Cambridge Footlights : Canada

By Ron Bingham

This year’s Cambridge Footlights team is a quartet of fresh faced youngsters (well, except for the one with a beard). The quartet – Matty, Matilda, Rosa and Emma – are all energetic and confident as they jump into an hour of fast paced and inventive sketches that are often as witty as they are original.

One sketch, the machine that shows how you are going to die, was returned to a number of times with some unusual ways to go. The sequence with the piece of string showed some excellent solo acting skills and the dance number had a hilariously childish payoff (I assume they were doing the sexy dancing from the actual video clip from the song that was playing, but I’m too old to know what the song actually was). I also enjoyed the sketches where they included an audience member as a passive cast prop, although the one where an audience member can win cash was fraught with danger. The reason the show is called Canada is due to two sketches in which Canada features in a roundabout way, and I suppose it was as good a choice of name as anything. Unless they just really like Canada.

I went into this show with few expectations, and was impressed with the teams energy and originality. They are all disgracefully young and attractive (well, alright, except for Matty, unless you like someone that looks like a young Rory McGrath) and way too talented to end up doing proper jobs after university. I was surprised that there was no singing in the show, as I thought that was a hallmark of uni reviews. There was enough entertainment in the hour for everyone. There is no swearing or anything that will offend anyone too much, and the sold out audience of the show I saw ranged in age from eight to eighty (who I was sitting next to, the disgraceful old ladies!).

Cambridge Footlights : Canada is on at Pleasance Dome at 5.20pm

For Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/cambridge-footlights-canada

Casual Violence presents: House of Nostril

By Ron Bingham 

This show should come with a warning to those of a nervous disposition to not sit in the front row of the very small, hot and intimate theatre, as the cast perform what I can only describe as shouty and confrontational acting.

The play starts with a very entertaining animated song about a house full of mad and evil characters. The projector screen is then used throughout the play with short animated sequences and some helpful scene setting captions. The five cast members played a number of roles in a story which appeared to go something like this: A young man anxiously awaits the return of his father, who has been away at war for twenty years, hoping for some affection. His father is an evil man who has come up with a plot to rid the world of his enemies by making voodoo dolls of them and destroying them. He wishes to see if the same evil blood flows through the veins of his son. His son, a weak and tender man, fails the test and is tempted by his father’s enemies to help them overthrow his father.

Now, that’s what I think the plot is meant to be, but there are also a lot of scenes involving cockney chimney sweeps and a goblin, and I won’t even mention the Mad nurse from Northern Ireland who is obsessed with cream. And then there are the people who come back from the dead as multiples of themselves…? The poison taster class?? I’m not really sure it was meant to make sense to normal rational sane people. but that doesn’t matter. The actors all went to the school of “if we shout it, it will show we are passionate about the parts we are playing and, after all, that’s the only emotion that needs to be conveyed from a stage”, so don’t expect to see any love scenes (apart from the rather passionate love scenes which appear in the show).

It’s a mad, loud and funny hour of sketches which will eventually coalesce into a finale that will leave you bemused but entertained.

In the interest of making a full disclosure, I happen to work with the director of this show, a fact I didn’t know until I was standing in the queue just prior to entry. The people you meet, eh?

House of Nostril is being performed at The Pleasance Courtyard at 3.45pm.

For Info and Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/casual-violence-presents-house-of-nostril

 

 

Dirty Laundry by Rachel Hirons

By Ron Bingham 

This is a dark comic play featuring a mad old (she’s 38, apparently) woman who is running a launderette, and her teenage nephew who comes to keep her company. Busybody Esther (played by Hayley Jane Standing) is rather dim and credulous but, as we find out through the course of the show, also very cunning. Young Tristan (Matthew Floyd Jones) is a bit naive and has had a bit of bother with a previous girlfriend. Now, the girl across the road has gone missing, the police are camped out there and Esther is convinced Tristan has had something to do with her disappearance.

When the show started I was worried that it was going to be a soapie about life up north, but things gradually developed into a very icky tale of an old woman’s lust and a young man’s nightmare. Other characters come and go in the launderette, helping to develop the story (mostly played by the impressive third cast member Lizzie Daykin, who must have been a master of the quick change) leading to the show ending on a very dark note as we find out just how far some people are prepared to go.

So, without giving a brilliant plot twist away, this is a very well written, splendidly acted and wickedly funny play about the dangers of leaving single women alone too long with loud machines and access to Jeremy Kyle. The story will keep your interest until the end, but the downside is that you’ll probably never trust a launderette with your smalls again.

