Busting Out, and Arj Barker - neither of these were my choices, both were late invites from people who found themselves with spare tickets - Scum of the Road and Mrs Scum of the Road, and Mercury Kev.
Busting Out is possibly the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life. Kind of like Puppetry of the Penis but with middle aged women contorting their breasts. Now, I did see Puppetry of the Penis a few years ago and laughed my way through it but I was very very drunk and there was only about half an hour of it, and having seen it once, I never want to see it again. Busting Out was over an hour and I'd had one glass of Pinot Noir (very quaffable). There was about 10 or 15 minutes of funny material stretched out to cover 70 minutes and it really wasn't good. Some of it was unfunny songs about various aspects of bosoms, some of it was contorting their breasts into funny/gruesome/slightly worrying shapes, there was some very funny shadow puppetry which did work really well, there was an odd bit where they got a man out of the audience and made him wear a bra. And there was a bit where they picked three women out of the audience, made them race to see who was quickest in removing their bra from under their clothes (ladies, it's quicker if you undo the back first, and better for the straps, I just did mine in about four seconds), and then got them all to stand in a row and lift their tops up to flash their tits to the audience. Two of them did, one of them didn't. Now, I know at any Fringe show there's a chance there will be audience participation, but I think asking women to flash their tits to the crowd is a step too far. Really.
I have no objection to nudity. It doesn't bother me or offend me - or amuse me - and in the course of my work I have probably seen several hundred naked people. I'm not uncomfortable seeing naked flesh. But I think that selecting women from the audience and putting them into a situation where they are expected to show their breasts or be seen as a bad sport is unfair.
If they cut this show down to half an hour, concentrated on the contortionism and shadow pictures (who knew two pairs of breasts could be shadow made to look like the bat signal?) and cut out the crap characters and unfunny songs, it might be an amusing novelty act for the very drunk, in the same way that Puppetry of the Penis is. But I don't think this show is empowering particularly, or the great feminist statement the blurb seems to think it is. It's good that middle aged women who don't have perky tits are showing that not every woman has youthful firm flesh and that certain changes are inevitable with age, but this was not the Vagina Monologues with jugs. It was just 10 minutes of funny material stretched out to a pendulous hour for no good reason. 3/10. But I do appreciate the offer of the ticket and it was nice to see Mr and Mrs Scum of the Road.
*not ungrateful, really*
Arj Barker I've never heard of, but Mercury Kev's wife had to work so he had a spare ticket, so I went along, thanks Kev. Some of the stuff was really good, started off as what seemed to be your basic bog standard stand-up but then he would twist it or make it that bit quirkier or just have a slightly different take on it which made it more interesting. Good Star Wars joke from a boring build up about black box material and planes. No real belly laughs or crying with laughter moments, but consistent giggles all the way through, no nudity and no audience participation, fine by me! 6/10