Ben O’Sullivan kicked off his run of relatable, self- deprecating stand-up show Bermuda Rhombus on Sunday May 4 as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Read more: Brighton Fringe Festival 2025: A Guide To The Best In Live Comedy
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when stand-up comedy collides with a new piercing and mild existential dread, wonder no more. Ben O’Sullivan’s Bermuda Rhombus – yes, rhombus – is a confusing but side-splittingly brilliant 45 minute of comedy that proves once and for all that the next James Acaster could sometimes be just around the corner in your local boozer.
Performing at Brighton’s beloved Caxton Arms, a venue that feels like the Fringe itself: warm, intimate, and slightly off-kilter – Ben O’Sullivan enters the stage with the confidence of a man who has Googled “how to be confident on stage” ten minutes before the show. What follows is a sharp observational comedy, surreal digressions, and a surprising amount of Coldplay and Luton jokes. No seriously – the man has a vendetta against Coldplay and Luton
Performed in the cosy, conspiratorially intimate downstairs room of the venue, a pub that feels like it might also double as a portal to another dimension (possibly the rhombus-shaped one), Ben O’Sullivan takes the stage with the air of a man who’s been waiting too long to tell you a theory that absolutely won’t change your life but will give you something to think about. The comedian worked the stage perfectly, as well as the crowd, even drowning out the football fan’s cheers in the pub upstairs – “they get it” he would say after each rowdy cheer from the Brighton v Newcastle game finishing just as his gig kicked off.
The only downside? You’ll leave the Caxton Arms no closer to understanding what the Bermuda Rhombus actually means. But you will leave with a grin on your face and a deep respect for a man who can make joke about stealing his flatmate’s cheese funny whilst wearing a flower necklace in front of a giant Bermuda flag.
Verdict: 4.8 out of 5 rhombi – an angular delight.
Bermuda Rhombus is showing at Half A Camel – The Caxton Arms on May 11 at 6.45pm, May 25 at 6.45pm and at Half A Camel at The Joker pub on May 30 at 9.15pm.
Tickets: https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/bermuda-rhombus/
