Rating Guide
None = Unmissable
= Unwatchable
Clare
Summerskill
Drams
(or
if you're easily scared by a room full of assertive lesbians!)
Venue Komedia@Southside (Venue 82)
Address 117 Nicholson Street
Reviewer Nicola Osborne
Described as the "lesbian Victoria Wood", Clare Summerskill blends an
eclectic show of standup, music and theatrical sketches as she takes
you through what seems to be more or less her life story. The result
is an extraordinarily personal show as Summerskill leaps around the
stage with staggering energy recounting past lovers, therapy and various
misadventures with a graceful and quiet - but always defiantly "Out"
- comic edge. The comparison to Victoria Wood and various other performers
makes some sense (particularly when you spot a guitar on stage indicating
that, yes, she sings…) but Summerskill has created a style very much
of her own, with her sketches standing as powerful theatrical miniatures
between the punch-lines.
Above all the intelligence with which the show has been created, and
the lack of the "issues" usually so prevalent in queer comedy, is a
treat. Although this is always going to be a one-woman show by a gay
comedian, straight audiences should not be put off (even if they do
find themselves heavily outnumbered by the lively lesbian crowd), since
they are very welcome and much of the performance - especially the dramatic
content - will strike home just as effectively and with the same poignancy
(in fact I dragged a straight friend along who enjoyed it as much, if
not slightly more, than myself) . A funny, unique and entertaining experience
(and - if you're yet another lonely dyke - a great place to meet women!)
Running until 27th, not Monday, at 18:30
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Cyderdelic
Drams None - any
E's anybody?
Venue Gilded Balloon (Venue 38)
Address 233 Cowgate (La Belle Angel)
Reviewer Thelma Good
This
is a multimedia comedy show, the videos are wicked and b-----y well
shot too, the ace music original, and for once we have DJs with great
singing voices. At the end of a long reviewer's day it was great to
discover Beetle and Su and get on down.
Dancing and arguing their way through their set we all laughed at them,
and ourselves, masses last night. These Exeter Eco-DJs thought they'd
check out the rave scene in Edinburgh this August, the Fringe was a
bit of a surprise! They usually go to Festivals, but of a slightly different
kind. It's the first show they've brought to the festival, and it's
a show so good it stops the traffic! Excellent, whatever your thing-
if you like class acts check Cyderdelic out. And I really loved Frogger.
Till 28th.
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Dan
Antopolski: Second Coming
Drams
Venue The Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60 The Pleasance
Reviewer Ray Anderson
For
his first solo show, Dan Antopolski is very comfortable on stage. From
his flyer I expected Antopolski to be an opinionated American (nothing
necessarily wrong with that) and was surprised when he spoke with a
BBC-like English accent. With a great presence on stage he carries off
parts of his act with flair where lesser comedians would have floundered.
Original and innovative are overused words but they apply to this man,
no more so than when he gets into a surreal argument with himself from
a month ago using a tape recorder.
If you are the shy type then don't sit in the front row for this show
as you are sure to be included in the performance at some point, even
to the extent that his tape-recorded self persuaded a member of the
audience to continue the act without him.
Thoroughly recommended.
Runs till 28th except 8th and 22nd.
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Earl
Okin - Old Horny Mouth Says Goodbye!
Drams
(good)
Venue The Cafe Royal (Venue 47)
Address 17 West Register Street
Reviewer Colin Donati
Alas
this is to be ‘Old Horny Mouth’s’ last year in the Festival. One of
the stalwarts in the original spirit of the Fringe, the deviously crypto
conservative Londoner might just possibly claim the longest run of August
visits to Edinburgh. His track record speaks for itself. ‘I’m approaching
my 500th performance and have always managed to stay in the black.’
This year he has two shows; one at the Cafe Royal, the other at the
Bongo Club (as ‘Peggy, Mel & Joao.’) If you ain’t seen him yet, the
man is a master of laid-back cabaret and innocent innuendo. He’s no
mean singer either, with a set of butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-the-mouth
songs and a beautiful line in uncanny, utterly convincing jazz horn
imitation through the lips.
