Review: Edinburgh Fringe, Day 3

Sunday being a day of rest and all that, it was decided to take things a little more gently yesterday morning, and not get in to Edinburgh quite so early. The previous days at the Festival had mostly been spontaneous, but Sunday was a little more planned out as there were some shows that had caught the eye but, for one reason or another, we’d not managed to attend. The first of those shows didn’t start until 4pm however, so we still had plenty of time to catch another show beforehand. We’d nothing particular in mind, so as one of the shows that we were going to attend was at the top end of the price scale we thought we might save a bit of cash and see if there was anything of interest on at the Half-Price Hut (located on the Mound) at the right time before heading off elsewhere. There were a couple of things on offer that looked OK, but we decided in the end to go for some more improvisation.

Show 1: The Maydays Confessions

The premise of this show is that, prior to the start, the members of the audience are given a slip of paper on which they are to write down a secret that they are happy for the Maydays to use as a basis for their improvised sketches (the confessions are completely anonymised so that the audience doesn't have to worry about everyone knowing exactly who it was that did whatever comes out of the tin). I didn't put anything in the tin to be pulled out (as always almost happens, my mind drew a complete blank at the precise moment I was asked to put something down), but Suse did and her confession happened to be the first one to be pulled out of the tin. It was nothing particularly scandalous, but it has now been immortalised in song, which was rather amusing! I have to confess though, out of all of the shows that I saw at the Festival, this was my least favourite. Some of the improvisations were funny and I did enjoy them. But at least 50% of the time - if not more - I have to confess to being disappointed with what they came up with and I felt that some didn't work at all. I guess this shows how difficult true improvisational comedy is: the other improv comedy shows I went to see (and enjoyed) both had clearly defined parameters that they knew that they would be working within before they started their shows. My opinion about The Maydays was not, however, universal: Suse enjoyed it more than I did and she felt that the humourous sketches were more plentiful than I did. So, in conclusion, if improvisation is your thing then why not go and give The Maydays a try? If, however, you like your comedy with a bit more structure, like I do, then I would recommend going for something else.

http://www.themaydays.co.uk/index.html, Underbelly Cowgate 2.20pm, 1hr, until August 25th.

Show 2: Champagne Cabaret

This was one of the shows that had been planned for Sunday. The premise is that the audience gets to sample five sparkling wines and champagnes whilst three Aussie 'Songeliers' sing you songs from a number of singers, pairing the wine experiences that the audience enjoy with their music. This sounded interesting and certainly different and definitely worth a shout. We weren't the only ones to think like this. We got to the venue, and all the remaining seats had already been accounted for, so no joy.

http://www.ozcabaret.com/, The Hispaniola 4.00pm, 1hr, Jul 31, Aug 1-4, 6-11, 13-18, 20-25th.

Show 2: Ivo Graham

This was the other show planned for Sunday. Plugged by Josh Widdicombe in The Guardian last week, he sounded like a must see. Sunday seemed like a good day to see him, so off we went to the venue to see if we could get tickets. 'Were there any available?' 'Yes, one.' 'Oh....' So that was that really. Our luck was most definitely not in....

https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/ivo-graham-binoculars, Pleasance Courtyard 6.00pm, 1hr, Jul 31, Aug 1-11, 13-25th.

Show 2: Mixed Doubles

Having failed to get into either of the last two shows that we wanted, we were at a little bit of a loss. So off to the Half-Price Hut we went again! Whilst there previously I'd had a look at what was coming up later and spotted this show, but as we had already decided to go to see Ivo Graham at that time there seemed little point in buying tickets. As the saying goes, as one door closes another one opens. I can't say whether Ivo Graham was any good, but what I can say is that Mixed Doubles was. A sketch show featuring two men and two women, it was very funny and highly enjoyable. Taking a look at, amongst others, modern friendships, dating and parenting practices, office behaviour and Andy Murray, Mixed Doubles produced a set that was fast and furious, with each tightly scripted sketch lasting no more than a couple of minutes. I would have quite happily paid full price for this show, so the fact that I got it at half its cost was a bonus! A show that is well worth catching.

http://www.mixed-doubles.co.uk/, Just the Tonic at The Caves 6.00pm, 1hr, Aug 1-12, 14-25th.

