If you take a look at everything Ed Gamble’s been up to recently, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s forsaken the world of comedy in favour of a flourishing career as a professional foodie. He’s co-hosted more than 200 episodes of the Off Menu podcast, he’s been a judge on the BBC’s Great British Menu for three consecutive series, and he’s written a memoir Glutton: The Multi-Course Life Of A Very Greedy Boy, which tells the story of his 38 years through his obsession with food.
The title of his new standup show, Hot Diggity Dog, suggests a merging of his worlds. There are tales of Gamble’s love of cooking, his hatred of air fryers, and a painful food-related accident, but the show evades a concrete through line as it skims lightly across updates from his life. The meat of the show is about Gamble’s married life, and he takes us on his Las Vegas honeymoon, then back to domestic adventures with his wife, their new cat, and their many friends who’ve started having babies.
Gamble’s always been an observational storyteller, something that serves him well in his work as a podcaster and presenter. On stage, he spins everyday incidents – drama in the neighbourhood WhatsApp group, an interaction with a hotel receptionist – into vivid scenes filled with colourful characters. There’s plenty of performative scorn, silly voices, and animated act-outs to bring his stories to life.
A scene of affected arrogance, when he announces to the crowd that his marriage has taken him off the market, shows off his stage-filling performance to great effect, as does his transition into the character of a pathetic duke waving his way through A&E. A section on drag, which leads into his act-out of a curious man modelling a “mangina” in the mirror makes a memorable scene too.
His descriptive set is dotted with fun little phrases, often punchlines in themselves. Las Vegas is “a smear on the desert”, while spending time with new parents who can’t help but vent their sleep-deprived frustration is “a six-hour verbal vasectomy”. At times, he leans on a lazier punchline – Josef Fritzl makes an appearance, and there are plenty of poo jokes.
He’s a purveyor of gentle gripes. “If you own an air fryer, you’re thick and I hate you,” he declares. But he makes space to roast himself too – for his desperation to be seen as a good chef, and his failure to obey crucial safety instructions. Some of the observational ground feels well-trodden – local WhatsApp groups and air fryers alike have provided material for many comics – but he wrings a few fresh laughs from them with the characters he adds to his anecdotes, like one creepily observant neighbour and an imagined air fryer cult member.
The show never delves too deep – into either Gamble’s psyche or big issues. Instead, Hot Diggity Dog is filled with light but tasty morsels from a skilled raconteur, serving up animated escapism.