Squirrel Comedy – We're Nuts About Australian Comedy

Nina Rose Carlin: Seeking Representation

By Ron Bingham

Nina Rose Carlin performs a – not autobiographical at all☺- one woman play, about a New York girl who flies to Hollywood to realise her dreams of stardom and fame. In doing so we get to enjoy a wide showcase of her many talents.

Seeking Representation is a jaunty Cabaret which includes amusing songs, kooky impressions, a little audience participation, a lot of jokes and some sage advice for any other young girls with stars in their eyes. It’s all pretty much solid cabaret fare. Then she surprises with an audacious shock ending that is somewhat jarring after the preceding lightness, but also astute in it’s topicality about the looming AI avalanche affecting the Arts industry. I’m not sure if she completely carried it off, but I give her credit for a big bold fringey move!

A very enjoyable show, with a good story, told well by a charming performer, and a bit of scifi to keep us on our toes. Nina is a talented singer and actor, with excellent stagecraft. This is a great way to start the day of Fringe. it will definitely wake you up and get you thinking.

Seeking Representation is on at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall until August 24

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/nina-rose-carlin-seeking-representation

Danny Clives: Danny Explains It All

By Ron Bingham

Danny is from Dudley and has been doing stand-up for about ten years. He is a very deadpan comic with very few jokes. Everything is designed to fail. I can see his routine working in a ten minute slot, but it’s almost impossible to sustain that lack of tension and release for a full hour. I admit I had trouble focusing on his show, but I had just seen three high energy shows in a row so this slower pace is jarring.

Danny told some stories of his life, including living with his mum and breaking up with his girlfriend, and a few jokes with feeble punchlines and a couple of poems. It didn’t move me, but some of the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Danny Explains It All is on at Pleasance Courtyard until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/danny-clives-danny-explains-it-all

Takashi Wakasugi: Welcome to Japan

By Ron Bingham

Takashi is a Japanese comedian who has relocated to Australia which he loves, but is finding the language and cultural differences somewhat complicated. He is a quirky comedian, with a genuinely unique style that is both bossy and cheeky. It can take the audience a while to get into his rhythm, but once he gets going he wins us over with his charm and skill as a comedian.

Welcome to Japan sees Takashi pondering about some of the idiosyncrasies of the English language (I’ve always wondered why it isn’t teethbrush, too) and the general oddness of Westerners. As a comedian, it’s not surprising that he would find laughs in the tools he needs for his craft and his discovering western culture overall. He does also talk about some of the quirks of the Japanese people both in and out of their homeland, so it’s not all one way.

There is sometimes a vibe of Takashi being a school teacher or hard Taskmaster, he gets a little upset when we don’t respond quickly enough to his audience participation, but the ethical dilemmas he poses often need a little more time – CAN you justify buying the cage eggs if the free range ones are sold out? What do you do with pizza the next day, and how does it relate to your social status? The hard stuff. His slideshow is a highlight that has the audience in fits, but mostly it is just Takashi giving us some good jokes and asking us complex questions.

The room was full of well-entertained people on the night I was there. Takashi was a pleasant and genial host who kept us laughing for the full hour with his stories of encounters with the world outside Japan, and this was a fun show that may have you thinking the next day about the words you use.

Welcome to Japan is on at Assembly George Square Studios until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/takashi-wakasugi-welcome-to-japan

Gentlemen’s Club

By Ron Bingham

Freddie’s Bar, is in the New Town and well away from the main comedy venues, there is only a Fringe Venue sign outside with no mention of acts, and no staff on the door. Despite all this, I managed to find the show, but I was the only audience member (it was a quiet Wednesday), so this probably isn’t an accurate reflection of how the show would go with a full audience. The two comedians, Lotte Allan (who plays Barry) and Susanna Pukkila (Joni), each perform a 30 minute character-based comedy play.

