Issue 583

Ravenhill For Breakfast

16 Aug 2007

With a new 30-minute play every morning, breakfast doesn’t get much fresher. While all the plays are connected, they each stand alone as a 30 minute rehearsed reading. Woman in Love tells the story of a dying man in hospital and those closest to him. A…

Mark Olver

16 Aug 2007

Olver’s confidence and breezy stage presence have been whetted by his work as a warm-up comic for TV shows, and a good thing too: you need to be pretty self-assured to hold forth on the intricacies of your colonoscopy to strangers. The Bristolian has a…

Richard Herring

16 Aug 2007

Twenty years since his first Fringe performance, Herring has the nagging feeling that he may have wasted his life. No one who sees this show would agree as he joyfully immerses us in his mid-life crisis, highlighting the dangers of slogan T-shirts.

Stephen Carlin

16 Aug 2007

Examining and dissecting popular culture is a hurdle that has felled many a stand-up, but the very dapper Carlin has some aces up his sleeve with a seemingly laid-back delivery revealing extremely shrewd and highly amusing observations. Technical…

Ballads of the Book

16 Aug 2007

The relationship between music and literature has always been a strong and natural one, but never has that bond been tighter than with the Ballads of the Book project. Described by Chemikal Underground as a ‘meteoric creative hoopla’, it brought…

Eirlys Bellin

16 Aug 2007

Bellin performs entirely in the guise of Rhian Davies, a fame-hungry Welsh girl prepared to do anything to get on the telly. Draped in this character, Bellin actually auditioned for Big Brother, and secretly filmed her adventure. There’s so much…

Howard & Mimi

16 Aug 2007

Playing anthropomorphised pets, the duo of Haverstock and Gold weave a funny tale of new relationships, hissy fits and dog breath. Mimi’s (the cat) world is turned on its head when Howard (the pooch) and his master Nick move into her mistress Jane’s…

Luke Wright

16 Aug 2007

Self-confessed ‘girly-boy’ Wright has bags of youthful energy, and jotters full of poems he's written. His Freud and de Beauvoir quotes used to be handy for impressing girls; now he throws them in with Arctic Monkeys lyrics, tales of a botched ‘Whoring…

Al Pitcher

16 Aug 2007

He’s been called unpredictable and divided audiences with his ad hoc ways, but happily for Pitcher, his celebration of saying precisely whatever pops into his head could earn the recognition he deserves. Never a dull moment, this walking, face-pulling…

How to Pimp Your Kids and Shop for Free at Waitrose

16 Aug 2007

Matthew Collins begins with a shout, but lets it die to a whimper with limp storytelling. The title itself is a cheat, and gives the impression that there is cheekiness in the content, but instead there is only fond remembrances of a dad who dotes a…

James Dowdeswell

16 Aug 2007

Dowdeswell attempts to rescue the ‘intimidating’ world of wine-fancying from the clutches of adjective-abusing snobs. Taking a trip down memory lane, he moves from his alcoholic initiations as a publican’s son, to the wine-sampling efforts of a young…

The Man Who Planted Trees

16 Aug 2007

First published in 1954, Jean Giono’s environmental tale centres on one man who transformed a barren area of the French Alps with trees. Edinburgh-based Puppet State Theatre Company take Giono’s tale and do a similar transformation, turning it into a…

Newton Faulkner

Hand Built by Robots

16 Aug 2007

POP Until you’ve actually seen young Faulkner attack an acoustic guitar in a whirl of spider-like fingers and dreadlocks transforming it into a three-piece band in the process, it’s hard to properly appreciate this album. There’s loads of…

Zoe Lyons

16 Aug 2007

With a canvas ‘wall of fear’ depicting the fears of her friends, Lyons strides through this call to courage with aplomb. Never short of a word and barely stopping for breath, she structures comedy vignettes around topics as diverse as lesbian weddings…

Tom Stade

16 Aug 2007

A grating stoner persona and a tendency to giggle at and repeat your own punchlines does not the meritorious comedian make. It’s easy to imagine Stade cracking his ‘outrageous’ gags in the next American Pie sequel, ideally aboard a low-rent cruise ship.

Craig Hill

16 Aug 2007

Crazed musical energy makes Hill’s comedy infectious, and smarty-pants audience interaction makes it hilarious; some of the funniest bits come from his savaging of hapless crowd members who refused to answer his questions. Whether it’s memories from a…

Deborah Frances-White

16 Aug 2007

The bowler-hatted one is back with an advice shop for men and women on seduction techniques. You know a show is struggling when the comic takes a seat in the front row to let her audience play out the scenarios she’s dreamed up, leaving a series of…

Girl and Dean

16 Aug 2007

Sketch duo Jess Ransom (a girl) and Sarah Dean (geddit?) use make-believe and handicrafts to introduce us to conspiracy theorist supermarket workers, two posh kids role playing at ‘Disadvantaged Northerners’ and an asylum seeking vampire. With…

Maeve Higgins

16 Aug 2007

This ultra-lovely Irishwoman falls into the Josie Long school of comedy, with sweet stories, domestic references and endearingly crap Halloween-based recycling ideas. Thanks to enough well-told dark material – such as a surprise rape gag or descriptions…

Martin Soan

16 Aug 2007

It’s hard to imagine a show that encapsulates the Fringe more than Soan’s. The comedy veteran’s offering is one of the barmiest you’re likely to see. Aided by Sally Day, there’s a plethora of quick changes and loony props with the highlight being the…

The Mercer Island Rodeo

16 Aug 2007

Apparently, this Irish troupe are an award-winning sketch team. Best Irish sketch show with the word ‘Rodeo’ in the title is the only thing I could imagine they’ve won. The energy is there, but slack writing lets it all down. Still, there’s plenty of…

We Are Klang

16 Aug 2007

So, you think sketch shows are all a bit similar? You believe them to be self-indulgent posturing at worst and wholly inconsistent at best? Probably never seen the Klang then? After their massively successful 2006 Fringe which brought them a…

Johnny Miller Presents . . .

16 Aug 2007

Johnny Miller presents what happens when dramatic intent collides unfunnily with comedy. ‘Smash hit double act’ Mike and Rich have thrown together a show comprising a baffling series of events involving sock puppets, fragments of Shakespeare and…

The Naked Comedy Showcase

16 Aug 2007

Andy Ofiesh, progenitor of this nude comedy xxxtravaganza, invites a brave bunch of comedians to be both funny and starkers, believing that the human body is beautiful in all its disparity. Rick Shapiro accessorised his with cowboy boots. Wak and Bam…

Classic Entertainment!

16 Aug 2007

Mr Winchester and his slightly camp, hapless sidekick Tommy (who replaces Winchester’s wife following her mysterious disappearance) are intent on injecting some cabaret into the alternative comedy circuit. Dodgy wigs, inappropriate asides and bad…