American comedian Shane Torres walked on stage wearing mod trainers and a Vans top - always an excellent start in our book! He quickly explained, however, that he was not good at starting shows and reflected on the size of his audience, around 30 people. But very soon you sensed there was something very special about this man-mountain from Texas, a master-storyteller, and we settled in for a treat. . .
A half-Mexican, half-Irish American stand-up, he has a gift of a traumatic backstory and a lovely deep voice. Torres has turned his dysfunctional upbringing, a very sad tale of family disintegration, into comedy gold. He delivered it in the gentlest, most laconic way imaginable.
Very different from his 'criminal' alpha-male brothers - one elder, one younger - he was the one who was left with his single mother, when the others had been farmed out to other relatives or had flown the nest. Shane was the one who was expected to help his dad move into a homelessness hostel, populated by uncaring staff, weirdos with enormous dicks and perverts who fancied his young butt.
Transforming pathos into laughter, his language is poetic, his frequent pauses Pinteresque. You could bottle those beats, those silences and, unlike the vast majority of stand-ups, he is not afraid of taking it slow, cherishing the still air between his thoughts.
It is partly a tale of acceptance and redemption. He managed to understand his parents with all their flaws and surprising strengths better than they had ever understood themselves. He found a way of seeing the value in his spendthrift, deceitful car-crash of a father ('a good dude but not a good man'), and his lustful, needy mother. And he sees the unspoken tragedy of parenthood: 'As you soon as you are born, you take away their youth.' He also understood what people experiencing homelessness go through; with all their worldly chattels in a shopping trolley, his old man reduced to living in a clarty corner of a downtown hostel.
Shane Torres made it all very funny. A star in the States, we are sure he won't be in want of a capacity audience for long at the Edinburgh Fringe.
For you would be hard pressed to find a more hilarious or moving comedy show - and that's why we are giving it five stars.
Star Rating: *****
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