JJ Whitehead: Fool Disclosure

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16/08/16

Liquid Room Annexe, Edinburgh

We’ve already seen JJ as an actor in the brilliant Blind Date Project, so we thought we should catch him in his more regular role as a stand-up. He’s on the free fringe this year so when we take our seats, he’s busily moving furniture around and assuring us that ‘the show hasn’t started yet,’ something that seems to be a recurring motif this year – though in this case, it’s actually true.

He launches confidently into his routine and his lazy, Canadian-inflected drawl immediately draws the crowd into his stories and what he likes to call his ‘Jokey Jokes.’ He’s a likeable presence on the stage with a wide-ranging selection of topics to draw on. I particularly liked a routine in which a stupid friend (now an ex-friend) keeps repeatedly electrocuting him in the shower, while his observations about Edinburgh and the Scottish people benefit from the fresh perspective of the outsider’s eye. Some of the routine is sexual in content (be warned, this is listed as a 16 plus event). JJ makes a remark about ‘knowing your audience,’ but his description of Axl Rose’s comments to a pole dancer at an after-show party are, for my money, one of the few misfires in this set. Other people seemed to love it though, so maybe he does know his audience, after all.

At one point in the proceedings, a young woman in the audience suffers from a sudden bout of coughing, which throws him off his stride a bit. When he inquires if she’s okay, her friend advises him to ‘stop making her laugh!’ Which, when you think about it, is priceless. JJ dubs today as ‘Dry Cough Monday.’

He soon recovers his equilibrium and comes back with an amusing true story about the television in his hotel room. Like all gigs on the free fringe, the audience are invited to throw money into a bucket at the end, but unlike some others comics, JJ is giving something back – a USB card featuring some rarely seen footage.

This is good stuff, well worth checking out. If you want a seat near the front, get there early!

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

Ed Aczel’s Foreign Policy

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15/08/16

Heroes @ The Hive, Edinburgh

Ed Aczel is a master of anti-comedy, and this hour of apparently shambolic rambling is clearly carefully thought-out. We’re eased in with a music video (Eve of Destruction), where Aczel’s face appears incongruously on the screen, singing along and playing a mouth organ. It’s very silly, and it’s very funny too. It helps to set the tone, and to make us forget the weirdly damp and dingy cave we’re huddled in.

When he appears on stage, Aczel’s clumsy, awkward persona is very well received; we’ve never seen him before, but there are enthusiastic fans in the audience, who start laughing in anticipation before he’s even said a word. His deadpan delivery works well, as does the fact that even the notes he’s reading from are creased and badly stained; this character is fully formed.

I like the first half hour, with its meandering sort-of audience interaction, and the ridiculous deconstruction of the way comedy works. I’m less engaged by the second half, when the foreign policy stuff really kicks in – I suppose I’m hoping there’ll be something more, that all the nothings will, ultimately, amount to something, but I guess the void is the whole point.

Worth seeing, then, and certainly a bit different. If you fancy something other than the mainstream, Ed Aczel just might be the guy.

3.5 stars

Susan Singfield

Mervyn Stutter’s Silver Jubilee Charity Gala

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Assembly Theatre, George Square, Edinburgh

15/08/16

If the Edinburgh Fringe has anything resembling royalty then Mervyn Stutter is arguably first in line to the throne (now that Richard Herring seems to have abdicated). Amazingly, Mervyn has been running his Pick of the Fringe show for twenty-five years and this special gala has been arranged to celebrate the occasion and to raise money for charity. Think of an old-school variety show, offering short selections of comedy, theatre and music, and you’ve pretty much got the idea. As well as helping those in need, it’s doubtless a great way of alerting the public to performers they might enjoy in more depth – fliers for all the featured acts are available on the way out.

On comes Mervyn in his trademark pink suit, and treats us to a few of his risqué ditties from down the years, before introducing the first act, Tom Binns, in his role as ‘Hospital DJ,’ Ivan Brackenbury. It’s a great start to the show. Binns’ comedy comes from the ineptness of his character, who makes a series of clumsy announcements and then compounds them with selection a toe-curlingly inappropriate songs. It’s a great comic premise and Binns delivers on it, big time. You’ll find his show at The Assembly George Square.

The next act, I Am Rhythm, features a lively troop of eight South African men who perform a couple of frenetic traditional dances from Soweto, which involves them slapping, clapping and chanting in a dazzling display of syncopation. Fans of this kind of music (and there are many) will find their show at Dance Base (Venue 22).

It’s always a pleasure to see comedian Jo Caulfield, even if the short selection she offers here is already familiar to us from earlier shows. No matter, her tales of a louche Londoner adapting to a new life in Edinburgh are cannily observed and very, very funny. You’ll find her at (where else?) The Stand Comedy Club.

