The showcase trick in this show was somewhat truncated by the UK’s privacy laws: elsewhere, Jack Ansett told the audience, he has access to names of ticket bookers, and he can look them up (stalking much, no?) and use ‘The Sims’ – don’t ask me which version – a computer game that allows people create and customise characters. The avatars, or whatever they’re called, are placed in some morally dubious scenarios. At the performance I attended, only a handful of people had bothered to fill his pre-show form in. At least one of those failed to turn up for the performance. Did your reviewer fill in Ansett’s form? Well, that’s for me to know and for you not to find out, thanks to GDPR.
In common keeping with his generation (Ansett is 28 at the time of writing), a substantial amount of his spare time is spent on his phone, and various interactions, such as with online marketplace sellers, find their way into a somewhat unfocused narrative with several strands that don’t quite come together as smoothly as they could.
Not every punchline landed perfectly. Somewhat awkward silences on occasion suggested this young comedian was still finding his feet.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Jack Ansett’s show contains a genuinely unexpected element that audiences have, so far, been sworn to secrecy about, and remarkably, they’re keeping their word. What we can tell you is that it involves the audience, the venue, and a level of ambition that probably shouldn’t be attempted in a Fringe debut. What we can’t tell you is anything else.
Brass Tacks Comedy presents
JACK ANSETT: LOOKS LIKE A BIT OF ME!
Assembly George Square at the Edinburgh Fringe
5 to 30 August 2026
