Issue 686
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- Issue 686
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Glasgow City Council scraps Hogmanay street party
19 Sep 2011
What does cancellation actually mean for the city?
The decision by Glasgow City Council to scrap this year’s Hogmanay street party on George Square might have more of an impact on the city’s sense of tradition than on the plans of its regular revellers. While the pride of Scotland’s biggest city may…
EIBF 2011: Christopher Brookmyre adopts subtle pseudonym for latest work - interview
23 Aug 2011
Chris, not Christopher, for Where the Bodies are Buried
When Christopher Brookmyre has three syllables thrown at him, he knows he’s done something wrong. Despite his full first-name appearing on every book jacket since his debut novel in 1997, those around Brookmyre have called him Chris for years. ‘I tend…
The Apprentice's Stuart ‘The Brand’ Baggs to appear at the Fringe
23 Aug 2011
Informal lunch chat at 2011 Edinburgh Fringe
‘I’m alive: there are so many people that aren’t alive or have died, unfortunately. I’m alive; that’s a gift, frankly. I wake up early every morning once I’ve had the sleep I need. I go out and make money. Everything I touch turns to sold.’ Oh Lord.
Fringe Bribes 2011: week two winner - Stuff and Nonsense by Paul Harry Allen
17 Aug 2011
Also: Politically Erect, Liam Mullone and Paul Nathan
Stuff and Nonsense is a celebration of the random tat on sale at jumble sales, charity shops and the like. The show’s creator, Paul Harry Allen, shared this love by sending us a set of coasters, tumblers and creepy drinks stirrers, packaged in a…
Alternative Fringe hubs: The Forest Cafe
17 Aug 2011
Edinburgh's soon-to-be dearly-departed hippy haven
Name: The Forest Café Occupation: Leader of the resistance, home of Edinburgh’s true creative spirit. Resembles: A glorious, shambolic cluster of plants, art, rugs, hippies and graffiti, spread across several rooms. What’s on there, then?
Edinburgh International Book Fest 2011: 5 poetry picks
17 Aug 2011
Featuring Michael Longley, Robin Robertson, Czeslaw Milosz, Wendy Cope and John Burnside
Michael Longley One of the most decorated verse-conjurors at this year’s festival, the Belfast-born writer has the TS Eliot Poetry Prize, a Whitbread and the Hawthornden Prize under his belt as well as being the proud recipient of the 2001 Queen’s…
Haircuts in t-shirts
17 Aug 2011
aka The Russell Howard Effect
Maybe it's a sign of getting older but aren't the comedians looking young this year? We're not the only ones to notice the phenomena. Every second Fringe poster seems to be a picture of a 20-something in skinny jeans, t-shirt and a BBC Three…
Horror Stories for Kids at 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival
16 Aug 2011
Darren Shan, Barry Hutchison & Alexander Gordon Smith talk horror
As far as groundings in the horror business go, young adult writer Barry Hutchison knew exactly what fear was from an early age. ‘I lived in a perpetual state of terror when I was a kid,’ says the Fort William-based creator of the Invisible Fiends…
Gordon Ferris - The Hanging Shed
16 Aug 2011
Evoking the dark side of 1950s Scotland
For an author whose subject matters might be referred to as solidly traditional – a compelling combination of post-war historical drama and ripping crime thriller – Gordon Ferris is at the leading edge of a publishing revolution. The first two novels in…
Grant Morrison - Supergods at 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival
16 Aug 2011
Tracing the flashy history of superheroes
If anyone knows what makes a great superhero, it’s Grant Morrison. Having written for both Marvel and DC, the Glaswegian has made valuable contributions to the popular mythology of Batman, Superman and Fantastic Four. In Supergods, he traces his own…
Bella Bathurst - The Bicycle Book
16 Aug 2011
New literary vehicle for Lighthouse Stevensons author
Bella Bathurst’s The Bicycle Book navigates the past and present of two-wheeled travel. From the suffragettes who recognised it as a ‘freedom machine’ to the huge rise in cycling’s popularity in Britain since the millennium, it features a cast of…
In a Better World (Hævnen)
15 Aug 2011
Oscar-winning, powerfully acted work that loses its way
