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shark_hatNotes from Edinburgh shows; this will be tl;dr for most people and somewhat incomprehensible for the rest, probably; it's as much to remind myself of what I saw as anything else. That being said, here we go...
Sat 10th
Gareth Morinan; (Banshee Labyrinth, Free fringe) interesting ideas, flow not great- prepared slides a prob, less room to expand on bits that are going well? Lots of good numbery gags tho, venn diag gags.... A bit about dating. "Our society says men can approach any woman and go 'Penis?'"
Alex Horne, (Pleasance 2) lots of fun bits with himself prerecorded arguing/agreeing with himself, & Andre Agassi, Michael Caine, Cherie Blair's audiobook clips. Inventive. Abt lies/standup/ boring life.
Tapeface; (Pleasance Grand) amazing, really fun. V big room, worked well in it. Audience throwing balloons onto stage at end was happy. Liked body language of exasperation with audience "volunteers". "Lean on me" bit- four people playing a trust game without meaning to- was cool!
Noise Next Door's Lock-in w. Chris Martin & Joe Lycett (Pleasance upstairs); nice improv as usual- Lycett did sort of Mertonesque undercutting which was funny, game where 2 players were props for the others was good (one as a bum bag for Lycett...)
Sun 11th
Baconface (ie Stewart Lee) (Stand 2)- odd! Bit less drawn out and repetitious than Lee's usual sets. Round room, 45/50? Bit abt the bacon itself, claims to have invented everything in comedy, "every Canadian comic has a bear story".
Croft and Pearce (Gilded Balloon, Sportsmans) Well crafted sketches, some recurring characters/ characters that turned out to be related to ones in other sketches. Evil Brown Owl and suicidal Jean and June were highlights ("OF COURSE I LISTEN TO RADIO FOUR!")
David O'Doherty (Pleasance One) Good, as you'd expect him to be. Death of stick insect, betrayal of Lance Armstrong, love of cycling.
Horne Section w. James Warmsley and Sara Pascoe (Udderbelly) Pascoe's persona better than songs she improvised (reggae, spoken) but they were OK. Hornes Sectiopn fun, banter abt haandsomest one of band. "Conducting" by watching the bounce of a pingpong ball up to a spacehopper, getting audience to mime instruments/ singing and a getting chap to sing who really belted it out, reversing pronouns in songs very clever "Never seen me looking so lovely as I do tonight", "Fuck me, you won't do what I want".
Mon 12th
Domestic Science (Canon's Gait, Free fringe)
Fun. 1st date using turmeric-soaked noodles as litmus paper, bee dances, holiday destination dances, exoplanet discovery, a rainbow, tapping Morse code on picture of John Thaw. Feat Dan Schreiber (whose show is Prince of Dorkness) who looked like Xander and was good on geek courting, assuming ppl were turned on by facts.
Shirley & Shirley (Underbelly Clover); OK; have seen an article suggesting that sketch acts can try and make up for poor writing w good acting... liked "Dumped. By Calvin Klein" running gag.
The Big Sheep (Underbelly, Wee Coo) Excellent, 4 actor farce on tiny stage, actors hid in audience and one insulted the tech, resulting in death by sound effect... liked heroine resolving not to be rescued and going "off script" so that final scene was confusing, also running gag abt which characters get backstories/are allowed to do the voiceover.
Birthday Girls ,(Pleasance Below) Comedy has been banned and the government controls household objects. Very nice, set in totalitarian future where a brave(ish) sketch team is rebelling(ish). "Dara's dating advice" w massively uncomfortable presenter, Scottish Family Drama "Pop tarts turn ye intae a slut" and dozens of offspring, mum who shovels shite and film director father; biohazard suits and coughing up organs, one comic sulking if not allowed to be violent and one who likes dogs...
Alternative Comedy Experience (Stand 1); Very good (of course). Room so hot though! Hosted by Simon Munnery, with a routine about Churchill's eyebrow lice, and some pitfalls of bringing up children- the first is raised by nervous parents, and the second is raised by the first. "Who'd call a 4-year-old to baby sit a 2-year-old? Especially a 4-year-old with a grudge?". Stewart Lee had a bit about the difference between voiting Tory now and in the 80s, and pointed out the dangers of assuming all media with animals in it is satire (Is Animal Park a Marxist allegory? An audience member, asked for an animal for Ben Fogle to talk about, gave a baby tapeworm.) Also a letter to Helena Bonham-Carter re Planet of the Apes and being firends with the Camerons. Grainne Mcguire was OK. Ed Aczel was excellent, a shy, humourless persona, who did a SWOT analysis of the gig and had a list of differnt kinds of comic, whith an example joke from each. David Kay was good as well, v Scots, v dour.
