Monday August 4th 2025
Hal Cruttenden. Photo by Steve Ullathorne
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Hal Cruttenden is back at this year’s Fringe with his new show ‘Can Dish It Out But Can’t Take It’, showing that he can certainly dish out jokes towards audience members.
The English comedian who featured in Live at the Apollo in 2020, brought all of his hard-hitting ‘take no prisoners’ comedy style to this year’s Fringe, bringing the Pleasants Caberet Bar’s audience hilarious stories from middle-aged dating and his divorce to the social media and the insanity of modern politics.
His late-night comedy took the audience through frantic story telling surrounding his life, with the main theme being his divorce and his life since, going into detail about his children and his dating life.
Hal’s performance was very crowd orientated, engaging with the crowd at every opportunity and creating new jokes around audience members. He certainly showed that he can ‘dish it out’, targeting two audience members for the majority of the show.
The comedic story-telling was of high-standard, displaying why he is successful. The comedy didn’t seem very scripted, following certain themes but coming up with new jokes and stories on the spot.
Using a sad moment in his life (his divorce), he turned it into great comedy with the audience at times laughing at him rather thanalongside him. Turning moments like this around and targeting members of the audience, he showed that despite being able to ‘dish it out he ‘can’t take it’.
The audience engagement was the highlight of the performance with not many stand-up comedian’s having the same crowd work ability as Hal displayed.
The themes explored were both positive and negative, turning sad topics such as his feelings towards his ex-wifes new partner into hilarious moments.
Hal Cruttendens Fringe show promises to ‘stick it to the man, as long as the man deosn’t stick it back to him’, using his hard hitting comedy to both make jokes towards members of the audience and himself, displaying creative self-deprecating humour. Being hilariously pontificating on the subjects he covers, this show is one for the stand-up lovers.
The show takes place everyday throughout the Fringe from 9:30pm to 10:30pm at Pleasance Courtyard’s Cabaret Bar.
4/5, must see for comedy lovers.