(15) 117min The winner of the 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the digitally shot In a Better World is another of director Suzanne Bier’s emotionally intense male melodramas, scripted by her regular collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen. It…
WitTank
12 Aug 2011
A dazzling display of sketch genius
A sketch show to make even the most po-faced Fringe-watcher break out in hives of hysteria, WitTank takes comedy to brilliantly berserk new levels. An unlikely kleptomaniac, a sinister headmaster, a sugar freak and an unhappily-housed grandfather are…
Mark Thomas: Extreme Rambling (Walking the Wall)
12 Aug 2011
Following a dangerous tourist trail
The problem with political comedy is that, in sharing a joke with a person simultaneously making a serious point, you can easily become confused about what it is you’re signing up for. Added to this, Mark Thomas has an enviable rhetorical tool at his…
Lee Camp Is: Yet Another American Mistake
12 Aug 2011
Rabble-rousing American gets mad at current affairs
Lee Camp aims his freewheeling cannon at all the aspects of American (and Western) culture that are easy to criticise: childhood obesity, people who believe in aliens, sweatshops, war as big business, the moon landings, the death penalty, multinational…
Tim and Light
12 Aug 2011
An ode to friendship for all ages
Hal Chambers has created a mesmerising original tale in Tim and Light. Under his direction, the story comes to life through a group of talented actors and puppeteers, who manipulate a range of household items to assemble a charming landscape with more…
Andrew Maxwell
12 Aug 2011
Blistering set from the mercurial Dubliner
Anyone who goes to see a barrel-load of comedy this August will no doubt witness stand-up after stand-up making a fleeting reference to the summer riots, if only to prove they have a handle on what’s going on in outside the Edinburgh bubble. Not Andrew…
Jen Brister is British(ish)
12 Aug 2011
Wonderfully madcap look at identity
Jen Brister has got it all going on in this splendid hourful of laughing till your face hurts. As a half-Spanish, ‘sepia’-tinged lesbian from London, the question ‘yeah, but where do you come from originally?’ led her to consider what it means to be…
You Once Said Yes
12 Aug 2011
Exhilarating interactive experience
This one-on-one interactive show is initially – and purposefully – disconcerting, but it swiftly becomes utterly thrilling, mysterious, funny and finally really quite sweet. It begins at Underbelly Cowgate, where single audience members are equipped for…
Cowboys and Aliens
12 Aug 2011
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in film rarely rising to cartoonish mayhem title promises
(12A) 118min Comic-book adaptation Cowboys & Aliens is two genre films in one. It mashes up the western with sci-fi – a strategy which worked well in the outer-space frontiers of Star Trek and Star Wars, but creates frustratingly patchy results in…
Nick Helm - Dare to Dream
12 Aug 2011
Shouty Marmite musical act
Nick Helm is whipping up quite a storm on the comedy circuit, and you can see why. He is certainly a force to be reckoned with: confident, commanding, and able to straddle the line between brusque, brash delivery, and engaging moments of…
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…
Gavin Webster: All Young People Are C**ts
12 Aug 2011
Likeably profane and bitter hour
Accoding to Geordie comic Gavin Webster, ‘all young people are cunts’. He believes that so much that he’s been driven to name this year’s Fringe show with the phrase, concluding his amiable hour with a profanity-fuelled sing-along. Admitting to being…
Christmas for Two: Friends With You
12 Aug 2011
Variable sketch show of audacious surrealism
This sketch duo’s Friends with You starts with a rape joke. The way they treat the topic that has become a shibboleth of contemporary comedy is a statement of purpose, signalling their intent to sidle up against the profane, nudge things into the…
Daniel Sloss - The Joker
12 Aug 2011
Ridiculously talented young comedy buck
Daniel Sloss – a charming, elongated Macaulay Culkin doppelganger, and protégé of Frankie Boyle – begins by listing the reasons why people might not like his show. ‘I smile, I swear, I’m happy and I can jump. The ones who won’t like me, they’re the old…
