Author Topic: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers  (Read 13388 times)

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #25 on: 19 August, 2008, 02:33:25 pm »


I'm not quite sure where I stand on Jimmy Carr.

I would suggest his neck.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #26 on: 20 August, 2008, 12:51:59 pm »
Omid Djalili last night ,at the Pleasance. I've seen him before a few times, and I don't think I'll bother again. The show was tired, stale, dull, unfunny, predictable and we'd seen a lot of it before, same old jokes. Some of it was reasonably amusing - although nothing has stuck in my mind - but a lot of it I'd seen before from him, and not just once, over several years. It's a shame, because he is a talented comedian with interesting observations about British and Iranian culture, but he seems to have got lazy and complacent. 4/10.

That was my last show this year! Tomorrow night I'm off to Noocassell and Friday morning I'm flying off to Greece.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #27 on: 20 August, 2008, 06:17:21 pm »
I saw Pappy's Fun Club doing a preview of their "Funergy" Edinburgh show and would highly recommend it to anyone Fringing it this year. Completely off the wall and it really ought to be extremely irritating but it's actually extremely funny - well, the best bits are extremely funny, but it doesn't maintain a consistent level of brilliance. That said, the Owl/Internet section is worth the price of admission by itself. Go and see them now before telly discovers them and ruins them.

I also saw Paul Sinha at the same show, also doing a preview of his Edinburgh act. If you've heard Paul Sinha on Radio 4, you'll know exactly what to expect - openly gay, overtly left-wing, unashamed Guardianista, highly intelligent and mildly polemical. His style is that of a long, rambling lecture packed with illustrative anecdotes - similar in some ways to Mark Steel but less of the ranting Trotskyist. He's always a pleasure to listen to, even when he's not being laugh-out-loud funny, but then he drops in moments of unexpected comic verve that are all the funnier for taking you by surprise.

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

blackpuddinonnabike

Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #28 on: 22 August, 2008, 12:50:32 pm »
Otis Lee Crenshaw

Having seen Rich Hall's show the last couple of years we were going to give him a miss this year. It's not that it wasn't funny, it really was very good indeed, but there was a fair amount of repeated material. But this year we ended up figuring the Otis Lee Crenshaw character of his (basically what he would have been like if he'd never left Tennessee) would be a bit different.

We weren't disappointed, sitting in a small 'cabaret' bar to see a mix of country music and stand-up, with two sidekicks playing alongside. It really was very funny indeed, though there were still some jokes that were hanging on from last year. The show was a bit more ramshackle, but seemed all the better for it, and Rich Hall was able to play to the audience perfectly.

Given the last show we saw was Tim Minchin it was interesting to compare the musical side of things (Tim wins) and there was even a joke they shared in common about the mathematical improbability of finding the 'one' for you (Tim's was a song about it, Rich did it as part of the stand-up).

8/10

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #29 on: 07 August, 2009, 07:49:43 pm »
Went to a Jason Byrne preview last night (cheaper than the proper show). Was supposed to start at 8.15pm. Didn't start till nearly 9pm. We were kept waiting outside in the queue, which did not please us; we wanted to sit down.

Interesting set. Stage containing his usual bizarre accoutrements - last night a giant peg (wooden one with a spring clip, not a cheap plastic dolly peg), a stick, a red feather boa, a towel and a long platinum bouffy wig. Backdrop was from left to right, giant X-ray of a knee with torn cartilage and callous on tibia, giant poster of Jason dressed as Bond in classic leaning-gun-against-the-upper-arm pose but with face blacked out, giant X-ray of left clavicle and scapula, clearly displaced, with chip of bone missing.

Jason Byrne is fairly madcap and random (more madcap than Ross Noble but not as random) but seemed to stick to more or less his prepared set last night. Audience banter, people in boxes being sawn in half, explanation of the choice of X-rays as backdrop which included explanation of how he got the injuries. All very funny, excellent stuff. 8.5/10
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


her_welshness

  • Slut of a librarian
    • Lewisham Cyclists
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #30 on: 07 August, 2009, 11:53:57 pm »
Rich Hall as Otis Lee Crenshaw at the Pleasance.

