Reviews & features: Comedy
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Machines for Living
10 Aug 2012
Perky, admirable Fringe debut from promising young company
‘Writing about music,’ Frank Zappa famously said, ‘is like dancing about architecture.’ Well, there’s plenty of the latter in Let Slip’s perky Fringe debut: a goofy, spoofish critique of the Brutalist ideal that gradually caked Britain’s cities in…
Ian D Montfort
9 Aug 2012
Pseudo-psychic satire that has its cake and eats it too
Having effectively retired his hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury, Tom Binns returns to the Fringe with one of his fresher character creations: Sunderland psychic Ian D Montfort. It’s a spot-on satire of the cult of cold-reading, with Montfort’s…
Tea with the Old Queen
9 Aug 2012
Highly entertaining high-camp treat
Writer-performer Graham Woolnough’s one-man show provides us with a delightfully indiscreet behind-the-scenes look at the lives of Britain’s royal family, as told through the fictional diaries of the Queen Mother’s bitchy old queen of a butler…
Stand-up Gráinne Maguire on what makes the Edinburgh Festival special
8 Aug 2012
The comedian reflects on years spent working at the Fringe
I adore the Edinburgh Festival. I romanticise it all out of proportion. When I first came here seven years ago, to work as a tech at a tiny venue, I was so overwhelmed by how cool and confident everyone seemed, I almost turned back home. To me, this was…
Gareth Richards analyses the power of crowds
8 Aug 2012
The introspective comedian weighs up his chances at the Edinburgh Fringe
In her excellent book, Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, Susan Cain describes an experiment that shows the dangers of being around other people. 32 volunteers were asked questions about some 3D shapes. When they answered…
Diane Spencer: Exquisite Bad Taste
8 Aug 2012
Rude and crude, but is it that good?
Diane Spencer is a very rude comic. We know that because she tells us she’s rude, calls her show Exquisite Bad Taste and backs it all up by launching into the most scatological opening 10 minutes seen on the Fringe since, well, probably her debut last…
Hell’s Bells by Lynne Truss
8 Aug 2012
Amiable comedy probes the fickle nature of success
Seventeen years after being dropped one series in by the BBC, Mrs Milliner is back on the television. Well, a television really. In a cramped recording studio, its creative team are preparing to record a DVD audio commentary. However, Sacha Douglas…
Big Sean, Mikey and Me
8 Aug 2012
Edinburgh boy's three persona act is blackly comic and heartfelt
An autobiographical, confessional one-man show written and performed by young(ish) Edinburgh-born actor Ruaraidh Murray, who appeared in the stage revival of Trainspotting (to which text Murray’s show shares some similarities). Taking stock of his life…
The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle
8 Aug 2012
Savvy set design and excellent soundtrack in provoking limbo-land tragicomedy
Eric Argyle died at 11.42am two days ago; yet here he is, heart aching, mind racing in a confusing laboratory-cum-limbo-land. The Life and Sort... is another highly accomplished piece from the team behind last year’s success Minute After Midday. 15th…
Top 5 tech-related shows at the Edinburgh Festivals 2012
8 Aug 2012
Featuring Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Misha Glenny, Mark Restuccia and Through the Looking Screen
The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs A one-man theatre show detailing the working conditions in Chinese factories that manufacture the iPhone, highlighting the lengths we are willing to go to in pursuit of technological advancement. Steve…
Alfie Brown: Soul for Sale
7 Aug 2012
Saving his soul and salvaging comedy in one fell swoop
In one thought-provoking hour, 25-year-old Alfie Brown singlehandedly reminded the Fringe that there’s more to the comedy world than profits piling up on the backs of homogenised Roadshow-rabid joke-automatons. It’s rather kneejerk and easy these days…
I, Tommy
7 Aug 2012
Sex, socialism and sub-standard comedy in this play about the (in)famous Sheridan
First, a confession. Like Tommy Sheridan, I, too, have frequented... socialist meetings. However, contrary to media myth, left-wingers in Scotland don’t divide neatly into Tommy’s cheerleaders and those who stick pins in his effigy before they go to…
Des Clarke
7 Aug 2012
Solid stories from mercurial comedian
