Comedy, Laura Ennor
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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…
Andrew Ryan - Ryanopoly
21 Aug 2012
Uneasy, nervous act fails to break the banks
Having worked in a bank, Andrew Ryan knows all the tricks in the book of Getting Your Money, and he knows how to get the humour out of them, too. Many of the funniest moments in this show are borne of his playful sending-up of the rigid application of…
Mr Braithwaite Has a New Boy
14 Aug 2012
Decent performances can’t redeem predictable Aussie farce
With this new comedy by Steven Dawson (who also directs and designs it), Melbourne’s LGBT-focused theatre company Out Cast Theatre plays lazily to the crowd, favouring lashings of none-too-subtle and none-too-imaginative cheap smut and broadly-drawn…
Meat
7 Aug 2012
Solid black comedy that explores the danger of privilege
An exclusive dining society, an intricate and arcane set of rules, and a fabulously deranged ringleader – these are the main ingredients in the meal served up by the St Andrews students calling themselves ‘The Catherine’s Club’. Playing on an endless…
Markus Birdman: Love, Life and Death
7 Aug 2012
Sentiment without the sugar in contemplative comedy piece
Nope, it’s not just a keeping-his-options open title scribbled down on the Fringe application form in March – Markus Birdman really is here to address the big things in life and what comes next. As well he might: having turned 40 and suffered an…
Would Be Nice Though...
6 Aug 2012
Interactive show that skewers the job interviews process
Ever been to a job interview, looked around, and thought, ‘If this is the competition, God help me if I’m not in with a chance?’ Such thoughts may pass through your mind as you enter a real George Street office and are ushered through various stages of…
Chapel Street
6 Aug 2012
Snappy double monologue delivered with panache
This exuberant new piece by Luke Barnes plays as two monologues: a boy and a girl stand side-by-side, the narrative snapping breathlessly back and forth between them as their worlds draw closer and closer and ultimately collide in the messy climax to a…
Craig Hill: Jock's Trap
5 Aug 2012
Bitchy banter and camp cruelty
Craig Hill either is your bag or he isn’t. If, in the first spoken line of the show -- after the thrusting Madonna dance routine – you’re laughing uproariously at the mere implication of the word bum (as a verb), then you’re in the former camp. If not…
Michael Mittermeier: A German on Safari
5 Aug 2012
Eddie Izzard's German protege is in desperate need of fresh material
The omens were good for Michael Mittermeier. Accompanied by Eddie Izzard’s endorsement, the German has toured widely in the Anglophone world and his publicity shots contain no lederhosen or sausages. It’s a shame, then, that Mittermeier’s set is as…
I'm High on Life: What Are You On?
5 Aug 2012
Charming but uncertain storytelling from Bonnie Davies
‘This is not a stand-up show,’ says Bonnie Davies, and she’s right. Rather, Davies presents an hour of anecdotes about her childhood as the daughter of two youth workers who kept a more or less open house for all the waifs, strays and drug-dealing teens…
Jessie Cave gets family involved in Edinburgh Fringe debut Bookworm
25 Jul 2012
Lavendar Brown from Harry Potter in 'prop-heavy, slightly strange' debut
Summing up the life stories of put-upon younger siblings everywhere, Jessie Cave says of her upcoming Fringe debut: ‘it’s definitely a one-woman show, but my little sister’s in it...’ Luckily, 14-year-old Bebe is a willing participant and an emerging…
Wojtek the Bear bound for success at Fringe 2012
24 Jul 2012
How the Polish/Syrian/Persian bear became an international phenomenon
Laura Ennor discovers how the real-life tale of a Persian bear who fought in World War II and lived out his days in Edinburgh Zoo has become an international phenomenon For all that the theatre is a showcase for the power of the imagination, sometimes…
Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1
16 Dec 2011
The definitive list of Scottish creative talent
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
23 Aug 2011
Prosaic anecdotes told with gusto and irresistible affability
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
19 Aug 2011
Line up early for a mime with universal appeal
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
17 Aug 2011
Flippant harmonious fun behind bars
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
16 Aug 2011
Straightforward and inspired hour of sketches
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
15 Aug 2011
A collection of decent comic coceits that overstay their welcome
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
14 Aug 2011
Refreshingly different character comedy performance
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!
12 Aug 2011
Fast-paced sketches are more smutty than obscene
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
7 Aug 2011
Energy and whimsy but far too many groans
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
5 Aug 2011
Boys want to be her, girls want to sleep with her
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
23 Aug 2010
Delightfully silly succession of unhinged underworld creeps
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
18 Aug 2010
Freeform ranting in a show about nothing
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...
16 Aug 2010
Zoology meets comedy in this lecture on sexuality
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…