Circa are difficult to describe. This four piece contemporary circus troop offer a short extract from their current show, Closer, which is all about relationships and combines incredible balancing with a series of bodily contortions that will astonish you. They are currently appearing at Edinburgh’s infamous cow-shaped venue, Udderbelly.

Angel, a play by Henry Naylor is set in Kobane, Northern Syria and is the true-life tale of an acclaimed female sniper, credited with over one hundred kills. Lead actor Fillipa Braganca treats us to a short extract and I find myself wishing that she’d been granted more time. Naylor’s last play, Echoes, won him the 2015 Fringe First Award and this one is also garnering great reviews. You’ll find Angel at the Gilded Balloon, Teviot.

 Next up is Sarah Louise Young (who we have already seen and loved in Royal Vauxhall). Here she’s in her Cabaret Whore role as La Poule Plombée, a French chanteuse in the vein of Edith Piaf, but played (expertly) for laughs. She sings about baggage (pronounced to rhyme with Farage) and milks the song for every bit of humour. She’s accompanied on the piano by Michael Roulston and, just in case you think she’s not working hard enough, you can also catch the duo in their show Songs For Lovers (and Other Idiots) at Maggie’s Chamber on Cowgate. La Poule Plombé, on the other hand, can be seen at The Voodoo Rooms.

In an extended set, the cast of Showstopper: The Improvised Musical stroll onstage and create songs inspired by suggestions shouted out randomly by members of the audience. They settle on a show set in 10 Downing Street, starring Theresa May and her cleaning lady. It’s quite uncanny how they do it, but there they are, producing lyrics that actually make sense and rhyme, working in the style of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. This Olivier award winning show is at The Pleasance Courtyard twice a day. Go along and marvel.

Rory Bremner is a name that surely needs no introduction, but he gets one anyway. He wanders onstage, tells us about his long relationship with Mr Stutter (they’ve been bumping into each other at the fringe for quarter of a century) and then he throws in a few of his brilliant impersonations. (His Barack Obama is quite something.) His show, Rory Bremner meets… is at The Gilded Balloon at the Museum.

Last but not least, we are treated to a couple of songs by The Jive Aces – purveyors of old time swing. Dressed to the nines in their yellow outfits, they soon have everybody clapping along to their song, before leading the crowd in a chorus of Happy Birthday, as somebody brings out a special cake to mark Mervyn’s anniversary. The Jive Aces are at Assembly George Square Gardens – and Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe is at The Gilded Ballloon, Teviot every day at 13.00, with a fresh set of acts each time.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Rainbow Class

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14/08/16

Assembly Hall, Edinburgh

Wow. This is a hidden gem of a show if ever I saw one, and well-deserving of a bigger audience than tonight’s meagre crowd. Maybe it’s the title that’s uninspiring and failing to draw the punters? It’s certainly not the performance.

Because Vivienne Acheampong can REALLY act. This is a one-woman show that packs a heavy punch: it’s a sharp and witty piece that engages right from the very start. We’re in Tiddlesworth Primary School, where we meet a whole host of characters: there’s Miss Marshall, the pregnant teacher whose vocation means she has no life outside her job; Ty’Quan, the challenging student with ambitions to make it as a rapper; Sheila, the casually racist lunchtime supervisor, who misses the way things used to be. Acheampong embodies each one effortlessly; this is clever, sly, insightful stuff, and it’s beautifully done. We’re reduced to helpless laughter when a terrifying supply teacher forces us to take part in a recorder lesson, and I’m in floods of tears when Acheampong ends the piece with a heartfelt poem about the state of education in England today, and how it lets our children down (this has a particular resonance for me, as I’ve just quit teaching after twenty-two years because of the very issues that she highlights here).

There’s real talent at play in this show, and it merits a wide audience. Miss it, and you really will miss out.

5 stars

Susan Singfield

Chris Dugdale: Full Circle

 

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14/08/16

Assembly George Square, Edinburgh

‘I don’t believe it!’

I seem to be turning into Victor Meldrew. Those words have just tumbled, unbidden, from my lips. Because on a small stage, just a few feet in front of me, magician Chris Dugdale has made something impossible happen. And it’s just one of a whole series of impossible things. As I watch, entranced, objects vanish and reappear, cards mysteriously change suit, a scrambled Rubik’s cube appears to solve itself right in front of me. And it doesn’t stop there. There are also the mind control elements. One poor woman is manipulated into a state where she is unable to read a simple word on a card. A brief gesture from Chris and she can read it. Another flourish and once again, she’s tongue-tied. Don’t even ask about the bottle of wine…

We first encountered Chris Dugdale at last year’s fringe and were impressed by his show, but Full Circle is even better. Chris is a likable chap with a roguish air who has an easy rapport with his audience. He charms us, he baffles us and he sends us on our way asking each other, ‘How did he do that?’ Tricks appear to go wrong, but then he reveals that the illusion was way more complicated than we supposed. You thought we were doing this but… it was actually THIS! Cue the gasps of astonishment from everyone watching. ‘No way!’ I hear somebody whisper and I agree one hundred percent.