In the Cafe Royal set, his casual banter with the audience is a winner
from the start. By the time he gets to his song with the sensual sex-cat
noises chorus, he has it as a sing-along and my god, no one can help
themselves joining in! As the guy from New Zealand says - the man’s
a hoot! Brief preview for his 500th - and final - Fringe performance,
which promises to be a little bit of Festival history. This ‘farewell
to the audience’ will include reflections on how Fringe comedy has changed
over the years. He laments some of these changes, in particular the
loss of the Fringe Club and the way the cheque-book appears to be taking
over with the result that hype replaces word-of-mouth and the whole
shebang threatens to become a trade-fair for the big backers. ‘This
is the very world I came to the Fringe to avoid,’ he says. Watch this
space.
Runs till 27th, at 20.05 (Cafe Royal) and 14.20 (Bongo Club). 500th
show 28th August (Cafe Royal).
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Fit
to Burst
Drams
(good)
Venue The Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60 The Pleasance
Reviewer Colin Donati
A pleasant mid-afternoon piece of three-handed light comedy entertainment.
The series of sketches includes a fair deal of inventive material woven
together with a few deft musical parodies, such as the vaguely sinister
barber shop trio dialogue - in a barber shop. I liked in particular
the potted biography of Bishop whats-his-name, British 20th century
opera composer, complete with extracts from his work. Sung and choreographed
with frightening accuracy. The host of characters includes the self-effacing
ex-convict with a strange tale of misdemeanour after the purchase of
a chocolate bar, a nostalgiac cowboy in a furniture store, some rather
dubious experimenters in a Freudian therapy centre and a running gag
based on the three monkeys, blind deaf and - that other one. An edgy
undercurrent of untold threat and peculiar secrets keeps the sketches
charged. All in all worth a visit.
Runs till the 28th (not 14th), at 15.20hrs.
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Four
Horsemen UK
Drams None (excellent)
Venue The Gilded Balloon (Venue 38)
Address 233-237 Cowgate
Reviewer Richard Taylor
The horsemen constitute four of the middle-class 'yoof' generation now
approaching their middle years. Parodying various strata of Middle England
their work is observant, witty, well paced and well crafted. One day
media moguls will view this material as a potential rival to Harry Enfield.
This pack clearly have a talent for optimising their opportunities -
wall projections maintain the momentum between sketches, and themes
are effectively developed throughout the show - but their best material
is their simplest work.
The banal suburban conversation between a man, his newspaper and his
wife, is as solid a portrayal of Everyman as you are ever likely to
find. Go beyond these foundations, however, and there a problems: two
vestal virgins suffering a profound mishap on their way to a party just
doesn't work because their mime technique falls down.
At the end of the day, one gets the feeling that these players all have
proper jobs to go back to, and that their technique suffers as a result.
That said, such problems are easily within the tolerance levels accepted
by Festival goers. Well worth a visit.
Runs tills 28th, 20:00
They also have one of the best designed flyers.Festival Editor.
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Garth
Marenghi's Fright Night
Drams None (Excellent)
Venue The Pleasance (Venue 33)
Address 60 ThePleasance
Reviewer Andrew MacNeil
The Devil Press' star author, Garth Marenghi appears in his own tale
the multi-connational Fright Night. The set, idea and plot are simple
but the timing and humour is breath taking. In fact as tight as the
demented 30-year long breast-squeezing of a Welsh witch. Lactation has
never been this fun! Don't be fooled the self-mocking asides and local
shop cast-off masks which are placed in carefully honed and jewelled
performance,and script.A
narrator features and along with the slow visual gags brings the audience
even more fully into the performance. I loved the slow,then stalled
mind-driven boat. The focal character: shaman and dream master Garth
Marenghi leads you through a cod-verse of trouble. Go-wake up the Dundee
visitors upstairs! Go now for the curse may be upon youuuuu!!!!!. Not
to be missed! Awake or undead.
Runs until
28th (not on Monday 21st)
