Comedy

Markus Birdman – Grimm Realities

2015MARKUSB-CZ-300

22/08/15

Canon’s Gait, Edinburgh

There’s an absolute multitude of acts available on Edinburgh’s Free Fringe this year and we rather liked the sound of Grimm Realities, even though it meant squashing ourselves into a hot and sweaty cellar room in order to experience it. Birdman is an interesting character. He’s done plenty of regular stand up work, over the years, but because he’s also an illustrator (as a child, he was made to draw bible stories by his preacher-man father) he decided this year to integrate his artistic endeavours into his set. And it works well.

It’s mostly about a father’s anxieties as his 10 year old daughter takes her first tentative steps into adolescence, and Birdman’s sly, witty patter is punctuated with extracts from two illustrated books he’s produced, twisted versions of the classic fairytales Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. Pages from the books are displayed on a screen by way of a visualiser –  essentially a souped up version of an OHP. As you might expect, Birdman’s versions are franker than the originals, spelling out the issues that the Grimm brothers could only allude to. (If you’re in any doubt, Birdman makes regular use of an insert with the words ‘This is an metaphor’ printed on it.

It’s appealing stuff. When Birdman asks if there’s a father and daughter in the audience, Grace and I seem to be the only ones who qualify (or at least, the only ones willing to own up.) This let’s us in for plenty of comic asides and knowing looks. And as a father who published a book that was originally written for his daughter, I found a lot here to identify with.

So, if you’re in Edinburgh and your finances are running low, make your way to Canon’s Gait and grab a pass for the afternoon show. It’s cheek by jowl down there, but well worth the effort.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Alfie Brown: -ism

Alfie_640x340

22/08/15

The Box, Assembly George Square Theatre, Edinburgh

Alfie Brown exudes promise. He’s seething with potential brilliance, and some of this uneven set is genuinely great. There’s real ambition on show here; this is not a cosy, resting-on-the-comedy-laurels kind of gig at all. And when it works, it really works.

Brown has an engaging intensity; he clearly sees comedy as a vehicle for challenging perceived wisdoms, and pushes himself (and the audience) to think beyond the obvious. He never seems to go for the easy laugh – even when, quite honestly, it might help the show along. There are some routines, such as the brutally honest tale of his relationship with Jessie Cave, where he is in total command of his material, and the audience responds really well. But the set lacks a coherent structure, and peaks and troughs in odd places. The final section, an attempt to discuss political posturing and the pointlessness of preaching to the converted, has the makings of a fine routine, but is derailed somewhat by the audience’s reluctance to answer his question about our own political views (I, in fact,  did volunteer a response, but I was the only one), and never really recovers from this, failing to reach any sort of conclusion, or even provoke a lot of thought. Still, I’d rather watch this ambitious young comedian experiment with an idea that doesn’t quite come off, than sit through an hour of safe crowd-pleasing with someone better-known (and there’s a lot of that about, of course).

Take a chance; give him a go. I think he will be really big one day.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Aunty Donna

2015AUNTYDO_GB

21/08/15

Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh

I didn’t think I liked sketch comedy. I don’t, much, when it’s on TV – when ideas and catchphrases are repeated throughout an entire season, and it all gets a little bit dull.

I discovered tonight, however, that I might like sketch comedy when it’s live – I liked this sketch comedy, anyway. They’re certainly popular; the venue was packed. It’s great to see strong acts getting the audiences they deserve.

Aunty Donna are three Aussie blokes (Broden Kelly, Zachary Ruane and Mark Samual Bonanno) and their frenetic, silly, high-octane antics kept the audience truly entertained. There was never a let-up in the pace (within minutes the trio were raining sweat upon the front row) and the sheer variety of sketches was most impressive. Standouts included the Bubble Bath Boys (who’d hijacked the show), a scene about taking in a ‘stray man’ and the recurring trope of ‘the man who…’ – a delightful piece of whimsy, which really made me laugh.

The ideas are all drawn together nicely at the end, making this a perfect choice for a Friday night show: it’s energetic, irreverent and a whole lot of fun.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Sarah Kendall: A Day In October

Unknown

21/08/15

Assembly, George Square, Edinburgh

You’ll find plenty of stand-ups at the Fringe, good, bad and indifferent but Sarah Kendall works differently to most other comedians. In ‘A Day in October’ she gives us what is essentially a protracted exercise in skilful storytelling, something that’s clearly based around real life experiences she had in her youth, in Newcastle, Australia. From her vivid descriptions of the inhabitants, it wasn’t on the tourist routes. This is the story of George Peach, a boy at her school who was constantly bullied and it’s about the awful accident that turned his life around.

Kendall really excels here, building the story piece-by-piece, layer-by-layer, dropping a whole bunch of clues that really should warn us about what she’s going to do, but at the same time, expertly misdirecting us so that the final twist, when it comes, is absolutely shattering. I don’t want to give the impression that this is not brilliant comedy: it is, and those in search of a good laugh will not be disappointed. But there’s also a deeper intelligence at work here, something which elevates this show above much of the competition.