I like Rich Hall. He does very intelligent comedy, pointed but not malicious, and he's always very funny. Otis Lee Crenshaw is a character he does, the premise being that OLC is Rich Hall's Tennessee cousin who's spent his whole life in prison and been married 7 or 8 times, every time to a woman called Brenda. Now he's in a prison country and western band. The band used to be the Black Liars - they were really good, but now it's a different band, just a guitarist and a banjo player, plus OLC on vocals and keyboard. The banjo player and guitarist walked on and immediately started playing Duelling Banjos.

He does a little bit of audience banter, has a comedy chat with a couple of audience members and then makes up country and western songs around the info they gave him. Tonight was a housing officer called Michael from Nottingham, and an IT bloke called Ian from Ayr. He also does other songs, one about Roberta in the KKK, some others, and a fantastic one about whisky and how Scotland invented whisky and America ruined it.

It's very clever and very funny and I enjoyed it very much. 9/10.

 
 


I adore Rich Hall, and Otis Lee Crenshaw is absolutely brilliant  :thumbsup: Am so jealous!

My fave song of his has to be 'Are you my new Daddy now?' Sad, but funny.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #31 on: 08 August, 2009, 10:36:26 am »
I like "I didn't come from no monkeys" more.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #32 on: 08 August, 2009, 11:48:07 am »

Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #33 on: 10 August, 2009, 01:05:11 pm »
I'm in Edinburgh this weekend and I'm wondering what's worth seeing. I haven't bothered looking up any reviews or anything obvious like that (far too lazy to actually read stuff ;)). I think in years past I went to one of those review shows - 'Best of The Fest' and it was a bit disappointing. I do recall seeing the most amazing street performers. Is it possible to still get tickets for any of the good shows anyway?

[edit] I have seen Rich Hall as Otis Lee Crenshaw at the Melbourne Comedy Festival some years ago - he was brilliant.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #34 on: 10 August, 2009, 01:10:11 pm »
I'm in Edinburgh this weekend and I'm wondering what's worth seeing.

If I were up there, the top three acts on my must-see list would be:

Richard Herring's Hitler Moustache (I've been following its genesis and development over the past year via his podcast with Andrew Collins, so would be very interested to see how the show has turned out)

Josie Long (utterly adorable and very funny)

Pappy's Fun Club (saw a preview of their 2008 Edinburgh show and loved it)

I'm sure there are others but I can't think of anything right now.

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #35 on: 10 August, 2009, 07:25:43 pm »
Step Daughter is performing in Losing Susan at the space, royal college of surgeons.  Its had good reviews and is supposedly going to get a full page in the review magazine! Go and see it!

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #36 on: 11 August, 2009, 10:17:48 am »
Rich Hall on Friday night. I've seen him be much funnier. I think perhaps with it being very early in the run he wasn't quite into his stride yet. And he says since George Bush left office he's lost 63% of his material.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #37 on: 11 August, 2009, 12:54:51 pm »
We saw a few things this weekend -

So, let's see. first we saw One Man Lord of the Rings, at the Udderbelly: http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=16401

It was tiresome and dull. He tried hard, and was very clever, mimicing all the voices and acting out the film. but it was very much about the film, rather than the books - and would have been amusing for 10 minutes from a pal down the pub. And he said something about being in England and got booed, the poor chap! So - a dud.

Then David O'Doherty: http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=16226

He was - quite amusing. What a killer compliment, eh? But it was fine, made us laugh, i wouldn't say not to go but I wouldn't sell my granny to go again.

Shakespeare Bingo: http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=13679

I was quite surprised by this - it was brilliant! Completely silly, but clever and funny and What The Fringe Should Be. Be warned though: if you win the bingo you get a part in the play...

Andrew Maxwell: http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/search.php?search=andrew+maxwell

He's pretty funny - it did have the feel of a preview and he was clearly still sorting out material, but he's pretty amusing.

Art: http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=16433

Wow. Go, if you can - I loved this. The play was on in London a while ago and I remember reading about it - and these guys do it really well. The synopsis: Tensions rise when Serge shows his friends his new, very expensive, all-white painting.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #38 on: 11 August, 2009, 05:32:24 pm »
We saw a few things this weekend -

So, let's see. first we saw One Man Lord of the Rings, at the Udderbelly: http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=16401

It was tiresome and dull. He tried hard, and was very clever, mimicing all the voices and acting out the film. but it was very much about the film, rather than the books - and would have been amusing for 10 minutes from a pal down the pub. And he said something about being in England and got booed, the poor chap! So - a dud.
Oh no! I have tickets for that later in the month. I saw his one-man Star Wars last year and really liked it.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #39 on: 12 August, 2009, 05:12:38 pm »
From Richard Herring's blog:

Quote
I actually had to head to the Gilded Balloon to judge a semi-final of "So You Think You're Funny". Luckily (or unluckily if you are the me the day after writing this) I was provided with wine. I thought I might need it to get through a night of watching eight new comics doing their sets.