For a final close up magic routine, Chris invites a whole bunch of us onto the stage to witness his incredible sleight of hand techniques. I watch intently, determined to spot something… anything that will give me a clue as to how he is doing these unbelievable things. But there’s nothing. He must be made of magic. There’s simply no other explanation. One hundred years ago he’d have been burned as a witch.

If you see only one magic show at the fringe this year, go for Full Circle. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Rhys Nicholson: Bona Fide

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13/08/16

Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh

We chanced on Nicholson at last year’s festival and were glad we did, as he seemed to offer something fresh and invigorating (I’m making him sound like a shower gel!) to the world of stand up. This year, he’s graduated to a bigger performance space and his presentation is stronger, more confident than before. He presents an unlikely figure in the dank confines of the Delhi Belly at Cowgate, impossibly skinny and clad in a sequinned jacket. What is it about Newcastle Australia that turns out such interesting characters? Both Nicholson and Sarah Kendall appear to have had almost the same childhood – overweight, bullied and unable to step onto a beach (about the only thing to do in Newcastle Australia) without breaking out in hives.

Nicholson has a bitchy, ironic way of telling a story, that’s as caustic as it is funny, even if the content isn’t particularly original. Subjects range from Rhys getting horribly drunk at a wedding reception, through the observation that the various factions of the gay community seems to be acquiring more letters as a way of describing themselves, to a long treatise on the subject of masturbation, something he claims to be a world expert at. He also talks about voicing a gay reindeer in a commercial for Aardman Animation and then being blamed for setting the world of gay rights back by years with that ‘ridiculous voice,’ even though he was only using his regular speaking voice! Go figure.

Nicholson is a real talent and nearing the top of his game. Amidst the plethora of comics currently treading the boards at this year’s Ed Fest, he’s one that’s well worth seeking out.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

 

Orlando Baxter: Suspensions, Detentions and Summer Vacations

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13/08/16

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

Orlando Baxter used to be a teacher, the sort of teacher whose vocation is founded on a desire to ‘give back,’ to provide the same inspiration to troubled teens as a former mentor did for him. Mr Miller, name-checked in the show, clearly did a good job: young Orlando rose from his disadvantaged roots (absent father, drug-addicted mother, poverty, the projects) to be the first in his family to graduate from high school, then college, before making a career for himself as an educator.

It’s clear throughout that he really cared for the kids he taught, even if, ultimately, his ambitions lay elsewhere. Comedy was, he tells us, always where his heart really lay – and his students called him out on his ‘follow your dreams’ inspirational shtick, pointing out he wasn’t following his own advice. And so he did. And education’s loss is comedy’s gain.

Okay, so he doesn’t seem quite like the finished product: a lot of his set is purely anecdotal, sounding a lot like the unvarnished truth without that extra push towards a punch line that would elevate its comedic impact. But he had a strong stage presence and is immensely likeable; he certainly has the potential to be very good indeed. He has an easy manner and interacts effectively with the audience, generously allowing time to explore one particular man’s response to what must surely have been intended as a rhetorical question. He handles this well, making space to find the joke without derailing the show.

Baxter may be critical of the US education system, but ultimately he’s a good ambassador for it. I think this man is one to watch.

3.9 stars

Susan Singfield

Stuart Goldsmith: Compared To What?

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13/06/16

Liquid Rooms Annexe, Edinburgh

We’re familiar with Stuart Goldsmith’s name mostly through his Comedian’s Comedian podcasts, where he interrogates a whole host of comics at every level of their game, something he’s clearly very good at. But the inevitable question is, does he cut it as a stand-up himself?

Well, on this showing, yes, very much so. He’s appearing on the Free Fringe at the Liquid Room Annexe and it’s a good job we arrive early because by the time the lengthy queue has shuffled inside, it’s standing room only. Goldsmith has a lively and attractive personality and he’s written some excellent gags for this show. The content is broadly observational, much of it centring on his new role as a parent. In his worldview, having a child is pretty much synonymous with the end of any enjoyment in life and I can’t help hoping he’s exaggerating for comic effect. There are some terrific one-liners. ‘We’ve lost some great rock items this year. Lemmy, Prince, David Bowie. Sting… hopefully.’ He also bangs on about having to leave London and move to ‘the country,’ as though there’s no such thing as life outside the capital. We beg to differ!