Tue 13th
Miyazu: The Little Mermaid (C Too, St Columba's)- hard to find entrance but a nice little garden. A Japanese dance/theatre piece- it had more talking than I expected- I think I got the gist of the story but missed bits! Girl in love with someone, refuses proposed groom, runs away? Comical peasants, then I think she drowned? Lost her upper layers of kimono, anyway. Except perhaps there was a boat. Anyway the happy ending was perhaps in the afterlife, or after reincarnation? Lots of lovely images so who cares- lanterns, billowing waves. (A fun moment when one of the scene setters drew back his veil of invisibility, patted his forehead with a hanky to establish it was hot, pulled the veil back on and hurried off.)
Giraffe (Underbelly Cowgate) Enjoyed it; a lot of very short sketches including the murder of musical stars, how animals have sex, Pierce Brosnan's qualifications to play Bond, and Mary Poppins as a dealer. (Also a Geordie in a pet shop. "Pet pet?") Podcast of a couple of sketches.
Collier & Cox (Free Fringe, top deck at Free Sisters) A bit of crosstalk, then 2 separate 20min sets. Liked Cox better- songs and how rubbish The Rules and The Game are- but Collier was OK.
Jigsaw (Pleasance Upstairs) Slightly plot-driven sketches (around Nat owing Wonga money, and the lengths she'll go to to get it- such as convincing Dan that she is four of his children); some total asides, like a running gag about an audience member who supposedly bullied Tom at school. Nice use of space and darting through the audience (I got walloped by an elbow at one point.)
History of the BBC (Apex International) Good. More of a poignant play abt the breakdown of relationship btwn an obsessive and a non-obsessive than I'd thought it would be!
Late Night Gimp Fight, (Pleasance Dome) Fun, slightly deconstructing itself with the interplay btwn gimped videos and live action. A crash test dummy relationship was very nice; also a ghost in an urinal, a man trapped in jelly, the blue cock genie, and a hilarious dance from men with faces on their tummies and top hats on their shoulders. (As for Spiderman with a hole in his costume- yuck.)
Sat 10th
Gareth Morinan; (Banshee Labyrinth, Free fringe) interesting ideas, flow not great- prepared slides a prob, less room to expand on bits that are going well? Lots of good numbery gags tho, venn diag gags.... A bit about dating. "Our society says men can approach any woman and go 'Penis?'"
Alex Horne, (Pleasance 2) lots of fun bits with himself prerecorded arguing/agreeing with himself, & Andre Agassi, Michael Caine, Cherie Blair's audiobook clips. Inventive. Abt lies/standup/ boring life.
Tapeface; (Pleasance Grand) amazing, really fun. V big room, worked well in it. Audience throwing balloons onto stage at end was happy. Liked body language of exasperation with audience "volunteers". "Lean on me" bit- four people playing a trust game without meaning to- was cool!
Noise Next Door's Lock-in w. Chris Martin & Joe Lycett (Pleasance upstairs); nice improv as usual- Lycett did sort of Mertonesque undercutting which was funny, game where 2 players were props for the others was good (one as a bum bag for Lycett...)
Sun 11th
Baconface (ie Stewart Lee) (Stand 2)- odd! Bit less drawn out and repetitious than Lee's usual sets. Round room, 45/50? Bit abt the bacon itself, claims to have invented everything in comedy, "every Canadian comic has a bear story".
Croft and Pearce (Gilded Balloon, Sportsmans) Well crafted sketches, some recurring characters/ characters that turned out to be related to ones in other sketches. Evil Brown Owl and suicidal Jean and June were highlights ("OF COURSE I LISTEN TO RADIO FOUR!")
David O'Doherty (Pleasance One) Good, as you'd expect him to be. Death of stick insect, betrayal of Lance Armstrong, love of cycling.
Horne Section w. James Warmsley and Sara Pascoe (Udderbelly) Pascoe's persona better than songs she improvised (reggae, spoken) but they were OK. Hornes Sectiopn fun, banter abt haandsomest one of band. "Conducting" by watching the bounce of a pingpong ball up to a spacehopper, getting audience to mime instruments/ singing and a getting chap to sing who really belted it out, reversing pronouns in songs very clever "Never seen me looking so lovely as I do tonight", "Fuck me, you won't do what I want".
