Wickedly funny
Fame is a double-edged sword, as Dan Wye has discovered. Forever balancing the tightrope between iconic and tragic, one minute you’re having a thrilling sexual encounter, the next you’ve been ghosted and eating a quiche lorraine on a train. One minute, you’re chatting to the hot delivery driver, the next you’ve been impaled with an insult to the core.
Meeting us in our imaginary smoking area of a club, and through the haze of a smoke machine, in this risqué debut hour Dan takes us on a candid and uproariously funny appraisal of his life thus far. Microphone cord draped over one shoulder, with frequent wide-eyed knowing glances, the anecdotes and laughs come thick and fast, and are just the right side of lewd without being boorish. Not to spoil the show, but we gallop through encounters with sex, drugs (frequently both), interspersed with insights into Dan’s younger years, and some lightning sharp one-liners. You’ll never guess Judi Dench’s cameo role in Billy Elliot, it’s quite a feat.
The main tenet of the show (through the many threads) is that Dan is mistaken for Sam Smith, the Brit Award-winning singer. We hear a variety of tales about the mistaken identity, including a chicken-based encounter, and that the mistaken identity has gone both ways… All greeted with gales of laughter from the audience.
The final climax comes with an anecdote about work that Dan does with children, and seeing his younger self in one of the children. The clarion call to own your own power and identity, is a powerful message, but it does come in stark contrast to the previous anecdote about Gran Canaria and some inner child work under duress, in an unsavoury location.
Although not a show for the faint-hearted, there is an incredible amount of heart in the show alongside the riotous giggles, and the openness in which Dan operates is to be commended. He is who he is, even without a Brit Award (yet). This show demonstrates he’s definitely one to watch in the future.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/dan-wye-am-i-sam-smith