So to any random reader this may be a dull entry as its just my reflections on the shows I saw at the Fringe, shows you will not have seen, largely unaccompanied by photos as they aren't keen on photos in venues. And fair enough as I would find that obtrusive myself. But if only for forthcoming years and gigs, here is what I saw and what I thought of each show.
Thursday
Inlet
For my first show (at a Grassmarket venue) I wanted to see some physical theatre. The show I really wanted to see was by a Ukrainian troupe whom I had seen last year which was listed in the telephone directory sized listings book but this had been cancelled. So for timing convenience (between a late lunch having got off the train and then dumping my bags with my hosts, and the evening show I had pre-booked) I went for Inlet by a group from Luxembourg. Not really a success. Very pretentious, supposedly inspired by walls. The only set furniture were grey blocks which I guess were meant to represent walls. The show's warnings said "contains nudity" which I imagined meant passing nudity. Rather for the first part of the show it was only total nudity.
The group were a trio, two guys and a woman. Probably the only show I have ever been to where the participants started naked but put on clothes later on, rather than vice versa. The guys only put on strange slightly oversize floral pants. Now don't get me wrong, its very pleasant seeing good looking sweaty young bodies writhing around. Not being prudish. But over the best part of an hour it gets rather boring. Indeed I might have nodded off were it not that occasionally one of the protagonists would pick up one of the rectangular wooden blocks that were on the stage and noisily (and presumably meaningfully) slam it down.
I am afraid I didn't feel as the blurb says "that the significance of walls as boundaries" was being"explored". And given they put clothes on, for no particular reason, I couldn't help feel the nudity was purely gratuitous.
David O'Doherty
I have seen David a number of times. He has developed this style of performance where he "sings" his comedy lines along to his own very basic playing on a portable organ. It sounds highly unpalatable to which indeed he made reference, imagining someone being taken along to see his show for the first time and finding it was musical comedy "the worst kind of entertainment. Apart maybe from making balloon animals". But actually it works brilliantly. My only concern with the show was that it was so good that the rest of the Edinburgh Fringe would be downhill from here on.
Friday
Out of the Blue
I confess I went to this because the singers were at Oxford University, and I didn't see much else on that appealed so early in the afternoon. An acapella ensemble is not my normal taste. But they were out of this world. A series of arrangements from modern songs, like their opener, Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer, were just superb, a triumph not only for the quality of their voices but also the skill of the arrangements. They were also well choreographed on stage, so there was plenty of visual appeal. And the geekiness was also rather appealing. I bought three cds from them after the show on the strength of that performance. As you can see I wasn't the only one.
Mitch Benn
Mitch is another musical comedian. He writes comic songs, and, as he explained during this act, he has written an absolute mountain of them, many for Radio 4's the Now Show. This Fringe show was only part about him. But mostly it was about the late Tom Lehrer, sadly not the "late" Tom when the show was being put together - he passed away only days before the Fringe commenced. This was a good enough show, more interesting and clever than funny.
Mark Watson
Having popped home for dinner with my hosts, Thibault and I then headed out to see Mark Watson. I enjoyed this show much more than he did. I like Mark's breathless casual style of joke/story telling. I had heard his big story about the Meat Marketing Board only recently at the Ealing Comedy Festival, but still enjoyed it.Another top show in my books.
Saturday
Day out of Edinburgh with Thibault - see another page!
Sunday
MC Hammersmith - Hippity Hoppity Get off My Property
A weekend, so a time to do shows with my hosts since they were not working. Starting with one selected for Thibault's benefit. MC Hammersmith was booked as a purveyor of chap hop.Basically rap music performed by someone playing a toff, which is the big joke. Street art form performed by an aristocrat.
But this was rather different in that it was an improv show and more about how clever the rapper was than how practiced the raps. And boy was he clever. Just amazing at thinking on his feet. He is a linguist by training. It showed. To my delight Thibault absolutely loved it. For me, I preferred Mark Watson the night before. Its not about quality all the time - sometimes its just about personal taste.
