Freddie Meredith: Need a Light? review – one hilarious hour of cringe

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghWatching a man labouring to strike up conversations in the smoking area of a nightclub proves not just funny but also touching and uplifting Ever pretended to use your phone to avoid the shame of being Norman No-Mates at a party? Freddie Meredith’s new show is a 60-minute channelling of that experience, an hour-long cringe at a man labouring to strike up conversations in the smoking area of a nightclub. Meredith, a familiar face to viewers of Big Boys, Such Brave Girls and other TV series, has alighted on a familiar social type here, albeit one rarely so brilliantly depicted. His alter ego is a shy and insecure beta male desperately trying to look – well, alpha is out of his reach, but even basic social functioning would be an upgrade. He sounds like a dork, right? And so he is, in his wannabe hip dad-wear, with his fantasies about being in the audience on Top Gear and his furtive Amazon purchasing of “cool T-shirts for men”. But beyond the David Brent stylings is someone much more sympathetic, for whom we’re rooting by the show’s uplifting end. Meredith performs the hour, all awkward grooviness, nervous laughter and duff small talk with th