Issue 609

Tim Minchin

7 Aug 2008

Like an Enlightenment Man in eyeliner channelling Michael Hutchence, Minchin wriggles Puckishly about the stage, genre-hopping between brilliant riffs on the mathematics of attraction, Shakespeare, beat poetry and one-man stadium rock. Some of his…

The Giant Percussion Picnic

7 Aug 2008

Prepare for two hours of noise and noshing, as Giant take over the lovely Hidden Gardens from 11.30am–1.30pm for their Percussion Picnic. The event is free but ticketed, with tickets given out on a first come first served basis on the day. Bring food to…

Plastic

7 Aug 2008

Mehrdad Seyf's exploration of gender identity descends quickly from a damp, fetid and warm ground-level cellar to cool, white vaults as the audience is encouraged to consider how the body we inhabit determines our sexuality. Like an underworld imagined…

Tied Up in Knotts

7 Aug 2008

Having spent her career trying to escape the shadow of her prominent Hollywood dad, Don Knotts, Karen's one-woman show is, ironically enough, all about her famous father. Knotts attempts to engage with her audience by conjuring up characters from her…

Waverley Care Fringe Fundraising

7 Aug 2008

Waverley Care, Scotland's leading HIV charity, has launched a programme of events in a bid to raise over £25,000 during the Fringe. Adam Hills will host more than 14 of his rib-tickling contemporaries, including Ed Byrne and Rich Hall, at the Festival…

Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle

7 Aug 2008

Russell McGilton's one-man show amounts to a travelogue incorporating featuring encounters with spirits, ranging from Hindu Gods to ghosts of the Empire and his deceased father. There's a vulgar verve to his performance, but whether we learn anything…

Des Clarke

Recalling his first sexual experience

7 Aug 2008

In front of a predominantly Scottish crowd, Glaswegian Clarke effortlessly works his room. Quick with amusing comments on every town in his native land and beyond, he spends the first section of his show getting to know his audience like the consummate…

Mick Sergeant

7 Aug 2008

Sergeant is a man backed into a corner, both on stage and in his life as a divorced, unemployed shipbuilder from Newcastle. Despite this he makes an excellent motivational speaker, uplifting the audience with tales of depression and brimming with bitter…

Eskimo

7 Aug 2008

Scottish artist partnership Polarcap are into puns, which is why they called the inaugural project at the Gallery at Eskmills Eskimo. There aren’t any actual representatives from the Inuit people among the 14 (mostly Scottish) artists who they…

Kevin Gildea

7 Aug 2008

In revealing his very portly belly at the top of the show, Gildea plays his best hand too soon. The stomach dealt with, the show chugs along through some tepid observations with the laughter never rising above a light titter. Despite Gildea's best…

Domestic Goddi

7 Aug 2008

For those sick of the myriad demands the modern woman is expected to sate, this female double act offers an hour's reprieve. From traumatic waxing and inflatable dolls to teachers' bitter child-hating, you're more likely to chuckle and nod in condolence…

Karl Spain

7 Aug 2008

Spain's show spins off an endearing premise: he has diabetes, but doesn't really know what it is. Regaling the crowd with down-the-pub tales of his unquenchable thirst, leg boils and an infected penis, this self-proclaimed food addict gets off to a…

Martha McBrier

7 Aug 2008

It's quite hard to get your head round what Glaswegian comic McBrier is trying to achieve on stage. With the barest of material (something or other to do with belief systems) she relies on her audience not only for suggestions but actually to inject…

Taio Cruz

7 Aug 2008

Britain’s not had a great rep when it comes to R&B but names like Estelle, Leona Lewis and Jamelia are helping to reinvigorate the scene. And young singer Taio Cruz is adding his weight to the cause. He’s already worked with Omar, Will Young, Wookie and…

The Third Condiment

7 Aug 2008

The Third Condiment is a charming, often amusing tale of a group of twentysomethings trying to get on in an increasingly corporate world after one of them invents and tries to market an alternative to salt and pepper. Despite the frequently witty…

An Evening Without Dignity

7 Aug 2008

Fantastically puerile humour, well-worked ideas and clever one-liners make this sketch show a grubby little gem. Terrorism, syphilis, date rape and public masturbation are just a few of the topics it manages to make entertainingly silly. The gratuitous…

Bridget Christie

7 Aug 2008

Christie's obsession with King Charles II began almost 30 years ago, when she became fascinated by a portrait of him surrounded by spaniels and oranges. Her eccentric but likeably bonkers show brings him back to life, along with Samuel Pepys and her own…

Richard Herring

7 Aug 2008

This year Herring has (almost) ditched his preoccupation with having reached middle age in favour of focusing on his teen self growing up and carving peepholes in his bedroom wall in Somerset. Herring unfurls a sharp and witty discourse pondering…

Tom Stade

7 Aug 2008

With such an expletive-ridden laconic drawl, it's no surprise to hear Stade riff on stoner gags. What is surprising is just how many other topics he manages to cover in a scattershot hour. Few jokes hit the bullseye but there are plenty of laughs…

Jeff Green

7 Aug 2008

Green has the pleasant vocal tones of a traditional English whinger; he's recently been married and increased his family size, but what he really wants to talk about is caravan holidays and petty foibles of British middle-aged life. Some of the material…

Simon Brodkin

7 Aug 2008

Brodkin's incarnation Lee 'Nelsy' Nelson, is a chav who bounces upon us amid a billow of dry ice and a pumping soundtrack. His gags are laddish, relayed with puppyish enthusiasm. His charm can evidently win an audience around, but freewheeling with such…

Women of Troy

7 Aug 2008

Belt Up's production casts its audience as Trojan POWs. Being manhandled into a darkened room by Greek officials promises an immersive, Punchdrunk-style experience, but inside the audience returns to its typical spectator role. While the constant…

The Grandees

7 Aug 2008

This amateurish production tells of Nicodemus' quest to find the magic key to open the Box of Cricks for his barmy grandmother on her 100th birthday. There is little to praise here as sadly the writers seem to think that merely mentioning poo or wee…

Laurence Clark

7 Aug 2008

Whether he's collecting money to kill puppies or pay off his mortgage, most people give generously to Laurence Clark because he's in a wheelchair. Using hidden cameras, the comedian with cerebral palsy exposes stupidity and ignorance to devastating…

Miles Jupp

7 Aug 2008

Jupp makes being the alternately inept and outraged Englishman into an art form. Revealing a vulnerability not often seen onstage in the modern male, with rolling anecdotes and zany observations, Jupp's endearing, sharp humour is irresistible. If you…