Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes

Greg Davies doesn’t spare himself in his new show, Full Fat Legend, his first tour in seven years after having been busy being mean to celebrities on Taskmaster on Channel 4, and showing his acting chops on the BBC’s dark comedy The Cleaner, among other projects. In a busy 90 minutes he talks about his dodgy prostate, pointless masturbation and his errant "bumhole”, among many other unflattering – but very funny – stories.

The show’s title, introduced in a short video on the large onstage screen – which is used very well during the show to underline some gags – comes from an earlier television incarnation, when Davies played pupil-hating teacher Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners. Rarely does a day go by without someone shouting  “You legend!” at Davies in the street, he says.

But is Davies really a legend? Not according to this beguiling show during which, for starters, he tells us how he came to drink his own urine – or gulps of his “hot, salty Tango” – by mistake. As the evening plays out, we quickly realise Davies is one of those people for whom everyday life is an accident waiting to happen.

Davies talks about his years as a teacher in real life, admitting to liking the status it gave him, and about his 1970s childhood in Shropshire, when safeguarding was unknown and children were routinely left unattended outside shops – “a paedophile pick’n’mix”. We also hear about his parents, Caramac bars, his first, cringingly awful attempt at masturbation, and accidentally ringing an ex-girlfriend with his penis.

In a show that has nods to ambition, identity and the perils of fame, Davies offers an unflattering admission of being an interloper at a charity event at Buckingham Palace when news presenter Susannah Reid rumbled him. Reid is one of several famous names Davies invokes in his show, but while there are some sharp lines about celebrity, he is always the butt of the gag. Literally, in the case of the deliciously vulgar – and very detailed – section about his troublesome anus and how it affected a family Christmas. 

Davies tells us the show is about four events in his life from 2024, but actually it unfolds more loosely than that framing device suggests, as he shoots off on  several tangents to recount an anecdote or express an opinion. In a show stuffed with big gags, some will keep you laughing for days afterwards.

• Touring to March 2026
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