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Comedy and Laura Ennor

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HOT 100 2011 - 49 to 1

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

John Robins: Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

John Robins: Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

Prosaic anecdotes told with gusto and irresistible affability

(3 stars)23 Aug 2011

For a show purportedly about religion, it’s remarkably light on ideas. The professed theme is a launch pad for a collection of faintly prosaic anecdotes, told with gusto and an irresistible affability. Robins is a fluent storyteller, and after puffing…

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…

The Segue Sisters in … Jailbirds

The Segue Sisters in … Jailbirds

Flippant harmonious fun behind bars

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

It’s utterly incidental to the show, but let’s run through the story anyway: the three Segue Sisters have been convicted of song theft and sent down to a prison that’s a cross between Chicago’s sexed-up cell blocks and a Disney dungeon. As the trio of…

The Three Englishmen: Optimists

The Three Englishmen: Optimists

Straightforward and inspired hour of sketches

(4 stars)16 Aug 2011

In keeping with its title, Optimists is fun and cheerful, with some crackingly original ideas behind the pacy mix of wordplay, gentle pop culture ribbing, off-the-wall surrealism and well-executed musical comedy. The four (yup, four) play to their…

Frimston and Rowett

Frimston and Rowett

A collection of decent comic coceits that overstay their welcome

(2 stars)15 Aug 2011

Almost every sketch this duo bring out has a great play on words or a pleasingly silly concept at its heart, but far too often they pass the point where the sketch should naturally end. Trying to make quantity do the work of quality where their beloved…

Claudia O’Doherty

Claudia O’Doherty

Refreshingly different character comedy performance

(4 stars)14 Aug 2011

As the proud presenter of a 26-part documentary about soil erosion that has inexplicably (to her mind, at least) failed to get a television deal, O’Doherty is a master of is-she-or-isn’t-she-in-character tension. Coming across as a lovably moonstruck…

Late Night Gimp Fight!

Late Night Gimp Fight!

Fast-paced sketches are more smutty than obscene

(3 stars)12 Aug 2011

Turn up to a show like this at such a late hour and you should know what you’re letting yourself in for. Despite the establishment whiff that hangs around an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination, if you can’t stomach jokes about bumming, incest and the Ku…

Neil by Mouth

Neil by Mouth

Energy and whimsy but far too many groans

(2 stars)7 Aug 2011

In his first and foremost career as a presenter on MTV and covering all manner of extreme sports, Neil Cole may have come across as a funny guy, but here he flatly fails to make the leap into live stand-up. It’s certainly not for a lack of energy: he…

DeAnne Smith

DeAnne Smith

Boys want to be her, girls want to sleep with her

(3 stars)5 Aug 2011

DeAnne Smith is a cutie and she knows how to use it. With a perky demeanour and little-girl voice, Bieber-esque fringe and a wardrobe nicked from Billy Joe Armstrong’s slimmer days, she strides onto the stage and lulls us into a false sense of…

Phil Nichol

Phil Nichol

Delightfully silly succession of unhinged underworld creeps

(4 stars)23 Aug 2010

Jazz poetry must surely be one of the art forms most ripe for parody, and that’s what Nichol does, wonderfully, as grizzly 1970s Baltimore bard Bobby Spade. The best part is that he’s not playing it completely straight – while the backing band are…

Chris Addison

Chris Addison

Freeform ranting in a show about nothing

(3 stars)18 Aug 2010

Much has changed in the five years since Chris Addison last did a Fringe show. While the Thick of It star and Mock the Week regular has obviously become more accomplished as a performer, the change is not all for the good. Where earlier shows were about…

Speed... Mating...

Speed... Mating...

Zoology meets comedy in this lecture on sexuality

(2 stars)16 Aug 2010

A German zoology professor and an Irish comic team up to offer a lecture (complete with slides) on matters sexual, looking at how we compare with the animal kingdom. Great idea, poorly realised. Dr Maggio is everyone’s favourite lecturer – funny…

Loretta Maine

Loretta Maine

All a bit one-note

(2 stars)16 Aug 2010

The joke here is that Loretta Maine is a drunkard with emotional problems. And that’s it. Every song starts with simpering, sweet Loretta and morphs into raging bunny-boiler Loretta. An improvised ode to an audience member and a bit of light…

Toby Hadoke

Toby Hadoke

Well-trodden paths of 80s small-screen nostalgia

(3 stars)16 Aug 2010

Offering what is as much a passionate argument in favour of the BBC as it is a stand-up comedy show, Hadoke’s delivery is slightly rough around the edges, seemingly out of sheer blustering exasperation at the kids these days. Those of his own…

Asher Treleaven

Asher Treleaven

Unpredictable and uneven routine

(3 stars)16 Aug 2010

Like a cross between Mr Burns and John Cleese – if either or both were excessively camp and Australian and dressed like a 1920s dandy – Asher Treleaven is all creepy circus smiles and restlessly gesticulating fingers throughout this unpredictable and…

Henry Paker

Henry Paker

Sends out little constructs of the gleefully absurd in all directions

(4 stars)16 Aug 2010

Henry Paker has one of those lovely minds that sends out little constructs of the gleefully absurd in all directions. This is a charming, friendly show where ad-libbed flights of fancy spiral out of observations and Paker ties himself in delightfully…

Jimeoin

Jimeoin

Low-key observations about the little things

(4 stars)10 Aug 2010

An hour with Jimeoin is an hour of tickling, low-key observations about the little things, the sweet little interior monologue of a normal bloke negotiating everyday stuff, such as how to conserve energy opening the fridge, or the speed of a knife…

Ali Cook

Ali Cook

Cook’s magic is both slick and sick

(3 stars)10 Aug 2010

As he promises from the outset, Cook’s magic is both slick and sick. Don’t go for the jokes, unless you like tired Jimmy Carr-style one-liners followed by a leer. But go to be dumbfounded by the mind-boggling illusion and seemingly future-active…

Jonno Katz - Cactus: The Seduction

Jonno Katz - Cactus: The Seduction

A manic one-man love story

(3 stars)8 Aug 2010

After an unnecessarily lengthy preamble that includes a lesson in cultural and linguistic differences and enforced sexual fantasising for the audience, Australian Jonno Katz weaves a love story of a man, another version of himself, an enigma wrapped in…

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