Reviews & features: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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Scientist Turned Comedian - Tim Lee
24 Aug 2012
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
24 Aug 2012
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
24 Aug 2012
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…
Bob and Jim - Go
24 Aug 2012
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…
The Dog-eared Collective
24 Aug 2012
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
24 Aug 2012
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
24 Aug 2012
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
24 Aug 2012
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…
The Rape of Lucrece
23 Aug 2012
Bold interpretation of Shakespeare's poem from Edinburgh favourite Camille O'Sullivan
It’s not every performer at the Edinburgh International Festival that enters to applause and finishes to a standing ovation but, then, Camille O’Sullivan is not just any performer. Having built an impressive following over the years as a mesmerising…
Greg Proops
23 Aug 2012
Natural storyteller paints even overhashed topics a new shade of funny
Greg Proops is rambling (‘If there’s any critics in – fuck you. Why did you come on a Sunday night?’ Colour me chastised.) He finds tangents and embraces them, drawling on about the Scottish accent and his inability to understand that old chestnut: the…
Who’s Your Daddy?
23 Aug 2012
Poorly presented account of Johnny O’Callaghan's bizarre true-life tale
Johnny O’Callaghan went to Africa in the pits of a deep depression in the hope that spending time there would somehow increase his chances of dying. He came back the father of a small Ugandan boy. His one-man show, starkly set and told, it feels, in…
Dana Alexander: Breaking Through
23 Aug 2012
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…
Lady Rizo
23 Aug 2012
New York singer works Neil Gaiman, Dolly Parton and Edith Piaf into her hyper-feminine set
‘I was raised by hippies and rebelled with glamour,’ purrs Lady Rizo, a diva oozing old-school charisma. The New Yorker’s Fringe show is a riotous shindig squeezed into a ‘tiny Dutch circus tent’, her Grammy winning pipes swirling around retro, soulful…
Paul Foot - Kenny Larch Is Dead
23 Aug 2012
A creature of habit delivers his usual fantastical fare
The structure of a Paul Foot gig is by now pretty well-established. Kick off with a bizarre non sequitur, move onto the next surreal musing, go a bit stir crazy, take ages over insignificant details, suffer a stage breakdown and then depart to a hero’s…
Neil Delamere: DelaMere Mortal
23 Aug 2012
Safe but solid hour of craic
With such an easy-going manner and propensity for chatty audience banter, it helps if Neil Delamere can scoop out an interesting front-row character or two. And on this occasion, he uncovers a children’s author and the son of a notable ITV newsreader in…
Macbeth on Inchcolm Island
23 Aug 2012
Production transcends limitations through spectacular and unique location
To sacrifice five hours of your evening for one festival show it has to be something pretty special. Fortunately this unusual production Of Macbeth on Inchcolm Island does not disappoint. Packed on to a coach with excited, anorak-clad festival goers you…
Roisin Conaty: Lifehunter
23 Aug 2012
Life-affirming show from joy-seeker comedienne
Lifehunter, explains Conaty, is all about searching for the ultimate happiness, a pursuit in which she is extremely well versed. With a forthright manner, like she’s your bubbly blonde mate and we’re all down the pub, Conaty weaves elaborate tales about…
Bristol Revunions: Destination Adventure
23 Aug 2012
Stepping up their sketch act to a new level
The cool kids down at Bristol Revunions (quite a clumsy moniker that) have come up with a pretty ingenious avenue into their sketches this year. Not for them the gruesome donning of gimp masks or overly cosy slipping-on of jimmy-jams, as members of the…
Carl Hutchinson: Acceptable?
23 Aug 2012
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…
Kieran and Joe: Friends of Steel
23 Aug 2012
Mercurial chemistry in pair's solidly entertaining double act
This masterclass in friendship is more of a lesson in intimidation as Kieran Hodgson and Joe Parham put the living fear into a front row which could be plucked from and experimented on at any moment. Now ploughing on as a trimmed-down double act (yes…
It's Grimm Up North
23 Aug 2012
Animated character grotesquesset in fictional Hardington leave you cold
The first two episodes of this animated series introduce us to a handful of characters - through stories based on fairy tales and fables - who live in the fictional town of Hardington. The animation is distinctive and quirky and the first film in…
Peacock and Gamble
23 Aug 2012
No TV deal just yet for comedic spacehoppers
While they proclaim that they aren’t especially fussed about never being on TV, Ray Peacock and Ed Gamble may be biting their tongues somewhat. Certainly, there must be somewhere (a late-night corner on BBC Three?) for their ill-fitting partnership to…
Michael Workman - Mercy
23 Aug 2012
A beautiful blend of images, music, storytelling and comedy
This is a truly beautiful little show; a quirky blend of images, music, storytelling and gentle gags combine for a memorable reflection on the importance of speaking up for what you believe in. Workman is the winner of a fair few awards (best comedy at…
Daniel Sloss discusses comics, critics and cookery
22 Aug 2012
The Fife comedian is a dab hand at cooking 'chicken thing' with rice
First record you ever bought Sadly I think it was Nickelback. I’ve never really been into music. This is probably why. Last extravagant purchase you made I bought a lifesize, fibreglass replica of a velociraptor. He’s 9 foot long and lives in my…
Kumail Nanjiani
22 Aug 2012
Accomplished stand-up debut from the Pakistani-American comic
Kumail Nanjiani is a big fan of horror films. But as a natural beta male, he can’t quite cope with the feelings of terror they inspire in him and much of his life is spent in a state of fear. When he talks of being unable to visit the toilet during the…
