Reviews & features: Brian Donaldson
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Jack Jerome's Journey of Life
11 Aug 2012
Energetic but ill-fated character
Some comedy creations are just too successful for anyone to even attempt a retread. There will never be another Pub Landlord thanks to Al Murray’s world domination of that character type. In Edinburgh Fringe terms, anyone who comes along with a…
Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro!
10 Aug 2012
An operatic voyage around his father
The very least you would expect from a show about a son arranging for an opera to be performed in his dying father’s living room is to be moved. And in Bravo Figaro!, Mark Thomas achieves that on at least two occasions, but in surprising ways and at…
Edinburgh International Book Festival: Top 5 Kids events
10 Aug 2012
Patrick Ness, Michael Morpurgo, Louise Rennison, Doctor Who and more
Patrick Ness With A Monster Calls, Ness is cementing his already burgeoning reputation as a must-read author for the 12-16 group. When this book about a boy dealing with his mother’s battle against cancer won him the Carnegie Medal, Ness said the…
Q&A: Kirsty Gunn speaks about new book before 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival
9 Aug 2012
The New Zealand born author talks about her new novel The Big Music
In her latest novel, Kirsty Gunn writes of a dying man trying to define his life through a new musical composition. Here she takes on our Q&A Give us five words to describe The Big Music? Family. Landscape. Secrets. A world. Which author…
Irvine Welsh comes to 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival with Trainspotting prequel Skagboys
9 Aug 2012
The Scottish author jogs back into the past with Begbie and co
While us Scots haven’t got the best reputation for putting fitness and health at the top of our to-do lists, Irvine Welsh is doing his bit for the image of his nation in further-off climes. Now mainly based in the US, he has had to knock…
Diane Spencer: Exquisite Bad Taste
8 Aug 2012
Rude and crude, but is it that good?
Diane Spencer is a very rude comic. We know that because she tells us she’s rude, calls her show Exquisite Bad Taste and backs it all up by launching into the most scatological opening 10 minutes seen on the Fringe since, well, probably her debut last…
Alfie Brown: Soul for Sale
7 Aug 2012
Saving his soul and salvaging comedy in one fell swoop
In one thought-provoking hour, 25-year-old Alfie Brown singlehandedly reminded the Fringe that there’s more to the comedy world than profits piling up on the backs of homogenised Roadshow-rabid joke-automatons. It’s rather kneejerk and easy these days…
Des Clarke
7 Aug 2012
Solid stories from mercurial comedian
Not for the first time have the words, ‘this is the weirdest gig I’ve ever done’, come out of an exasperated comedian’s mouth. But with the ever-enthusiastic and chirpy Des Clarke, you feel inclined to believe what he says. On reading that his new…
Kaput
7 Aug 2012
Choreographed mayhem was never this beautiful
If Billy the Mime is channelling the likes of Neil Hamburger and Denis Leary (early 90s non-bouffant version) in his celebrity scandal-fixated show, Tom Flanagan is tapping straight back into the golden era of silent comedy for his child-friendly show.
McNeil and Pamphilon
7 Aug 2012
An intriguing sci-fi twist distracts from their true gift
With a show entitled Addicted to Danger!, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon made a real splash at the 2010 Fringe with a series of dark and inventive sketches, interspersed with some snappy banter. Last year the pair were in consolidation mode but this…
And Now for a Nice Evening With Wallan
7 Aug 2012
How to light up a room with surreal banter
Walking into the venue, one question burns deep: who, what, where and possibly when is Wallan? After 50 minutes in the company of Lou Sanders, you will leave absolutely none the wiser about Wallan, but resting assured that the young comedian is quite…
Will Marsh's Ruination
7 Aug 2012
Flawed but fearless dissection of the absurd
Britain is in a right old pickle and Will Marsh’s duty is to remind us how just bad things have got. For instance, there’s the problem with men being a bit dim and wholly unfaithful, what to do with having an awful regional accent (Marsh is an…
Billy the Mime
6 Aug 2012
Surprisingly tender silent comedy show from the boundary-pushing Aristocrat
Billy the Mime came to Edinburgh with a reputation for smashing barriers of taste with his clever silent work on the likes of The Aristocrats movie. The reputation he may well leave with is as an accomplished artist fully on the side of the vulnerable…
