Reviews & features
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…
Zoe Strachan on The Lady from the Sea - interview
22 Aug 2012
The playwright is collaborating with Craig Armstrong on the production for Scottish Opera
Five years ago, Scottish Opera embarked on a brave new venture called Five:15. The plan was to put together contemporary Scottish writers and composers and commission them to come up with five new 15 minute long operas. Altogether, 15 short operas were…
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…
Late Night Gimp Fight
22 Aug 2012
Risible, regrettable and rotten sketch comedy
Where to begin? Firstly, perhaps the lads behind Late Night Gimp Fight deserve some praise for sheer audacity. Not sure who thought they would regularly cram people into a venue the size of Pleasance Forth but it’s barely half-full on a night when not…
Daniel Kitson: As of 1.52 GMT on Friday April 27th 2012 , This Show Has No Title
22 Aug 2012
Stand-up playwright returns with meta-play monologue
A week after this new play from Daniel Kitson opened, The Telegraph ran a two-star review, describing it as ‘a sorry waste of his undoubted talent – and our time’. Kitson knew someone would do that though. At one point in his one-man play – a…
Sarah Kendall - Get Up, Stand-Up
22 Aug 2012
Anticipated comeback show is good rather than glorious
When Sarah Kendall became the first woman in what felt like an entire generation to receive a solo Perrier nomination in 2004, her future glory seemed assured. But after one further Fringe stand-up show, a theatrical piece about a college initiation and…
Interview: Mike Mcshane on Mon Droit at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
22 Aug 2012
Show draws from story of American Royal obsessive
What drew you to the story of Robert James Moore (an American who came to London because of his obsession with the Queen and ended up dying alone in St James’s Park)? The lack of details about his life contrasted with the hard facts about his death.
Top 5: Sports novels - The Damned United, Dead Cert and more
22 Aug 2012
Chris Cleave brings Olympics-based novel Gold to Edinburgh Book Festival
As Chris Cleave brings his Olympics-based novel, Gold, to the Book Festival Brian Donaldson kicks off the search for some sporty fiction
Tam O’Shanter
22 Aug 2012
Earthy, energetic riff on Burns’ masterpiece
‘When chapman billies leave the street / And drouthy neibours, neibours meet’. It’s the best-kent pair of opening lines in Scots poetry, but if you were hoping for a straight rendition of Burns’ masterpiece, Communicado theatre company are more than…
Erich McElroy: The Brit Identity
22 Aug 2012
A permanent cultural exchange with laughs
Whenever a comedian brings a show to the Fringe with any kind of social or political bent, the evolving nature of world events can often turn around to bite them in a soft fleshy place. In 2005, Andrew Maxwell was compelled to rewrite swathes of…
The Lost Fingers - Lost in the 80s
22 Aug 2012
Skillful gypsy jazz paired up with an inspired choice of cover versions
‘We’re kinda known for taking cheese and making it better,’ declares one of Québécoise gypsy-folk interpretation trio The Lost Fingers (they’re named after Django Reinhardt’s disappeared digits), although not everyone might go along with their…
Neil Delamere - DelaMere Mortal
22 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…
Josie Long - Romance and Adventure
22 Aug 2012
New found cynicism provides counterpoint to bubbliness and irrepressible daft voices
Josie Long has turned 30, and it’s changed her – if her last show was full of wide-eyed idealism and exhortations to activism, she’s now become fully acquainted with disillusionment. And not just the kind when everything’s wrong and you don’t know what…
Denise Scott - Regrets
22 Aug 2012
Charm offensive from veteran debutant
One of the least likely comedy debuts this Fringe comes from Denise Scott, a jovial fiftysomething Australian who just so happens to be ‘incredibly famous’ back home. As she retells in one of several stories about her regrets, that fame was nearly…