Show 3: Matt Lacey: Classroom Warrior


Suse left me in Edinburgh after Mixed Doubles as she had to get ready for work the next day, but as there were still plenty more shows left to see I figured that I might as well stay and catch at least one more show. I didn't have anything in particular in mind so decided to see what I could find. Scrolling through my app nothing really caught my eye until I saw this one. As I work in education it sounded like it could be quite amusing, and as I figured I had just enough time to walk across the city to catch it I headed away from the main Fringe venues to the French Quarter where the venue was. The premise of the show is that the audience are parents looking to send their children to the school, and Lacey plays every one of the various teachers who have come to speak to the audience about what their children will be studying at the school. It's a very tightly scripted show, but that doesn't mean that Lacey is afraid to go off script a little and interact with his audience. The characters in the show are memorable - Lacey's most famous creation inevitably makes an appearance in this show, but for my money he is trumped by the P.E. teacher - and the show itself is very funny and well worth making the effort to leave the Royal Mile and all the venues located around there.

https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/matt-lacey-classroom-warrior-free, The Voodoo Rooms 7.30pm, 1hr, Aug 3-12, 14-18, 20-24.

Day 3: The Verdict

In some ways this day was a bit of a mixed bag, due to a) my sense of humour failure at The Maydays Confessions and b) our failure to get into the two shows that we had actually planned to see on the day. But both Mixed Doubles and Matt Lacey: Classroom Warrior both made up for that. They were both excellent and made picking out my favourite show of the day difficult. But in the end I had to go for Matt Lacey: Classroom Warrior as my pick of the day - it was just a joy from start to finish, and was a great way to end my Fringe Festival experience.

Review: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Day 2

On Friday I was at the Festival alone, going wherever my fancy took me. Yesterday, however, saw me come to the Festival with my friend, Susan (or Suse, to give her the name by which she's commonly known by amongst our group of friends), which added an extra dimension to the day as it meant that decisions on which shows to go and see would have to be negotiated between us to take account of our differing tastes in comedy.

Show 1: Mansfield Presents Lovers' Vows

This was our first show, and it was an easy one to settle on. Both of us are Austen fans (the fact that I went for Austentatious yesterday should have made that one clear anyway) and both of us having a liking for Mansfield Park (1814) - which, in itself is slightly unusual, Fanny Price being one of her least well-liked heroines - meant that when we found out about this show it suited both of us. An original production, the play centres around the decision of the Bertram children to perform Elizabeth Inchbald's Lovers Vows (1798) and, using excerpts from Austen's novel, imagines the Mansfield theatricals more comprehensively played out. Somewhat predictably the characters of Mrs Norris and Mr Rushworth provide the comic aspects of the play, whilst the other characters provide more dramatic ones. The play-within-a-play conceit is used here to interesting effect, as Lovers Vows is performed by the Bertrams and Crawfords using eighteenth century theatrical techniques (to a lesser or greater effect, depending on each character's own ability to disguise their emotions) whilst their off-stage dramas are played out using the naturalistic style developed in the late nineteenth century. The production is one that mainly uses student actors, and this is evident in some of the performances. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable hour well spent for fans of Mansfield Park that fleshes out a crucial part of the novel that the author only hints at. 

http://www.charlotteproductions.org/,  Paradise in Augustine's 12.05am, 1hr, August 5-10th, 13th-17th.

