Comedy Fest review: Asher Treleaven - Secret Door

ASHER TRELEAVEN – SECRET DOOR

I felt some kind of mental wall crumble halfway through Asher Treleaven's latest show. Having seen around 40 shows every Comedy Festival for the past half decade, I hadn't realised how this barrier had gradually accreted. I found it increasingly easy to predict punchlines and spot reversals; I saw the same faces and heard the same topics raised and watched the same stock situations again and again. It wasn't that I didn't find things funny, but the fact is that I didn't laugh that much. I recognised the humour without really feeling it.

Treleaven broke the breakwater. I was wiping away tears and convulsing with that kind of laughter you generally only get with friends – not in that crack-a-joke-over-a-beer kind of mate's laugh, but the dense, uncontrollable guffawing that takes half an hour of conversation to build up in strength.

You don't need to know anything else about this show. Some people won't dig it (it's ridiculously filthy and utterly eccentric) but for the simple fact that I can laugh again, this is one of the finest hours of comedy I can recall.