EDINBURGH FRINGE 2003
Lizzie Roper: Through My Keyhole,
Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
Lizzie Roper burst onto stage like a crazywoman, screwing up her face and
making a lunge for a 20-year-old man in the front row.
Her mad girl persona - if it is indeed just a persona - was as frightening as compelling. You could imagine her doing almost anything, whether or not it was likely to get a laugh.
As Roper told of her failed relationships, pubic hair removal and dirty dancing sessions, she was tremendously emotive, contorting her facial features into the ugliest conceivable shapes.
The members of audience - once they had got used to being bellowed at - loved it. Even the young man in the front row gradually warmed to Roper's demands for sex.
Her characters were also strong, particularly the batty old woman, who abused all her relations, and sex industry worker who told her tragic tale while polishing sex toys.
Roper has found something really good here. She is a comedienne who is not afraid to reveal the negative side of her gender, portraying women in a manner few would find flattering.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Jeremy Lion's Happy Christmas, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Drunken children's entertainer Jeremy Lion was extraordinarily funny. Played by Justin Edwards (the tall one from The Consultants), Lion burped and hiccupped his way through a truly hilarious hour of Yuletide comedy, assisted on the keyboards by the morose Leslie (George Cockerill).
Doing a Christmas show at the Fringe in August was hardly an original idea. Big & Daft did one two years ago and it is very doubtful they were the first. Yet Edwards brought such freshness and satiric energy to the idea with a creation so washed-up, hopelessly addicted but well-meaning you could not help but guffaw.
When he accidentally swallowed a pint of brandy butter at the end of one brilliant section of the show, members of the audience were crying with laughter. There were people who couldn't control their mirth and giggled for minutes after the joke was over.
This shambolic songs, self-dissecting snowman and the Twelve Days of Christmas finale, which involved him drinking more than 20 glasses of wine in five minutes, were all exceptionally amusing. The final applause nearly took the roof off the little Pleasance Hut.
You'd be unlikely to see a funnier show at the 2003 Fringe.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Miranda Hart - 'It's All About Me', Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
The premise of this show is that a VIP was expected and so Hart needed to hold up the start of the performance until he arrived. Meantime, she chatted to the audience about herself and gave foretastes of the entertainment to come.
A huge poshly-spoken woman in dance pants, Hart proved a commanding presence, flirting outrageously with a man in the front row, arguing with her technician Candice (capably played by Anne-Marie Draycott) and demonstrating her mime with added spoken words.
Her performance was strong and the laughs came thick and fast. However, the question remained: What was the show parodying? Was it taking the rise out of posh people, dancers, performers in general or the entire Fringe? Hart's persona somehow lacked the veracity to be truly hilarious. She made good comedic use of her big-boned body but relied too heavily on her desperate-for-a-man act to which she regularly returned.
Overall, the show was also rather ponderous. Although Hart is clearly an able and appealing performer, there is still work to be done on her material.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Topping & Butch - Take it Up the Octave, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
This late-night camp cabaret show inevitably appealed to a predominantly gay audience.
On a straw poll conducted by the performers, two-thirds of the crowd were gay men and the other one-third straight women or "fag hags" as Topping & Butch so charmingly called them!
As the only straight man present, this reviewer was surprised how accessible the show proved to a heterosexual male.
Much of their chat was powered by gay sexual innuendo but the songs were very witty, superbly performed and universal it their appeal.
Both performers wore bondage gear but were in other respects remarkably different. Topping is fat and old and with Denis Healy eyebrows; Butch young and thin with radiant teeth.
The contrast worked in their favour, and there was something quaintly old-fashioned about their act. In a different time, Noel Coward might have penned some of the lyrics and Topping & Butch would not have looked out of place in dinner jackets.
But the hilarious finale was bang up to date - a mini-musical about gay internet dating which made no bones about the lies unscrupulously told in the gay man's hunt for sex.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Tut Tut, Miss Simpson, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Comedy poetry is an acquired taste, and, in the wrong hands, it can be a horribly painful experience.
Jude Simpson's poems are about her feelings and desires and particularly on the relationship between men and women. She has an engaging manner and, to her credit, recites from memory, without the need to clutch a tatty book of poems - the annoying practice of many comedy poets.
However, listening to her was like enduring the emotional angst of a hormonal teenager. Her work said nothing new about love or sex and, sadly, was not particularly funny either.
There was no denying she was able to charm her audience. As the show went on, you found yourself liking her more and more.
