Arthur Smith, Soho Theatre review - charming tribute to his father

There has been a trend in stand-up comedy in recent years for intensely personal shows, confessional even, but it’s the comic’s life that is usually the one being examined for comedic effect.

Syd is a funny and touching account of a life well lived. Smith bases the show on the memoir he asked his father to write, which described, among other things, his wartime experiences at El Alamein and as a prisoner of war in Colditz. He later became a policeman whose south London beat was home to some interesting characters, vividly brought to life here.

It’s unashamed hagiography, but Smith’s description of his father as the best dad in the world can be allowed. We learn that Syd was a decent man who didn’t want to kill when he was a soldier, and who believed that a quiet word of admonishment was mostly all that was called for when he was a bobby on the beat 

Smith and his dad, who died in 2004, visited Colditz Castle after it had become a hotel, and his response on seeing it for the first time in decades says so much about the ex-soldier: "There it is." Smith senior also injected some morbid humour into the visit but his taste in comedy was usually more straightforward, and Smith is in his element telling some old corkers that his dad loved.

One section strikingly contrasts the comic's carefree youth with what his father lived through at the same age. Smith had a great time when he went to Paris as a teenager, taking part in political demonstrations and having a ménage à trois; at about the same age Syd was fighting at the Battle of El Alamein and then eating rats when starved in an Italian PoW camp. 

Smith, who loves to give his gravelly singing voice a go, intersperses some songs – old and modern – to underline a few points, to pianist Kirsty Newton’s accompaniment. Some neatly underline a point, others get in the way of the narrative.

The comic's not above a bit of nostalgia, too, mentioning the days before we all had telephones and televisions, of drinking sarsaparilla and walking in wintertime smogs, but he undercuts any talk of the good old days by describing the world his father policed – turning a blind eye to a gay man who would otherwise have been jailed for gross indecency, or helping a young woman whose suicide attempt would have resulted in prosecution.

Smith brings Syd to life magnificently, and while he may indeed have been “an ordinary man who lived through extraordinary times”, this is a rather special tribute.

• Arthur Smith at Soho Theatre until 13 July
• Read more comedy reviews on theartsdesk