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Tim Key

Tim Key

A sublime and spirited Slut sequel

(5 stars)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

Todd Barry

Every trivial matter is prey to the laconic American

(3 stars)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

Neil Hamburger

Anti-comedic filth, hate and fury

(3 stars)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…

Tiffany Stevenson

Tiffany Stevenson

Cuddly musings on Cockneys and kids

(3 stars)22 Aug 2011

When she took her Scottish boyfriend along to a good old-fashioned Cockney party in her own backyard, Tiffany Stevenson couldn’t get out of there quick enough. A horrible vision of her possible future has presented itself as she moved around the room…

The Unexpected Items

The Unexpected Items

A largely threadbare and shallow show

(2 stars)22 Aug 2011

This quintet has garnered a zillion YouTube hits for their amusingly satirical ‘Gap-Yah’ sketches and there’s a murmur of recognition as Matt Lacey wanders on to deliver a new atrocity from the plummy, chundering Orlando. In a curious twist of Pub…

Adam Crow - Ashton Kutcher's Dead Girlfriends

Adam Crow - Ashton Kutcher's Dead Girlfriends

Well-written but overly clever soul-baring stand-up

(2 stars)22 Aug 2011

We’ve learned prior to this show that Adam Crow is in negotiations with 20th Century Fox about a script he’s written. In that respect, we wish him the best of luck, as his snappy one-liners will place him in good company with the likes of Diablo Cody…

David O'Doherty

David O'Doherty is Looking Up

Immaculate content delivered with furious enthusiasm

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

David O’Doherty used to work in a German sausage factory. This might sound like a crass comedy set-up, but it is in fact true. His role was to drive a giant Hoover designed to suck up the smashed, sausage-filled jars that tumbled off the conveyer belts.

The Boy with Tape on his Face

The Boy with Tape on his Face

Line up early for a mime with universal appeal

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

The Boy has become a victim of his own success. A word to the wise before we lose ourselves to unabashed gushing: if you want to see this show, turn up early and be prepared to queue, for someone here has made a grave error in their choice of space. For…

3-man comedy sketch unit Wittank on Edinburgh Fringe trends

3-man comedy sketch unit Wittank on Edinburgh Fringe trends

Umbrellas, 'flyeroo' and mastering the 5-second hello

19 Aug 2011

Umbrellas. I’ve noticed that this year everyone seems to buying the same Umbrella. It’s a red and blue patterned monstrosity from the pound shop (of course they actually cost £1.50) and I reckon over half the city owns one. I’ve a mind to call in the…

Ruby Wax: Losing It

Ruby Wax: Losing It

A fevered and empowering comic monologue

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

According to a 2009 report, one in ten people in Scotland take daily medication for depression. This demographic are Ruby Wax’s kind of people. Broadened out from a community project that Wax and best friend/musician Judith Owen toured around NHS mental…

The Pajama Men

The Pajama Men

Both brilliantly silly and brilliantly clever

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

In The Middle of No One is one of the most inventive, thoughtful and well-performed comedy shows on the Fringe, a whisker away from five-star glory, let down only by a slight lack of energy on the night of the performance. This, however, is…

Josie Long: The Future Is Another Place

Josie Long: The Future Is Another Place

Stand up for the left

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

Josie Long is ready to rubbish a stock right-wing idea when a heckler interrupts. ‘Hear hear!’ the grumbler shouts back at the suggestion that a cleaner shouldn’t have to pay tax towards funding liberal arts degrees. Long looks shocked, uttering…

Jigsaw

Jigsaw

Accomplished but light sketching

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

There’s no doubting the talent on offer in Jigsaw. The rapid-fire sketch trio comprises stand-ups Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine and Nat Luurtsema and thus boasts a triple Perrier nominee, a Times Top Five 2010 winner and a Chortle best nominee…

Friends with Benefits

Friends with Benefits

Sappy rom-com fails to deflate clichés of the genre

(2 stars)19 Aug 2011

(15) 109min The rom-com has been a moribund genre for years now, excepting Marc Webb’s acerbic and adventurous (500) Days of Summer. Despite promising a similarly caustic examination of the gap between real-life relationships and romantic clichés…