Show 2: Impromptu Shakespeare

Like Austentatious yesterday, Impromptu Shakespeare is improvised comedy. Like the aforementioned show, the subject that is performed is determined by the audience, but this time the performers have a bit more control over the proceedings, giving the audience balls to be plucked out of a hat with themes for the play written on them. Admittedly the performers ask the audience members who select the themes to flesh them out a little with their own experiences of that will also be incorporated into the play, but this does seem somewhat less spontaneous. I know that the Impromptu Shakespeare performers have to have a working knowledge of thirty seven different plays rather than just six novels, but their method of selection seems a little less improvised than it could be. The play itself was quite funny, and, as with Friday, the actors proved their skill with their craft by managing to keep the conceit going throughout (one anachronism aside). Indeed, given the imperative to make the material conform to both Shakespearean plot and language, the actors did really well and they made it an enjoyable hour.

http://www.impromptushakespeare.com/ Underbelly Cowgate 2.10pm, 1 hr, until August 25th.

Show 3: Christian Schulte-Loh: Attack of the 50 Foot German Comedian

The decision to attend this show was made purely on the basis that we both have a couple of German friends from our postgraduate days, and dearly though we love them, sense of humour is not top of the list when describing their characters, So, for sheer novelty value, we decided that a German comedian simply couldn't be missed. As it turned out, we nearly did because although the show was listed as taking place in Base Nightclub in the Fringe app, the venue in which the show was taking place was called Beat Nightclub above the door. After we had managed to sort out that confusion, it turned out that a lot of people wanted to see a German comedian. So many had turned out, in fact, that ten minutes of the gig was lost to Schulte-Loh searching for the keys to the venue's mezzanine floor so that people had a reasonable amount of room to enjoy his show in rather than lurk at the back squashed in. Once the show eventually got under way, Schulte-Loh proved that you can be German and funny. His comedy was observational in origin and, as a lot of it came from his interaction with the audience, proved him to be extremely quick witted as well as having quite a dry sense of humour. The amount of audience interaction that he engaged in - at least 30% of the time he was either talking to or about someone in the audience - meant that you came away feeling like this gig was a one-off rather than something off the Festival production line, to be repeated ad infinitum until the end of the month, although he's definitely not an improvised comic.

http://www.germancomedian.com/, Base/Beat Nightclub 5.00pm, 60 mins, until August 24th.

Show 4: Rob Carter: Murder (and other hobbies)

This show was another spontaneous selection, having been decided on after we received a flyer as we left Impromptu Shakespeare (so all the flyering that goes on is apparently not a waste of time). The promised genre was Musical Comedy, something which I had yet to see during my Festival sojourn which was one of the primary reasons why it appealed to Suse and I. Via the medium of song, and innumerable musical genres, Carter gives the audience a slightly surreal view of a middle-class upbringing in West Sussex and beyond. There's a few bits of audience interaction in this show, most notably when one guy who had broken the cardinal rule of comedy shows by sitting in the front row managed to lose his shoes and shorts and had to spend the remainder of the show with only his boxer shorts preserving his modesty, but it is mostly fairly tightly scripted, and doesn't really go off the script too much. The show's conclusion in particular had everyone in fits of laughter and was a definite high point. Overall it was an enjoyable show, with the laughs coming quite regularly, and definitely worth an hour of your time if you're looking for a break from more traditional forms of comedy.

http://www.robcartercomedy.com/, Underbelly Cowgate 6.30pm, 1hr, until August 25th

Show 5: Josh Widdicombe: Incidentally....

