Rating Guide
None = Unmissable
= Unwatchable
All That and…
Drams
Venue Holyrood Tavern (84)
Address Holyrood Road
Reviewer Thelma Good
In a pub down at the end of the town, well, on the corner between the
Pleasance and a bit further away in another direction, Dynamic Earth
and the Scotsman Offices both literally and metaphorically, is a wee
pub theatre space created for the festival. It's got a tiny stage and
really intimate audience accommodation where you can drink while you
watch and listen.
There I caught Annie, Gil, Jessica, Ben, Hilary and Earl (James), did
I say it was a small stage. Well, six people perform a comedy show on
it. Some of it is very funny I especially liked Madame Swish, she dominated
the stage when she appeared. This is their first time here together.
They could develop a really interesting show with such a diverse team.
Just now they are still evolving and the pace of the act was slowed
too often by the scene changes, they could have been simplified. Get
rid of the chairs guys, you don't need them. They kinda fought the small
stage rather than made a real thing of it. It was very definitely a
London act, I'd have liked something which acknowledged they were north
of the border especially since when I saw them they'd been here for
a while. I'm a hard woman to please when it comes to comedy, so you
may laugh longer than I did.
But I did laugh quite a lot, just not nearly all the time. And I didn't
have a rebound laugh - when you laugh once then laugh again more because
it's even funnier when you've had a little think. Maybe I'll see them
next year.
Until 19th.
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All That Mullarkey
Drams
Venue The Guilded Balloon (Venue 38)
Address 233-237 Cowgate
Reviewer Richard Taylor
Take one trained sociologist, add a preoccupation with his own genealogy,
mix it together with a Fabian background and empty it out in a common-room
environment. What do you get? Pretty much what you put in in the first
place.
Bringing philosophy to the masses is a noble effort, but it doesn't
quite translate into comedy - the content wins at the expense of presentation.
The only time it connected with me was when it turned bizarre: a cricket-based
ballet performed to a reading of Engels finally did it for me.
This could work, but not at the Edinburgh Festival. Folk still need
to be entertained when they come to see comedy. This material could
only constitute relief in the context of some seriously head-banging
stuff, perhaps mitigating the worst excesses of the Open University
on BBC2, for example. I can see it really working there..... But not
at Edinburgh.
Runs till the 28th.17:30
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An
Audience with Jackie Clune
Drams
(
if you don't like songs with your comedy!)
Venue Pleasance Cabaret Bar (Venue
33)
Address 60 The Pleasance
Reviewer Nicola Osborne
Is glamour dead? Well not if you're in the sublime world of Jackie Clune
and her celebrity pals (otherwise known as you, the audience)… beginning
with the delightfully delirious premise that Jackie is performing her
very own star-studded Audience With…, we are eased into Clune's unique
mixture of songs and very funny set pieces.
Although Clune basically performs superbly tongue in cheek parody numbers
(my favourite of which discusses "Dead Divas" and I've been humming
it ever since the show) this shouldn't detract from the quality of her
singing voice which, even when impersonating other singers, is amazingly
strong. Something that took me rather by surprise and makes her other
show, Love Song Uncovered, a must-see. Of course Jackie's open to questions
from her celebrity pals so she helpfully wafts through the audience
circulating her pre-prepared cards with part of what makes the show
quite so much fun being her choice of "celebrities". On the night I
saw her it was the Susan Sarandon she picked from Cornwall that stole
the show sending even our gracious host into giggles… That Clune looks
as good as she sounds - she is utterly stunning in her floor-length
gold number is merely the icing on the cake for this well written and
highly polished show.
Expect to enter the world of absurdity that is celebrity as she throws
in some absurd cattiness and bizarre anecdotes just when you least expect
it... She's sexy, lovely to her audience, sings beautifully and is wonderfully
charming and funny throughout… It all adds up to a joyful, glitzy and
wonderfully light-hearted show.
Running until 28th (except 8th, 15th & 22nd), at 20:00
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Are
You Dave Gorman?
Drams None Unmissable
Venue Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60 The Pleasance
Reviewer Ray Anderson
Dave Gorman takes us on an adrenalin-charged, rabid pursuit of his own
personal Holy Grail - other people called Dave Gorman. His quest takes
him (and his double-crossing flatmate) to far-flung places such as Venice,
New York, Sweden and, erm… Glenrothes. His task is to find others nominally
identical to himself within the ideal range of 300 to 500 mpdg (Miles
Per Dave Gorman). Getting caught in a tornado in the USA whilst looking
for the president's house, flying to France to meet a Canadian only
to find that he is in London, 15 miles from Gorman's home and other
such meetings and nonevents keep you rooting for him like the underdog
in some obsessive sporting event.
Like the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on speed, Gorman supports
his story with slides, overhead projections and audio recordings of
his namesakes, his boarding passes and other evidence to great comic
effect. His show is thoroughly engrossing throughout and I was only
disappointed when the tale came to the present day and we had no more
Dave Gormans.
So, if you are also called Dave Gorman, or know someone who is, please
get in touch with this one at dave.gorman@virgin.net and allow this
superb comic adventure to continue.
Runs till 28th except 22nd.
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Arthur
Smith's Alternative Tour of The High Street
Drams 
Half
a dram to keep the cold out,Absolutely Brilliant
Venue The High Street
Reviewer Thelma Good
Half past one in the morning and there are
people loitering at the top end of the High Street. Eyeing one another
warily to start with and then the question, "Are you waiting for the
same person as me?" A grin on the other person's face, "Arthur Smith."
