Gordon Eldrett

Late Night Gimp Fight!

Padded out with mediocre offerings

25 Aug 2010

Despite the pretensions to political incorrectness from this five-man troupe, there are only a handful of jokes that are especially dubious, and these are by far the funniest. The rest of the hour is padded out with mediocre offerings that have the…

Foil, Arms and Hog

Sketches that start nowhere and then stay there for a very long time

23 Aug 2010

Do you think shouting is funny? Do you like sketches that start nowhere and then stay there for a very long time, far longer than the weak premise would ever normally allow? Would you end yourself at the sight of three guys pretending that vegetables…

Russell Kane

Acutely observed and deeply personal insight

23 Aug 2010

An acutely observed and deeply personal insight into the relationship issues when middle-class aspirations and sensibilities spring from working-class backgrounds, especially within the father/son dynamic. The continued use of a castle as metaphor for…

Tara Flynn

Varying styles from 80s electro to French folk

23 Aug 2010

Formerly one of the Irish comedic musical trio The Nualas, Flynn is clearly trying to relive those past glories. The songs are of varying styles from 80s electro to French folk with subjects as disparate as dating a ghost to the perils of being a…

Emo Philips

Over-familiar but still funny

13 Aug 2010

EMO PHILIPS Over-familiar but still funny Possibly the finest purveyor of paraprosdokians since Groucho Marx uttered his last quip returns to the Fringe for the first time since 2001. For those of you familiar with Philips, the face has aged and the…

Pappy's

Bringing you sketch sunshine

13 Aug 2010

Now streamlined to a three-man act and with a shortened moniker to boot, Pappy’s bound onto the stage and launch into All Business with a big musical number. The flimsy premise that they need to impress impresario ‘Four Foot Freddy’ to gain funding is…

Jim Jefferies - Alcoholocaust

Vitriolic rants from the bottom of his LA-based heart

13 Aug 2010

Jim Jefferies is now a full-on comedy superstar, living in LA, with the HBO seal of approval. He’s even been asked to write a sitcom (although if the letter he reads out from one channel’s legal standards department about the issues they have with the…

Andrew Bird

Like being beaten with a roll of toilet paper

11 Aug 2010

‘I have nothing for you,’ states Bird at the opening of his act, in disappointingly prophetic fashion. The next hour drags on with reasons why he isn’t a ‘lad’ and the funny things his wife says. Like being beaten with a roll of toilet paper, Bird is…

Tom Craine

Achingly upper middle-class meanderings

10 Aug 2010

A small audience is always hard, but the achingly upper middle-class meanderings on offer here were never really going to lift the room. However, you have to admire the confidence of a man in his material when he repeatedly builds in spaces for audience…

Patrick Monahan

Would be a pleasant quarter of an hour

24 Aug 2009

This show manages to over-run by ten minutes which is no mean feat considering the dearth of material on offer. This would be a pleasant quarter of an hour in the hands of the jovial Geordie comic but stretched over an hour it becomes tortuous. Getting…

Greg Behrendt

Predictable material

24 Aug 2009

This is the American comedian's UK debut and comes on the back of his co-writing success with He's Just Not That Into You. Behrendt describes the gig as like a date where he'll 'talk about himself without listening to you'. While he's overflowing with…

Hans Teeuwen

Certified genius or just plain certifiable?

20 Aug 2009

For the uninitiated and the unprepared, putting yourself in the hands of Dutch absurdist Hans Teeuwen is a strange, hypnotic and unsettling experience. He strolls onto the stage looking like the clean shaven brother of Nick Cave and launches into the…

Rhod Gilbert

A breakneck litany of hilarious disasters

18 Aug 2009

Rhod Gilbert’s star is most definitely in the ascendancy. Over the last year, he has been nominated for the if.comedy award, and performed on Live at the Apollo and the Royal Variety show. He is also (which he seems most proud of) the face of the Welsh…

Barry & Stuart

Mischievous manner and playful banter

18 Aug 2009

This Scottish duo combine illusion with the gleefully grotesque in a Penn & Teller stylee. Their mischievous manner and playful banter – with each other and the audience – serves to amuse and their tricks amaze (and in some cases disgust). It’s a strong…

