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Rating Guide
None = Unmissable
= Unwatchable
Page number refers to the Fringe programme
M***** Makes It Live At The
Hive. (Page 48).
Drams
(easily two without Harry Ainsworth)...
Venue Beehive Inn (Venue 178).
Address 18 Grassmarket.
Reviewer Anna Kay.
It is completely beyond me how Garth Cruickshank won the Perrier
Newcomer (2002). I can only hope that his act - character comic Harry Ainsworth
- is supposed to be ironic, although I doubt this at times. Cliched material
and ‘jokes’ that just aren’t funny make his an embarrassingly poor set.
Fortunately the show features four further acts who are well worth waiting for.
Compering is ‘New Deal Comedian’ Tony Carter (conversely a winner of
a Tap Water Award last year) with an upbeat happy style that really warmed the
audience to the whole show – even bringing them round after Ainsworth’s
set, to be supportive of the next act - Ewan John . Some of John’s
gags are somewhat predictable but his deadpan, surrealist style seems to make
up for this, making me laugh almost despite myself. The show is headlined by Kiwi
Simon McKinney , whose new twists on old themes make for a strong ending,
but the best in my view was Steven Davidson. He has a great style of boy-next-door
mixed with utter absurdity which provokes many genuine laughs.
Watch out for these last four
– they will go far.
© Anna Kay 17 August 2004 - Published on
EdinburghGuide.com
Runs to August 19 at 21:30.
Company Steven Davidson, Ewan John, Simon McKinney, Garth Cruickshank, Tony Carter.
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Mervyn Stutter's Pick of the
Fringe (Page 47)
Drams
.
Venue Gilded Balloon Teviot(Venue 14).
Address 13 Bristo Square.
Reviewer Neil Ingram.
Mervyn Stutter is an institution at the Fringe - well it's certainly
better than being in one. Now in its 13th year, Mervyn's Pick of the Fringe
has a loyal if rather mature audience, though as Mervyn points out, this is
the generation who the politicians now have to listen to. In Stutter's show
they are daily provided with a remarkably diverse range of entertainments. It's
a different line-up every day, and you can expect music, comedy and theatre
in the mix.
The day I was there the selection included music from bluesman Adrian Byron
Burns and from Bongo Fury, two young men who create sounds from anything they
can hit with sticks, comedy from Gamarjobat, two amazing Japanese mime performers,
duo Colin and Fergus and the inimitable Scott Capurro, and exerpts from two
theatre shows - Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolves, a scary piece of childrens'
theatre, and The Translucent Frogs of Quuup, a tribute to the English upper
classes' quest for the unknown. The whole show is skilfully compered by Mervyn
Stutter himself, who also entertains with a couple of witty songs about
the English aristocracy.
Nice jacket, Mr Stutter, and a very nice show.
© Neil August 14 August 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Runs to August 30 at 13.00 every day, except 17.
Company – Mervyn Stutter.
Company Website www.mervynstutter.co.uk
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Miles Jupp Presents The Lost And
Lonely Rebels. (Page 48).
Drams .
Venue Assembly Rooms. (Venue 3).
Address 54 George St.
Reviewer Anna Kay.
I have seen a lot of sketch comedy done really badly. It is very difficult to
translate what is so often seen on screen to the medium of a stage. However, Jupp
and his ‘rebels’, Humphrey Kerr and Stuart Murphy, fell into none
of the traps employed by lesser comics. People, for example, often feel a need
to employ a series of strange costumes and wigs, but these three let the material
and the strong quality of their acting do their own job.
They present a series of extraordinarily well-constructed sketches with
surreal Monty Python-esque observations and sideway looks at the world,
even making a couple of very old jokes into new and ever-funny sketches.
I couldn’t believe how quickly the show’s hour flew by, leaving me longing
for more.
It’s a shame there is a need to title the show with
Jupp, purely because he is a ‘name’. The performance quality was
consistent amongst the three. Someone give them a TV series!
©Anna
Kay 27 August 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Run ended.
Company RBM.
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Millie and Tillie
Do You!. (Page 48).
Drams
in fact the whole bottle.
Venue The Pleasance Courtyard
(Venue 5).
Address 60 The Pleasance.
Reviewer
Anna Kay.
A record! This is officially the worst show I have seen
this Fringe. Two women with faux upper class accents and tweed bumbling
their way through an hour of what claims to be a comic life makeover
show.
In reality they produce a show which is not only technically
poor but failed to raise in me the faintest half smile. And musical
numbers? Why? They can’t even sing.
In all fairness, I may have missed a joke in there somewhere as I found it incredibly
difficult to maintain my concentration. I only wish they hadn’t felt fit to remind
us at the end that we were now an hour closer to death. I really felt it.
©
Anna Kay 27 August 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Runs to
August 30 at 13:30.
Company Razima Productions
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My Life As A Ten Year Old Boy.
(Page 50).
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Nancy Cartwright.
© photographer.
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Drams
if you're adult, Two fizzy pops if you're not.
Venue Assembly Rooms (Venue 3).
Address 54 George Street.
Reviewer Rowan Smith.
Nancy Cartwright's show has a few funny parts but it isn't well ordered. At
one point she told a heart warming and very sad story, then when it finished
she went almost straight back into comedy. There were lots of voices for the
audience, but, when I went, she didn’t say that very well known catch phrase
"aye carumba". I'm sure lots of us would like to hear it live.
She talks about her childhood and how she was the sound effects machine for
the town. Although she has many voices, she tells us she doesn't own any of
the voices of many The Simpsons' she has recorded and is so well known for.
Despite the The Simpsons' popularity it's very strange to me she doesn’t
realise that at just after 19:15, the time of her early shows, kids will be
present. Surprisingly she says a bad word a couple of times.
If you are a massive Simpson fan then you should go and see this show. If not
you probably won't enjoy it.
© Rowan Smith (Aged 11) 16 August 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Runs to 30 August at various times not 10 or 17.
Company – Nancy Cartwright..
Company Website www.nancycartwright.com
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