Yup we're here for the same reason, Arthur Smith's famed alternative
tours of Edinburgh. Gradually the crowd, for now one or two in doorways
has become a steadily increasing flow, drifts up towards the Castle
for that's where we've been instructed to meet.
A disembodied voice ringing out, "You are all going to Die." We laugh
the truth away. Suddenly Arthur Smith appears, megaphone and beer can
in hand, and a silk dressing gown, like that worn by my father, for
warmth. He gathers us up and starts in traditional manner offering a
rather odd roll up with a twisted end to smoke or a good snogging from
a willing woman to the security guards. They go for the woman, all three.
And then we are off to listen to fanny farts, Burns songs sung from
high windows and the first strip of the night on top of a red pillar
box.
We wander on down, stop to hear a song, all of us joining in on the
chorus, "We want sex, love can come later." Henrick a German tourist
comes our of the crowd, makes us laugh as he shows his great ability
to do non P.C. standup with the best. By St Giles Arthur tells us how
he has come to the Lord until Arthur's megaphone turns against him and
howls a siren warning. He points out we should pay the homeless man
something for we've just invaded his living room. The man laughs and
receives some of the crowd's thanks. A man shins all the way up a flag
pole, refusing the money Arthur offered, he wants a funny cigarette
instead, someone in the crowd obliges. Everyone is mellow, either a
smoke, or high jinks, who can tell.
Henrik appears again, Starbucks is really close. But we're all too middleclass
to do a Seattle tonight. Except the police who suddenly wade in from
nowhere. The crowd reacts, protecting its court jester as best they
can. The crowd mobs down Cockburn Street, the two coppers going with
them, and I hung back and started to turn away. Which is why I was nearly
flatten by the two polis carrying handcuffed Henrik by his oxters to
their squad car. Four other squad cars hurtle in and a black Maria.
It's the Festival for, F---s sake someone says, and the crowd realise
we still out number them. A thought trembles in the air, We could…….
But Arthur appears and we stop. He's our mate, we don't want to make
things worse. One of the PCs releases his hold on his PC truncheon.
Arthur's is safely inside Arthur's trousers now! Stand up, crowd control
and, courtesy of the Lothians and Borders how to nearly cause a riot.
Quite a night that, Arthur. Come the revolution Arthur , I'm with you.
And Hendrik if he's out.
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Arthur
Smith sings Leonard Cohen
Drams Hair of the dog maybe
Venue Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60, The Pleasance
Reviewer Thelma Good
He sings better than Leonard Cohen, those songs which went on for ever
in the hazy days of the late 60s. Arthur takes us down and feeds us
jokes and reflections on life that come all the way from south of the
Thames and he gets you on his wavelength and you laugh.
In the mid afternoon we were well entertained by Arthur and his friend,
an excellent guitarist whose name I didn't catch. I'd been on the Arthur
Smith alternative tour of the High street at 2 in the morning and my
wits weren't quite with me again. Well, this guitarist, who is still
some looker by the way, treated us to some real hot snatches of other
classics of that time including a Hendrix number.
And Arthur continued lugubriously wandering through his set proving
that great comics never die they just become vintage brews that we want
to travel with and we want to travel blind. He'll be back next year,
this Fringe pillar of the Un-establishment. Go, and laugh with him at
the bizarre world we all live in.
Till 27th
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Blue
Grassy Knoll
Drams
Venue Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60 The Pleasance
Reviewer Colin Donati
If you think you know what a silent movie is, yet haven’t seen Blue
Grassy Knoll in action - think again. This boisterous Australian band
(banjos, drums, washboards, etc) do marvellous things for Buster Keaton.
Last year they brought ‘Sherlock Jr’ to the Fringe. This year they’ve
turned their talents to ‘Our Hospitality.’ Not one on-screen gag slips
past their accompaniment - even many you’d never noticed before.
Being Keaton’s first full-length feature, the pacing is altogether different
from ‘Sherlock’. This time the 1920’s audiences are transported back
to a time when Fifth Avenue was still a dust track and the dogs can
run faster than the railroad trains.
Keaton takes time to build up period and story. It isn’t all laughs
either. ‘The Knoll’ paint in the darker tones with exceptional skill
and sometimes eerie effect. The climactic waterfall scenes are breathtaking.
As always, top marks for their ability to bring Keaton to life with
fun, invention and mischief, but always total respect for everything
that happens on screen. I only give this show the dram because the venue,
with flat-floor seating, is not of the best for screening a movie.
Nevertheless, go prepared for a total experience. Cheer the goodies.
Hiss the villians. Even bang with the pistol shots if you like. Just
keep them in time.
Runs till the 28th (not 8th or 22nd) at 17.00hrs.
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Bob
Goody's Bite of the Dog
Drams
(or beer to keep Goody company)
Venue Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60 The Pleasance
Reviewer Thelma Good
Looking
like a floppy afghan hound, Bob Goody comes on with a pint of beer and
for 50 minutes entertains us with tales of his life and a few of his
short poems. Engaging in his delivery he flings his angular form around
as we laugh about his neighbours and giggle as he tells us how his life
goes. It's hard to do comedy so early in the day but Bob succeeds. A
welcome return to the fringe for Goody after quite a while. You set
me up for the day! Catch Bob now ( I saw him on his first day) or later
when I think he'll be very Goody!
On till 28th not 8 or 22.