The Umbrella Birds

Sketches set in the changing room of a clothes shop

18 Aug 2009

The girls return with a series of sketches set in that bastion of insecurity and loneliness that is the changing room in a women’s clothes store. Brides, shoplifters and Jesus freaks all emerge from the cubicles and though it is well-acted and staged…

Anna & Katy

Inventive, anarchic, satirical sketches

10 Aug 2009

Previously seen at the Fringe under the collective moniker of Penny Spubb, Anna Crilly and Katy Wix return under their own names after successful individual stints on TV in Lead Balloon (Crilly) and Not Going Out (Wix). While the show’s title may be…

Philip Escoffey: Six More Impossible Things Before Dinner

How to read and blow a crowd’s mind

10 Aug 2009

‘I am not a psychic,’ declares Philip Escoffey empathically at the start of his show before stating, with a glint in his eye, ‘however I am the most psychic person in the world.’ It’s a lofty claim but one you would be hard pressed to argue with at the…

Chris Hannan - Missy

10 Apr 2008

HISTORICAL DRAMA (Chatto & Windus) Missy is the first novel by award-winning Scottish playwright Chris Hannan but on this evidence, he should most definitely return to the theatre. Set in 1860s California, we follow the trials and tribulations of Dol…

Michael McIntyre

23 Aug 2007

Michael McIntyre has the look of someone your mother would like. Unashamedly middle class in his dress, mannerisms and speech, it’s easy to see why he is being heralded as the latest thing in ‘posh comedy’. In terms of demeanour and delivery, McIntyre…

Umbrella Birds

23 Aug 2007

Set and staged in a portaloo, this series of vignettes veers from the clownishly comical to awkward and tender. Acutely observed and excellently acted by its four-strong female cast, it never takes the easy route to laughs and allows each scene to play…

Patrick Monahan

23 Aug 2007

With Feel the Love, Monahan comes across as your archetypal loveable Geordie but you’d be hard pressed to feel anything but relief at the end of this. Devoid of any discernible subject matter, other than friendly audience banter, this is the equivalent…

Jerry Sadowitz

23 Aug 2007

The Sadowitz invective seems ever more bilious each passing year. The victims of his ire in this show range from the English (‘feckless cunts’), Heather Mills (‘cripple’) and even Harry Potter (‘fictional cunt’). Outrageously offensive and with a…

Howard Read

23 Aug 2007

Usually seen performing with his animated sidekick Little Howard, this year’s adult show has Read on his tod with a show that in theory is half-clean, half-dirty and you, the audience, decide which is funnier. The answer is that neither half lives up to…

Jim Jeffries

16 Aug 2007

You may consider yourself not easily offended. You may feel that nothing shocks you, and that there is nothing left to say that is truly controversial or distasteful. If this is the case consider yourself well and truly wrong. Since his appearance at…

Tim Key

16 Aug 2007

Tim Key wanders distractedly onto the stage and silently but amusingly prepares himself, the long silence irresistibly amusing instead of embarrassingly awkward. He removes one of the many small notebooks secreted on his person and reads out the poem…

Sarah Kendall

16 Aug 2007

Back in the heady days of 2004, Sarah Kendall became the first woman to receive a Perrier nomination in nine years, and deservedly so. Having taken time out to trot the globe, she returned last year with a show that was worryingly patchy and left some…

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.

Idiots of Ants

Sketches and skits with style

9 Aug 2007

A live sketch show is a notoriously difficult thing to pull off. We allow stand-ups to have lulls in their hour but with a parade of sketches we expect each one to make us wet our collective underwear. A stand-up has time to develop a stage persona but…

Barry Castagnola

9 Aug 2007

We all know people who sit in the pub and regale us with stories and have us laughing like drains. How funny do you think these people would be if you put them on stage for a whole hour with no chance to get another round in and maybe a bag of peanuts?

Rhod Gilbert

9 Aug 2007

Being stuck in a hotel room watching What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is Gilbert’s starting point, as he trails off on various tangents about parental divorce, finding love, having a baby and the trials of growing up in a fictional town. Surreal, rambling…

Ian Fleming - From Russia, With Love (1957)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

'My name is Bond, James Bond.' There are few characters of the 20th century that can boast the kind of global renown of Ian Fleming's British secret agent. Widely regarded as the best of Fleming's novels (JFK rated it among his top ten favourite books…