Sam Morrison: DUCK ★★★★

There is nothing lazy about DUCK. Sam Morrison’s new hour is a densely constructed, energetically performed collision of evolutionary biology, queer identity, grief, memory and, well, animal genitalia. Ducks with spiral vaginas, hyenas with enormous clitorises and octopuses throwing their penises around are not simply shock-value curiosities. Morrison uses the natural world as a way of examining the messier instincts and anxieties of being human.

It is a smart show, and one that rewards attention. Morrison moves quickly, often layering callbacks and ideas several beats apart, so this is not comedy for anyone planning to mentally drift in and out. The science becomes a framework for material about Judaism, coming out, therapy, relationships and the death of his former partner, while recurring motifs (AirPods, seeds, zebras, jawfish and the titular duck amongst them) demonstrate just how carefully the hour has been assembled. The result is intellectually playful without becoming po-faced, and Morrison is equally happy puncturing the cerebral stuff with something gloriously filthy.

Central to it all is Morrison himself, a relentlessly energetic and playful presence. Returning to the Fringe after last year’s lauded Sugar Daddy, he moves through the material with the slightly chaotic air of someone whose brain is travelling half a joke ahead of his mouth, and there is considerable skill in the way apparently tangential stories eventually loop back into the larger argument. The show’s eventual embrace of instinct over relentless analysis gives the silliness an unexpectedly coherent emotional backbone.

Whether every punter will find the same volume of laughs may depend on how readily they tune into Morrison’s wavelength. There are passages where the cleverness is easier to admire than the punchlines are to chortle at, but elsewhere the show is considerably lighter and more immediate. What is difficult to dispute is the intelligence of the construction and the confidence of the performer. DUCK is a distinctive, ambitious hour from a comic who refuses to choose between dick jokes and existential inquiry. And, somehow, makes the two feel entirely compatible.