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Promotional art for Blood Sugar
Cover image credit: via TMDB

Blood Sugar

Ed Gamble

Prime Video · 2019 · 59 min

Ed Gamble on type 1 diabetes, heavy metal, and everyday humiliation.

Released , on Prime Video.

Ed Gamble spends an hour in bright red cotton looking like an overgrown toddler while yelling about minor indignities. The center of the routine stems from a BBC News article that covered him getting snowed in during a New York holiday and labeled him simply as a “diabetic comedian.” The outrage is not over having diabetes, but over the insult of being treated as a novelty genre act. His response is to spend a solid portion of the hour proving that blood glucose monitors, finger pricks, and public misunderstandings make for perfectly viable material.

He leans into the gap between his aggressive musical taste and his gentle appearance, recalling his dismissal from a teenage heavy metal band called Tethered Priest because he kept smiling and flashing thumbs-up signs at the crowd instead of devil horns. Other misadventures take in spin classes, guide dogs as scammers, and a mortifying noise during a massage. When he brings up his family, he focuses on his father’s refusal to ever admit a mistake, leading into a reading of actual emails his father sent to a veterinary clinic written in character as the family cat.

Gamble knows when an act-out is stretching the room’s patience, and his instinct is simply to double down until the audience caves.

Directed by Stuart Laws, the special was filmed at London’s Leicester Square Theatre in May 2019 and released on Amazon Prime Video that August. It captured Gamble during a rapid ascent. He had been a reliable face on panel shows like Mock the Week for several years, but 2019 brought the launch of the Off Menu podcast with James Acaster and his winning run on series nine of Taskmaster. The performance drew directly from his touring show Blizzard, which had already sold out multiple extensions across the UK.

Notable bits & set list

7 bits

  1. Being labeled a 'diabetic comedian' by BBC News after getting stranded in a New York snowstorm

    Feigns outrage that diabetic comedy is treated as a genre before humorously inventing what it would look like.

  2. Getting kicked out of his teenage heavy metal band Tethered Priest

    Recalls being expelled for being too friendly, smiling too much, and offering thumbs-up instead of devil horns.

  3. Sponsoring a guide dog

    Presents guide dogs as manipulative con artists tricking sponsors.

  4. Farting during a massage

    Describes a humiliating wellness mishap and his comic outrage at his own physical failings.

  5. His father demanding a 'Danish Boog' at a bakery

    Highlights his father's stubborn refusal to admit errors when ordering food.

  6. His father sending emails to a vet from the perspective of the family cat

    Performs an elaborate, extended act-out of the eccentric messages, deliberately doubling down despite mixed crowd reaction.

  7. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Finale callback to an earlier self-deprecating routine closer

    Concludes the performance with a theatrical flourish that pays off an earlier joke.

How it plays

Tone
Joyous, self-deprecating, lighthearted, and silly.
On stage
Cheeky, excitable boy-next-door persona dressed in an all-red pyjama-like outfit; portrays himself as an eager, genial dolt and perpetual underdog.
Pace
High-energy and tenacious, oscillating between gentle self-deprecation and comically outraged shouting.
About
Type 1 diabetes and the concept of 'diabetic comedy', Heavy metal music and youth band misadventures, His eccentric father and pet correspondence, Sponsoring a guide dog, Physical and social embarrassments

What the critics said

Praised as a joyous and engaging debut special powered by Gamble's affable charisma and funny anecdotes, though critics noted occasional uneven pacing and overextended routines.

In the room: Warm and laughing, with moments of playful friction when Gamble doubled down on protracted character act-outs.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, avalonuk.com, comedy.co.uk, themoviedb.org, chortle.co.uk, nerdly.co.uk, letterboxd.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Filmed as part of his twice-extended nationwide sell-out tour; centers heavily on his Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and being labeled a 'diabetic comedian' by BBC News.

Details

Released
Taped
Leicester Square Theatre, London
Runtime
59 min
Where
Prime Video
Director
Stuart Laws
Topics

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