Ken Cheng review – fringe's 'funniest joke' teller is a calculating comic

Vault festival, London
In Best Dad Ever, the ex-poker player and maths nerd has constructed a meticulous show of well-turned gags

Ken Cheng was known as "the human calculator" at school, and quit university to become a professional poker player. No surprise then that his comedy - at least in this touring show, Best Dad Ever - can feel, well, strategic. That's partly a positive: Cheng's rites-of-passage narrative is meticulously constructed, skilfully weaving its family histories and strands of autobiographical standup. But it lacks wildness. Strong routine follows strong routine, but each one is delivered as moderately as the last, and the comic temperature rises only so far.

Cheng won the Funniest Joke of the Fringe award in 2017, and styles himself as a mathematical master of the well-turned gag. Best Dad Ever isn't notable for its one-liners, but there are some choice compact routines, on immigrants' hostility to more recent immigrants, on his mum's hoarding habit (cue topical Marie Kondo jokes) and on Santa's stake in China's social credit system. Odd, then, that the title routine feels weak, as Cheng strains to explain why a Toblerone bar with "Best Dad Ever" inscribed on it is a duff gift.