Unfortunately the experiences related in her poems struck no chord with this reviewer. To find the kind of success John Hegley has enjoyed, Miss Simpson needs to be more imaginative and - to put it bluntly - pen better and funnier poems.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Dara O Briain, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
O Briain is phenomenal. His act goes like a bullet, ripping the audience along on a comedy adventure.
On it, you learn about the Irishman's balloon safari, his IRA grandmother and the pitfalls of working as a presenter on Irish TV - all told with an enormous dollops of charm and vigour.
O Briain is a tremendously impressive stand-up who is adept at getting humour out of audience members but still leaving them feeling good about themselves.
When a young man made a leap for the door to the toilet (hoping he would not be picked on), O Briain had a field day, turning the bloke's actions into a brilliantly spontaneous routine.
There is a child-like quality to O Briain. He can see humour in almost anything and cannot help laughing at some of his own jokes.
His enthusiasm for his work is infectious and wonderful. It is hard to imagine him ever dying on stage or facing an audience he could not leave worn out with laughter.
A comedy gem!
STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
The Consultants: Boss, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
After being voted Best Perrier Newcomers last year, big things were expected of this trio of sketch-meisters. They did not disappoint.
The art of the mainstream comedy sketch has seemed, at times, in decline in recent years. The Consultants are doing their darndest to reverse the trend.
Their ideas are simple: merging management talk and nursery rhymes, using books titles in a love song about a librarian, dressing up as bumpkins for a yarn-spinning session, but the sharpness of the writing and the gusto of their performance are near perfection.
The audience generated gales of laughter at highlights such as the bristling competition between the absurd storytellers, the increasingly complex and crude bingo calls and the drunken love song.
My only criticism is that with their level of competence the Consultants could be more adventurous in their material and actually start to push the boundaries of comedy a tad.
As a piece of finely-tailored mainstream entertainment however, you could not fault this show.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
James Dowdeswell Explores Dowdesworld, Pleasance Courtyard Edinburgh
James Dowdeswell looks like a big kid, and has material to match.
He performs routines about cheese-rolling, Harry Potter and his school days in the West Country, and there's no doubt he is a competent comedian.
His regional accents are superb and his timing is good, but Dowdeswell is let down by the mediocrity of his stand-up material.
The punchlines of his jokes are often far too obvious, his gags too weak to be hilarious.
He is at his best when talking honestly about himself. However, as a comedian Dowdeswell cannot make a long-term career out of pretending to be 15. He needs more than fresh-faced looks, a silly hair style and a slightly lazy eye to underpin his persona.
His great strength is his skill at impressions. He might be better off going down the Rory Bremner route, focusing on his true strengths and not relying so heavily on his comedy writing.
But for all that, it was a fairly enjoyable performance. The small audience clearly liked him and that helped to bolster what was middling fare.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Fred Macauley, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
Through his TV work, MacAuley is a big name in Scotland, and known to a lesser degree throughout the UK. So it was no surprise to find his audience was predominantly Scottish, and he responded with a lot of Scotland-related gags.
It was good material. His yarn about the Scots working classes he had met on a low-cost flight to London was strong and his labelling of the characteristics of people from different parts of Scotland was very funny.
He made hay with a man in the front row who could not stop giggling and spun into a routine about things Scotland had given the world. One helpful punter shouted: "John Leslie" which was apt, as Leslie and his girlfriend happened to be in the audience, something MacAuley either did not know or, decently, decided to completely ignore.
There was nothing particularly special about his act. In many ways he could afford to be more adventurous in his approach. But this was a solid and amusing performance from an accomplished performer.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Dyball and Kerr- We Will Roof You, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
As a character comedy double act, Dyball and Kerr appeared to have plenty going for them, at least on paper. The show's concept - two country roofers trying their hands at showbiz - looked attractive, and the publicity material was appealing.
In practice, however, the show was hugely disappointing. The script was weak, with gags about Chunky the landlord and his famous multi-meat platters stretched well beyond their natural lifespan. The songs also grew tiresome and the show developed a repetitive feel.
As performers, Dyball and Kerr were not bad but didn't look convincing as roofers. A few years back, Al Murray shaved his head to play the Pub Landlord. Dyball and Kerr could not even be bothered to grow their own sidebacks, sticking on what were plainly strips of false hair.
The entire show had a thrown-together feel, padded out by parodies of impressions. Their audience interaction was good, winning some of the biggest laughs, but it was not enough.
At the end, one punter loudly remarked: "Was that it?" You could understand his frustration.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): **
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Birds, Underbelly, Edinburgh
Comic Phil Zimmerman has hit upon the idea of doing an eclectic set on birds.
