Reviews & features: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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Marcel Lucont: Gallic Symbol
21 Aug 2012
Endless gags in fantastique caricature of a French homme
As we're gathering our belongings to leave a voice in the row behind exclaims, 'he pushes the French thing a bit doesn't he?' Yes, well that's exactly the point. Lucont is the beautifully realised comic creation of Alexis Dubus and is a fantastique…
Blind Date Ruined My Life
21 Aug 2012
Flavourless comedy reliving the cheesiness of 80s/90s TV
Most people remember Blind Date as a harmless, bland piece of programming which almost everyone seemed to watch. Our Cilla and her contestants offered the kind of light tea-time diversion which terrestrial television thrived on. It’s hard to imagine the…
Iain Stirling
21 Aug 2012
Fresh-faced honesty and natural charisma
Relying primarily on his deep charm, wicked sense of humour and red-hot wit, Iain Stirling possesses all of the born-with-it-or-you’re-not qualities associated with the world’s leading comics. Material in Happy to be the Clown? moves from discussing his…
Barry Castagnola - Where's Barry?
21 Aug 2012
Unique and fresh show with precision timing
Looking at character comedy from an entirely different perspective is 'Where's Barry?' The premise for the storyline is that star of the show Barry Castagnola, having found himself in a tricky situation must rely on a host of acquaintances to take to…
Gavin Webster: Bill Hicks Wasn’t Very Good
21 Aug 2012
…But he was certainly better than this
Outrage at the Fringe is usually induced by some Sadowitz-esque remark about a tragedy which occurred an hour before the gig. But there aren’t many forbidden topics for comedians themselves, a gauntlet which could, and should, have been slammed to the…
Richard Herring - Talking Cock
21 Aug 2012
Intelligent chat, with knobs on
’There was a clue in the title,’ Richard Herring points out, as one man heads for the exit ten minutes into the show. There was indeed, because all Herring does in this funny, educational and surprisingly touching hour, is talk about cock. Compared…
Katherine Ryan - Nature's Candy
21 Aug 2012
Dark comedy gossip from a disarmingly innocent-looking source
What you look like shouldn’t make any difference in comedy. Funny’s funny whatever the package. However, for Katherine Ryan, being pretty, diminutive, blonde and blue-eyed works rather well when what comes out of her mouth is as acidic as the lemons on…
Love Letters to the Public Transport System
21 Aug 2012
Life-affirming monologue celebrates society’s unsung heroes
The premise of Molly Taylor’s monologue sounds, in summary, so precious you wouldn’t expect it to work as a piece of drama. In 2009, following a painful break-up and the loss of her permanent job, Taylor travelled by bus to London where a chance meeting…
Luke Benson - Backseat Hero
21 Aug 2012
Deadpan delivery and thin material get lost in the void
Bravely diverging from the ‘genial Geordie’ archetype, Luke Benson (aka Skywalker aka The Bensonator) has a deadpan, monotone delivery that fits well with his tales of urban discontent and gangly outsiderness (he’s 6’ 7”). Unfortunately this nuance is…
David O'Doherty
21 Aug 2012
Well-executed show on dark times wears thin
Fringe favourite David O'Doherty returns to Edinburgh with his new show show 'Seize the David O'Doherty'. The Irishman, whose appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks catapulted him in to the public eye, fuses a dry and subtle wit, self-depreciating…
Al Pitcher - Tiny Triumphs
21 Aug 2012
A funny if unchallenging appreciation of life’s little amusements
Most people are too busy to stop and appreciate life’s small absurdities, but not Al Pitcher. He spends his days taking photos of things that amuse him, then presents a slideshow of his results at that evening’s performance. It’s a performance style…
Lights! Camera! Improvise!
