Reviews & features: Comedy, Brian Donaldson

Bob and Jim - Go

Top-notch buffoonery and lecherous lookalikes

After indulging in some Modern Urges last time around, now the truly big and daft Bob and Jim are imploring us to Go. No doubt deliberately, this is a title which admittedly could be read in a couple of contrasting ways. These classically cockney gents…

David Trent - Spontaneous Comedian

Unoriginal, uncontroversial, unfunny

This schoolteacher has come to the Fringe with plenty of hype behind him but his multimedia Spontaneous Comedian is a befuddling affair. You know someone is in trouble when they constantly refer to jokes that usually get bigger laughs (slap on wrist…

Return of the Lumberjacks reunites three Canadian comics

Glenn Wool, Craig Campbell and Stewart Francis at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

Glenn Wool. What’s the best thing about working with Craig Campbell? The complimentary massages. Tell us one thing that might surprise the world about Stewart Francis? How easy it is to trick him out of his massage vouchers. Tell us your favourite…

Katherine Ryan: Little Miss Conception

Canadian comedian's hits Edinburgh with show about crucial early years

As a little girl growing up in the Canadian smalltown of Sarnia (not a made-up place), Katherine Ryan’s parents put her forward into those pageants that only north Americans are capable of laying on. Yet even at an early age, Ryan showed a healthy…

Laura Solon: The Owl of Steven

A curious show about owls and oddballs

It seems like a very long time ago since Laura Solon popped up to Edinburgh with a hastily rewritten show and astonished the comedy world by walking away with the last ever Perrier Award. Five years on and Solon is getting into her stride with narrative…

Laura Solon

Impressive but patchy follow-up to almighty glory

When Laura Solon first burst into the Fringe psyche in 2005, it was under the most trying of circumstances. Having just split from her comedy partner, she had two months to come up with a completed script. That show, Kopfraper’s Syndrome, won her the…

Celia Pacquola

Laughing it up with a messed-up stand-up

Am I Strange? asks Australian comic Celia Pacquola at the top of her debut Fringe show which has done wonders at festivals back home. ‘Not especially’ might come the reply. Delightful, fragile and needy are more like the traits wrapped up into her stage…

Carl Hutchinson: Acceptable?

A pleasingly moody debut from 25 year old Geordie comic

Having spent a mere 25 years on this planet, it might be far too soon for rising Geordie comic Carl Hutchinson to be a grumpy old man. But he gives those fractious celebrity gents a run for their moaning money with his debut hour. Acceptable is an…

Matthew Crosby

Slightly stilted affair from an otherwise very funny man

Given the majesty of this year’s main Pappy’s show, we can surely forgive Matthew Crosby (the small, bespectacled, beardy one of the trio) if he’s not firing on the same number of cylinders that powered his 2011 solo debut. Even so, he is able to…

Nish Kumar - Who Is Nish Kumar?

An astute and positive debut from a comic with an infectious love of words

Nish Kumar has been kicking around the Fringe for a few years on various projects (most notably alongside Tom Neenan in Gentlemen of Leisure), but this superb hour marks an astute solo debut. Biding time before launching himself as an Edinburgh stand-up…

Beard

Promising debut from ‘young upstarts’ Rosa Robson and Matilda Wnek

Cambridge just keeps on churning the comedy talent out. Rosa Robson is a Pembroke Player (former participants include messrs Idle, Oddie and Cook) while Matilda Wnek is a Footlights ‘general member’. Together they are Beard, a fuzzy, comforting…

Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro!

An operatic voyage around his father

The very least you would expect from a show about a son arranging for an opera to be performed in his dying father’s living room is to be moved. And in Bravo Figaro!, Mark Thomas achieves that on at least two occasions, but in surprising ways and at…

Bo Burnham

How can a guy with an organ be so good?

On the back of outlandishly glowing reviews from the heavyweight papers and keeping his expectant crowd waiting nearly half an hour after the start-time, it would be easy for the cynic to dismiss Bo Burnham. Maybe after all he’s just an over-hyped teen…

No Son of Mine

Family secrets uncovered amid a heap of gags

For anyone who has been embarrassed by a parent or felt shame at their offspring, this is possibly not the show for you. Then again, those scenarios most likely cover everyone, and it would be a shame to miss out on such a pleasing mid-afternoon show.

Jimmy Carr

With his short sharp shocks, Jimmy Carr has outraged and amused audiences around the world. He tells Brian Donaldson why no one has the right to be hurt by a bit of wordplay

Fran Moulds: Significant Human Error

Multi-character yawn from a spirited performer

Fran Moulds is the latest in a series of female character comedians who have laid on a feast of Fringe creations in recent years with one thing in common: their shows have all been extremely high on intricate character detail but decidedly low on…

Trevor Browne - I Think... I Am

Barnstormingly bad character creation

From horrible start to dreadful finish, I Think... I Am is just god-awful wrong. Hamming up the role of a former folk-rock god who is trying to reclaim his previous glory, Browne treats us to some pre-show ‘entertainment’ which has us paying heed to…

Scientist Turned Comedian - Tim Lee

A lazy lecture on pointless PowerPoint

Chatting about molecular bonds, rule matrices and scalar/vectors is certainly one way to avoid attracting a boorish comedy crowd. But if the sciencey boffins who have been flocking to attend Tim Lee’s debut Fringe hour assume that all stand-up shows are…

The Harri-Parris - The Leaving Do

Cake-filled musical hour about leaving it all behind

Anni Harri-Parri is about to leave behind forever the Welsh farm she grew up in and head to the big London smoke for a new life away from her doting family and friends. The audience are the guests for her surprise leaving do (cake is handed round) and…

Luke and Harry's Dot Dot Dot

Shock tactics sideline the sketch laughs

When you are just two guys doing a series of sketches with no props or a set to speak of, those routines live or collapse on the quality of writing with weight of performance coming a close second. Jonny Sweet and Joe Thomas managed it to gloriously…

The Dog-eared Collective

Brave, bonkers but too often a bit bland

If effort equalled quality then the Dog-Eared Collective gang would be on a bullet train to glory by now. Formed seven years ago, it seems unclear quite where they’re headed, but if the quartet (three women and one bloke with long hair) are content to…

Scottish Comedian of the Year 2011 - Jamie Dalgleish

Lacklustre Fringe debut hopefully hides real talents

The current Scottish Comedian of the Year has a wide-eyed enthusiasm for his work that has to be admired, but judging by this short appearance (it’s not really a ‘show’ as such), Jamie Dalgleish clearly has quite a way to go before emulating the…

Ladies Live Longer - Ladylike

Charismatic if clumsy sketch outing

Two performers with energy oozing from their fingertips, the Ladies fire through a series of skits and songs in which they appear convincingly posh one minute, and quite credibly chavvy the next. Louise Fitzgerald and Victoria Temple-Morris are the pair…

The Noise Next Door: Bring the Noise

Improv mayhem to delight the masses

For those who believe the whole ad-lib world is the lowest rung of the comedy ladder, it might be time to hang out with a Noise Next Door audience. They are virtually messianic in their acclaim of this quintet of very talented improv actors. There isn’t…

Dana Alexander: Breaking Through

Desperately Seeking the Exit might be more fitting title for fly-by show

A theme seems to be emerging from several reviews of Dana Alexander’s 2012 Fringe show. She just doesn’t seem to adapt very well to playing in front of a small audience. Of course, it’s not ideal for any comic, but the old maxim surely must apply: ‘the…