Reviews & features
Horse & Louis - The Curse of ...
21 Aug 2012
Musical comedy duo who aim for Conchordian heights but crash and burn
It seems the way of things now that any musical duo will compare themselves, if only fleetingly, with Flight of the Conchords. To their credit, Horse & Louis can make this link with more justification than most, given that they both bear a striking…
David Trent - Spontaneous Comedian
21 Aug 2012
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…
Andrew Maxwell
21 Aug 2012
That’s the Spirit is a safe and sound set
A couple of local punters perhaps expressed it best at the end of their 2 for 1 visit to Andrew Maxwell’s 2012 show. ‘He wasn’t as good as last year.’ ‘Aye it was a bit childish.’ Certainly, there is always a fair bit of playground mocking in a Maxwell…
Virginia Gay - Dirty, Pretty Songs
21 Aug 2012
Husky voiced soap star lacks plot but brings cabaret showtunes instead
As Virginia Gay’s cabaret commences it’s easy to get the jist: she prowls through the audience, belts out a shiny tune and ends up writhing atop her band’s grand piano. The Australian actress recounts a self-deprecating ‘back story’, referencing a…
Ali McGregor’s Alchemy
21 Aug 2012
Opera-trained cabaret diva does trashy 80s hits
Ali McGregor has the world’s most glittery shoes. The Australian chanteuse is keen to point them out, hoisting her leg up to show the sparkle. McGregor’s 2012 Fringe show ‘Alchemy’ holds parallels with her golden choice of footwear, marrying exquisite…
Tony Law
21 Aug 2012
Surrealist banter misses by a hat stand
There’s something very frustrating about Tony Law. At times, he feels like an on-form Canadian Eddie Izzard with magical surrealism sliding almost effortlessly from his mouth; other times he’s awkward and stumbling around as though he has absolutely no…
Chris Stokes
21 Aug 2012
Tremendous tales of a nerdy loser
You can picture the club circuit of the alternative comedy boom-years being filled to the rafters with cardy-wearing anti-machismo vegan stand-ups. But in these post post-ironic times, Chris Stokes feels almost like a novelty act. Lucky for him (and us…
Hannah Gadsby - Hannah Wants A Wife
21 Aug 2012
Aussie comedienne delivers insightful and sharply observed art history/comedy
Gadsby wanders onto stage, already hilarious in her waistcoat and coy pride in her art history slide show. It was a hard sell, she confidentially tells us. But you’re here now, she gleams. Concentrating on the Arnolfini Marriage painting by Jan van…
Planet Lem
21 Aug 2012
Sci-fi spectacle is impressive to watch but lacking in story
Based on the science fiction stories of the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, Teatr Biuro Podrozy’s new outdoor extravaganza, Planet Lem, presents the tale of a nightmarish dystopia, where machines rule people and people are completely reliant on machines…
Anne Edmonds in My Banjo’s Name is Steven
21 Aug 2012
Aussie musical stand-up built on good audience interaction
The unwaveringly energetic and unfailingly upbeat Aussie comedian clearly feels she’s a bit too full on for her lunchtime time lot. But, actually, her bright demeanour and likeable manner makes her well suited to the daylight hours. For her Fringe…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
21 Aug 2012
Shakespeare adaptation barely scratches the surface of the play’s comic potential
In detention with Mr Goodfellow, seven secondary-school pupils are forced – as if by magic – to perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream for some misdemeanour. However, the school setting is quickly dropped, forgotten for a bog-standard staging, and it starts…
Andrew Ryan - Ryanopoly
21 Aug 2012
Uneasy, nervous act fails to break the banks
Having worked in a bank, Andrew Ryan knows all the tricks in the book of Getting Your Money, and he knows how to get the humour out of them, too. Many of the funniest moments in this show are borne of his playful sending-up of the rigid application of…
Carl Einar-Hackner: Handluggage
21 Aug 2012
Swede stand-up magic ‘just like that’
Like some sort of bumbling, long-haired, clown-cross between Tommy Cooper and Justin Hawkins from The Darkness, Carl-Einar Häckner wants to wow you with magic. Poured into his white, bejewelled jumpsuit, he’s not quite nailed the tricks yet; so he’d…
Nina Conti - Dolly Mixtures
21 Aug 2012
Pic’n’Mix show leaves audience with too much choice
Pic’n’Mix show leaves audience with too much choice Midway through Dolly Mixtures, Nina Conti’s granny puppet, arguably her most famous, states the obvious: ‘These puppets bring out different parts of your personality,’ swiftly tying together what…
Laurence Clark: Inspired
21 Aug 2012
Stimulating comedy from comedian with cerebral palsy
When a fan tweeted Clark saying his show was ‘inspiring’, the comedian with cerebral palsy found the comment so condescending he was inspired to write a new one about what is truly inspirational and what is bollocks. During the course of the show, Clark…
Leads & Stern
21 Aug 2012
Patchy sketch debut with some lovely touches
Imagine the terror of being in a comedy threesome when one of your party dies just hours before the Fringe kicks off, leaving the surviving duo to either pack it in or somehow soldier on? This is the central made-up dilemma at the heart of the sketch…
Danielle Ward: Speakeasy/Playdead
21 Aug 2012
Wobbly but winning stand-up
One of the two shows the English comedian is performing on alternate nights is billed as Speakeasy. Accordingly, as the audience take their seats, Ward, who’s dressed in an all-in-one trouser suit with a stylish retro print, pours cocktails for those…
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…
