If you take a look at everything Ed Gamble’s been up to recently, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s forsaken the world of comedy in favour of a flourishing career as a professional foodie . He’s co-hosted more than 200 episodes of the Off Menu podcast, he’s been a judge on the BBC’s Great British Menu for three consecutive series, and he’s written a memoir Glutton: The Multi-Course Life Of A Very Greedy Boy , which tells the story of his 38 years through his obsession with food. The title of his new standup show, Hot Diggity Dog , suggests a merging of his worlds.
There are tales of Gamble’s love of cooking, his hatred of air fryers, and a painful food-related accident, but the show evades a concrete through line as it skims lightly across updates from his life. The meat of the show is about Gamble’s married life, and he takes us on his Las Vegas honeymoon, then back to domestic adventures with his wife, their new cat, and their many friends who’ve started having babies. Gamble’s always been an observational storyteller, something that serves him well in his work as a podcaster and presenter.
On stage, he spins everyday incidents – drama in the neighbourhood WhatsApp group, an interaction with a hotel receptionist – into vivid scenes filled with colourful characters. There’s plenty of performative scorn, silly voices, and animated act-outs to bring his stories to life. A scene of affected arrogance, when he announces to the crowd that his marriag.