While his co-stars, principally stutterer Jaik Campbell (pictured) and Steve Williams, decided to base their material on the more traditional issue of getting laid, Zimmerman chose his personal obsession with and terror of pigeons.
The trio are an affable and talented bunch, but I believe Campbell should make more of his genuine stutter.
As it is, it has led to a hilarious observational routine about attending an event staged by the National Stammerers Association. Apparently the bar queues were horrendously long!
Campbell's material is first rate but he needs to sharpen up his presentation and make stammering his comedic raison d'etre.
Zimmerman was excellent as always - all made stares and off-the-wall asides. But, like the others, he suffered from the low audience numbers at this venue which is not doing its performers any favours.
That's a shame because Birds is a show well worth seeing.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Ben Dowell
An Evening with Munn and Diamond, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
The publicity material for this show warned festival-goers to "expect the unexpected" which, perhaps, should have been an omen for what was to come. However, this reviewer did not expect to see two Welsh women screaming abuse at each other in the comedy equivalent of a headbanging session.
The concept of their show was not an unfamiliar one: a rich Sloanie woman vying with a working-class bolshie one. What marked out Munn and Diamond was their remarkable lack of script, terrible timing and thoroughly low production values.
Few Fringe flops could have been as painfully poor. Hearing them bickering about use of the Welsh language, S4C and rap music was like listening to a greatly-amplified recording of a thousand paint scrapers while standing naked in sleet. It hardly needs to be said they performed to a silent and shell-shocked audience numbering around half a dozen.
Munn and Diamond need to ask themselves a couple of tough questions: Should we continue with this double act? Are we cut out for comedy?
If they decide to carry on, it is vital they work much harder on their writing and performing before making a return to the Fringe.
STAR RATING (out of five): *
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Tommy Tiernan: Tell Me A Story, The Pod, Edinburgh
The King of Comedy is back! From start to finish, this show by the great Irish storyteller was outstanding, beautifully delivered and absolutely hilarious.
Tiernan's comparison of how Mass is said in Australia and Africa was wonderfully funny, and his description of his three-year-old son's world was magical.
His material sounds totally true to life - even though some of it may not be - and is told with tremendous energy and an infectious sense of fun.
He even talked dirty. His finale, on trying anal sex with his girlfriend for the first time, had an hysterically-funny punchline which you could not see coming.
Only one grumble: the mediocre sound on that night was annoying as occasionally you could not hear clearly at the back.
But you couldn't pick fault with Tiernan's comedy brilliance.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Alfie Joey's Mini-Caberet, Alfie Joey's Red Escort, Edinburgh
Few comedians would be courageous enough to stage an Edinburgh show in their car.
But encouraged by Perrier Award winner Daniel Kitson, that is exactly what Alfie Joey has done.
And what a total delight it proved! An audience of four crammed into his Red Escort, parked a stone's throw from the Pleasance Courtyard.
Alfie sat in the driver's seat and got us all chatting before kicking off the show.
He had devised a format in which each audience member asked him questions about his life from laminated cards.
The humour sprang from the stories attached to those aspects of his life and related experiences of the audience.
It was one of the few truly interactive experiences at the Edinburgh Fringe. For once, the audience had as much opportunity to talk as the performer, who brought out the best in them.
The hour flitted past. Former monk Joey's genius is that he brings out the best in people - because he thinks the best of them.
The audience, two Irish women - a mother and daughter - and shy young man from Bournemouth, clearly enjoyed the show enormously.
And they were highly amused by the occasional altercation between Alfie and a passing traffic warden who could not understand the car was a registered venue!
The event ended with Alfie giving everyone in the audience - all four of us - a souvenir key ring.
We left feeling we had made new friends.
Comedy magic!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Andrew Clover, Supercub, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
This has to be one of the maddest shows at the Fringe.
Although called Supercub and featuring a cub's uniform, it was all over the place. At times you felt Clover's material was totally random.
He is clearly a talented improviser, although it was hard to tell what was improvised and what, if anything scripted.
The audience numbered around a dozen in a cavernous venue but, far from putting him off, Clover seemed to enjoy his failure to pull a bigger crowd.
You had the impression almost anything could come out of mouth - creative, funny, obscene, profane.
And when Clover asked an American in the audience to squirt him with a giant watergun if he overstepped the mark, it was no surprise he ended up soaked to the skin.
Crazily funny!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
The Dinks, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
This show has been a victim of the Fringe hype machine.
From the amount of fuss its promoters has been making about it, I assumed it would be very good, which made it all the more disappointing.