But the standard was extremely high and nobody was terrible, even though they had (supposedly) all been going for less than a year. It was between about three of them who were all great in different ways, but then a guy called Naz Osmanoglu came on to close and made it a slightly easier decision. He is a name to remember, however difficult that might be. Very confident, very original and tightly performed.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #40 on: 13 August, 2009, 10:59:48 pm »
Adam Hills tonight. Excellent. Consistently hilarious, and joyful and uplifting as well. Came out feeling full of joy. 10/10

We learnt the BSL signs for Scotland, England, Ireland, lesbian, Iceland, and the Australian signs for "fuck you, fuck you all." Also covered paralympics, the politeness of Dutch audiences, the inflatable joke, Bon Jovi songs are the universal constant, and if you're going to be sick, eat a kitkat and then when you throw up it'll taste of kitkat.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #41 on: 14 August, 2009, 07:28:55 pm »
Just in from a Theatre Alba production of The Outlaw, rendered in Scots as The Ootlaw. Was supposed to be performed in Duddingston Kirk Gardens but it's been pissing down all day so they moved it into the church. I didn't particularly enjoy it. I've seen several of their productions before and loved them all, but this was really hard to follow. It was all in Scots and I was struggling to follow it, although I managed a couple of years ago when they did The Lass Wi The Muckle Mou. It was something to do with Vikings and Norse gods and the coming of Christianity, and Anna Guthrie in particular was very good, but it was so hard to keep up with what was going on. 4/10
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #42 on: 15 August, 2009, 11:10:44 pm »
One Man Lord of the Rings tonight. Saw the same guy last year doing One Man Star Wars, which I loved. Was less keen on One Man Lord of the Rings. Only an hour, but I felt it dragged - but then, I felt the films dragged too. He followed the story faithfully, but went with the film rather than the book where the two diverge. Some of his voices were very similar to his Star Wars voices - Gandalf had a touch of Obi-Wan, Gollum was a bit Yodaish, Luke and Frodo - practically identical. Bits were quite funny, some clever puns around Elvish/Elvis (the one ring inscription becoming one for the money...) but I think the films are soooooooooo long that there's way too much to cram into a one hour show and it was a strange mixture of way too much going on but dragging a bit as well. And not helped by being in the Udderbelly Pasture with the noise of the bar very audible. 6/10.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #43 on: 23 August, 2009, 06:35:41 pm »
Reginald D Hunter at the Udderbelly Pasture.

Every time I've seen him on HIGNFY, he's been hilarious. Unfortunately, he can't stretch that to a full hour of hilarity. His act seems to be "I'm black, I like to say nigger a lot, I like sex, white people are different, I'm black, I have a cool accent, I like to say nigger a lot."

Some of what he was saying was funny and I did giggle most of the way through, but there were no belly laughs and it did get a bit samey. I think he's a clever man and some of his observations are very good, but he needs to work on that more and move away from the "I'm black and I like to say nigger a lot" stuff. None of what he said is really sticking in my head.

My overriding thought throughout the show was "why is someone who has lived in Britain for 12 years wearing such terrible American jeans?" You know how Americans seem to have stuck with narrow-legged stonewashed jeans rather than moving on to darker denim and wider legs? You can spot an American a mile away by the cut and colour of their jeans.

6/10
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #44 on: 24 August, 2009, 12:55:58 pm »
OK, a bit sad to repost a link I saw on The Register, but here's the tope Ten Fringe jokes:

Dave Award for Funniest Joke of the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe revealed

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #45 on: 24 August, 2009, 08:46:40 pm »
For someone who loves reading as much as I do, it's odd that I don't often go to book festival events. Well, not really, most of them are during the day and I have a Job. But this year I have seen two events.