Mon 12th
Domestic Science (Canon's Gait, Free fringe)
Fun. 1st date using turmeric-soaked noodles as litmus paper, bee dances, holiday destination dances, exoplanet discovery, a rainbow, tapping Morse code on picture of John Thaw. Feat Dan Schreiber (whose show is Prince of Dorkness) who looked like Xander and was good on geek courting, assuming ppl were turned on by facts.
Shirley & Shirley (Underbelly Clover); OK; have seen an article suggesting that sketch acts can try and make up for poor writing w good acting... liked "Dumped. By Calvin Klein" running gag.
The Big Sheep (Underbelly, Wee Coo) Excellent, 4 actor farce on tiny stage, actors hid in audience and one insulted the tech, resulting in death by sound effect... liked heroine resolving not to be rescued and going "off script" so that final scene was confusing, also running gag abt which characters get backstories/are allowed to do the voiceover.
Birthday Girls ,(Pleasance Below) Comedy has been banned and the government controls household objects. Very nice, set in totalitarian future where a brave(ish) sketch team is rebelling(ish). "Dara's dating advice" w massively uncomfortable presenter, Scottish Family Drama "Pop tarts turn ye intae a slut" and dozens of offspring, mum who shovels shite and film director father; biohazard suits and coughing up organs, one comic sulking if not allowed to be violent and one who likes dogs...
Alternative Comedy Experience (Stand 1); Very good (of course). Room so hot though! Hosted by Simon Munnery, with a routine about Churchill's eyebrow lice, and some pitfalls of bringing up children- the first is raised by nervous parents, and the second is raised by the first. "Who'd call a 4-year-old to baby sit a 2-year-old? Especially a 4-year-old with a grudge?". Stewart Lee had a bit about the difference between voiting Tory now and in the 80s, and pointed out the dangers of assuming all media with animals in it is satire (Is Animal Park a Marxist allegory? An audience member, asked for an animal for Ben Fogle to talk about, gave a baby tapeworm.) Also a letter to Helena Bonham-Carter re Planet of the Apes and being firends with the Camerons. Grainne Mcguire was OK. Ed Aczel was excellent, a shy, humourless persona, who did a SWOT analysis of the gig and had a list of differnt kinds of comic, whith an example joke from each. David Kay was good as well, v Scots, v dour.
Tue 13th
Miyazu: The Little Mermaid (C Too, St Columba's)- hard to find entrance but a nice little garden. A Japanese dance/theatre piece- it had more talking than I expected- I think I got the gist of the story but missed bits! Girl in love with someone, refuses proposed groom, runs away? Comical peasants, then I think she drowned? Lost her upper layers of kimono, anyway. Except perhaps there was a boat. Anyway the happy ending was perhaps in the afterlife, or after reincarnation? Lots of lovely images so who cares- lanterns, billowing waves. (A fun moment when one of the scene setters drew back his veil of invisibility, patted his forehead with a hanky to establish it was hot, pulled the veil back on and hurried off.)
Giraffe (Underbelly Cowgate) Enjoyed it; a lot of very short sketches including the murder of musical stars, how animals have sex, Pierce Brosnan's qualifications to play Bond, and Mary Poppins as a dealer. (Also a Geordie in a pet shop. "Pet pet?") Podcast of a couple of sketches.
Collier & Cox (Free Fringe, top deck at Free Sisters) A bit of crosstalk, then 2 separate 20min sets. Liked Cox better- songs and how rubbish The Rules and The Game are- but Collier was OK.
Jigsaw (Pleasance Upstairs) Slightly plot-driven sketches (around Nat owing Wonga money, and the lengths she'll go to to get it- such as convincing Dan that she is four of his children); some total asides, like a running gag about an audience member who supposedly bullied Tom at school. Nice use of space and darting through the audience (I got walloped by an elbow at one point.)
History of the BBC (Apex International) Good. More of a poignant play abt the breakdown of relationship btwn an obsessive and a non-obsessive than I'd thought it would be!
Late Night Gimp Fight, (Pleasance Dome) Fun, slightly deconstructing itself with the interplay btwn gimped videos and live action. A crash test dummy relationship was very nice; also a ghost in an urinal, a man trapped in jelly, the blue cock genie, and a hilarious dance from men with faces on their tummies and top hats on their shoulders. (As for Spiderman with a hole in his costume- yuck.)
