Alistair Barrie – Obviously
one4review .com, August 2007
Rating: four stars

Alistair Barrie’s mission at this year’s Fringe is to point out the obvious. A ‘Fascist Liberal’ he mused for an hour on topics such as Climate Change, the Olympic bid, Terrorism and Religion. So far, so obvious – it could be considered fairly routine stand-up material. However, delivering it in a laid-back style, Barrie managed to keep his observations fresh, sustaining my laughter for the full 60 minutes.

The preview I attended was sparsely populated but Barrie managed to riff off various audience members with ease and cleverly dealt with various heckles and toilet demands. I’ve no doubt that his act will benefit from a larger attendance and from what I saw he certainly deserves it.

Interesting, enagaging and, most importantly, funny I’d definitely recommend Alistair if you’re looking for a relaxed, late night laugh.

Alistair Barrie – Obviously
Three Weeks Review, August 2007
By PETER MOORBY
Rating: four stars

According to Alistair Barrie, you can get the experience of putting on a show at the Fringe simply by "standing in the shower, ripping up tenners". I, for one, was glad that he'd ditched the loofah and made the effort.

This is a show that began well and only got better, and funnier, with Barrie's loose framework of "pillars of obviousness" prompting a wide range of comic observations. It was the more personal jokes that really stood out - I couldn't even begin to dscribe how hilarious the monologue about his sex life was.

Refreshingly, Barrie seemed perfectly at ease with a typical Tuesday-sized crowd - although once last night's audience have told their friends about this show, he'll be just as good in front of a packed house too, I'm sure.

tw rating 4/5

Comedy: Alistair Barrie - Obviously
Show type: Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2007
The Skinny Fest, August 14, 2007
by ADAM KNIGHT

Barrie is dangling on the edge of the big-time.

"High concept" comedy irritates Alistair Barrie. While that particular genre tends to be weighed down by its own pretentiousness, he's happy to theme his act … if only to provide a title for this year's show.

Obviously is a trek through the opinionated yet extremely likeable mind of a man blighted by ginger facial hair and frustrated by the injustices of the world around him. His show revolves around the "pillars of obviousness": political and social "facts" that Barrie believes should be highlighted because of the unswerving desire of the Daily Mail crowd to ignore them.

What follows is a gently snowballing rant against climate change deniers, tortured liberals and organised religion … Barrie finally hits his desired tempo, then rockets off into some extremely acute personal and political observation. By this point, his concept has gone out the window, and Barrie's simple honesty makes him both immensely charismatic and entirely convincing.

Barrie is dangling on the edge of the big-time. His delivery is flawless.