Dirty Laundry is playing at Underbelly Cowgate at 9.25pm

For info and bookings: https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/dirty-laundry

Alfie Brown – The Revolting Youth

By Ron Bingham

I had heard some good reports about Alfie’s stand-up before the show. Sadly, the evening was a bit of a let down as Alfie harangued the audience throughout the show and there was no cohesion to his material.

I can understand the picking on latecomers, as they are fair game for any comic, but the point in the show where he tried to start a debate on the government’s benefit changes and then told us to shut up so he could get back to the show was where he lost me. He also kept blaming us for not laughing enough at his jokes and constantly lost the thread of his conversation He veered from ranty, ill formed political statements, to how our lives are wasted and we’re all going to die pointlessly, to whining about his recent marriage and how crap sex is, to jumping into the audience and trying to make us uncomfortable with the empty stage.

He did say at one point that he was criticised last year for being too clever and not funny enough. Well, he’s lost the clever part. I can only hope it was a bad night for him and that his humour is not found solely through picking on the very people who have paid to see him (yes, I know Jason Byrne and Brendon Burns have made careers out of audience abuse but that doesn’t always make it funny). I would be interested to see what the other reviewer in the room (who sat next to me with a notepad) writes about this show, as she gave up writing anything at about the twenty minute mark and just sat there with her arms folded).

The Revolting Youth is on at Underbelly, Cowgate at 9.10pm

For Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/alfie-brown-the-revolting-youth

Tumi Morake – HerStory

By Ron Bingham 

Tumi Morake is a big girl, she’s black and this is her first time performing out of South Africa. She starts off explaining this, talking about being overweight and the horror of arriving in Edinburgh to find a city of stairs, fried food and people who don’t speak English in the way the missionaries taught her. Other topics Tumi riffs around include her husband and two children (plus number three in her belly), race, South Africa, racism, Nelson Mandela, parenting, dieting, eating and religion. She says the segment on Mr Mandela and racism/nationalism may change, depending on whether he makes it through the month.

She was relaxed and confident on stage and wasn’t afraid to pick on the audience when we failed to understand some of the words she used. She also picked on the English pronunciation of a number of words for being spelt differently to how they are said, but most of the words she chose were originally French. Though I wasn’t going to put my hand up!

The small audience were giving out loud laughs throughout the show, although I got the impression that it was often more entertaining for the ladies, as men were often the butt of her jokes. I think that Tumi’s performance will develop over the next few weeks as she works out which jokes the audience understands (ie how well they know South African culture) and more local references are worked into her routine.

There is an explanation of the Michael Jackson referenced title and poster, but you should see the show to find out. This is worth seeing if you are looking for a comedian who is a little out of the ordinary and is able  to have a laugh at herself. A good solid hour of entertainment.

Tumi Morake performs HerStory at the Assembly Hall at 9pm

For Info and Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/tumi-morake-in-herstory

Birthday Girls 2053

By Ron Bingham

Birthday Girls 2053 is performed by Beattie Edmondson, Rose Johnson and Camille Ucan, who are former members of sketch group Lady Garden (last seen in sketches in the first series of BBC3’s Live at the Electric). Lady Garden had been favourites of the Edinburgh Fringe for the last few years (apart from last year) and I think that on the evidence presented in this show these three are the maddest ones from that group.

This new show, in a very crowded small room, is set in the year 2053 when everything good has been banned, including comedy. The girls are rebels against the oppressive regime and are performing a secret gig to fellow comedy lovers in a secret (surprise surprise) very crowded small room. The outside world in so polluted that everyone has to wear oxygen masks and full body decontamination suits (or as I was calling them – white summer onesies).

The sketches are hilarious but insane and include some extremely terrible puns and some hideous mental images. There is also a recurring soap opera which involves some of the worst Scottish accents to grace the Fringe stage (if there was a Scottish Tourist Police, the show would be shut down). There are some inadvisable dating tips from Rose and a few embarrassing revelations about Camille and Beattie throughout. The Finale recaptures elements of many of the preceding sketches in an explosive culminating sequence.

The three performers are all seasoned professionals, but that doesn’t stop them breaking out of character occasionally to pick on one another, which gave the show an refreshing spontenaiety. The show as a whole, was very much laugh out loud (to the point of tears rolling down the face) funny which had a storyline which almost made sense and wasn’t just used as a weak linking device for a bunch of sketches. If you enjoyed their previous work in Lady Garden or you are looking for something hilarious but surreal, then you can’t go past this show. As the room was full for a weekday at the start of the festival, I can predict that you will need to book early for your tickets,

Birthday Girls 2053 is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 6pm

Bookings though https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/birthday-girls-2053