the-less very funny throughout. Morley presents what he calls “woke comedy”, by repeatedly checking in with the audience and asking if it is ok to have audience participation and if it is ok to make jokes about various topics. It feels confrontational in a sense, but Morley is such a mild-mannered man that it never feels too overwhelming or uncomfortable. The show culminates in a section that calls back to the opening, creating the perfect bookend to the performance and helping to bring things full circle. Excellent comedy that is bang up to date.
Tom Morley, August 2026 (I am not related to Sean, I swear)
“Sean Morley: Backchannel” plays at 7:50pm at The Studio, Monkey Barrel Comedy until 30th August.
This review was written whilst the show was still in previews.
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