Alexander Bennett: I Can’t Stand The Man, Myself

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Edinburgh Fringe

4 stars.

We’d expect Alexander Bennett’s I Can’t Stand The Man, Myself  to be an extremely deprecatory set, like the title would suggest. In fact, it’s a very honest critique, not only about himself, but about wider issues that whittles down into an exploration about the complexity and nuance that accompanies life instead of the good vs bad polarity that permeates most narratives.

Altogether, it’s a very nebulous set that incorporates a lot of different ideas and sources of inspiration. Whilst Bennett does incorporate a running theme that centers around intrusive thoughts and how we self-identify. Outside of this theme, his material seems to stem from observations that he has had and just uses I Can’t Stand The Man, Myself in order to voice them, ideas that we continue to think about and consider later. If anything, this show is an introduction to Bennett’s thought process and we can therefore use it as a baseline of what we can expect from him in the future. This is definitely an incredibly thought-provoking set, as Bennett manages to show the absurdity of some situations and conversations that are a result of potentially incorrect applications of logic. There’s a slightly bitter edge to his jokes, but it only really comes to the forefront during his segues, or when Bennett is passionately reinforcing a particular point; when instead of lightening the mood, he is trying to make us hear and understand his overarching message. Bennett is incredibly honest in his material and the ideas that he introduces are difficult, but nothing seems to be off-limits. Although he doesn’t always voice more personal moments directly, he doesn’t try to hide them either, and instead uses an obvious extended metaphor in order to do so. 

This show is dark , there’s no doubt about it, and even though it pushes the bounds of what can be considered funny – because of the context – it never oversteps those bounds. With the title I Can’t Stand The Man, Myself we might expect the dark and edgy, but Bennett instead subverts this a little and leave us on a positive note instead. Not hope but peace, giving us an example of the kind of confidence that we should all aspire to. 

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo Credit: Ollie Craig