As a general point,
we were interested to notice a few patterns emerging in the content of the
acts, with a number of the comedians using some of the same topics for their
jokes. One of the main themes was a dislike
of social media, in particular facebook, but there was also a lot of time given
to the question of Scottish independence, Fifty Shades of Grey, and the Olympics. The Olympics was an interesting one as I got the impression that a lot of them had expected a backlash against the Games and prepared a few jokes being negative about them, but then having seen how popular and successful they were, had to change tack and be positive themselves.
Show 1: Chatroom
Six teenagers are
talking in chatrooms. We gradually start to hear some of their stories and
watch as it turns nasty and a couple of them begin manipulating the others. It
is a simple storyline, and whilst it has its moments, it is a little
predictable. It could have benefitted from delving just a bit further into the
individual characters' storylines and the consequences of the actions.
Show 2: Alan Davies
- Life Is Pain
Alan Davies has
been off the standup circuit for a while and he did seem like he might be a bit
rusty. It's not that he wasn't funny, we did actually quite enjoy a lot of the
material, but it just wasn't quite the polished show hat you would expect from
someone as well known and established as he is. Of course it probably doesn't
help our view of him when, like most of the well known acts, tickets to his
show cost more than twice what we are paying for anything for anything else.
Show 3: Visual Aids
(free)
The two comedians
in this act, Ali Brice and David Bussell were working together, but also, for
the purpose of the show, against each other. We prefered David's slightly Alan
Partridge style of verbal humour to Ali's prop using slapstick. It was OK for a
free show, but we might have regretted our choice had we paid to see it.
Show 4: Blitz
Sisters, Sweethearts of the 40s (free)
This isn't a
comedy, but two women singing popular songs from the second world war era. One
of them seemed more confident than the other, and had a voice better suited to
the style of music, but they sounded good together. Covering classics by Dame
Vera Lynn, Marlene Deitrich, The Andrews Sisters and even George Formby, they
entertained us well and threw in a few interesting facts along the way.
Show 5: Three Days
Off Jesus
Show 6: Catie
Wilkins, Joy is my Middle Name
Show 7: The
Property known as Garland
Aside from a few
amusing scenes with the dressing room assistant, this was a monologue showing
Judy Garland getting ready for a performance. It dealt compassionately with the
fairly serious issues that she had faced in life, as well as her now declining
career, but was also very funny. She held the audience's attention and provoked
varied emotions as she reminisced about her experiences and the people she
knew, both good and bad. It did help if you knew who the other names of the day
were, but not knowing them wouldn't stop you enjoying it. We thoroughly enjoyed
it.
Show 8: The Age of
the Geek
We were a bit
disappointed with this; it is such a rich vein, but this show didn't fully tap
it in our view. We quite like The Big Bang Theory, and we went along to this
expecting something that covered similar themes. So perhaps the problem was
that our expectations were too high. The one man show was generally amusing,
and there were some laugh out loud moments, such as the Star Wars v Star Trek
bit, but much of it didn't really work for us. Some of the songs went on a bit
too long for their content, and there was a tedious section with a childish box
of props. Perhaps you need to be a geek yourself to enjoy it.
Show 9: Sex Ed the
Musical
Four teachers are
giving sex education classes with the help of a permanently pregnant pianist.
As well as the lessons themselves, we get to see the effect on a couple of
students and have an insight into the sex lives of the teachers themselves. It
is intentionally over the top and works fabulously. The songs are hilarious. If you ever saw Avenue Q and liked the songs in that then you would like this. We
loved it.
Show 10: Max and
Ivan Are... Con Artists
A team of seven
criminals are getting back together to do one last job. Max and Ivan play ten
characters between them and do an amazing job of always doing the right person
at the right time. The characters are all well portrayed, so there is never any
doubt who you are watching, even when it is just a snippet. The storyline is
simple but effective and the show is very funny.
Show 11: Suzi
Ruffell - Let's Get Ready to Ruffell
Suzi Ruffell has a
slightly manic but nonetheless likeable feel to her performance. When she
started talking about being bullied at school and her difficulty coming out as
a lesbian, it felt slightly like being in a self help group, although weirdly
it was still funny. At times she seemed to be trying a little too hard, which
may have been because it is hard to play to such a small audience. Overall
enjoyable, but not one of the best we saw.
Show 12: James
Acaster - Prompt
If you didn't know
the Kettering FC chant before you saw this show, you certainly did by the end (With a K and an E and a T and a T, E and R and an I, N, G, Kett'ring Town FC!).
James has an easy, couldn't-care-less style, but at the same time demonstrates
a slightly obsessive approach to some of his topics - the football chant and
the bread surveys in particular. His wooden duck takes over the
show at one point for a slightly angst ridden confessional over James'
shoulder. Nominated for best newcomer in the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award.
Show 13: Juliet
Meyers - Raised by Fridge Magnets
I know that
sometimes the show titles are only vaguely relevant to the show itself, but in
this case, Juliet did talk quite a lot about fridge magnets and the messages
they give. Much of her material was quite good, but it would have worked better
if she had kept the thread a bit more tightly woven through the whole
performance . As it was, it felt a bit haphazard at times, which detracted from
the humorous effect. Perhaps it was nerves, perhaps not, but I would be interested
to see her again in a few years to see if a tighter, more polished show lives
up to the potential that this showed.