On the night I went, six members of the audience walked out - more than I have ever known quit a show during my six years covering the Fringe.
In fairness, it seemed slightly surprisingly. The show was somewhat less than mediocre rather than being an out-and-out stinker.
The Dinks - established stand-ups Tony Law, Dan Antopolski and Craig Campbell - are a kind of Big & Daft in search of a decent script.
Law has most of the funny lines and certainly is the star of the outfit.
His convincing performance bolstered a gang show desperately lacking a good plot and in need of a tough director.
The real problem with it was Dan Antopolski. He may be an accomplished stand-up, but he can't act for toffee.
Desperate Dan stumbled his way through his part, looking decidedly hesitant and uncomfortable in any dialogue with the others.
And when the gratuitious nudity started, you knew this was a production in deep trouble.
Overall the show had an over-confident and arrogant feel to it. But as the six who fled during the performance might testify, not everyone is taken in by bluster and hype.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): **
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Rob Brydon - Marion and Geoff, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
This is a brilliant show.
Rob Brydon totally triumphed as he brought his Marion and Geoff TV character - divorcee Keith - to the Edinburgh stage for the first time.
Brydon is a very clever performer who managed to have his cake and eat it, denying his ability to respond quickly to audience comments while proving just the opposite.
The self-effacing and over-optimistic outlook of the character was itself funny, quite apart from the sharpness of his lines and occasional hilarious use of accents. It takes a great performer to do an American accent while still sounding Welsh.
The way he used slides was also very sharp. Even the way they had been written was true to Keith's character and won laughs.
All ages and many nationalities enjoyed a show that was popular but far distinctly quirky in its sense of humour.
A smasher!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Die, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Brand X Promotions' latest ghoulish offering is as compelling as it bizarre.
The puppetry, singing, acting and sickness of the humour are remarkable, as a story of life in hell is told.
It is chilling but, at times, hilarious experience. Dead Elvis and the Rotting Brat Pack spring to mind.
It is not for the sensitive or faint-hearted.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Mark Felgate - Freelance Fool, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Ventriloquist-without-a dummy Mark Felgate is without a doubt a talented performer.
His voice-throwing skills are superb and comedy timing is excellent.
Unfortunately he was let down in this full-length show by insufficient high-quality material.
Felgate had perhaps enough top gags for a first-rate half-an-hour show. Spinning it out to twice that time span was stretching the comedy envelope too far.
All the same, there were some strong ideas there and his use of slides was imaginative to the point of surreality.
What the genial Mark needs to do is the keep the best material from this show and enrich it with new gags throughout the coming year to make a triumphant return to the Fringe in 2004.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Her mad girl persona - if it is indeed just a persona - was as frightening as compelling. You could imagine her doing almost anything, whether or not it was likely to get a laugh.
As Roper told of her failed relationships, pubic hair removal and dirty dancing sessions, she was tremendously emotive, contorting her facial features into the ugliest conceivable shapes.
The members of audience - once they had got used to being bellowed at - loved it. Even the young man in the front row gradually warmed to Roper's demands for sex.
Her characters were also strong, particularly the batty old woman, who abused all her relations, and sex industry worker who told her tragic tale while polishing sex toys.
Roper has found something really good here. She is a comedienne who is not afraid to reveal the negative side of her gender, portraying women in a manner few would find flattering.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Jeremy Lion's Happy Christmas, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Drunken children's entertainer Jeremy Lion was extraordinarily funny. Played by Justin Edwards (the tall one from The Consultants), Lion burped and hiccupped his way through a truly hilarious hour of Yuletide comedy, assisted on the keyboards by the morose Leslie (George Cockerill).
Doing a Christmas show at the Fringe in August was hardly an original idea. Big & Daft did one two years ago and it is very doubtful they were the first. Yet Edwards brought such freshness and satiric energy to the idea with a creation so washed-up, hopelessly addicted but well-meaning you could not help but guffaw.
When he accidentally swallowed a pint of brandy butter at the end of one brilliant section of the show, members of the audience were crying with laughter. There were people who couldn't control their mirth and giggled for minutes after the joke was over.
This shambolic songs, self-dissecting snowman and the Twelve Days of Christmas finale, which involved him drinking more than 20 glasses of wine in five minutes, were all exceptionally amusing. The final applause nearly took the roof off the little Pleasance Hut.
You'd be unlikely to see a funnier show at the 2003 Fringe.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Miranda Hart - 'It's All About Me', Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
The premise of this show is that a VIP was expected and so Hart needed to hold up the start of the performance until he arrived. Meantime, she chatted to the audience about herself and gave foretastes of the entertainment to come.
