Brian Donaldson

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Brian Donaldson

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EIBF 2011: five lengthy literary works

featuring Adam Levin, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Stephen King and Tolstoy

24 Aug 2011

The Instructions The story of a megalomaniac 10-year-old boy who may or may not be the messiah takes place over the course of just four frenetic days, but Levin’s massive book takes in Israel’s battle for existence and an entire religion’s search for…

Rebecca Hunt

The author of Mr Chartwell creates a credible and empathetic vision of illness

24 Aug 2011

One of the most intriguing and delectably-crafted debut novels of the past year is Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt. The black dog of Winston Churchill’s legendary deep depression is brought vividly to life through the eponymous mutt (also known as Black…

Alison Thea-Skot

Delightfully batty character affair

24 Aug 2011

Tiff Mason is an arch vocal coach with domestic worries, leading to a spell in chokey where she runs rap rehabilitation classes. In this delightfully batty character affair, Skot also introduces us to a terrible Aussie social worker, nervy barrister and…

Richard Herring: What is Love Anyway?

The "King of Edinburgh" at his scintillating best

23 Aug 2011

Back to his scintillating best, Herring delivers a barrage against our notions about love despite (or because of) his own admission that he may have found ‘the one’. She plays a key role in a typically lengthy sequence about Ferrero Rocher pyramids and…

Alun Cochrane: Moments of Alun

A reliably hilarious hour

23 Aug 2011

When it comes to a reliably hilarious hour, Cochrane is fast becoming the go-to guy. While he can’t see himself selling out stadiums, he’s more than happy to plough his furrow in ‘proper’ comedy environments. He’s the only one in the room who seems…

The Baby Diary

Wry play featuring couple soon to be parents

23 Aug 2011

Emily Watson Howes’ wry play features a couple soon to become parents: she’s suitably over-excited, he’s more concerned about losing his pet rabbit Duncan as he relates to his filmed ‘dadblog’. For a piece about the relentless march of technology, it’s…

Steve Hall's Very Still Life

Surreal tales and batty antics

23 Aug 2011

Where would modern comics be without their crazy parents? We get to laugh at the antics of the Klang man’s batty dad, but mainly we’re chortling at Hall Jnr’s shortcomings amid a tale of love (almost) lost. There’s the night he made a fool of himself at…

Joe Bor: In Search of the Six Pack

Limp hour saved by supporting cast

23 Aug 2011

This doesn’t start well, with a laugh-free vox pops film in which Bor asks the public what they find sexy. Worse is to come with the mercifully brief ‘songs’ which are chucked in to merely ‘show-off’ his recently-acquired guitar skills. What saves this…

Interpretive Dances to My Diary! (72% Non-Fiction)

100% total cobblers

23 Aug 2011

Fancy spending time with two red boiler-suited Americans called Ryan who love to let themselves go? Maybe your partner will be led onstage to get tongued by tall Ryan while smaller Ryan giggles at their sheer daring? All in the name of a ‘surreal…

Zoe Lyons - Clownbusting

Hotchpoth of scenarios largely uninspired

23 Aug 2011

Coming across like your favourite fruity auntie, Lyons delivers a hotchpotch of scenarios centring around her long-held belief that Kate Bush’s 1983 hit was called ‘Clownbusting’. She zips through a largely uninspired set which contains a highlight…

Lunch with Quattro Formaggio

Lovely conceit of Italian waiter on the verge does the job nicely

23 Aug 2011

There’s a lovely conceit at play here as the driving force behind this quartet gets a bit too ‘method’ in his Italian waiter role. The team fall out spectacularly with the fourth wall constantly being pushed over, this storyline forcing attention away…

Chris Mayo's Panic Attack

An engaging stress-related show

23 Aug 2011

Alongside Seminar and Raymond Mearns’ hour, here is another stress-related show, as Mayo chats forcibly about what makes him panic. Everything, by the sounds of it, but he’s confident enough to get up and retell some embarrassing moments (trying to…

So On and So Forth present 'Human Era'

