Review: Tom Davis – Spudgun, Brighton Dome

Review: Tom Davis – Spudgun, Brighton Dome

Friday 16th October, 2026

Comic, actor and big personality Tom Davis brought his big-hearted, boisterous stand-up to a packed Brighton Dome Concert Hall this weekend, delivering a fast-paced evening of observations on fatherhood, sobriety, modern masculinity and the absurdities of everyday life.

First up was British Asian comedian Dinesh Nathan, a stand-up comedian, husband, and dad born and bred in Crawley, West Sussex, who proved an amusing warm-up act, quickly winning over the audience with his wry observations on growing up in Crawley in an immigrant family. I laughed throughout.

A winner of South Coast Comedian of the Year, and appearing on BBC Three’s New Comedian of the Year awards (2022) and Comedy Central Live amongst others, many of his jokes centred on this dual identity and experience of life in navigating this. A joke about being so British that his mum had to wash the spice off his dinner, and elsewhere, he riffed on the experience of being mistaken for an unexpected cabbie and the indignities of ordering coffee at Costa. “Short black?” he imagined being asked. “No, I’m a medium Asian, thanks for asking.” His sharp, accessible humour made for a lively start to the evening. Recommended!

Then it was time for Davis, whose larger-than-life stage presence and relentless energy kept the laughter coming. Best known for starring in Murder in Successville and King Gary, and more recently as the character Aslan in Netflix’s The Gentleman, as well as co-hosting the long-running Wolf and Owl podcast with Romesh Ranganathan, Davis has a knack for finding comedy in the gap between how we all imagine our lives will turn out and how they actually unfold.

In this new tour entitled Spudgun, named after his old building-site nickname, he draws on his experiences of growing older, becoming a father, and navigating life beyond the construction sites where he once worked. His decision to give up alcohol provides some of the show’s more reflective moments, alongside anxieties about parenthood and the importance of men learning to listen to one another rather than simply waiting for their turn to speak, and doing it through the backdrop of a mid-life stag do.

These more thoughtful themes sit comfortably alongside his trademark irreverence. Davis is particularly good at puncturing pomposity, whether recounting his encounters with showbiz glamour or reflecting on the unlikely journey from reading Loaded on building sites to rubbing shoulders with celebrities.

One of the evening’s funniest observations concerned the painting of St George’s flags on roundabouts, with the suggestion that these might eventually be regarded as an artist’s early works, collected for vast sums of money. It was a neat example of Davis’s ability to take something familiar, give it an absurd twist and leave the audience laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, whilst also lampooning current issues around race and identity.

There is a warmth beneath the bluster. Davis is willing to make himself the butt of the joke, whether discussing his insecurities, his changing relationship with alcohol or the anxieties that come with being responsible for a small child, “Come here Beast”. His reflections on fatherhood are recognisable without becoming sentimental, while his willingness to address men’s mental health gives the show some substance beyond the laughs.

The audience was thoroughly receptive, with hearty laughter running continuously around the auditorium throughout the performance. Davis’s delivery is loud, physical and gloriously unrestrained, but there is a sense of a comedian who knows his audience and understands how to bring a room together. As he said for his encore, he never thought aged 32, that he would be selling out the Brighton Dome in his 40s.

Spudgun is an entertaining evening of comedy that combines larger-than-life storytelling with some more considered reflections on getting older, being a dad and working out what really matters. Davis may have left the building site behind, but he has retained the plain-speaking humour and self-deprecation that make his observations so effective. A very popular show.

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