Lizzy Mace : Overlooked

By Ron Bingham

Lizzy, sometime comedy partner of Juliette Burton (as in Mace & Burton), is performing her first solo show this year. She plays a variety of characters who are the un-noticed or overlooked or ignored in life, starting with her own stage manager and moving through the girl who always looks after the coats at a party, a very shy dating video, the “other” baby bear from Goldilocks, a wallflower, fruit, the fourth pig in The Three Little Pigs and, what I am guessing is Lizzy’s favourite character, a psychotic sock puppeteer.

Lizzy plays the characters with just the use of some headgear, lashings of charm and a lot of energy and the audience is given an insight into the lives of those they don’t tend to see. There is some melancholy amongst the laughs and though all of the characters are quite different, showing Lizzy’s great performance skills, they are a fairly flawed or delusional bunch. There is a small section where there may be some terrible puns, but I don’t recall any swearing or anything that could offend sensitive punters.

The only problem is that this is in the still-under-construction Cowgatehead, so there is carpentry all around, no loo’s, little signage (look for the numbers taped to the doors, which are all covered with posters, so good luck trying to see the doors themselves), and a lot of noise filtering through from the shows all around. This is a great shame for punters and performers alike but shouldn’t put you off this very fringey creative, comedy experience.

This is a very good first solo effort from a very talented and intelligent performer, so try not to overlook this show in the programme. Do feel free to overlook the impertinent flyer-ers out the front of the venue, who will try to entice you to change to rival performances.

Lizzy Mace is performing Overlooked at Cowgatehead. For Tickets and more information go to the Edinburgh Fringe Website:

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/overlooked

Shows at Adelaide Fringe Festival previously reviewed by Squirrel Comedy.

The Adelaide Fringe is soon upon us, it’s a fabulously varied festival with a big comedy contingent that gives punters a chance to catch up with shows from last year’s festivals as well as discovering exciting brand new work, some of which will make it’s way to other capital cities throughout the year.

This year we hope to bring you some reviews in the early part of the Festival. Meanwhile here are some reviews we prepared earlier.

Eurodad – Adam Rozenbachs 
Palace Nova – Cinema 9

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=3597

Luke McGregor – My Soulmate is Out of My League
Garden of Unearthly Delights – The Spare Room

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=3389

NOB HAPPY SOCK – Simon Keck
The Producers Bar

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=3550

Radio Variety Hour
The Producers Bar

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=5089

Rom Com Con – Mace & Burton
Bakehouse Theatre – Main Stage

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=1871

Simon Taylor – Funny
Garden of Unearthly Delights – The Spare Room

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=5024

The Last Temptation of Randy
Garden of Unearthly Delights – Le Cascadeur

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=5071

Wolf Creek The Musical
The Producers Bar

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=5049

Wizard Sandwiches: The Last Lunch
Tuxedo Cat @ Raj House – Room 2

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=5004

The above shows were all very popular and are highly recommended by us, some are even award winners.

The Adelaide Fringe Festival is on from the 14th of February til the 16th of March. All  information can be found at their website

http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/

Mace and Burton – When I Grow Up

By Ron Bingham 

Last year I saw and enjoyed two shows by Juliette Burton and Lizzie Mace called RomComCon and Heartbreak Hotel. This year, Juliette has gone solo (Lizzie is still helping, but not on stage). The show is a personal journey for Juliette, who is attempting to find out whether what she does determines who she is or if there is more to life than one’s job description. I should admit here that I did contribute to the crowdfunding for Juliette earlier this year (to raise funds for the show), which meant I was receiving regular updates of the progress of the show…..oh hang on. You’re only supposed to declare an interest if THEY pay YOU. Curses! I’ll get the hang of this Cash for Comment thing one day…

I did refrain from watching most of the updates, so I could enjoy the finished product as a whole. The show starts with a multi-media look at the vocations Juliette wanted to be when she grew up, at different ages. There was princess, baker, popstar, ballerina, farmer, artist and others that I won’t mention for the surprise factor.  I do recommend interested people visit Juliette’s website to view the ballet school photo as Juliette, not the tallest of people, towers over her fellow pupils.

Juliette decided to see whether her younger selves had better insight by actually attempting each of these dream jobs, with varying amounts of success and some funny videos. She has also recorded a number of interviews with people about what they dreamed of and how their lives turned out and these are played on the screen throughout. Juliette meets some interesting specialists who give their opinion on how good she is at each attempt and there is a special guest from the Sammy J and Randy show who pops up on screen at one point. Not all of Juliette’s attempts were successful – she was escorted out of one or two venues during the filming. Note that if you have seen the show, there are extra bits of some of the filmed segments on the website (or DVD extras, if you like).

After most of the attempts are completed we delve a little deeper into Juliette’s psyche and the troubled teenage years (when she got caught up in eating disorders and mental health issues), where she lost sight of her dreams. But we do see her come through the other side to where she is today, questioning whether achieving ones dream is the answer or whether not letting go of the stuff of dreams will lead to fulfillment). The ending of the show is ultimately uplifting and worth the journey.