Lucy Porter
We went back to the flat after the show, hence only two shows that day. I took Thibault's pregnant wife to the other. If she was only going to be able to make one show I thought Lucy Porter might be the best. I have seen Lucy many times and like her gentle humour. She revels in her middle aged middle class audience, although when that is the description used in a review in the Guardian, it isn't meant as a compliment. But middle class as a brickbat from the Guardian is very much the Le Creuset calling the kettle black!
Monday
A few days to myself now, so full steam ahead, starting with a six show day!
An Abridged Version of Boarding School Life as a Homo
I decided to take in one theatre show, and this was a very early afternoon one. One problem with this type of small show is that you can't have much in the way of props, or actors. This is not a West End production. Which does affect one's enjoyment. The two young actors played all the parts. It was also trite. The idea of boarding school hypocrisy towards homosexuality and sense of entitlement is just so out of date. Felt like a massive chip on someone's shoulder. So in all it had little storyline and the two young actors did their best to take a creaking script through to the end. Some of the gay jokes got very forced laughter out of what I guess was largely a gay audience.
Simon Evans - Have we met before?
I had actually seen this early afternoon show before. Simon was very honest that this was an exercise in making what he could out of an Edinburgh Fringe appearance so he was both re running his old show in an early afternoon slot and doing an evening run of his new show (of which more later). I still loved this very polished show.
Ian Stone - Searching for the Wow
This was a free show. Meaning it is free to enter but not really free to leave - you pay what you think reasonable at the end. I saw Ian last year doing a similar show. Loved that and I loved this one too. And I am sure will love next year's. A consummate performer who is both very funny and very interesting.
Dan Sloss
I had, very wisely, booked this work in progress show well in advance. His posters around town proclaimed the entire Fringe run was sold out, but advertised his forthcoming tour instead. I will probably do the tour as well. He is that good. Both very funny and very seriously engaging too. And although described as a work in progress, I cannot imagine Dan ever being anything else than 100% prepared and perfect. I have been seeing him since he was very young comic and never been remotely disappointed.
He has a perfect knack for making himself seem morally superior, which would be irritatingly sanctimonious, if he didn't also temper it with his fallibility. Its as if to say "I am such a good person. But oh, actually I do some things wrong so I am not perfect. (But ok I am close to perfect, hint hint.)"
Wankernomics
This was such a good show. Performed by two Australian comics, the premise was an emergency meeting of staff because someone had taken to writing concise e-mails. (One of which was a pithy line to HR "What do you actually do?", a question we have all been afraid to ask! This needed to stop as everyone would be out of a job. So there was a long segment about how a simple phrase could be expanded by using the meaningless jargon that we see all the time. Then they find that they are about to receive a visit from an American representing a private equity fund who has just taken them over, and who wants to find out what they really do. And of course no one actually knows what they do, apart from have meetings about projects and circulating long emails.
This show would be hilarious for anyone who has worked in an office or has lots of meetings. One could recognise so much in it from real life.
Daniel McKeon
I decided to have a go at finding a late show to go to, with a comic that I had never heard of before. Proper Fringe experience. So how did it go? Not too memorable I fear. Much older comic than he looked. One of his best gags was describing himself as looking like a bloke who had enlisted underage in the First World War. Fresh faced but with WW1 moustache. But just not enough jokes that were amusing. He had more life story than his appearance suggested possible, but still not enough material for jokes.
Tuesday
The Simon & Garfunkel story
Another change from a solid diet of comedy. A musical interlude. Not a tribute act to Simon & Garfunkel. Not lookalikes. But a couple of guys singing some of Simon & Garfunkel's biggest hits interspersed with them describing their careers. Did include their solo stuff beyond their partnership. An enjoyable spin through their oeuvre to start off my day.
