Comedy, Reviews
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Late Night Gimp Fight
22 Aug 2012
Risible, regrettable and rotten sketch comedy
Where to begin? Firstly, perhaps the lads behind Late Night Gimp Fight deserve some praise for sheer audacity. Not sure who thought they would regularly cram people into a venue the size of Pleasance Forth but it’s barely half-full on a night when not…
Sarah Kendall - Get Up, Stand-Up
22 Aug 2012
Anticipated comeback show is good rather than glorious
When Sarah Kendall became the first woman in what felt like an entire generation to receive a solo Perrier nomination in 2004, her future glory seemed assured. But after one further Fringe stand-up show, a theatrical piece about a college initiation and…
The Three Stooges
22 Aug 2012
The Farrelly Brothers' homage to the original threesome is dim-witted and lame
Reviving The Three Stooges for modern audiences has long been a labour of love for the Farrelly brothers but, sadly, the film that results is the type of dim-witted comedy that makes their own Dumb & Dumber look sophisticated. Chris Diamantopoulos…
Filthy, Rich and Catflap
22 Aug 2012
A nostalgic blast of wayward genius from Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson
‘I’m sorry, but did I just detect an effort at humour brilliantly disguised as offensive, mindless drivel?’ Within three minutes of Filthy, Rich & Catflap’s opening episode in 1987, Rik Mayall expressed the standard which was set for the duration of his…
Erich McElroy: The Brit Identity
22 Aug 2012
A permanent cultural exchange with laughs
Whenever a comedian brings a show to the Fringe with any kind of social or political bent, the evolving nature of world events can often turn around to bite them in a soft fleshy place. In 2005, Andrew Maxwell was compelled to rewrite swathes of…
Neil Delamere - DelaMere Mortal
22 Aug 2012
Safe but solid hour of craic
With such an easy-going manner and propensity for chatty audience banter, it helps if Neil Delamere can scoop out an interesting front-row character or two. And on this occasion, he uncovers a children’s author and the son of a notable ITV newsreader in…
Josie Long - Romance and Adventure
22 Aug 2012
New found cynicism provides counterpoint to bubbliness and irrepressible daft voices
Josie Long has turned 30, and it’s changed her – if her last show was full of wide-eyed idealism and exhortations to activism, she’s now become fully acquainted with disillusionment. And not just the kind when everything’s wrong and you don’t know what…
Denise Scott - Regrets
22 Aug 2012
Charm offensive from veteran debutant
One of the least likely comedy debuts this Fringe comes from Denise Scott, a jovial fiftysomething Australian who just so happens to be ‘incredibly famous’ back home. As she retells in one of several stories about her regrets, that fame was nearly…
Wil Hodgson: Kidnapped by Catwoman
22 Aug 2012
A personal history of sexual turn ons
With The Dark Knight Rises ruling the box office this summer, Wil Hodgson has chosen a timely crush for the title of his new confessional comedy show on kinks, turn-ons and fantasies. As it turns out, he’s more interested in the 60s Adam West-era feline…
The Great Puppet Horn
22 Aug 2012
Shadow puppetry show that leaves the comedy in another room
The Great Puppet Horn showed a devilish side recently by using their vast shadow puppet skills to project an image of Stewart Lee onto Edinburgh Castle. It was not an act of idolatry towards the agitprop comic, but the Horn guys were expressing their…
Rick Shapiro - Rebirth
22 Aug 2012
The tragedy of Shapiro’s story means there is little to laugh at
It has always been strange to witness the tragedy at the heart of successful comedy. Voyeurism, schadenfreude, even embarrassment are tools of the audience when watching comics bear their soul for laughs. With Rick Shapiro however, there really is…
Gravity Boots
22 Aug 2012
Crashing down to earth with a massive bump
Making surreal humour work is probably the hardest trick to pull off in the comedy arena. Nail it and you will go a very long way; mess up and you just make a complete tit of yourself. Adelaide absurdists Gravity Boots do their best to be as weird as…
Xavier Toby - Binge Thinking
22 Aug 2012
Comedy addressing big ideas let down by whistle-stop rhetoric and poor material
