Phil Ellis – Unplanned Orphan

By Ron Bingham

Oh dear. Sometimes it’s hard to review a show and not reveal too much.

This is ostensibly a show about North Manchester’s most reliable comic who received a phone call from his parents on his thirtieth birthday and was told he was adopted. The show is really about how things can go wrong, really wrong. Really Really Wrong. I mean so wrong you are not sure whether he is really this inept and what is happening around him in the show is just a terrible accident, or whether this has all been finely crafted and planned and he is playing a part. Don’t worry, it becomes clearer by the end.

Phil has a chart on the wall, on which he marks off the people who walk out of his show before the end. When I was there it went up from 21 to 24 (there were only sixteen of us at the start).

I recommend this show (without saying any more about what happens) to those who love chaos and disaster, when it is happening to someone else. Try not to feel too sorry for him when he starts begging you for money and definitely stick around until the very end of the show, as you will see the funniest fight scene at the festival. This should receive both no stars and five stars, if we operated a rating system. One of the most dangerous shows at this year’s Fringe.

Unplanned Orphan is on at Underbelly, Bristo Square ​ at 5.25pm

For Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/phil-ellis-unplanned-orphan

Myf Warhurst – Showcatcher

By Ron Bingham

Myf, as Aussies will know, is a seasoned broadcaster and was a regular panelist on comedy music show Spicks & Specks. Now she is living in the UK and is hosting a genial day time chat show for the Fringe, which is also a podcast on the Assembly website.

The show, set in the massive Spiegeltent, started badly, with rain outside and a lack of numbers in the audience (Thursday afternoon and all the shows I saw were well down on punters) and a dodgy microphone. Once the problems had been sorted we had our first guest for the afternoon, journalist Steve Richards, who writes for mainly left-wing publications like the Independent and the Guardian. They spoke about his show Rock ‘n’ Roll Politics 2 and the funny little foibles that politicians have (the basis of his show) as well as talking about performing on the Fringe.

The second guest was Norman Lovett, best known for his role as Holly on the show Red Dwarf, who is doing his own show Old and New and we heard about that.

Guest number three was someone I had only vaguely heard of, Luisa Omielan, who is performing What Would Beyonce Do?!, which has sold out its ten show run and had an extra three shows added. She spoke about her show and I quickly realised I am not the target audience, not being a young female who listens to Beyonce or has seen Pretty Woman.

After the show plugs, the three guests and Myf had a chat about performing and we ended up hearing about deadpan Norman’s surprising love for the Sugababes and Lady Gaga. We also had some comments from Luisa about her opinion of critics, so I will say no more about that although, not being on Twitter, I don’t have much to worry about.

The show is very structured and is mostly designed for the podcast so that people can hear about shows they may be interested in. Myf is an amiable host and it was a fun hour in a dry tent with three entertaining guests. It is also a big bonus for her Australian fans that Myf’s show can be heard on the Assembly website until the end of the festival.

Showcatcher is on at Assembly George Square at 3pm

For Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/showcatcher

The podcast of this show can be found at (http://www.showcatcher.com)

Fanfiction Comedy

By Ron Bingham 

Fanfiction is performed by a group of young New Zealanders in a small “pod” at the bottom of the Assembly gardens. The host, Tom, starts the show by giving some examples of genuine fan fiction, both of which were disturbing in very different ways (Rugrats with nine thousand miles of genitalia?! Poor Yogi).

There are a group of regular Fanfiction team members who perform clever, funny stories they have written about things they love. I don’t know if they perform the same ones every day but there is certainly a different special guest comedian each day who reads their own tale. Today we started off with a Fanfiction member’s story about The Avengers movie (which sadly, I haven’t seen). This was about a birthday party that went all wrong for the leader of the Avengers (Nick?). I enjoyed it, despite not getting most of the in-jokes from the movie. This will become my theme for the show, as I am so out of touch with modern culture.

Performer number two gave us a homo-erotic fantasy about the TV sitcom Friends (ten years later). There appeared to be a lot of funny stuff in this but, as I can only just vaguely recognise the names of the characters… It was still a very sick and demented tale of love gone very wrong, though, and there were a lot of laughs to be had.

Fanfiction number three was a very intimate tale from the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter (Yay, I’ve read this). Delightfully disturbing and a little pervy in places, is the best way I can describe it and it was a hoot.

The fourth reading was Romeo and Juliet, but with Romeo as a rat and Juliet as a mouse. I was impressed by the source material until our reader confessed HE hadn’t read the play and had only really seen the trailer of the film. So not really closely following the original and if he’s not a fan of Romeo & Juliet, how is this Fan Fiction? Everyone enjoyed it though and that’s the main thing. It was (once again) a sick and twisted tale of love, sex and violence. I’m starting to get a bit worried about these Fans who write fiction…..