The term ‘comedy gold’ is often used but rarely as thoroughly deserved as it is here.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

John Robertson: The Dark Room – Symphony of a Floating Head

Unknown-2 Unknown

19/08/15

Underbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh

Fancy watching a genuine phenomenon? One that’s built around a love of those text-based 80s video games where you are invited to choose various options in the hope of winning? Well, essentially that’s what The Dark Room is all about. There’s a £1000 prize on offer… and before you say something like ‘yeah, that’s not going to happen,’ let me assure you that host John Robertson told me that the prize has been won twice (on two consecutive nights) in 2015. So chew on that.

Let me set the scene for you. You’re in a damp, rather smelly room on Cowgate. Images flicker up on a rumpled screen. Then in strides Robertson, dressed in a manner that makes you think he must have loved Mad Max: Fury Road. (Well, he is Australian.) He climbs onto the stage and quickly takes control of the sizeable crowd. Robertson is very funny, slick, sharp-tongued and a bit of a bully. He immediately chooses his first contestant which as luck would have it, is me. He gives me the name Darren (he gives everyone this name) and I start haplessly choosing options while Robertson hurls abuse at me for everything I do. Inevitably, I am dead after just a few goes and I am assured that this is the fastest round ever played on the Fringe (i.e. I’m completely useless) He gives me a prize (a plastic starfish) and promptly moves on to other victims.

It’s fast, frenetic. One contestant has clearly had way too much to drink and starts to get lippy, but Robertson deals with him expertly, turning the man’s churlishness back on himself. A thirteen year old girl has a go and Robertson walks an expertly balanced tightrope between what’s acceptable in such a situation and what clearly isn’t. Apparently the game gets a lot of repeat custom as punters come back, having decided that next time they’ll surely make the right choices.

I’ll be honest, we really didn’t think this one would be for us… neither of us have played those text-based games or have the first idea of strategy, but it hardly matters. This is enjoyable stuff, often laugh-out-loud funny and it’s not long before you’ve memorised Robertson’s repeated lines and are shouting along with him. ‘You die, you die, you DIE!’

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney

Morro and Jasp Do Puberty

Unknown

18/08/15

Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh

Female clowns are hardly a new phenomenon (there were the glee-maidens of medieval England, for example, or the famous Columbine, Franceschina and Smeraldina characters from Commedia dell Arte), but it’s certainly rare to see a contemporary clown show centred entirely on the tribulations of teenage girls. The characters, Morro and Jasp (Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee), are sisters and, in this latest offering, they ‘do puberty.’ And boy, do they do puberty.

I’d never have thought it, but actually clowning seems like the natural form for an exploration of a young girl’s angst. The exaggerated, melodramatic nature of the genre is ideally suited to the heightened emotions and over-reactions we all experience when we’re growing up. Getting your first period is hugely important when you’re a teenage girl, and it really does matter if your little sister gets hers first. Annis and Lee completely nail the sisters’  conflicting emotions: Morro’s disgust at having to take time off from soccer-baseball because of all this icky adult stuff; Jasp’s desperate longing for a boy to put her on his list. These are feelings we can all relate to – men and women – because we’ve all experienced the hell of puberty.

Annis and Lee are consummate clowns, imbuing the simplest of ideas with life and vigour. This is fresh, funny and insightful comedy, and definitely worth seeing.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Lou Sanders: Excuse Me, You’re Sitting On My Penis Again

2015LOUSAND_J4

18/08/15

Laughing Horse@City Cafe, Edinburgh

It’s thanks to Richard Herring that we’re here. We heard his RHLSTP (Ruh-Huh-Luh-Stuh-Puh!) interview with Lou Sanders, and rather liked the sound of her. So we sought out her show in Edinburgh, and we’re very glad we did.

This is a Free Fringe event, and the venue’s a bit on the rough and ready side – a hot and sweaty cellar room, with fold-up chairs and no raking – but we’ve got seats at the front and we’re comfortable enough. And Sanders is every bit as daft and energetic as the podcast suggested.

The show’s premise is typically odd: Sanders decides to apply to Eton. Why not? Everybody knows that Eton alumni are hugely successful. Why shouldn’t a grown woman without access to the fees apply to an elite boys’ school? What could possibly go wrong?

Sanders is a charming performer. The show is ridiculous – in a delightful way. There are masks, there are audio clips, and there’s a lot of silliness – but, actually, there are serious points being made here too. Why is privilege only conferred on to a few? Why do the rest of us accept we can’t have what they’ve got?

