Edinburgh Fringe 2023
Emmanuel Sonubi: Curriculum Vitae
Emmanuel Sonubi
Venue: Underbelly, Bristo Square - The Dairy Room
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Emmanuel Sonubi brings his new one-hour stand-up show Curriculum Vitae.
Review
After a quickly growing career and only doing stand-up for a few years, Emmanuel Sonubi brings his new one-hour show Curriculum Vitae, following his successful 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe run, which earned him an Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nomination.
In Emmanuel Sonubi: Curriculum Vitae, he takes the audience through his life, as a Londoner, a father and a performer, but especially as a jack of all traits. Even though we don’t find out about most of his professions until the second half of the show, he has worked as a bouncer, hairdresser, musical theatre performer and even in IT. Every profession comes with exciting stories, confrontations and very different lifestyles. He shows his various talents and also delves into his brave and drastic change of career, into comedian – his true calling.
Emmanuel is a charming performer and his on-stage character exudes confidence in an approachable and strangely humble way. It is refreshing to see a stand-up challenging stereotypes. I wanted to know more about the bouncer that loves musical theatre. He has a talent for finding the comedy in his everyday life and diverse experiences, even if the jokes and punchlines could often be predictable. The comedic timing was impeccable but it would’ve been interesting to see more surprising jokes.
The audience were really enjoying the show, engaged with his stories and bursting with laughter at every punchline. This connection extended to the crowd work, which was very enjoyable, making the audience comfortable enough to share and make jokes for him to bounce off.
The stories had an array of characters, which would have benefitted from more active and differentiated performances, to enrich the all too common conversational style of stand-up. Efforts to make different voices were made but more physicality and commitment to these multiple characters would’ve made them clearer to imagine and the jokes more effective, a portion of the show where Emmanuel could draw from his musical theatre performance experience.
Emmanuel Sonubi: Curriculum Vitae is an entertaining show, with a different and engaging character that is way too rare in the stand-up scene. Emmanuel tells original and relatable stories that do not fail to get a laugh from the audience every single time.
