Assembly George Square

Sarah Kendall: Shaken

2016SARAHKF_AAY

08/08/16

Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh

I am in awe of Sarah Kendall. Her story-telling skills are extraordinarily good. There is real artfulness in the way she manipulates her audience, expounding all the tricks she employs before using them to full effect. It’s clever, canny stuff – and I love it.

In Shaken, she returns to her adolescence in Newcastle, Australia – a topic that served her equally well in last year’s A Day in October. The hapless George Peach even puts in another appearance, although he’s very much a bit player in this year’s tale. This time, Kendall is ostensibly analysing why storytelling is so important to her, but the main focus is an account of a lie she told when she was just thirteen, and how the resulting attention was so intoxicating, it made her careless of the consequences. And we know all along that it’s not quite true (“The gist of it is true,” she tells her therapist in an opening sequence; she’s clarifying her position right from the start), but she draws us in, beguiles us with a Google ‘fact check’, makes us laugh and squirm and, in the end – damn it, she’s done it again – she makes us cry.

Sarah Kendall was by far the best comedian we saw at last year’s Fringe, and Shaken is another triumph. Her performance is spell-binding, deceptive in its apparent simplicity. She deserves the attention she so clearly craves. Give it to her. Buy a ticket. It’s not a purchase you’ll regret.

5 stars

Susan Singfield

24 Hours with Mary Lynn Rajskub

201624HOURT_AAV

04/08/16

Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh

Mary Lynn Rajskub is best known for her role in hit American TV series 24, and that notoriety is certainly helping her to draw in a crowd. As a comedian, she has little presence in the UK, but she seems set to have a successful debut at the fringe. But, while it might be her fame as an actor that brings the punters in, they’re unlikley to leave disappointed if tonight’s performance is anything to go by. Because she’s really very good.

She seems a little tired, and needs to refer to her set-list on occasion, but this is the first show, and she’s jet-lagged, so we can forgive her that. She’s a strong, engaging performer, with an easy confidence and an attractive persona: she’s self-deprecating but not too much; she knows how good she is.

There’s a confessional tone to the show, and what seems like genuine emotion behind the stories she tells (although she is, of course, an actress…); she’s relatable despite being an international star. Her account of attending the Golden Globes, for example, is less a starry tale of showbiz glamour than an everywoman howl at how awkward life can be.

There are a couple of hack moments (slagging off man-buns just seems too easy, really), but overall this is a delightful show. Mary Lynn is an interesting woman, and it’s worth hearing what she has to say.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Chris Dugdale: Sleightly Dishonest

Unknown

26/08/15

Assembly George Square Studio 2, Edinburgh

There’s something distinctly old school about magician Chris Dugdale: the sharp suit, the comic patter, the cheeky persona… and many of his tricks are well-worn too. The opening routine where he swallows razorblades was popularised by Harry Houdini, while the bullet-catch is the same one that so tragically finished the career of Chung Ling Soo (William Ellsworth Robinson) in 1918, even if Dugdale has adapted it slightly, substituting a paintball gun for a revolver. But actually it’s great to see these classic routines done with such style and aplomb.

However, it’s his sleight-of-hand routines with playing cards that are (if you’ll forgive the pun) his strongest suit. These are conducted at a small table with a member of the audience sitting right beside him and a video camera projecting the whole thing onto a big screen behind. As you watch mesmerised, the cards appear to change suit every time he turns them over. It’s an accomplished piece of close up magic, one of the best I’ve seen.

Another routine, which he spins out through the show has a jaw-dropping payoff as Dugdale appears to undo all traces of everything we’ve seen during his act; and there’s a ‘mind-reading’ trick that had us wracking our brains in a ‘how did he do that?’ sort of way. It’s accomplished stuff, and his invitation to play cards for money with anyone from the audience later on is wisely ignored.

Maybe he might think of doing something bigger, more flamboyant next time out, but for now, this will do nicely. Oh yes, I just remembered. The trick with the Rubik’s cube. How on earth did he do that?

4 stars

Philip Caveney