The one thing that has so far been missing from my Edinburgh experience is seeing a 'big' name comedian. Whilst Widdicombe is not the biggest name in comedy at the moment (although if you asked me to name who that was, I couldn't), his omnipresence on comedic panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Last Leg and Mock the Week mean that he has permeated the public's consciousness in a way that most of the Fringe performers haven't (so far anyway!). As our last show had finished at 7.30pm, Suse and I thought that we might try and take in a 'big' name to round off our Saturday evening. But as I was, by now, completely out of battery power on my phone (damn you Apple! Why do you have to make such good mobiles with such bad battery power?!), it was decided to adjourn to a hostelry to imbibe some liquid refreshment and take advantage of said hostelry's access to electricity to recharge my phone for a little while, to therefore enable ourselves to actually find their way to the venue. Ah! Those best made plans! Firstly it took us an age to actually find a place for us to have a drink in, purely and simply on the grounds of space. Then, when we not only managed to find somewhere that would accommodate us but also had a plug going spare that I could use to add a small charge to my phone, we decided to make our way to the venue not by using our GPS-enabled phones (my battery was still the problem and Suse's GPS just wouldn't load) but courtesy of the directions given to us by some fairly pished gentleman at a nearby table, which resulted in us walking around the houses for so long that we didn't actually arrive at the venue until about 5 minutes before the gig. Predictably there were no tickets left by this time (although maybe there wouldn't have been even if we hadn't have listened to the drunks given it was Saturday night), so I still haven't seen a 'big' name comedian at Edinburgh. In the words of the song that used to break my heart when I was younger, maybe tomorrow....

http://www.joshwiddicombe.com/, Assembly George Square 9.00pm, 1 hr, August 1-6, 8-13, 15.

Day 2: The Verdict

Once again all the shows that I saw were enjoyable, and it was good having someone else with me to point me in the direction of shows I might not necessarily have considered otherwise. My pick of Day 2 though goes to Christian Schulte-Loh, who was really engaging and is someone that I'd definitely pay money to go and see again in the future! 

Review: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Day 1

Despite, or perhaps because of the media hype, I've always wanted to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I always intended to take advantage of my relative proximity to Edinburgh during the years I spent living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne by taking a day trip (or just hanging around Waverley station in the wee sma' hours until the first train back the following morning) to the Fringe, but somehow never got around to it. Living back in the North-West I thought my chance to attend had gone, as I was definitely not willing to shell out for the cost of rail fare and a hotel during the Fringe on top of the cost of attending various shows. But this year my luck was in. A close friend from my early postgraduate career had moved back to the "mother country" of Scotland and was now living in Stirling. A mere hour away from Edinburgh by train, Stirling was the perfect place for me to base myself for day trips to the festival, and with the additional perk of a very cheap rail fare up to Scotland, meant that it became a financially viable trip once more.

The plan for my first day at the festival was quite simple: there was one show that I definitely wanted to see, and after that I planned to go to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to spend some time wandering around the special exhibition Witches and Wicked Bodies. But, as the Scottish national poet Robert Burns made plain in 'To a Mouse' (1785), what you plan and what actually happens are completely different...

Arriving at Waverley this morning with some time to kill before the show I really wanted to see began, I consulted the fringe app on my phone to see what was happening nearby whilst I waited. The first show to really catch my attention was:

Show 1: Grated Expectations

An original three-man play, Grated Expectations takes the audience on a journey through various scenes of the novels of Charles Dickens via the medium of one man's fractured mind. The scenes selected are ones that will be familiar to many and a current of humour runs throughout the selection. But never far from the surface is the play's insistence that the heart of Dickens is a dark one; that for all the sentimentality and mawkishness on display in his work, the most powerful currents are ones of deprivation, violence and death. As my first experience on the Fringe, this was a useful one, for whilst it had comedic elements to it, it was also thought-provoking in a way that straight comedy shows are generally not. It also provided me with a reminder of the harsh realities for the performers in the Fringe: including myself, the members of the audience numbered three. Numbers so small would have been bad enough in a venue that held only twenty or so seats; in a venue which might reasonably hold anything up to a hundred, it was downright awkward. I wouldn't say that I would have laughed any louder or more extensively than I did had there been more people in the audience, but given the very limited numbers there I was slightly conscious of the importance of my reaction to their performance. Fortunately the piece withstood such scrutiny and the time flew by. It was an enjoyable experience and a good introduction to what the Fringe is about.

http://www.gratedexpectations.co.uk/Site/Edinburgh_2013.html,  theSpace on North Bridge 11.35am, 50mins, until August 10th.

