This Review is from August 2026

This is a deeply personal show for writer/performer Jody Kamali. Best known in Edinburgh as the superior clown, Ironing Board Man, This is My Dad is routed very much in reality.

Playing both his Iranian late father and himself, Jody presents a tender, very funny tale of uncovering the recently deceased man’s extraordinary hidden life. There are plenty of laughs and quite a few surprises.

This doesn’t feel like a character creation, exaggerated for comic effect. Jody depicts his father as a real, flawed, loving human being who follows his own rules. A likeable rogue who perhaps, wasn’t always the best dad. Jody imagines the conversations that they never had, the questions that Jody never got to ask, and then he asks them.

I had a bit of a cry afterwards.

Martin Walker