If you stick around long enough in comedy you eventually come back into fashion. Old stagers from Ronnie Corbett to Stewart Lee have proved this and now it is Simon Munnery's turn.
After early promise, the 43-year-old absurdist has tinkered on the fringes for two decades but with his latest show, Self-Employed, he has stir-fried a hotchpotch of old and new routines and produced something that is hauntingly beautiful.
Following an opening sketch set in a restaurant serving inedible food such as talking pasta - perfect for dieters - there is entertainment for all. Reflections on Icarus for intellectuals, parenting gags for the easily pleased, a neat sidebar about his damaged nerve in one hand which means he can never do a double Hitler salute.
There are pretentious short films that could be Turner Prize contenders, gnomic poems and a shaggy saga about tracing a relative in Paddington.
Gradually the scattergun approach comes good. Munnery may look scruffy but this is a truly smart show. Behind the Milliganesque silliness and cardboard props, he dissects language and ultimately life. He even skewers the credit crisis, distinguishing between ancient Greek myths and modern Greek myths such as "longterm sustainability of massive debt."
As with all comedy greats, of course, it is the way he tells it. Go see.
Until Saturday. Information: 020 7478 0100, sohotheatre.com
Simon Munnery: Self-Employed
Soho Theatre
Dean Street, W1D 3NE
