The Fringe Bar is packed to the gills for Best on Tap Stands Up, a lit­tle out of the ordi­nary for a Sun­day crowd, but this is a Fringe show and this is a Fringe crowd, and Best on Tap are an excel­lent­ly well-estab­lished per­for­mance com­pa­ny, so per­haps I should­n’t be sur­prised.

More well-known as an improv com­pa­ny, four of the mem­bers of Best on Tap are here to per­form standup com­e­dy for us this Sun­day eve; Geoff Sim­mons, Mary Lit­tle, Nico­la Paul­ing and Tim Croft. I’m usu­al­ly quite an admir­er of Best on Tap’s improv style — truth-based improv that cre­ates beau­ti­ful scenes that are emo­tive and ground­ed — so I’m inter­est­ed in where this style will lead us via the form of standup com­e­dy.

Our first per­former is Mary Lit­tle, who brings us a set about being a funer­al direc­tor, and all the lit­tle moments that stem from that in her life. Her word­play is very clever and she brings a bright and like­able start to the show.

Nico­la Paul­ing is up next, where she chats about aging and her book club — end­ing on a series of lit­tle skits about a woman hav­ing a secret fam­i­ly. You can real­ly see her dra­mat­ic the­atre roots as her deliv­ery is pow­er­ful and almost hyp­not­ic for the bulk of the set.

Our final per­former of the night is Tim Croft. Tim weaves us a tale of his par­ents’ funer­als, eulo­gies and his cat’s wan­der­ings in Mt Cook. His set, while under­stat­ed, is per­haps my favourite of the night, with his jokes absolute­ly hit­ting the mark.

Geoff Sim­mons wear­ing a mag­nif­i­cent feline shirt and daz­zling pink pants acts as our MC, and it is his posi­tion as the MC I per­haps ques­tion. Tonal­ly more abra­sive, with dat­ed jokes (rag­ging on pro­nouns in 2023, real­ly?), his per­for­mance is at odds with the rest of the cast and he gar­ners the two audi­ence groans of the night.

In all, I think Best on Tap Stands Up is exact­ly what I expect­ed — a mus­ing on mor­tal­i­ty, with cere­bral, hon­est sto­ry­telling and a taste of some dark­er notes. Best on Tap is a com­pa­ny I’ll always make time to see.