Barry is an old man in London talking about his life and the people around him. He needed a lot of help from the audience (me) during the play. He is your standard crotchety old man, but one who has just discovered the joys of London’s Freedom Pass (free bus travel all round London). This was a fun act, but as I was on stage for most of it, I did feel I’d turned into a cast member instead of someone dragged away from their friends.

Joni is an ice hockey player (I assume, even though she/he was on roller blades) who is retiring after this big match and wants to go out a winner. Lots of inspirational speeches to the team before the game (ie me and Lotte), and a bit of bribery to the referee (again, me), a couple of national anthem type songs, the game itself with all its ins and outs agressively acted by Joni on stage, and the big finale of drinking from the winners cup.

A great show with lots of humour that deserves a bigger audience.

Gentlemen’s Club is on at Laughing Horse @ Freddy’s until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/gentlemen-s-club

Alexa, Play

By Ron Bingham

This is a play written by and starring Alexa Elmy, which takes place in a meeting room for Alexas Anonymous, a group of people who are unfortunate to have the same name as Amazon’s intrusive little assistant. I have no idea where she could have come up with the idea, but I get the impression that this is very much a passion project for Alexa, and a way of venting frustration at the idea a company can just take someone’s name and trademark it.

In the play, we the audience are all named Alexa (or close variants), and we are encouraged to join in some of the team building and relaxation exercises (nothing embarrassing) before the meetings get underway. As the meetings progress through the Nine Steps of AA, we watch our host gradually start to break down as the pressure builds. Can she (and us) win back the right to our name or is it eternally in the hands of Jeff Bezos (and his minions)?

Alexa has done a very good job with this story, throwing in comic moments and embarrassing stories along with a lot of Alexa jokes (probably taken from real life). There are no other cast members, and just a few props on stage to help the flow of the story.

A very interesting cautionary story, told in an amusing and inventive way. Definitely one to see, especially if you’re named Alexa/Alex/Allegra/etc.

Alexa, Play has finished its run.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/alexa-play

Randy Feltface: First Banana

By Lisa Clark

As Randy acknowledges partway through First Banana, his new social media fans may be somewhat surprised by this show. Most of his famous on-line bits (posted by his Social Media guru) are crowd interaction bits and Randy as usual does very little of it in his show. He’s a much better comedian than that!

Randy has always had a little banter with his audience and it’s always been awesome due to his quick wit and the frisson of not actually being able to see the person he’s talking to, but it has never been central to his shows which have always had him exploring big ideas and deep introspection. The big idea at the heart of this show gradually develops and is basically how did we get to this point of a fucked up scorched planet while letting the Nazis back in, and why is Randy doing such a short run at the Edinburgh Fringe this year?

Apart from the social media presence, Randy gained some fame on a US Talent show which brought new fans (and a surname) and he has been constantly touring the US and Europe since then. He tells about his main brush with Hollywood which was an audition to play the Alien in the new Alien movie out now, where he got to wear a Xenomorph head, it was extremely cool, hilarious and devastating even if it was a bit of a segue away from his other stories. He also got some huge laughs from some political asides and an impression of a certain Australian Olympian break dancer that he’ll never be able to do again.

There are at least 2 main story strands throughout, one about the history of bananas and how it is central to the entire world being up shit creek and the other about his Life and his storage unit. He of course began life as Sammy J’s second banana, but he has always been a brilliant comedian in his own right. He lost the audience somewhat when banging on about Big Bird being made of the feathers of hundreds of birds, but they might not realise that being a serious vegan he might not enjoy the irony of hundreds of real birds dying so one Big Bird Muppet can entertain children. But he wins them back with banger singalong songs, meeting his parents and getting them to join in on his grand master-plan.

If Randy was not a puppet he’d be lauded as one of the greatest Australian comedians of his generation. Well he’s won the top Australian comedy Award and has had a sitcom with Sammy J but hey why isn’t Randy hosting his own Chat show or game show? He’d be awesome. He might not have time anyway, too busy on his way to conquering the world.

First Banana has finished its run.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/randy-feltface-first-banana