A missing member, predictible hilarity ensues

23 Aug 2011

The ruse here is that this trio have permanently lost their fourth member with the deceased’s estate imposing a ban on his work being used. Cue ingenious skits with jokes and set-ups going missing, while a running gag about a space mission fares better…

Seminar

Predictable but well performed self-help for the stressed

23 Aug 2011

Kimberley Jane Feldhauser is an expert on stress and is here to smash the audience’s anxieties to smithereens. Naturally, Feldhauser (Emily Watson Howes) is a ticking bomb and, perhaps too predictably, loses the plot on numerous occasions during this…

Wade McElwain - The Littlest Hobo

Eloquently taste-busting lines

23 Aug 2011

It’s a pity that this Canadian comic found someone in the audience who shared a farming background as the ensuing banter takes the fizz from the head of steam he gains early on with a series of eloquently taste-busting lines. Naming his show after The…

Matt Forde: Dishonourable Member

Ill-judged hagiography of Tony Blair and Brian Clough

23 Aug 2011

Entitled Dishonourable Member, you might expect this hour to be a coruscating bite at British politics. But Forde’s show turns out to be a protracted love letter to Tony Blair. The sequence about two awkward encounters with his childhood hero Brian…

Men of War

Scene after scene falls flat for talented quartet

23 Aug 2011

A talented quartet they may be (including Stephen ‘Toulson and Harvey’ Harvey and Jay’s dad from The Inbetweeners), but scene after scene fall flat. When a good idea does raise its head (a serial killer meeting his girlfriend’s father), momentum is…

Footlights in 'Pretty Little Panic'

One moment of surrealist brilliance can't compensate for lack of comedic guile

23 Aug 2011

Asides from one moment of surrealist brilliance, the current Footlights batch patently don’t have a Key or Fry among them, as they cut a swathe through far too many sketches. Their ‘borrowing’ of the Marx Brothers mirror sequence only serves to prove…

Sally-Anne Hayward: DOn't Judge Me

A pleasant jaunt through middle-class concerns

23 Aug 2011

Hayward cannot wait to be old, as she’ll be able to say what she truly feels. For now, she’s trying to hold it all back, and this is reflected in her comedy which is a pleasant enough jaunt down some middle-class concerns without ever threatening to…

Max and Ivan are Holmes and Watson

Slick but over-the-top, confusing and largely gag-free tale

23 Aug 2011

There may be a slickness to Max and Ivan’s take on Holmes and Watson, but this is an over-the-top, confusing and largely gag-free tale. It may simply be that their story is too busy for a double act to carry off, unless their name happened to be the…

Croft and Pearce - Funnier Than It Sounds

Flashes of brilliance lost in a melee of mundanity

23 Aug 2011

Flashes of brilliance are unfortunately lost in a melee of mundanity as this double act trot out predictable stuff about the Middletons, a horrendous job interview and domineering Italian mothers. But the Brownies gang warfare sketch and creative…

Chris Ramsey: Offermation

Enthusiastic natural wit is impossible to resist

23 Aug 2011

With Offermation, this lively comic discusses the cult of delivering unwanted information without prior consent, centring around some letters sent to his family. The central theme is somewhat undermined by an uplifting finale, but Ramsey’s enthusiastic…

Tim Key

A sublime and spirited Slut sequel

22 Aug 2011

Following up an award-winning success is never the easiest of operations. Perhaps this is why Tim Key has taken two years out to get his sequel into shape, having used this same Pleasance Dome space last year as a testing ground with a short run of the…

Todd Barry

Every trivial matter is prey to the laconic American

22 Aug 2011

In a short pre-show filmed interview, Todd Barry notes that his first few dates in Edinburgh are likely to be detrimentally effected by jetlag. Given that the default setting for his delivery is among the most downbeat in stand-up history, it’s hard to…

Neil Hamburger

Anti-comedic filth, hate and fury

22 Aug 2011

Almost 20 years ago, Gregg Turkington released an album of prank phone calls in which he first unleashed the now fully-formed and twisted character of Neil Hamburger. God only knows the current state of mind of those individuals on the receiving end. An…

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