The Wrestling

The Wrestling

Anarchic night of body-slamming action and comedy

(5 stars)18 Aug 2011

Max Olesker is some sort of twisted genius. The former wrestler (under the nom de guerre Max Voltage) and one half of sketch duo Max and Ivan has combined two of his talents to create one of the best events on the Fringe. Not that his cohort Ivan…

Andrew Lawrence - The Best Kept Secret in Comedy Tour

Andrew Lawrence - The Best Kept Secret in Comedy Tour

Mirthful and delicious kamikaze comedy

(4 stars)18 Aug 2011

Coming on like a poetic auctioneer or a wayward racing commentator, Andrew Lawrence variously channels the guises of his grandmother, a fitness buff, a middle-aged man, a whining Scottish wean and a long-lost Trinidadian relation. All the while he…

The Boom Jennies: Blowout

The Boom Jennies: Blowout

An exhilarating and surprising blowout

(4 stars)18 Aug 2011

‘Three ambassadors of fun’, the tannoy voice intones as we await the parting of the curtain. ‘A joy strudel to stuff in your faces!’ The Pleasance’s continuity announcer didn’t lie, and it’s easy to compare these funny, endearing, dynamic girls to Smack…

Phill Jupitus: Stand Down

Phill Jupitus: Stand Down

An excitement-sapping hour of chat

(2 stars)18 Aug 2011

The first thing that you can’t help but notice about Phill Jupitus is not his substantial weight-loss, impressive though that is. It’s how much he closely resembles the silvery-pirate modern look of Eddie Izzard, even down to the eyeliner and…

Iain Stirling and Sean McLoughlin

Iain Stirling and Sean McLoughlin

The star signing lets down the team

(3 stars)18 Aug 2011

No offence to the jaunty Iain Stirling, but it’s intriguing to wonder what a solo hour with Sean McLoughlin would have turned out like. CBBC’s Scottish presenter Stirling seems billed as the main event here given his status as compere and closing act…

Russell Kane

Russell Kane

Caustic and hilarious self-flagellation

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

It’s hard to judge Russell Kane’s show because he’s already done it. For the ‘difficult’ follow-up to his Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning 2010 show Kane performs Manscaping as himself, offers up heckles, anticipates critic and audience responses and even…

Piff the Magic Dragon

Piff the Magic Dragon

A laconic but jaw-dropping set

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

It’s not enough these days for a magician to simply get up there on stage and do some jaw-dropping trick. A gimmick is always an added extra and in John van der Put’s case, he’s chosen to dress like a dragon, give himself a suitably puntacular name and…

Fringe Bribes 2011: week two winner - Stuff and Nonsense by Paul Harry Allen

Fringe Bribes 2011: week two winner - Stuff and Nonsense by Paul Harry Allen

Also: Politically Erect, Liam Mullone and Paul Nathan

17 Aug 2011

Stuff and Nonsense is a celebration of the random tat on sale at jumble sales, charity shops and the like. The show’s creator, Paul Harry Allen, shared this love by sending us a set of coasters, tumblers and creepy drinks stirrers, packaged in a…

Sarah Millican

Sarah Millican

Has the Geordie jester lost her bite?

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

After TV stints on Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and Loose Women, Geordie chatterbox Sarah Millican is a household name to many now, just three short years after her Fringe debut. The steep upswing in her career means she’s relocated…

Alternative Fringe hubs: The Forest Cafe

Alternative Fringe hubs: The Forest Cafe

Edinburgh's soon-to-be dearly-departed hippy haven

17 Aug 2011

Name: The Forest Café Occupation: Leader of the resistance, home of Edinburgh’s true creative spirit. Resembles: A glorious, shambolic cluster of plants, art, rugs, hippies and graffiti, spread across several rooms. What’s on there, then?

Henning Wehn / Otto Kuhnle: Das Very Best Of German Humour

Henning Wehn / Otto Kuhnle: Das Very Best Of German Humour

Tuetonic titters from two of the Fatherland’s finest

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

Let’s establish a fact: Germans are overly efficient. Bear in mind that this conceit is central to many of the jokes performed at this comedy double-header – if you find the cliché a little too well worn, this may not be the show for you. Indeed, the…

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