Not for the first time have the words, ‘this is the weirdest gig I’ve ever done’, come out of an exasperated comedian’s mouth. But with the ever-enthusiastic and chirpy Des Clarke, you feel inclined to believe what he says. On reading that his new…
Nick Page: My Glorious Hypothetical Life as a Eunuch
7 Aug 2012
Well-delivered catalogue of misanthropy and bad behaviour
It's lucky for us and a consolation for Page that he has such a history of being an asshole from which to draw for his stand up material. With a dry, defeated demeanour he tells us that, even after academic failure, three broken marriages and seven…
Damien Crow: The World According to Damien Crow
7 Aug 2012
Grumpy goth's full run feels like a work in progress
The world according to teenage Damien Crow is an unjust place. His dad just doesn’t understand him, and his evil mother’s fake breasts just keep getting in the way. Worst of all, people misunderstand him because he’s a goth so he tries to explain…
McNeil and Pamphilon
7 Aug 2012
An intriguing sci-fi twist distracts from their true gift
With a show entitled Addicted to Danger!, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon made a real splash at the 2010 Fringe with a series of dark and inventive sketches, interspersed with some snappy banter. Last year the pair were in consolidation mode but this…
Chris McCausland: Not Blind Enough
7 Aug 2012
Thought-provoking, impassioned show from formerly benign McCausland
Previous Fringe shows have seen Chris McCausland bumble around the benign landscapes of budget airlines, cryptic crosswords and moths. But a comment at a party last year – ‘You’re not blind enough’ – struck home. Coupled with a bout of post…
Mae Martin: Mae Day
7 Aug 2012
Charmingly neurotic show from the multi-talented Candian
She’s good-looking in a gamine kind of way, dresses stylishly in old-school punk fashion, has got strong voice for singing songs, can play the guitar and seems pretty relaxed standing in front of a crowd chatting into the mic. So it comes as a surprise…
Charlie Baker: Freshly Baked
7 Aug 2012
Flashes of wit do not save show short on good material
Exploding out of the blocks like Michael Mcintyre after a parma violet binge, 'Charlie Baker Freshly Baked' causes the audience members emotions to flitter between moments of slight irritation to sustained periods of downright annoyance. Whilst an…
Chris Brain: A Better Place
7 Aug 2012
Intelligent Kiwi comedy flattened by misplaced jokes
With such an abundance of comedians playing on the Fringe, it’s hard to recognise which routines are genuine and which are totally over-manufactured. Kiwi comic Chris Brain quietly steps onto the stage and brings with him an intelligent and enchantingly…
Josh Widdicombe
7 Aug 2012
Fast-rising funnyman entertains with acute observational humour
‘The Guardian called me a geezer today’ announces Josh Widdicombe, as he wanders onto the stage, looking less ‘Geez a go’, more shaggy-haired boy next door. ‘So watch it, or I’ll knife you and that.’ He laughs, we laugh. If this fast-rising funnyman…
Sad Faces Remember It Differently
7 Aug 2012
Comedy foursome turn frowns upside down with slick, fun show
This is a blissfully timed show from comedy foursome Sad Faces, who have capitalised on Fringe success with their own BBC7 radio series in the past. It's a punchy beginning: we're hurtled into the Sad Faces' flat, where the four are having a ferocious…
Meat
7 Aug 2012
Solid black comedy that explores the danger of privilege
An exclusive dining society, an intricate and arcane set of rules, and a fabulously deranged ringleader – these are the main ingredients in the meal served up by the St Andrews students calling themselves ‘The Catherine’s Club’. Playing on an endless…
Square Eye Pair
7 Aug 2012
Kiwi duo craft comedy from pop culture mania and loserdom
Kiwi duo Eli Matthewson and Hamish Parkinson are Max and Richard - Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Romy and Michele, Beavis and Butthead. Their bromance was borne out of crippling teenage loserdom, and is sustained in the present day by a couch and a shared…
Graham: Graham Rex
7 Aug 2012
Endearingly matey sketch posse with great potential
This four piece sketch show hold great promise. Despite being Fringe rookies, much of their show is made up of measured, intelligent humour. A few references are a bit 'youth' and when you're old enough to be their mum (a young mum I might add) they can…