Toby relates the tale of a dinner party with three old male friends held after he returned from travelling. In that time they've all got married and Toby is unimpressed with how they've changed and with their choices in wives. For a while it's seventies…
The Silky Pair
22 Aug 2012
A few sketches hit the mark, but feels cobbled together
Female duo The Silky Pair sells sketches and songs from their comedy shop. Punters have the chance to buy complete routines including outfits and hand gestures. It's a conceptual comedy cliché that's as old as The Two Ronnies but that doesn't mean it…
Tim FitzHigham - Stop the Pigeon
22 Aug 2012
Grandiose storytelling from likeable madman
Stemming from the modern take on epic storytelling made popular in the noughties by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace types, FitzHigham’s gimmick relies on accepting silly bets: if you engineer a ridiculous situation, your Fringe show will come. William…
KWAT
22 Aug 2012
Wordy sketch show of varying quality
Formerly known as Quattro Formaggio, the more easily digestible KWAT is a slightly more mature sketch group than most seen at the Fringe. This cerebral show recalls the work of former Perrier Best Newcomers The Consultants. And, like them, this literate…
Mark Restuccia - How to Succeed at Internet Dating
22 Aug 2012
Step 1: Don’t follow the example set here
It makes sense that Mark Restuccia’s debut solo show at the Fringe is a ‘How To…’. The format is safe and straightforward, offering clear structure and allowing for plenty of easy punch lines. Throw in a handy PowerPoint to supply images and videos, and…
Thomas Nelstrop - Great(ish) Hits
22 Aug 2012
Fast-paced multi-character stand-up show
Thomas Nelstrop's central conceit is a demanding one: to play every single character in a one man show called In a Field, set at a music festival. He runs about, sometimes playing his guitar, sometimes not and performing a mixture of made up characters…
Elis James - Speaking As a Mother …
22 Aug 2012
A gathering of bad experiences in a charming and disorganised show
Apologising to his fans, Elis James warns he’s changed style from his usual long-form storytelling to observational comedy because he wants to buy a house. It’s a lie. From an hilarious opening story about the worst gig in his life, to being…
Abandoman - Party in the Key of C Major
22 Aug 2012
Sharp hip hop comedy improv from highly acclaimed duo
Hip hop meets jokes meets improv in a mad mash-up from Abandoman, who are wildly popular right now having supported the diverse likes of Tommy Tiernan and Ed Sheeran, as well as selling out previous Fringe runs. So perhaps hopes are unfairly high for…
Shirley and Shirley Unleashed
22 Aug 2012
A sassy and inventive tour de force from the sketch comedy twosome
The opening skit of the latest Shirley adventure features two Edinburgh ladies hunched under an umbrella pondering whether to see the show having heard it's all 'cock' 'fanny' and arsehole' with lots of 'bad accents.' It's true that almost every sketch…
Phil Nichol Rants!
22 Aug 2012
Mercurial Canadian comedian rages, blusters, fumes and seethes
The hard-working, hyperactive Fringe veteran, who’s also appearing in his Comedians Theatre Company production of the play The Intervention, can hardly contain everything he wants to say within this single hour of stand-up. And he doesn’t. Before the…
Sound & Fury's Doc Faustus
22 Aug 2012
Comedy troupe deliver a low-quality western pastiche of the famous morality tale
When you first read, or saw an adaptation of, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, was your first thought: ‘it’s okay but what it really needs is more cowboys’? If you did Sound and Fury have answered your prayers with a country and western take on the…
Bob Downe . . . Smokin'
22 Aug 2012
Style over substance
From the minute he pirouettes onto stage all 70s gear, mega-watt grin and fake blonde hair, it’s clear Aussie’s ‘clown prince of polyester’ is having a ball, as he knocks out one karaoke hit after another and embarks on some name-that-tune competitions.
Born to be Mild
22 Aug 2012
Likeable cynic's references fall flat
Lawyer turned comedian and general Mr nice guy Andrew Watts accepts that much of the material in his past shows has surrounded himself and his life as a single man. Recently though, Watts has managed to become romantically involved and despite a deep…
