Brian Donaldson

Edinburgh Comedy Awards shortlist a strong gathering led by Bo Burnham and Josie Long

2010 awards puts two women on shortlist for first time

26 Aug 2010

According to Nica Burns, producer of the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, 2010 is ‘a vintage year for comedy,’ and the shortlist for the main award ‘reflects the enormous changes in the comedy landscape’. Of course, this might just be the kind of…

Magicians

Thwarted ambition and misplaced idolatry

25 Aug 2010

A daft and slightly irritating tale of two rubbish magicians (or are they?) canters along amid a backdrop of thwarted ambition and misplaced idolatry. Remove the mild innuendo, tone down the psychological torment and this could easily be a more…

Tommy Tiernan

A passionate man taking glorious risks

24 Aug 2010

For a few minutes there it looked like Tommy Tiernan had lost the plot. Starting off Crooked Man slower than Wayne Rooney at a Mensa convention, he tosses out a few semi-derogatory quips about the state of comedy at the Fringe and wondering why he’s…

Kevin Eldon

Where hard graft meets titting about

24 Aug 2010

Lugging around a CV of television credits longer than the queue snaking outside The Stand, Kevin Eldon comes to Edinburgh for his debut Fringe solo show with both word of mouth and heavy press coverage on his side. And unlike those Hollywood stars…

Tim Clare's Death Drive

A road trip with a difference

24 Aug 2010

Talented performance poets/live literati talking about going back to live with their parents is all the rage this year. That is, if a ‘rage’ can be constituted by two shows, the excellent piece by Ross Sutherland at the Underbelly, and here in the shape…

Josh Howie

A gag-happy clown tests his crowd

24 Aug 2010

Two years ago, Josh Howie made a name for himself at the Fringe with a show about the mad old upbringing he had at the hands of his mum, the PR guru, Lynne Franks. The show, Chosen, featured some highly personal detail that must have made subsequent…

Sara Pascoe

Disappointing debut from Freud-studying comic

24 Aug 2010

Given that she’s performing her debut solo Fringe hour, the fact that Sara Pascoe is directing two other shows by more experienced comics might have gone a little to her head. Then again, this show is entitled Sara Pascoe vs Her Ego, and judging by the…

Helen Arney

Sweet songs with a tender heart

24 Aug 2010

For Helen Arney, love is a many tentacled thing. Two centuries ago, there was ‘less choice, more farming accidents’ while now we’re never too sure whether the grass will turn out to be greener on the other side. For her own part, she seems to have a…

Kerry Gilbert

Talent is wasted on charmless creations

24 Aug 2010

It all starts with the arresting scene of Kerry Gilbert dragging onto the stage a heavy suitcase before she then unpacks it, revealing the outfits and props with which she will conduct her solo hour of character comedy. There’s barely anything which…

Addicted to Danger

Surreal and innovative sketch affair

24 Aug 2010

Just when it looked like the sketch show might be eating itself to a slow, agonising death on this Fringe, along comes Steve McNeil, Sam Pamphilon and Rachel Stubbings to stick a hot poker into its dying carcass and kickstart the whole shebang. In…

Nat Luurtsema

An agreeable debut with a twist

24 Aug 2010

There was nothing in the pre-publicity material to suggest that In My Head I’m a Hero would take the turn that it does, and this is to Nat Luurtsema’s credit. A fairly humdrum but perfectly agreeable show about being a tea-loving daydreamer who wanted…

Toulson and Harvey

A not-so slight return for Perrier-nominated duo

24 Aug 2010

In their first Fringe venture together for three years, Luke Toulson and Stephen Harvey prove that the old chemistry is still intact, as they reach deep into their theatrical and comedic reserves to produce a show about partnerships and friendships…

The Perfect Sleep

24 Aug 2010

(15) 101min (Icon) Had the makers of this movie concentrated more on the main product and less on an amusing viral campaign, The Perfect Sleep might not have wound up such a yawnsome affair. Gary Oldman and Bono were both filmed advising people, in…

Keith Farnan hits Glasgow after storming Fringe

24 Aug 2010

With a stormingly successful Fringe in his backsack, the Irish fella is trying his hand at the Glasgow game with a weekend at the freshly revamped Jongleurs. Expect intelligent comedy with an eye always on the killer punchline. Jongleurs, Glasgow…

Your Days Are Numbered

Somehow making maths funny

23 Aug 2010

It’s hard to believe that travel and science journalist Timandra Harkness once had a Princess Diana joke banned by Carlton TV. Alongside stand-up mathematician Matt Parker, the mood of this show is light and fluffy, even if it is chiefly covering the…

Everything Else You Always Wanted to Know About Life (But Didn’t Care to Ask)

Largely-poor material takes us back to the mid-70s

23 Aug 2010

It could have been a trick of the light, but did foursome Bad Bread just follow up the word ‘queries’ with a limp wrist gesture? Twice? At least not all of their largely-poor material takes us back to the mid-70s as they perform sketches introduced by a…

Sex, Lies and the KKK

One to keep an eye out for

23 Aug 2010

A few Fringes back, bearded Irish comic Abie Philbin Bowman threw on an orange boiler suit and a crown of thorns for Jesus: The Guantanamo Years. In this show, he personally thanks George Bush for kickstarting his comedy career while building on that…

Ava Vidal

Short-lived comedy lessons

23 Aug 2010

When is a Fringe hour not a Fringe hour? When it’s Ava Vidal clocking off at just under 40 minutes. Which was a shame (for paying punters and the comic herself) as she was busy delivering a captivating story about her recent break-up from a ‘bad man…

Justin Moorhouse

A likeable show that marries invention with nostalgia

23 Aug 2010

If you want to know exactly where you are positioned on the class ladder, Moorhouse has a game to test your status. A likeable show that marries invention with nostalgia, the northern comic takes us back to an age where his family’s summer holidays were…

Idiots of Ants

A patchy affair that works beautifully in places

23 Aug 2010

At least the second show this Fringe to feature a drummer being fired via the medium of his band’s songwriting, this latest über-hi-tech offering from the IoA is a patchy affair that works beautifully in places (the sound effects sketch; the…

Daddy Ate All My Easter Eggs and Never Replaced Them

One decent pun about Lidl

23 Aug 2010

Now, I realise they’re young and that, but someone really should have taken this lot aside and advised them that their horrible skit about the Professors of Scottishness isn’t really the kind of thing to help to ingratiate yourselves upon a welcoming…

Mark Watson

Playing on his own inadequacies

23 Aug 2010

The elevation of this frenetic Fringe staple from sweaty huts to the ‘super-league’ of vast halls mercifully hasn’t stilted his ability to captivate a crowd while playing on his own inadequacies. This year’s tale is of celeb status (whether real or…

Pete Jonas

Just about straddles the right side of offensiveness

23 Aug 2010

He may have been awarded a no-star review by an eminent online comedy site, but this has perhaps even added extra edge to Aussie Jonas’ already bitter set about the women who have dumped him down the years. The material just about straddles the right…

Clarkson and Crouch

More clever than funny

23 Aug 2010

Two jolly men perform a piece about Albion Avenue, the ‘most broken street in broken Britain’. With ‘Ghost Town’ playing during each post-scene blackout, serious points might be being made here but they’re lost in sketches in which Byron and Shelley…

Baby Wants Candy

Unappealing coldness between performers and audience

23 Aug 2010

Compared to the Showstopper! crew there’s an unappealing coldness between performers and audience here: with no pre-amble whatsoever, this US troupe get a suggestion and create an improvised musical (today’s topic: cheese and fish). A couple of…