Irish Comedy Headliners
By some margin this was the worst show of my Edinburgh experience. I wouldn't have described any of the four acts, nor the MC, as headliners. Nor even all Irish. The last was from New Zealand, a little known outpost of Ireland! And the first was Terry Christian who the genuinely Irish MC described as being well known to all the British members of the audience, which was a mistake as he would only be familiar to those over 45. He was the gobshite Manc presenter who ruled Yoof TV in the eighties. Now trying to reincarnate as a comic. His slight weakness in this regard being that he was not funny at all.
To the extent that there were any remotely amusing moments they came from the MC, but that wasn't to say he was any good. Indeed he committed the cardinal sin of repeating the same gag twice between different acts. Having forgotten that (a) he had told it before (b) that it had bombed the first time and (c) it was a shit joke (literally about poo) so would always bomb.
Just to compound the awkwardness, the small audience had to file past all these comics lined up at the exit to hand out flyers for their own late night shows at tiny venues, for which this show was presumably meant to showcase their talents, but everyone could tell they had bombed to a man (and one woman).
Jake Baker
Another unknown comic and very much the same conclusion as for Dan McKeon the night before. Jake seemed a little nervous. Likeable young chap playing to a small audience. Just not enough funny material in truth. Bit of a run through of his life. Not awful but didn't feel I had seen a star in the making. To put it mildly.
Simon Evans: Staring at the Sun
So this was Simon Evans second show, and his new one for this year's Fringe. It was suitably cerebral for an intelligent man. Quite heavy on Coleridge which is not the standard fare for a comedy show. But this was both funny and educational. All four of us enjoyed the experience. Then onto an Indian restaurant for a curry (less enjoyable, but we were fed).
Ivo Graham
Thibault was deadbeat by the time of this show having too much on at home and work to manage such a late show. But the remaining three of us were treated to an excellent show at the Pleasance Grand by Ivo Graham. He made play of the fact that his poster, unlike all the others at the Fringe, didn't display his image, or the venue, nor even his surname. It just displayed his christian name, Ivo, on an orange background. The theme for the show was that he had decided that his favourite colour was orange. I know doesn't sound much of a premise, but honestly it was very deftly executed. A winner.
Wednesday
Les Keen
Another unknown comic to me. A 60 year old rather than a youngster. His blurb said he had written jokes for a number of big name comics and TV shows. So I had high hopes. Dashed. Just really not very funny. Time dragged.
Land of the Beat
Another musical interlude. Sort of. I had never seen an oriental drum show. This was a group of Korean drummers. Had seen them literally trying to drum up business through the streets of Edinburgh in their time off from the show. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. Not all drumming, but the non drum bits grated if anything. And the little attempts at comedy and audience participation fell flat to my ears.
But one good thing I realsied was that it was relaxing. For comedy you have to concentrate. For drumming, you sit back and relax.
Geoff Norcott
Although an afternoon show I had booked this in advance. I had been trying to see this guy for years but every time his shows had sold out before I got to them. I was very glad I persisted. This was an excellent performance, very funny throughout, delivered with such perfect assurance. I will definitely try and see him again. One of the best shows of my Fringe.
Liam Withnail
Another unknown that I went for just because the timings worked between Geoff Norcott and my last show, Jo Caulfield. But unlike all my other unknowns' shows, this guy was terrific. And sold out, I guess through word of mouth. This got me thinking. So why did his show work so well compared to the other young comics? Better material? Well clearly yes in part. But he was just doing what the other guys were trying to do, tell his life story (or part thereof) in an amusing way.
But it occurred to me (especially taking into account another young comic whom I went to see the next night who I did know but almost no one else would have done) that one reason they stood out was that they worked harder at it. Liam really knew his material and confidently took us through it. The others I had seen included unscheduled pauses, or needed to look at notes. They struggled to fill out their time slots. Maybe in comedy, as in much of life, hard work really pays off.
Jo Caulfield
I know I will get howled down for saying this, but its true. There are not many funny female comics. Jo, however, is a very funny female comic. Much underrated, possibly because she just doesn't need the exposure to make a living. But like Ian Stone, I saw her show last year, thought it was brilliant, and thought the same this year. She again has the show perfectly polished, but without it seeming too perfect. Like she is just talking to us off the top of her head. An hour long chat. Just a lovely, funny, acerbic wit. Would recommend to anyone. Without hesitation.