A huge poshly-spoken woman in dance pants, Hart proved a commanding presence, flirting outrageously with a man in the front row, arguing with her technician Candice (capably played by Anne-Marie Draycott) and demonstrating her mime with added spoken words.
Her performance was strong and the laughs came thick and fast. However, the question remained: What was the show parodying? Was it taking the rise out of posh people, dancers, performers in general or the entire Fringe? Hart's persona somehow lacked the veracity to be truly hilarious. She made good comedic use of her big-boned body but relied too heavily on her desperate-for-a-man act to which she regularly returned.
Overall, the show was also rather ponderous. Although Hart is clearly an able and appealing performer, there is still work to be done on her material.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Topping & Butch - Take it Up the Octave, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
This late-night camp cabaret show inevitably appealed to a predominantly gay audience.
On a straw poll conducted by the performers, two-thirds of the crowd were gay men and the other one-third straight women or "fag hags" as Topping & Butch so charmingly called them!
As the only straight man present, this reviewer was surprised how accessible the show proved to a heterosexual male.
Much of their chat was powered by gay sexual innuendo but the songs were very witty, superbly performed and universal it their appeal.
Both performers wore bondage gear but were in other respects remarkably different. Topping is fat and old and with Denis Healy eyebrows; Butch young and thin with radiant teeth.
The contrast worked in their favour, and there was something quaintly old-fashioned about their act. In a different time, Noel Coward might have penned some of the lyrics and Topping & Butch would not have looked out of place in dinner jackets.
But the hilarious finale was bang up to date - a mini-musical about gay internet dating which made no bones about the lies unscrupulously told in the gay man's hunt for sex.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Tut Tut, Miss Simpson, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Comedy poetry is an acquired taste, and, in the wrong hands, it can be a horribly painful experience.
Jude Simpson's poems are about her feelings and desires and particularly on the relationship between men and women. She has an engaging manner and, to her credit, recites from memory, without the need to clutch a tatty book of poems - the annoying practice of many comedy poets.
However, listening to her was like enduring the emotional angst of a hormonal teenager. Her work said nothing new about love or sex and, sadly, was not particularly funny either.
There was no denying she was able to charm her audience. As the show went on, you found yourself liking her more and more.
Unfortunately the experiences related in her poems struck no chord with this reviewer. To find the kind of success John Hegley has enjoyed, Miss Simpson needs to be more imaginative and - to put it bluntly - pen better and funnier poems.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Dara O Briain, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
O Briain is phenomenal. His act goes like a bullet, ripping the audience along on a comedy adventure.
On it, you learn about the Irishman's balloon safari, his IRA grandmother and the pitfalls of working as a presenter on Irish TV - all told with an enormous dollops of charm and vigour.
O Briain is a tremendously impressive stand-up who is adept at getting humour out of audience members but still leaving them feeling good about themselves.
When a young man made a leap for the door to the toilet (hoping he would not be picked on), O Briain had a field day, turning the bloke's actions into a brilliantly spontaneous routine.
There is a child-like quality to O Briain. He can see humour in almost anything and cannot help laughing at some of his own jokes.
His enthusiasm for his work is infectious and wonderful. It is hard to imagine him ever dying on stage or facing an audience he could not leave worn out with laughter.
A comedy gem!
STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
The Consultants: Boss, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
After being voted Best Perrier Newcomers last year, big things were expected of this trio of sketch-meisters. They did not disappoint.
The art of the mainstream comedy sketch has seemed, at times, in decline in recent years. The Consultants are doing their darndest to reverse the trend.
Their ideas are simple: merging management talk and nursery rhymes, using books titles in a love song about a librarian, dressing up as bumpkins for a yarn-spinning session, but the sharpness of the writing and the gusto of their performance are near perfection.
The audience generated gales of laughter at highlights such as the bristling competition between the absurd storytellers, the increasingly complex and crude bingo calls and the drunken love song.
My only criticism is that with their level of competence the Consultants could be more adventurous in their material and actually start to push the boundaries of comedy a tad.
As a piece of finely-tailored mainstream entertainment however, you could not fault this show.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
James Dowdeswell Explores Dowdesworld, Pleasance Courtyard Edinburgh
James Dowdeswell looks like a big kid, and has material to match.
He performs routines about cheese-rolling, Harry Potter and his school days in the West Country, and there's no doubt he is a competent comedian.
His regional accents are superb and his timing is good, but Dowdeswell is let down by the mediocrity of his stand-up material.
