Glenn Wool, Goodbye scars at the Edinburgh Fringe

Wool has been through the most excruciating sexual problems of any comedian on the circuit and relishes the opportunity to tell you about it. If you don't know what a banjo string is don't ask - you'll find out soon enough that tearing it hurts beyond hell, but possibly not quite as much as a Chlamydia test.

 

Wool's fast pace means he doesn't dwell on any subject for too long, whether this is giving kids crack or inciting a bar-room full of cowboys, he deftly uses character play to accentuate the ridiculous situations he finds himself in.

 

A lot of the set is a parody of the interplay between him and his now ex-wife. Like many other great comedians he is able to recreate the husband - wife rivalry brilliantly.

 

On the surface it's reliable material which is almost impossible to get wrong.

 

But Wool is astute enough to set himself up as the fall guy while choosing a theme for his show which was along the lines of what is so great about him. It allows him the space to portray his at times car-crash life any way he likes.

 

From the effect that the woes of the dying years of a loveless marriage can have on his recycling to how men as a gender are so easily able to talk themselves into an argument his bitter and twisted recollections of a once happy union strike a chord.

 

Divorce seems to be the stimulus for many comedians to write the kind of material which can propel him into the higher echelons of comedy stardom.

 

This is especially true of Wool, and his set is an epitaph to self destructive comedy at its best.