Thursday
The Oxford Revue
I sort of picked out this show because of my Oxford connections. And it was a bit different being a sketch show. Unsurprisingly, being a sketch show it was a bit hit and miss. If you ever re watch classic old sketch show programmes - Monty Python, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Goodness Gracious Me, the Fast Show, you will find that one's memory has only kept the classic sketches and edited out the extensive amount of dross. A lot of this show was a slightly painful miss, with one very simple sketch with a delightful pay off, and one quite decent recurring joke based on Right Said Fred's hit, I'm Too Sexy.
The delightful but slight joke was, without context, one bloke saying "We've got four" " Four what, sir?" asked the other. "Just four" came the reply. "We are Quantity Surveyors, not quality surveyors." That was it. Well it tickled me.
The Right Said Fred one started with a guy taking his car into the mechanics. I thought this was a set up for a joke about a hapless man having the car sorted out by a female mechanic. But no. She having suggested a number of possible issues for the car not starting, all rejected by the customer, he said I think the problem is... " and he starts lip synching to Right Said Fred's record, "I'm too sexy for my car, too sexy for my car, too sexy by far". Similar excerpts played later in the show - shirts, shows in Milan. You have to know the song. It was funny.
The Story of Blondie
Another musical interlude, another back story of a band I love, Blondie, more hits belted out by someone with no pretensions to look like Debbie Harry. Perfectly good show. I think one of the guitarists had also played guitar in the Simon & Garfunkel show I had seen earlier. My only sadness was that the audience was so like me. Pensioners. I know that is understandable given the real Debbie Harry is herself 80, but this is a young sounding band, and it would be nice if there had been more than just a couple of youngsters in the audience.
Thor Stenhaug
To wrap up my week with Thibault, he and I went to this show. An evening show so after work for him (and after a Japanese dinner for us both). A fairly small venue but completely sold out and with him adding late night shows at 11pm to meet the demand.
Now Thor would also very much come into the category of unknown comic. but not to me as I had seen him do a short routine in a night for new comics in a club in Bethnal Green and thought he was the best of the bunch. I wanted to see what he could do with a full hour's show. The answer was a lot. Terrific show to round off my comedy week. All the more impressive given English is this Norwegian's second language, although he is now based in London. Again the theme of the show is his life. Featuring the fact that he was a One Night Stand Baby, the title of the show. He was a product of a one night stand between his mother and a soldier. Not obvious comedy gold, but the whole show was very well crafted. I expect this guy to go far. And he announced that he would soon be going out on his first ever tour. Guess so far he has only been doing London clubs.
Friday
At this point I switched host from Thibault and Clarissa to Thibault's co - partner in our Edinburgh office (and like Thibault, my ex-trainee and lodger), Jae. And Jae had booked me and his wife and kids (after their school day) to see a circus show early evening. But that didn't work out smoothly.
We couldn't get a taxi through Edinburgh at the right time, so Jae had to drive us with the intention of dropping us off near the venue. But the traffic was too bad even for that, so his wife suggested that the passengers who wanted to would just make a long dash up the hill towards the venue and see if we could make it. Young Leo didn't fancy that as an option, so he returned to base with his dad while we plied our way uphill as best we could through the crowds. On top of everything else, the steps we were intending to climb had been cordoned off making us go round the long way. But we persevered. And amazingly got there in time, albeit we were the last ones in and therefore got seats in the back corner. But we made it. No sweat. Well plenty of sweat in truth. But we saw the show.
Ten Thousand Hours
This was a superb show of acrobatics. The title of the show is meant to reflect the hours of practice needed to perform something as spectacular as this show. It was an all-action show, although very simple. Only real props were some large sturdy boxes. But the group were genuinely awesome and time never dragged even though one was just watching acrobats. Plus a drummer adding musical accompaniment and the odd witticism. Genuinely a family show
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