The punchlines of his jokes are often far too obvious, his gags too weak to be hilarious.
He is at his best when talking honestly about himself. However, as a comedian Dowdeswell cannot make a long-term career out of pretending to be 15. He needs more than fresh-faced looks, a silly hair style and a slightly lazy eye to underpin his persona.
His great strength is his skill at impressions. He might be better off going down the Rory Bremner route, focusing on his true strengths and not relying so heavily on his comedy writing.
But for all that, it was a fairly enjoyable performance. The small audience clearly liked him and that helped to bolster what was middling fare.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Fred Macauley, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
Through his TV work, MacAuley is a big name in Scotland, and known to a lesser degree throughout the UK. So it was no surprise to find his audience was predominantly Scottish, and he responded with a lot of Scotland-related gags.
It was good material. His yarn about the Scots working classes he had met on a low-cost flight to London was strong and his labelling of the characteristics of people from different parts of Scotland was very funny.
He made hay with a man in the front row who could not stop giggling and spun into a routine about things Scotland had given the world. One helpful punter shouted: "John Leslie" which was apt, as Leslie and his girlfriend happened to be in the audience, something MacAuley either did not know or, decently, decided to completely ignore.
There was nothing particularly special about his act. In many ways he could afford to be more adventurous in his approach. But this was a solid and amusing performance from an accomplished performer.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Dyball and Kerr- We Will Roof You, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
As a character comedy double act, Dyball and Kerr appeared to have plenty going for them, at least on paper. The show's concept - two country roofers trying their hands at showbiz - looked attractive, and the publicity material was appealing.
In practice, however, the show was hugely disappointing. The script was weak, with gags about Chunky the landlord and his famous multi-meat platters stretched well beyond their natural lifespan. The songs also grew tiresome and the show developed a repetitive feel.
As performers, Dyball and Kerr were not bad but didn't look convincing as roofers. A few years back, Al Murray shaved his head to play the Pub Landlord. Dyball and Kerr could not even be bothered to grow their own sidebacks, sticking on what were plainly strips of false hair.
The entire show had a thrown-together feel, padded out by parodies of impressions. Their audience interaction was good, winning some of the biggest laughs, but it was not enough.
At the end, one punter loudly remarked: "Was that it?" You could understand his frustration.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): **
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Birds, Underbelly, Edinburgh
Comic Phil Zimmerman has hit upon the idea of doing an eclectic set on birds.
While his co-stars, principally stutterer Jaik Campbell (pictured) and Steve Williams, decided to base their material on the more traditional issue of getting laid, Zimmerman chose his personal obsession with and terror of pigeons.
The trio are an affable and talented bunch, but I believe Campbell should make more of his genuine stutter.
As it is, it has led to a hilarious observational routine about attending an event staged by the National Stammerers Association. Apparently the bar queues were horrendously long!
Campbell's material is first rate but he needs to sharpen up his presentation and make stammering his comedic raison d'etre.
Zimmerman was excellent as always - all made stares and off-the-wall asides. But, like the others, he suffered from the low audience numbers at this venue which is not doing its performers any favours.
That's a shame because Birds is a show well worth seeing.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Ben Dowell
An Evening with Munn and Diamond, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
The publicity material for this show warned festival-goers to "expect the unexpected" which, perhaps, should have been an omen for what was to come. However, this reviewer did not expect to see two Welsh women screaming abuse at each other in the comedy equivalent of a headbanging session.
The concept of their show was not an unfamiliar one: a rich Sloanie woman vying with a working-class bolshie one. What marked out Munn and Diamond was their remarkable lack of script, terrible timing and thoroughly low production values.
Few Fringe flops could have been as painfully poor. Hearing them bickering about use of the Welsh language, S4C and rap music was like listening to a greatly-amplified recording of a thousand paint scrapers while standing naked in sleet. It hardly needs to be said they performed to a silent and shell-shocked audience numbering around half a dozen.
Munn and Diamond need to ask themselves a couple of tough questions: Should we continue with this double act? Are we cut out for comedy?
If they decide to carry on, it is vital they work much harder on their writing and performing before making a return to the Fringe.
STAR RATING (out of five): *
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Tommy Tiernan: Tell Me A Story, The Pod, Edinburgh
The King of Comedy is back! From start to finish, this show by the great Irish storyteller was outstanding, beautifully delivered and absolutely hilarious.
Tiernan's comparison of how Mass is said in Australia and Africa was wonderfully funny, and his description of his three-year-old son's world was magical.