Juliette on stage is a cheerful and relaxed performer, who works well with the audience. The interaction with the filmed segments was faultless (good sign this early in the Fringe), the audience were boisterous and effusive in their praise and there was a big air conditioner at the side of the room to keep us cool. Pity that someone in a room next door spend half an hour scraping chairs or tables across a floor. If you are looking for a show that will make you want to give your dreams another go, pick up a musical instrument or some paintbrushes one more time, perform a pirouette or milk a cow, then this is the one for you. There is only the mildest of swearing but there are some adult concepts (anorexia), but it’s definitely one for the whole family to see.

When I Grow Up is on at The Gilded Balloon Teviot at 1.15pm

Bookings and further info from the Fringe website https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/when-i-grow-up

The Show Website is http://maceandburton.com/whenigrowup/

Mace and Burton: Rom Com Con

By Ron Bingham

The premise of this show is that Lizzie and Juliette were together about eighteen months ago, with one having been dumped and the other long term single, watching a marathon session of romantic comedies. One of them then persuaded the other to do a road test of the ‘getting together’ (hitching up, falling in love, whatever) scenario’s of the best films in the genre to prove whether the movies were based in reality in any way. I will confess right now that I have only seen one of the hundred movies on the list (Love Actually, in the cinema with a female friend many years ago) so I had to take their word for the plots and lines used.

They had a couple of rules for this experiment, with the most important one being that they would be honest. They went through a few films and eliminated some on the basis of danger, location, employment etc, showed a couple of the attempts and how disastrous they were (or not), had a few that were still waiting on results (one of the potential romances was going to be in the audience the next day for their penultimate performance) and there was a long sequence involving them using actors to see if they could fall in love with a ‘worst enemy’ type.

I would use examples of specific films and the situations if I had any recollection of which films were involved with what but I don’t want to appear a total fool. Just accept that Liz and Juliette were experts on the subject of the romantic comedy genre and, if there was a Mastermind for this, they would be Grand Champions. I won’t give details of the finale but the conclusions they make from their experiment in love, that being confident, honest and open seems to be a good thing, shouldn’t really surprise anyone. The journey to finding that conclusion out was the important thing, and some of the taped segments will have you shedding a tear over the emotions expressed.

Rom Com Con is on at The Cannons’ Gait
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/mace-and-burton-rom-com-con

Mace and Burton – Heartbreak Hotel

By Ron Bingham

Have you had a bad breakup, still nursing a broken heart, feel you’ve been plumb done wrong, been dumped and you’re still down in them? Well, book yourself a room at the Heartbreak Hotel where Lizzie (Mace) and Juliette (Burton) will attend to your every emotional need and send you back out into the world a whole person.

Mace and Burton (as their name tags prominently displayed on their chests remind us) have experienced heartbreak in many forms down the years and they are here to help us avoid the pitfalls. There are guests who tell us about their breakups and how they overcame the pain. The show started with introductions and a quick warm-up before the first guest, Anil Desai, came on and told us a tale of his first love and the wardrobe he smashed when she cheated on him, as well as how he to took her out one more time (a few months later) to properly close his heart to her (saying a proper goodbye and closing the feelings box, not burying her in a peat bog you sickos). He then ruined the good feelings we had by telling us about the girls who want him to have sex while he’s doing an impression of Christian Slater or Jim Carrey! We next played the break-up line game where we were presented with a series of break-up lines and had to choose which of out hosts these were delivered to (the audience beat the guest 9-5).

The second guests for the evening were James and Amy, who are in a show called Dysfunctional. From the stories they told (he picks up girls on the Night Bus and she gets over break-ups with alcohol, cock and anger), their show could be a top demented night out. Amy’s heartbreak story was a little strange as she had fallen in love with a sky-diver who later moved to Australia and died in a plane crash.Surely a sky-diver should be best suited to getting out of the plane?

After this we had a sing-a-long to a break-up song, some healing advice and a plea to be more tolerant to those we love. There is also a special break-up book which has advice from all of the guests that have been on the show (including Daniel Kitson, Shappi Khorsandi, Phil Jupitus, Susan Calman, The Boy With Tape on his face and many other festival favourites). The advice book is being auctioned off after the show’s run finishes with the proceeds going to the charity Mind, with the reasons explained in the show.

This was a delightful show, with the two hosts bringing a warm and welcoming atmosphere into the small room, the stories of pain and heartache told by the hosts and their guests have the audience feeling like a group therapy session (in a good way). I would certainly be booking a room after my next heartbreak. It’s part of the free fringe and is one of the loveliest shows out there. they have another show called Rom Com con (13.15 at Canons’ Gait), which I might have to catch as well.

Heartbreak Hotel is on at Buff’s Club.
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/mace-and-burton-heartbreak-hotel