When the story is extraordinary and the comic’s main job is not to get in the way of it, autobiographical comedy looks easy. This is such an occasion, as venerable lefty Mark Steel, who is adopted, tells the tale of seeking his birth parents. Even for those with no interest in Who Do You Think You Are?-style soul-searching, this is a startling account: improbable, richly ironic, challenging for sceptics of biological determinism and told without a shred of sentimentality. And there are no epiphanies: as Steel concludes, his sense of himself is confused, not clarified, by finding his long-lost mum and dad.
Steel is strongly opposed to the idea that identity is genetic: he flogs that opinion to death in an opening section exploring his sense of himself as a south Londoner, which segues into a 10-minute routine about Britain in 2015, where the poor are punished and teenagers are expected, in stark denial of teen spirit, to think about pensions. But the heart of the show is about how Steel traced his absent biological mother; he only embarked on the search after he himself became a dad, and it took many more years to yield results.
When they came, they were astonishing. Most surprisingly, they revealed Steel’s dad to be a gambler, socialite and millionaire pal of Lord Lucan. But the story is just as revealing as social history – witness the conspiracy of silence that surrounded his mother’s pregnancy – and as a study of identity: it suggests that everything, from Steel’s socialism to his swearing, is inherited. Give or take the occasional overstatement of his geezer worldview (such as when he moans about liberal parenting, say), Steel makes a companionable guide through this piece of family detective work, deploying his revelations to maximum dramatic effect, visibly revelling in the knowledge that he has got an amazing tale to tell.
At the Assembly George Square Studios until 30 August. Box office: 0131-623 3030.