His material sounds totally true to life - even though some of it may not be - and is told with tremendous energy and an infectious sense of fun.
He even talked dirty. His finale, on trying anal sex with his girlfriend for the first time, had an hysterically-funny punchline which you could not see coming.
Only one grumble: the mediocre sound on that night was annoying as occasionally you could not hear clearly at the back.
But you couldn't pick fault with Tiernan's comedy brilliance.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Alfie Joey's Mini-Caberet, Alfie Joey's Red Escort, Edinburgh
Few comedians would be courageous enough to stage an Edinburgh show in their car.
But encouraged by Perrier Award winner Daniel Kitson, that is exactly what Alfie Joey has done.
And what a total delight it proved! An audience of four crammed into his Red Escort, parked a stone's throw from the Pleasance Courtyard.
Alfie sat in the driver's seat and got us all chatting before kicking off the show.
He had devised a format in which each audience member asked him questions about his life from laminated cards.
The humour sprang from the stories attached to those aspects of his life and related experiences of the audience.
It was one of the few truly interactive experiences at the Edinburgh Fringe. For once, the audience had as much opportunity to talk as the performer, who brought out the best in them.
The hour flitted past. Former monk Joey's genius is that he brings out the best in people - because he thinks the best of them.
The audience, two Irish women - a mother and daughter - and shy young man from Bournemouth, clearly enjoyed the show enormously.
And they were highly amused by the occasional altercation between Alfie and a passing traffic warden who could not understand the car was a registered venue!
The event ended with Alfie giving everyone in the audience - all four of us - a souvenir key ring.
We left feeling we had made new friends.
Comedy magic!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Andrew Clover, Supercub, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
This has to be one of the maddest shows at the Fringe.
Although called Supercub and featuring a cub's uniform, it was all over the place. At times you felt Clover's material was totally random.
He is clearly a talented improviser, although it was hard to tell what was improvised and what, if anything scripted.
The audience numbered around a dozen in a cavernous venue but, far from putting him off, Clover seemed to enjoy his failure to pull a bigger crowd.
You had the impression almost anything could come out of mouth - creative, funny, obscene, profane.
And when Clover asked an American in the audience to squirt him with a giant watergun if he overstepped the mark, it was no surprise he ended up soaked to the skin.
Crazily funny!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
The Dinks, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
This show has been a victim of the Fringe hype machine.
From the amount of fuss its promoters has been making about it, I assumed it would be very good, which made it all the more disappointing.
On the night I went, six members of the audience walked out - more than I have ever known quit a show during my six years covering the Fringe.
In fairness, it seemed slightly surprisingly. The show was somewhat less than mediocre rather than being an out-and-out stinker.
The Dinks - established stand-ups Tony Law, Dan Antopolski and Craig Campbell - are a kind of Big & Daft in search of a decent script.
Law has most of the funny lines and certainly is the star of the outfit.
His convincing performance bolstered a gang show desperately lacking a good plot and in need of a tough director.
The real problem with it was Dan Antopolski. He may be an accomplished stand-up, but he can't act for toffee.
Desperate Dan stumbled his way through his part, looking decidedly hesitant and uncomfortable in any dialogue with the others.
And when the gratuitious nudity started, you knew this was a production in deep trouble.
Overall the show had an over-confident and arrogant feel to it. But as the six who fled during the performance might testify, not everyone is taken in by bluster and hype.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): **
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Rob Brydon - Marion and Geoff, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
This is a brilliant show.
Rob Brydon totally triumphed as he brought his Marion and Geoff TV character - divorcee Keith - to the Edinburgh stage for the first time.
Brydon is a very clever performer who managed to have his cake and eat it, denying his ability to respond quickly to audience comments while proving just the opposite.
The self-effacing and over-optimistic outlook of the character was itself funny, quite apart from the sharpness of his lines and occasional hilarious use of accents. It takes a great performer to do an American accent while still sounding Welsh.
The way he used slides was also very sharp. Even the way they had been written was true to Keith's character and won laughs.
All ages and many nationalities enjoyed a show that was popular but far distinctly quirky in its sense of humour.
A smasher!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Die, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Brand X Promotions' latest ghoulish offering is as compelling as it bizarre.
The puppetry, singing, acting and sickness of the humour are remarkable, as a story of life in hell is told.
It is chilling but, at times, hilarious experience. Dead Elvis and the Rotting Brat Pack spring to mind.
It is not for the sensitive or faint-hearted.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
August 2003
Chris Wilson
Mark Felgate - Freelance Fool, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Ventriloquist-without-a dummy Mark Felgate is without a doubt a talented performer.
