Words: Calum Baxter

4 stars

Darren Harriott, 2017 and 2019 Best Newcomer Award and Best Show Award nominee is back at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year with his new stand-up hour, Roadman. 

A roadman is a UK slang term for an individual, typically a young man with gang affiliations, who spends their time on the streets often procuring and distributing drugs and causing disruption in their local area and the sort of person, by his own admission, Darren aspired to be throughout his early adolescence. 

Both his mother and father emigrated from Jamaica to the Black Country where they met. His father, who died when Darren was still a child, was the ultimate roadman in his eyes. In this very candid hour, Darren touches on the sparse memories of his father and grandfather and reflects on a defining moment in his life as he, as a bystander, witnessed some of his friends take part in the 2011 London Riots and the revelation which followed that the life of a roadman was not the life for him. 

Darren Harriott is a comedian who is on the brink of becoming a household name. He began his set by reeling off his recent TV quiz show credits where he admits to feeling insecure about placing last on the majority. In a show about reconciling with your past self, finding new interests and accepting who you are despite your foibles this is an hour of hilarious smart stand-up comedy from one of the UK’s most endearing stand-up comedians with an unlikely redemption story arc to finish which is not to be missed.      

Darren Harriott – Roadman
Pleasance Courtyard, Beneath
19.40
24-27 Aug