I hadn’t heard of Aidan Strangeman before attending his show at the Black Box, however a quick search brought up:

Winner of So You Think You’re Funny? 2014, Irish musical comedian Aidan Strangeman is his kids’ favourite superhero. Can he grow up before they do? Aidan and his comedy songs have previously  featured in the theatre show Singlehood which has played to thousands of people in some of Ireland’s largest venues, including the Olympia and Vicar Street.

Sounded okay to me, so off we trotted and waited in The Green Room to be made to laugh. Aidan Strangeman is primarily a singing comedian, so if singing comedy isn’t for you steer clear. I however like singing comedy so I was in luck.

This show ‘Horsey’ is basically a show that takes us through his life from a hilarious song about pubescent urges upon seeing a World Cup goal right the way through to more poignant songs about how his autistic daughter is somewhat of a hero to him. There’s depth when it’s needed and a disregard for anything resembling depth at certain points too.  It’s kind of a ‘you’ll laugh and you’ll also laugh while crying’ situation.  The fact that Aidan is instantly likeable and at ease on the stage means you warm to him quickly and as the show progresses you realise this is a bit more than just a dude singing silly songs (although it is a lot of that too), this is a bit of journey.

The songs he sings are really good too…I mean they are proper songs, I actually thought at one point ‘if he offers to sell CDs I’m going to buy one’ alas, he never did. Basically this is like an Irish version of Flight Of The Conchords meets Tenacious D, and if that sounds right up your street then I can’t recommend this enough.

Chris Caldwell

Author: Chris Caldwell

Chris Caldwell at your service! My favourite things are eating and Theatre, I have 2 small sons called Alex and Max who are more mustard than Hellmann's. I spend my days trying to wrangle them and exploring my favourite city - BELFAST! My favourite films are horror, my fav music is metal and my favourite Beatle is Ringo, mainly his work on Thomas the Tank.