Edinburgh Fringe 2015 review – Boris, World King: Oh cripes! Impressions master David Benson turns his fire on bumbling Boris and his big ambitions

This amusing, biting show surely deserves a London run, says Veronica Lee 
Spot-on: David Benson is uncannily accurate as Boris Johnson
Veronica Lee11 August 2015

What a busy man the Mayor of London is: running our fine city, serving as the newly elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, writing a Daily Telegraph column — and now appearing in a Fringe show.

Actually, David Benson (best known for his spot-on portrayals of Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd) is doing the performing duties in this very funny satire, with an unruly blond mop-top wig and an uncannily accurate voice.

The title comes from an anecdote gleefully told by Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel, who revealed that when he was a child her brother declared that he wanted to be “world king” when he grew up.

Boris tells us the story of his (so far) charmed life: head boy at Eton, president of the Oxford Union, shadow arts minister and survivor of enough sackings and scandals to scupper the careers of an entire Cabinet.

Now, to add to his list of achievements, Boris wants to win the best Fringe show award, and how difficult can that be? But from his wobbly entrance on a Boris bike, to a hilariously chaotic game of (as he calls it ) whiff-whaff and the final meltdown, everything goes wrong in the hour he’s thrown together — and bumbling Boris finds that saying “Oh cripes!”, quoting some Latin and behaving like a fool doesn’t cut it. There’s a very good running gag in which Boris flirts outrageously with the women in the audience, using variations on the chat-up line “We’re looking for someone just like you in the Mayor’s office — here’s my card”, and some sly digs at the man who may yet become his nemesis, fellow Old Etonian and Bullingdon Club member David Cameron.

Latest theatre reviews

1/50

Written by Tom Crawshaw, directed by Yaz Al-Shaater and with various roles played by Alice McCarthy, this is a very amusing show with a bite in its tail, and surely deserves a London run.

Who knows, perhaps the real Boris might pop along to challenge his onstage persona to a game of ping-pong, and then recreate that notorious zipwire incident...

Until August 31 (edfringe.com)

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in