There are plenty of laughs to be had here and, as is customary at all gigs on the ‘free fringe,’ you pay what you think the show is worth. Our ultimate verdict? Worth queuing for.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Castle Terrace, Edinburgh

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13/08/16

Castle Terrace’s reputation precedes it – and it’s a place we’ve wanted to visit for quite a while now; but somehow, we’ve never found the right time to do it. Now, newly relocated to Edinburgh and within a few days of our second wedding anniversary, plus a visit from our favourite nephew, we simply felt we’d run out of excuses. Time to put on what passes for our best bib and tucker and take that five-minute stroll around the corner.

First impressions are encouraging. The dining area is spacious and has a light contemporary feel, not in the least bit stuffy, like some other fine dining restaurants we might mention. The friendly staff begin by presenting each of us with three colourful amuse bouches – handsomely crafted little taste explosions, each with its own unique flavour. The first is the essence of a Caesar salad, the next crab, and the third beetroot and goat’s cheese. It’s a brilliant introduction and we haven’t even ordered yet.

The starters are a little slow in coming so what happens next? They bring us another amuse bouche, by way of apology, this one a brilliantly rendered miniature ‘egg’ made from panacotta, haddock and mango, packing an intense fishy flavour. It’s superb. There’s also a basket of hot bread with butter to spread on it, but we try to resist eating too much of it, wanting to keep our appetites keen.

The starters arrive. We’ve chosen raviloli of brown crab with minestrone of vegetable, served in its own bisque and ballotine of Ayrshire pork with gooseberry jelly and crackling. Both dishes are superb, the bisque on the former so rich and satisfying, you feel you want to wipe up every last drop with a chunk of that lovely bread. The pork is satisfyingly succulent and, if there’s a slight criticism here, it’s simply that the crackling seems a little too ‘wholesome,’ lacking the illicit smack of pork fat that would have made it perfect. But this is a tiny niggle, all things considered, and our livers will probably thank us for it.

Main courses duly arrive and are happily devoured – the Inverurie lamb is tender and juicy and served with a tempura of aubergine and apricot, light, crispy and packed with flavour. The seared wing of skate has a fresh, punchy taste and this is served with a crisp vegetable salad infused with a zesty lemon and lime dressing. The nephew opts for the pithivier of ox tongue with an heirloom tomato and basil salad. This has a crispy pastry top and comes with a dark and delicious jus. It is essentially a posh meat pie and I wondered if some equally posh chips might have been a more appropriate accompaniment, but we hear no complaints from Dylan.

Do we have room for dessert? Well, as this is the first time we’ve dined here, we make the ultimate sacrifice and say ‘yes.’ Pretty soon we’re tucking into a vanilla crème brulee (old school in a shallow dish with a crispy, seared topping) and – for me the star of the show – a dark chocolate and raspberry delice with Earl Grey custard. Imagine, if you will, something that looks like an oversized Tunnock’s teacake, handsomely decorated and made from superior ingredients. Break through the brittle carapace of dark chocolate and you release a flood of rich, raspberry ooze. The custard, which I’ll admit worried me somewhat when I read about it on the menu, makes the perfect accompaniment. Yes, it tastes of Earl Grey tea, but against all the odds, it complements the rich chocolaty dessert perfectly. Who knew?

We’re amazed to read after the event that Castle Terrace recently lost its coveted Michelin Star, but surely it can only be a matter of time before it’s reinstated? Because all things considered, this just might be… (takes a deep breath but says it anyway) the best meal I’ve ever eaten. What else can we give this but the full five stars? If you’re in Edinburgh and feeling flush, go a la carte. Otherwise, at lunchtime there’s a brilliant three course set menu at £29.50 per person, which will linger in the memory long after you’ve finished dining.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Tatterdemalion

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12/08/16

The Omnitorium, Assembly George Square, Edinburgh

As soon as we take our seats in the wonderfully quirky Ominitorium, it’s clear that we’re in for some old-school clowning. Performer/director Henry Maynard takes an empty seat and sits among us as if waiting for the show to start. Half dressed and wearing a red fez, he proceeds to make us laugh without uttering one intelligible word – a series of grunts and gestures does the job as eloquently as words might.

Eventually, he’s up on stage rooting through a tattered trunk of props, each of which he uses to tell a little story. It’s hard to review an act like this. Too much description would give away the game and what this set is all about is a series of delightful surprises – but I will say that the highlight for me is a routine he enacts using nothing other than a white shirt, which he manages to turn into something surreal and magical.

There’s lots of audience interaction in this show. People are pulled up onto the stage and made to perform alongside the clown, but don’t let that worry you. This is gentle and charming stuff and all those who are invited to perform leave the stage looking very pleased with themselves. If you’ve a liking for a mixture of physical comedy, mime and puppetry, this is surely the show for you.

4.5 stars

Philip Caveney