The final story was from today’s special guest, Anil Desai, who gave us Family Guy at Twin Peaks (and you guessed it, I know very little of either of these, although I did try to watch Family Guy a few times). Anil is an excellent mimic and the voices (that I recognised) were spot on. The story was very David Lynch-like, entertaining but baffling.

So, the show is a very fun way to spend an hour, though there will be references you will miss if you’re not a big follower of mainstream culture. Still, despite being mostly baffled, I really enjoyed the well told stories, so maybe if you like hearing about perverted hats, Rugrats with 9,000 mile long genitalia or what Joey and Chandler got up to in the van, then come and enjoy the fabulous pod of Fanfiction.

PS it’s on during the day, but you might not want to bring the kids.

Fanfiction Comedy is on at Assembly George Square at 4.40pm

For Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/fanfiction-comedy

Gamarjobat (ga-ma-jo-bat) Rock Out!

By Ron Bingham 

The two suited and mohawked Japanese mime artists make their return to Edinburgh with their loud and crazy mime show. This was an hour that went by very quickly as the pair got the audience worked up into a frenzy of fast paced tricks and stunts. There was audience clapping contests, a little bit of the audience dragged up on stage (including one tiny girl who was very relaxed about her stage performance, but I think that might have been due to the chupa chup bribe she was given). The older girl who was dragged on stage was a little less impressed with the part she was asked to play, though.

This was definitely a show for all the family (the 400 seat venue was packed and at least 20pc were kids), there is no swearing, but there are quite a few tricks I’m sure the kids will be attempting when they get home, we had a sing-a-long, which is quite a feat when the only word they said was “Gamarjobat”, and a number of excellent impressions of famous rock stars. Both of the stars of this show are in their forties now but they haven’t slowed down yet and the speed with which they perform some of their stunts is impressive.

If you are looking for an hour of uproarious fun, music, mime, entertainment and visual trickery, that will have everyone clapping along, you should book for this show. But book early as it is selling out. You can also buy their DVD after the show.

Gamarjobat (ga-ma-jo-bat) Rock Out! is on at The Gilded Balloon Teviot at 4.30pm

For Bookings go to the Fringe Website https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/gamarjobat-ga-ma-jo-bat-rock-out

 

Lysistrata: the disco vaudeville rock and roll musical

By Ron Bingham

OK, we all know the story of Lysistrata, don’t we? Come on. The famous Greek comedy by Aristophanes? No? Oh, the education system today, when I was young etc etc.

Here is a quick precis of the tale. Lysistrata is a noblewoman of Athens at a time when the Athenians and Spartans had been fighting a war for a decade. She is fed up with the menfolk all going off to fight and only coming home on leave for conjugal visits so she comes up with a novel plan to stop the war. Banding all the wives of the soldiers to an oath that they would not, ummm, ease their husbands tension, and sending a messenger to the Spartan women to do the same, as well as having the older ladies barricade themselves in the Acropolis (where the treasury is), she sets down to wait. After a long period of time, in which the wives are suffering as much as their husbands, a peace treaty is agreed to and everyone gets down to releasing their tension.

This is a rollicking version of that play, by an American University which impressively sticks quite closely to the story, with some songs and dances, a bit of puppetry, a LOT of crude genital based humour (which is nowhere near as rude as the song that was playing before the show, but that was probably what the kids are listening to these days). While the young ladies holding out against their soldier husbands was the main part of the story, I found the funniest sections were those that pitted the old ladies against the old men. Lots of accents (mostly US regions but the cops sounded like camp Germans for some reason). The songs and dances were performed well, but the sound was a bit too loud, as I think they had calibrated it for a full room – and for an 11.30am show, that was a little optimistic.

What this show needs is an excited enthusiastic crowd feeding back some of the energy from the stage. I’ll try and tempt you to come to one of the few remaining performances of this show (it finishes on Sunday). Would you be interested in seeing a show about the battle of the sexes which has a number of young women in short Greek skirts teasing their soldier husbands who are also wearing short skirts (kilts) and singlets. Do you enjoy loud and boisterous songs and dances? Very funny and sex based humour? How about a bit of culture, as you learn a very amusing famous little ancient Greek comedy? There are dick jokes and it’s a comfy, dry place to eat your Brunch. There’s no excuse for missing this (well, maybe I’ll accept a hangover).

It’s on at The Gilded Balloon Teviot at 11.30am with a short run ending on August 11

Bookings at the website: https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/musicals-and-operas/lysistrata-the-disco-vaudeville-rock-n-roll-musical

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/