So if you’re at a loose end at 5.30pm, and find yourself in the Old Town – this one’s definitely worth queuing for.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Happy Birthday Without You

Unknown-3images

12/08/15

Roundabout@Summerhall, Edinburgh

Meet Violet Fox, “award-winning-live-and-visual-spoken-word-vegan-solo-artist-and-occasional-collaborator,” with her autobiographical tale of unhappy birthdays and emotional trauma (“Yes, it’s all about meeee!”).

This is a satirical piece, expertly skewering the self-obsessed posing of a certain type of wannabe, and, if this truly original slice of comic nonsense is difficult to categorise, it’s certainly a pleasure to witness it unfold.

Sonia Jalaly, as Violet, is a gifted comedian, with a penchant for wild emoting and exaggerated gesture. This is clowning at its most engaging, and there’s some decent mimicry and singing here as well, with pastiches of Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and Shirley Bassey, cleverly woven into the narrative. There are beautifully clumsy references to Plath and Woolf as well, underlining both Violet’s pretentiousness and her immaturity. There’s a lot going on within this script.

The play works well in the round, and Jalaly uses the space effectively, laying out her boxes (‘This is my emotional baggage”) and props to create a real sense of her myopic, chaotic world. The mother character is evoked by a scrunched up facial expression and the use of two cigarettes as props, and the climactic moment when we, the audience, become involved, is deflated instantly by Violet’s joyful declaration: “Oooh, immersive!” We are reminded, all the time, that Violet has one eye on the way her performance makes her look, however personal the story that she is telling us.

If there’s any criticism here, it’s that it’s all perhaps a bit one-note. It might be more compelling if our empathy were allowed to develop further on occasion – before the balloons are popped.

This is a funny and entertaining performance, and deserves to be seen by a bigger crowd than is here tonight. Make the trip; you won’t be disappointed.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Stewart Lee: A Room With a Stew

Unknown

11/08/15

Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh

“No one is equipped to review me,” says Stewart Lee – and I doubt I’m the first reviewer to feel compelled to include the line in my review. And he’s right, in a way; he’s fiercely intellectual, this comedian, and I’m sure he could shoot down in flames any criticism I might make.

It’s fortunate, then, that I don’t have much to criticise; we’re already fans; we went to this show secure in the knowledge we would like it. It’s our wedding anniversary, after all (we got married a year ago, while at the Fringe), so of course we chose a show we knew we’d relish; we wanted to enjoy the day.

We’ve seen this show before, or, at least, we’ve seen a show with the same title and a few of the same routines. That was back in March at the Lowry in Salford, where – although the material was as deft and challenging as you might expect – the room was too big, and the whole thing felt a little too remote.

Not that Lee is aiming for ‘engaging’ or ‘crowd-pleasing;’ he references Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, and it’s certainly a technique he likes to employ, simultaneously haranguing his audience for being “the wrong sort” and appealing to the vanity in all of us when he says those wrong ’uns are “not like my core audience: those of you who understand what it is I do.” We all want to be in Stewart’s gang; we all want to be clever enough to be in on the joke.

The second half of the show is my favourite: Lee’s quest to mine the “lucrative Islamophobic observational comedy market,” along with his trademark meta-commentary on the very idea of jokes, is just breath-taking, really: it’s rigorous, uncomfortable, demanding – and very funny.

It’s Stewart Lee; of course it is.

5 stars

Susan Singfield

That’s the Way, A-ha, A-ha, Joe Lycett

Unknown

09/08/15

Cabaret Bar, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

The Cabaret Bar is sold out, and that’s the way (a-ha, a-ha) Joe likes it. He’s on good form this evening, positively oozing with wit and mischief; he makes stand-up look easy and the audience is on his side.

I’ve seen him performing a short set quite recently at a charity event, so I’ve already heard some of this material, but that doesn’t matter. It’s interesting to see how the routines develop and how they fit in to a broader context. There’s a theme of sorts (living in Birmingham), but it’s very loose; it’s more ‘what Joe’s been doing recently’ than anything else. And, honestly, what he’s actually been doing is pretty mundane: going on a stag night, having breakfast at a coffee shop, and messing around on social media. But, of course, it’s all in the telling, and the telling here is very good. Joe Lycett is seriously talented, I think; he engages effortlessly with the audience, and looks like he is having fun.

OK, so it’s a gentle form of comedy. There’s a moment – when he starts to talk about Fox News’s erroneous description of Birmingham as “100% Muslim” – when I think we might be heading towards something more challenging; he begins to question why Fox News presume – if this were true – it would be negative, and goes on to explore the idea of how the language we employ colours our views. But he doesn’t take this very far, soon wandering back into more comfortable territory, such as Cheryl Fernandez-Versini’s social media posts. Personally, I’d like to see more of the demanding stuff, but I’m sure Lycett knows his audience, and tonight’s punters seem more than happy with their lot.

Worth seeing, then – but you’ll need to be quick. The tickets for this one are selling fast.

4 stars

Susan Singfield