21 Aug 2012
Giving improv a good name
Banish all preconceived notions of improv being cringey or stilted, as there are no such qualms when it comes to the Scat Pack troupe. The premise is to create an entire film from scratch, directed by a chirpy host (Oscar, naturally) who pauses…
Jigsaw - Gettin' Jiggy
21 Aug 2012
Top sketch comedy from Dan Antopolski, Nat Luurtsema and Tom Craine
After a successful Fringe debut last year, the troupe return with another offering of what has to be one of the fastest-paced sketch shows about. Some skits last less than a minute before we’re plunged into the next. Stand-ups Dan Antopolski (the…
Four Screws Loose
21 Aug 2012
Intelligently conceived highlights rare in show that is largely filler
Sketch show foursome Four Screws Loose set out to find a comedic juxtapose of pantomime-style tomfoolery and the bizarre. The show opens with a music led and flamboyant introduction that, whilst prompting the obligatory audience clap-along, is old…
Silky
21 Aug 2012
Liverpudlian comic is keen to please but able to disturb
Unlike other performers that have descended on Edinburgh throughout the festival, Silky has opted not to plaster his posters around town. Going against the publicity grain, the comedian has instead placed his PR material on the underside of buses; and…
Wuthering Heights
20 Aug 2012
Emily Brontë adaptation by young Cardiff players is a praiseworthy production
Rarely has fiction portrayed the negative as well as positive emotions of love than in Emily Brontë’s masterpiece. Heathcliff and Cathy's passionate, never harmonious yearning is, of course, at the heart of the story, yet the novel's complex narrative…
Monkey Bars
20 Aug 2012
Kids say the profoundest things
‘Sometimes adults don’t really listen to children,’ suggests the actor playing dialogue artist Karl James at the start of Chris Goode’s masterful new verbatim play. And that’s exactly what this astonishing piece seems to be telling us – that there’s so…
Bigmouth
20 Aug 2012
Enthralling roller-coaster through history and its (in)humanity by Valentijn Dhaenens
‘History not merely touches on language, but takes place in it.’ This quote from the German philosopher Adorno could summarise the underlying themes of SkaGeN’s Bigmouth. The show makes the (perhaps not obvious connection) between figures of great…
Mies Julie
20 Aug 2012
Essential adaptation of Strindberg’s classic
Truly great productions of classic texts can reveal the play within the play. Who knew that beneath the staid formality of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie lurked a play as explosive and heartwrenching as Yael Farber’s South African-set rewrite? Like…
Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel
20 Aug 2012
Inspirational one-on-one poetry experience with Ryan Van Winkle
Poetry readings have often suffered from small audiences. Ryan Van Winkle has worked that to his advantage: the size of the audience for Red, Like Our Room Used To Feel is precisely one. And that’s why it works. There is nothing scary or awkward…
Paperbelle
20 Aug 2012
Imaginative fun for the very young
Creating a show that straddles the fine line between engaging a pre-schooler, and not scaring them, isn’t easy. Harder still to capture the imagination of the grown-up whose lap they’re sitting on or next to. Yet with this delicate, sweet and funny…
Matthew Crosby
20 Aug 2012
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…
Felicity Ward: The Hedgehog Dilemma
20 Aug 2012
High-speed hour of breathless laughs from charismatic comedienne
One way to freshen up material about relationships is to frame it in a cute thought experiment. Imagine two hedgehogs getting ready for winter. Do they cuddle together, and risk hurting each other with their spines? Or do they sit apart, not getting…
Beats
20 Aug 2012
Tremendous recreation of rave culture
Tremendous recreation of rave culture In 1994 the UK Criminal Justice and Public Order Act outlawed gatherings of more than 100 people with a soundtrack of ‘amplified music characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’. In the…
Carl Donnelly: Different Gravy
20 Aug 2012
A tickling rather than side-splitting hour from home-made autobiography writer
Carl Donnelly is a nice guy. Beginning his routine with a slide-show (before he gets on stage) of his home-made autobiography cover and jokey snaps of family and friends, it’s clear that here is someone not afraid to take the piss out of himself, never…