Hennessy & Friends: A History of Violence
6 Aug 2012
Displeasure turns to dynamic sketch doings
For two whole sketches and a bit, this looked like being one of those long Fringe hours when only your internal battle against the heat of a small room is likely to keep you amused. After the simple displeasures of Hennessy & Friends’ opening passages…
Eddie Pepitone's Bloodbath
6 Aug 2012
High-energy, self-heckling anti-comedy from New York
Allow yourself to imagine, if you dare, Ed Aczel having his levels of energy cranked up by, say, 716% and being forced to talk in an even-paced New York accent. You’re now sort-of on the way to getting a sense of a night out with Eddie Pepitone. Or to…
The Ginge, the Geordie and the Geek
6 Aug 2012
Disappointing sketch comedy from the much vaunted trio
With early endorsements from Johnny Vegas and Catherine Tate ringing in their ears, the three Gs have developed a hefty following. With the sell-out signs already being slapped up for their twice-daily appearances, they clearly have it made. From where…
Mark Watson: The Information
5 Aug 2012
Another top show from the pointedly non-Welsh Fringe veteran
Ever since making his breakthrough on the Fringe in the mid-Noughties, Mark Watson’s ethos has remained constant: deliver solid, frequently hilarious stand-up amid an audience environment in which things can kick off at any moment. The more offbeat a…
Brendon Burns: Home Stretch Baby
5 Aug 2012
The former comedy bad boy reflects with faded glory and bruised emotions
Like many hard-living, taste-baiting rock’n’roll comedians of the 90s and 00s, Brendon Burns is slowly coming to terms with the fact that he’s now over 40 and the law requires him to slow down. Turns out he’s pretty comfortable with that and having…
Edinburgh Book Festival 2012 day planner
3 Aug 2012
Julia Donaldson, AC Grayling, AL Kennedy, Alexander McCall Smith and more
Saturday 11 Julia Donaldson The Glasgow-based Children’s Laureate kicks off the Book Festival with a performance-based show in which she brings life to stories such as The Gruffalo and Superworm. Hubbie Malcolm will be on hand to help things along.
The best of comedy at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2 Aug 2012
Dylan Moran, Tim Key, Russell Kane, Jimmy Carr amongst stars
Dylan Moran The first of three winners on this list of the big Edinburgh comedy award in its various guises shows that he’s no less grumpy on stage now as he was when he scooped the Perrier back in 1996. Edinburgh Playhouse, 0844 871 3014, 15, 23 Aug…
Top 5 books and their authors coming to 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival
2 Aug 2012
Michael Palin, Simon Callow, Paddy Ashdown, Gordon Brown and more
Michael Palin It’s a whole quarter of a century since the former Python took his place at the Book Festival, but you have to say he’s seen quite a lot of the world in the interim period. His next book and TV travel show is about Brazil, but he’s here…
Q&A: Geoff Dyer on new book Zona at 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival
2 Aug 2012
Dyer sets out to unlock Andrew Takovsky's Stalker in new book
Give us five words to describe Zona? My thoughts on Tarkovsky’s film Stalker [Ed: OK, that’s six, but we’ll let Geoff off]. Which author should be more famous than they are now? John Jeremiah Sullivan who wrote Pulphead. He is a great stylist and…
Sarah Hall talks of new book Beautiful Indifference at 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival
2 Aug 2012
Cultured finesse in Booker shortlisted authoress' new work
The Scottish writer Douglas Dunn once gave Sarah Hall a crucial piece of advice while she studied Creative Writing under him at St Andrews: ‘Sarah, why don’t you try writing in sentences?’ Dunn must be very proud of her now given the quality of…
Barry Fantoni’s Top 5 Detectives
1 Aug 2012
The crime author lists his favourite fictional crime-solvers
Philip Marlowe Marlowe is everything the genre demands.The Bay City PI is sardonic, laidback and self-deprecating. His creator, Raymond Chandler, is, in my book, not only the greatest crime writer of all, he is one of the greatest writers, period. A…
Top 5 sketch comedy shows at the Fringe 2012
30 Jul 2012
The Silky Pair, Hennessy & Friends, Beard, The Pin and Graham Rex among the best Fringe sketch teams
Essex girls Kathryn Bond and Lorna Shaw debuted with a free show in 2011, but good hard cash is required to see them do their musical comedy thing this year. Miranda (good comedy name, that) introduces us to some pals for a jaunt through A History of…
