Fringe
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Return of the Close Up Magician
22 Aug 2012
Phenomenal close-hand tricks from a consummate performer
Close-hand magician Lewis Barlow is a likeable performer. Unlike Derren Brown and his ilk, Barlow creates a show where magic is not swamped by the overbearing personality of the performer, but rather one where magic takes the centre stage. Beginning…
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…
The Lost Fingers - Lost in the 80s
22 Aug 2012
Skillful gypsy jazz paired up with an inspired choice of cover versions
‘We’re kinda known for taking cheese and making it better,’ declares one of Québécoise gypsy-folk interpretation trio The Lost Fingers (they’re named after Django Reinhardt’s disappeared digits), although not everyone might go along with their…
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…
Daniel Kitson: As of 1.52 GMT on Friday April 27th 2012 , This Show Has No Title
22 Aug 2012
Stand-up playwright returns with meta-play monologue
A week after this new play from Daniel Kitson opened, The Telegraph ran a two-star review, describing it as ‘a sorry waste of his undoubted talent – and our time’. Kitson knew someone would do that though. At one point in his one-man play – a…
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…
Interview: Mike Mcshane on Mon Droit at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
22 Aug 2012
Show draws from story of American Royal obsessive
What drew you to the story of Robert James Moore (an American who came to London because of his obsession with the Queen and ended up dying alone in St James’s Park)? The lack of details about his life contrasted with the hard facts about his death.
Tam O’Shanter
22 Aug 2012
Earthy, energetic riff on Burns’ masterpiece
‘When chapman billies leave the street / And drouthy neibours, neibours meet’. It’s the best-kent pair of opening lines in Scots poetry, but if you were hoping for a straight rendition of Burns’ masterpiece, Communicado theatre company are more than…
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…
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…
Comedian Dies in the Middle of Joke
22 Aug 2012
Unusual Fringe play in which the comedian keeps on dying
It’s November 1983 and Britain is in turmoil. Ruled over by the Tories, the country is still reeling from participation in a war that no one can properly justify and the charts are full of bland drivel. Sound familiar? In a dingy London comedy club, the…
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…
