Death and sex. Sex and death. The eternal themes that draw comedians – and, let’s be fair, their audiences – back like wasps to a jar of strawberry jam.

Actually, that’s a little melodramatic – sex and, well, getting old might be more like it.

And if there’s a bit of a tendency to wish that sometimes the same old tropes aren’t rehearsed yet again, at the same time it shouldn’t be denied that no performer can be blamed for talking about things that everyone in the room can identify with.

So it is with Pete Johansson. And though Johansson’s material is orthodox, it’s often well-observed, prising apart the locks of dumbass male psychology, and developed with a kind of gleeful disregard for delicacy.

There’s an attractive and engaging air of impish playfulness about his performance, and this, combined with the universality of his themes, allows him to carry the room effectively.

Johansson occasionally breaks into commentary on how the gig is going; this didn’t strike me as gimmicky or contrived – quite the reverse – but it did suggest a slight lack of confidence, as did his laughing with himself sometimes a little too often and a little too long.

It’s one thing for there to be something of a lull – there are few hours of stand-up indeed without at least some of those – it’s another to have it talked about in quite the detail that Johansson does. Some might find this appealing; I found it disrupted the rhythm and flow of Johansson’s routine.

Then again, these self-reflexive interludes appear to be borne out of precisely the same spontaneity that makes him so endearing, and, while a slicker Johansson might have kept them more under control, he would perhaps have lost something in the process.

More simply, Johansson provides a fine, engaging hour, shot through with a certain befuddled melancholy but far too mischievous ever to be self-pitying.

Well worthy of a recommendation.

Alex Brenner

Pete Johansson: Naked Pictures of My Life until August 30th at the Underbelly. 8.45pm

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