Show 14: Eleanor
Tiernan - Rogue
A small crowd must
be difficult for any comedian, and Eleanor was probably glad to have a couple
of her friends amongst the eight of us. She started off, as a few people have,
but talking briefly to each member of the audience to find out who they were.
This can work very well if you are good at improvising your comedy, with a
quick bit of humourous (but friendly) banter with each person; unfortunately,
Eleanor does not have that kind of quick witty response, so when one audience
member particularly liked the sound of his own voice, and was boring with it,
she couldn't get out of it. And when another person mentioned a show called
'what', and we all thought there was a 'Who's on base' style gag going on, it
turned out that there was no joke, she was just confused. It's hard to recover
from that start, and Eleanor's random collection of quips, didn't really manage
it, even though some of them were quite good. You know something didn't work
when you come away thinking 'Ah, what a shame, she seemed nice.'
Show 15: Simon
Munnery - Fylm-Makker
It's not often in a
live show that most of the audience can't actually see the comedian. Simon has
chosen to take a new approach to his show by filming himself and having us
watch the projected image. He is still in the room, but we are not looking
directly at him. The style allows him to use a his of cardboard figures and
pictures as props, providing additional visual humour, as well as his own
anecdotes. Unusual yes, but an interesting change and it worked well.
Show 16: Lucy
Porter - People Person
Looking back at the
blurb for this show afterwards, I wouldn't recognise it as it was billed at
all, but hey, who cares as long as it's funny; and this was. I have no interest
in children, or stories about children, so it it a testament to Lucy that I
found her funny even though her whole show was based around finding a new
friend (or not) whilst adapting to being a mum. She chatters away, going off on
tangents, but always following a strong structure, connecting the gags and
building the humour. And after hearing her quotes from Argos customers' product
reviews, I will definitely be checking out their website when I need a laugh.
Lucy probably won't score highly for those looking for cutting edge comedy
topics , but she is definitely funny.
Show 17: Markus
Birdman - Love, Life and Death
We quickly learn
that, aged 40, Marcus had a stroke. No sympathy required here though, he makes
his experience amusing and uses it as a springboard to talk about his formula
for love, life and death. His is what might be termed a caustic wit, and he has
an aggressive, yet still strangely charming approach to his audience. Some of
his life maxims may be a little cliched, but his delivery of them is funny, and
the hand drawn picture behind him is fantastic.
Show 18: Retail
Therapy
Sadly, this show
just didn't work for me. Maybe it is just that I remember laughing to 'Are You
Being Served?', which made this look like a pale imitation, but this musical
story of a rather trite tale of love and deceit in a department store just
didn't cut it. In most cases, the singing and acting weren't strong enough to
carry the show; had the writing been sufficiently strong and funny, you could
perhaps forgive the lacklustre performance, but sadly it wasn't. It had a few
good moments, but unfortunately not enough.
Show 19: Exit Stage
Left
Not everything at the fringe has to be overtly funny, and this play would have done well to remember
that. The storyline was fine, even if the entire audience had worked out the
twist in the tale well before the end. Some of the acting was good, others
improved during the show, some just didn't really cut it. But it was reasonably
enjoyable by the second half, so I could forgive its shortcomings, except for one thing that we felt really let it
down. They made the deputy director role a comedy part, with an unbelievably
stupid script and hugely over the top performance. It felt totally out of place
in this play and found myself wishing that he would just fall down a trapdoor.
Show 20: Coalition
Set over the final
period of the Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition, this play focuses on
the Deputy Prime Minister and the challenges he faces. With Thom Tuck, Jo
Caulfield and Phil Jupitus amongst the cast, this is a polished show that
successfully makes a potentially heavy topic very funny and we really enjoyed
it. Mind you, Nick Clegg probably wouldn't enjoy it too much, and it could turn
him into a paranoid wreck!
Show 21: Bad
Musical
Three men play all
of the parts in this musical. And in a very good way, it really is bad. They
flow from one disaster to another, from having to cut huge chunks to fit a
three hour show into one hour, a missing actress, prop failures, an
overexcitable prompter, and a totally incompetent sound and effects man. The
storyline is, of course, terrible. It is hilarious and great fun.
Show 22: Alistair
Barrie - Urban Fogey
Show 23: Vikki
Stone - Hot Mess
Show 24: The
Improverts
Show 25: 21A
Show 26: McNeil and
Pamphilon
Show 27: Andrew
Laurence is Coming to get you
Show 28: Sitcom
Double Act
Show 29: Late 'n'
Live
Show 30: Piff the
Magic Dragon in ... Jurassic Bark
Show 31: And they
Played Shang-a-Lang
Show 32: Liam
Mullone - A Land Fit For F*ckwits
Show 33: Steve
Gribben - Viva Gribbostania!
Show 34: John Scott
- Totally Fed Up
Show 35: Ro
Campbell- Midnight Meltdown
Show 36: Holmes and
Watson - The Farewell Tour
Show 37: Wild
Allegations
Show 38: Assassins
Show 39: Built for
Two
Show 40: In a
Handbag, Darkly
Show 41: Question
No-one
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