Show 2: Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel

This was the show that I'd earmarked to see today. Given that it was down to be a free show and that it was a show that was returning to the Fringe after a successful run last year, I thought that it would be popular so made my way straight to the venue. Even though I arrived half an hour before the show was due to begin, the size of the queue outside of the venue told me that I wasn't going to feel like I had done at the previous show (that I was just as much on show as the actual performers were), something which was confirmed to me when I found out I was 91st in line. As the strapline to the show suggested, the show was an hour long improv based around a title suggested by that day's audience. Once everyone had made their way into the venue - no small task as it was standing room only - the day's title was pulled out of a basket. Double 00Darcy was the suggestion that was selected, and the glint in the performers' eyes as this was announced suggested that what was to follow would be good. I was not wrong. The show was both extremely well performed and hilarious, with only a few pauses from the cast to even hint that this was an improvised show rather than a scripted one. The attention to generic detail was superb in both aspects - Double 00Darcy had his tea shaken not stirred, the villainous seductress attempts to catch our hero's eyes with an exotic roundel and a foreign card game and the action climaxes at the Lancaster Ball, otherwise known as the Thunder Ball. It was an hour well spent and I'd definitely consider going to see this show again if I had more time in Edinburgh.

http://austentatiousimpro.com/, Laughing Horse @ The Counting House 1.30pm, 1 hr, until August 25th.

After Austentatious the plan had been to head up to see the Wicked Bodies and Witches exhibition. But the scheduling for Austentatious had changed from what it had originally been billed, so by the time it actually finished I realised that, given the time it was going to take to actually walk from the comedy venue to the gallery, I probably wouldn't have that much time to look round the exhibition. So I decided to just stick with Fringe shows for the rest of the day.

Show 3: Darren Walsh: I am a Giant

After pottering around the Royal Mile for a bit, looking at all the show promoters and the various stalls set up to part me from my money, I decided that it was time to head to another show. I had been very tempted by a show by one of the Austentatious guys, but I decided to save that for another day. Instead I thought I'd go for something pulled up from my Fringe app again and this show was the one that caught my attention. A much shorter show than most of the ones that I'd seen being advertised, it also offered something different from what I'd seen before with an emphasis on word play and sight gags in the advertising summary. The show was true to its promise and proved to be an amusing half hour of punnery and visual gags that, amongst others, managed to highlight the closeness of dolphins to the leader of the Nazi Party. For all that though, the show's premise was wearing off by the end and I'm not sure I could have stood an hours worth of that type of comedy (or that it would be possible to write an hours worth of comedy solely punning). A definite case of less is more here I think.

http://www.iamagiant.co.uk/, Heroes @ The Hive 4.45pm, 30 mins, until August 25th.

Show 4: Old Jewish Jokes

For my final show I decided to go for something completely different to the last show I had seen, and a gig promising traditional one-liners seemed like just the job. Ivor Dembina's show combines traditional joke telling and observational comedy by framing the gags he tells within a comedic narrative of his own personal experience. The humour was, yet again, pleasant and not near the knuckle, which is probably a good way to wind down the day. The venue itself is sited in a smallish room off a noisy bar, and that could be somewhat distracting. So it's to Dembina's credit that despite the background noise, and the double interruption of late-comers to the show, that he managed to hold his audience's attention throughout the gig. 

https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/old-jewish-jokes, Laughing Horse @ Bar 50 6.00pm, 50 mins, until August 25th (excluding Tuesdays)

Day 1: The Verdict

So all in all it was a highly enjoyable day with some good picks. The best show of the days was, without a doubt, Austentatious; several times during yhe show I had to wipe away tears of laughter. I also learned a valuable lesson of Fringe festival going: 'free' shows aren't actually free in the traditional sense of the word. Although subsidised to a certain extent by festivals within the Fringe, performers at these shows stand at the exit to the show asking you to pay what you think the show is worth. It's so embarrassing to have to do the walk of shame out of the venue but not put anything in the pot because you don't have any or enough change! So tomorrow I will definitely make sure I have enough to not to have to do that!!!