His voice-throwing skills are superb and comedy timing is excellent.
Unfortunately he was let down in this full-length show by insufficient high-quality material.
Felgate had perhaps enough top gags for a first-rate half-an-hour show. Spinning it out to twice that time span was stretching the comedy envelope too far.
All the same, there were some strong ideas there and his use of slides was imaginative to the point of surreality.
What the genial Mark needs to do is the keep the best material from this show and enrich it with new gags throughout the coming year to make a triumphant return to the Fringe in 2004.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ***
August 2003
Chris Wilson
September
2002 – July 2003
Rob Rouse and James Holmes,
Barnstormers Comedy, Lewes, East Sussex
What a marvellous club this is, bringing some of my favourite young comics to within a five-minute walk of my home!
The big cheeses on the Christmas bill were Rob Rouse and James Holmes - stand-ups with very different styles and equally innovative takes on their craft.
Holmes is a shock joker, hitting the audience hard with an account of his gayness and, curiously, details of what he won't do in bed.
His delivery is friendly and confident, so the crowd liked him, despite its clear discomfort with his material.
It seemed that would have gone down a storm down the road in Brighton is still able to shock slightly in-land.
Despite that, Holmes is a strong and original act - a showbiz-obsessed queen with a hugely-affable take on life.
Rob Rouse also has a pleasant and natural style which gives him a whooping headstart over many comics.
His substantial stage experience and gift for improvisation make him an all-weather comedian who is never likely to die on stage.
But he is at his strongest when doing his stand-up or musical routines and revealing the wicked streak behind the big grin.
A top night!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Chris Wilson
What a marvellous club this is, bringing some of my favourite young comics to within a five-minute walk of my home!
The big cheeses on the Christmas bill were Rob Rouse and James Holmes - stand-ups with very different styles and equally innovative takes on their craft.
Holmes is a shock joker, hitting the audience hard with an account of his gayness and, curiously, details of what he won't do in bed.
His delivery is friendly and confident, so the crowd liked him, despite its clear discomfort with his material.
It seemed that would have gone down a storm down the road in Brighton is still able to shock slightly in-land.
Despite that, Holmes is a strong and original act - a showbiz-obsessed queen with a hugely-affable take on life.
Rob Rouse also has a pleasant and natural style which gives him a whooping headstart over many comics.
His substantial stage experience and gift for improvisation make him an all-weather comedian who is never likely to die on stage.
But he is at his strongest when doing his stand-up or musical routines and revealing the wicked streak behind the big grin.
A top night!
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Chris Wilson
THIS monthly comedy club in a former church is coming on in leaps and bounds.
It pulled an audience of at least 70 people - all of whom were up for a Sunday night of comedy. Compere Kevin Precious warmed them up beautifully in his trademark deadpan style.
First act on was David Haddingham who is a very competent performer with some good jokes. Some of his material, however, seemed a little puerile and weak - and you were also left with the impression that he was not putting his all into the gig.
On the other hand, comedy magician Mandy Muden was really going for it. She raised the energy level in the room considerably with a high-pace succession of daft, failed tricks and silly gags.
Perhaps she overdid her persona - "slapper in desperate need of a shag" - and tried too hard to find gay men in the audience (why?) but it was an enjoyable performance all the same.
The undoubted highlight of the show was Hal Cruttenden.
Hal just gets better and better. . . he has fantastic delivery, a real feeling for its audience and superb material.
He lifted the roof of this creaky old church of a venue - and made it a memorable night. It becomes clearer by the day that Hal is going to be star.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Chris Wilson
It pulled an audience of at least 70 people - all of whom were up for a Sunday night of comedy. Compere Kevin Precious warmed them up beautifully in his trademark deadpan style.
First act on was David Haddingham who is a very competent performer with some good jokes. Some of his material, however, seemed a little puerile and weak - and you were also left with the impression that he was not putting his all into the gig.
On the other hand, comedy magician Mandy Muden was really going for it. She raised the energy level in the room considerably with a high-pace succession of daft, failed tricks and silly gags.
Perhaps she overdid her persona - "slapper in desperate need of a shag" - and tried too hard to find gay men in the audience (why?) but it was an enjoyable performance all the same.
The undoubted highlight of the show was Hal Cruttenden.
Hal just gets better and better. . . he has fantastic delivery, a real feeling for its audience and superb material.
He lifted the roof of this creaky old church of a venue - and made it a memorable night. It becomes clearer by the day that Hal is going to be star.
SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Chris Wilson
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