The first one was Ben Moor and his book, More Trees to Climb. I have written about Ben Moor before. Well, not so much about Ben, more about his wonderfully marvellous beautiful moving funny lovely one-man Fringe shows. I've seen 'em all and loved 'em all. He's collected three of the shows together into a book - Not Everything is Significant, Coelacanth and A Super-Collider for the Family. I recommend it. It's marvellous. And it has a really cool retro design on the cover.

I wasn't sure what the book festival event would entail, whether it would be Ben reading passages from all three of the stories, or if he would be performing one in its entirety, or whether there would be a Q&A session afterwards, which is de rigeur at book festival events. I was hoping there would be questions afterwards as I had already decided to ask him if he'd rather have a really heavy head or gravity defying arms, much to Toria's amusement. Or was it bemusement? But sadly there was no Q&A, just Ben performing Coelacanth. Not that that's anything to be sad about, it's lovely. It's about love and romance and family and competitive tree-climbing and isolation and numbness and acceptance and hope and peace, and bits of it are really funny. And it has a big stick in it, (which I want to steal because it is a nice stick) and an eye-patch which once I wrecked with just the power of my mind. Well, that was a different eye-patch, but you know what I mean. So, that was Coelacanth. If you get the chance to see Ben doing his plays, take it. Totally worth it. Beautiful.

And the other event I went to was David Sedaris. He's an American comedy writer and one of his sisters is Amy Sedaris who has acted in quite a few things you might know. Google her, I can't be arsed typing it out. I've read several of David's books. I know he writes a column for the New Yorker and I think that at least some of the books are collections of the columns; the chapters have that sort of feel about them. Each of them is a story in and of itself and the only constants are the characters - David, his family, his partner Hugh. He talks about his life, his childhood, jobs he's had, mistakes he's made. He has a very distinct written voice, funny and wry and not ashamed to admit his flaws or talk about the stupid things he's done. His story about the performance art he tried to do when he was on drugs is hilarous.

He read two shortish pieces. One was in the shape of an email from a woman to a friend, thanking her for a wedding present of a voucher for two free pizzas which started off funny and got funnier - and crueller - as it went on. The next piece was very interesting in terms of structure. He was talking about his recent trip to Australia and some of the things they did and saw, which included feeding raw duck meat to a kookaburra, but he tied it into another story about he and his sister Amy singing a song about a kookaburra when they were kids, a song he'd learnt at school. Neither anecdote was really much of story by itself but tying them together made them interesting, relevant, poignant and funnier. He talked a little bit about it in the Q&A afterwards, about how neither anecdote was worth much individually, but how interweaving them made them into something different. It was interesting for me to see a little bit of how he works at his writing to craft something from almost nothing. Must get his new book.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #46 on: 04 August, 2010, 10:27:28 pm »
It's August and so the thread is back!

Tonight I went to see Danny Bhoy. I've seen him be funnier, but he was good. Charming, engaging, likeable, funny, very funny when talking about Scotland and Scottish culture, very pretty and I could see his nipples through his shirt.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #47 on: 06 August, 2010, 10:46:44 am »
It's August and so the thread is back!

Tonight I went to see Danny Bhoy. I've seen him be funnier, but he was good. Charming, engaging, likeable, funny, very funny when talking about Scotland and Scottish culture, very pretty and I could see his nipples through his shirt.


Excellent, looking forward to your annual reviews of the Fringe!

Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #48 on: 06 August, 2010, 10:55:34 am »
Thanks Kirst!

I'm heading for the Fringe tomorrow.
First off - Mervyn Stutters Pick of the Fringe. This year it is at the Pleasance.
Every dat at 1pm Mervyn gets in acts which are good, to od a short selection from their show. It is a great way to sample productions, and get tickets for the full show later on. Recommended.

Later on in the evening Reginald D Hunter

Will be staying in a student flat near to the Udderbelly, should other YACFers be around.

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: Fringe show review thread - reviews may contain spoilers
« Reply #49 on: 06 August, 2010, 06:02:14 pm »
It's August and so the thread is back!

Tonight I went to see Danny Bhoy. I've seen him be funnier, but he was good. Charming, engaging, likeable, funny, very funny when talking about Scotland and Scottish culture, very pretty and I could see his nipples through his shirt.


Excellent, looking forward to your annual reviews of the Fringe!

Yes, you go so we don't have to  :)
Aero but not dynamic