Suggs: My Life Story in Words and Music

By Lisa Clark

There’s nothing new in ex pop star icons performing nostalgic, autobiographical cabaret, but it does feel weird that a pop star from my generation is doing it. It was hard not to feel a bit old sitting in the middle-aged crowd and a bit apprehensive about what to expect. The show is in the comedy section of the Fringe guide, which seems promising, though in a music venue. (Unlike David Hasselhoff who is listed in the music section yet at a comedy venue.)

I needn’t have been so anxious as Suggs, frontman of early 80s ska band Madness, is a charismatic showman with impressive storytelling skills. Not so surprising when you think about the word picture stories he created singing songs like Baggy Trousers, Our House and House of Fun (hmm why ever was this not chosen as a song sung on the roof of Buckingham Palace???). Suggs used songs from Madness and others that influenced him to help illustrate his tale, which were used sparingly and effectively. It is also delightful to hear that Suggs still has a tuneful singing voice.

Suggs takes us on a colourful journey evoking detailed images of places he grew up, in Soho and Camden in London describing shops and streetscapes and the people he sees and meets there including gangs, friends and neighbourhood characters. For some in the audience it was a reminder of their own youth in these places for the rest of us it was a fascinating tour of a world we know only from music clips and movies. Framed by a sort of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ search for information about his Jazz singing father who abandoned the family when Suggs was three. We also learn how he was abandoned by his mum to live in country Wales with his cousins for a few years, then came back to London and joined a band that would later become Madness. His time with Madness is covered in detailed, but pop fame seems such a brief, bright spark in a long and colourful life.

Madness has reformed and it’s a pity the show doesn’t cover their recent triumphant performances at the Olympics and on the roof of Buckingham Palace for Her Maj, but this is a tightly scripted performance and maybe they’ll be kept for a sequel. It’s also impressive that Suggs seems to maintain a fairly stable home life with his wife of thirty years and two daughters who are starting to perform music. I do feel however that there is something missing, considering his own father’s problems, when he ignores his own darker side with alcohol etc, after incidents that have made the papers. Still maybe they were aberrations and this is a comedy, despite some dark issues, it’s kept pretty light and is very funny throughout. In fact the mood and style of the show perfectly mirrors the mood and style of songs sung by Madness and his true life stories certainly bring the lyrics to life. This is a must see for fans of Madness, but you could safely take someone who has never heard of band and they would still have a brilliant time in the company of the charming and eloquent survivor that is Suggs.

Suggs is on at Queens Hall
ttp://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/suggs-my-life-story-in-words-and-music
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Simon Munnery – Fylm Makker

By Colin Flaherty

Simon Munnery is always pushing the boundaries of stand up and this performance is no exception. Broadcast via video link from the middle of the room, he performs sketches, monologues, puppetry and songs to camera using all sorts of video trickery to create a unique and hilarious show.

Keeping the audience’s attention fixed on a screen rather than the performer is a slightly odd, disembodied experience but it works brilliantly; the strange relationship between audience and performer sitting well with Simon’s often surreal material. A re enactment of his wife’s swim around the island, a musical tribute to the creator of the Zeppelin and a Mexican stand off are amongst the silly scenarios played out for us.

Mixing between 1mulitiple cameras he could create all sorts of visual transitions and interesting effects that provided something a million times more interesting than a bloke standing on stage. Simon kept some stand up tropes in his monologues (perhaps a microphone is a safety blanket) as well as adding the odd visual item for emphasis that echoed his “League Against Tedium” days. He enacted scenes using creatively crude paper puppets as characters. It was a little clunky at times but that added to the charm.

This is not a one man venture as musical accompaniment is provided by Mick Moriarty on guitar. As well as the wonderful musical backing to Simon’s singing/rapping he provided a soundscape and score to the sketches that fitted perfectly. He was able to convey moods to fit with the action in a seamless manner.

As a break for himself, Simon screened a short film he had made called “Rubbish Night”. Although he prefaced it with a warning that it may not be particularly amusing, the crowd found plenty of things in it to chuckle at.

My highlight of the Fringe thus far, Simon once again embraces the spirit of the Fringe and gives us something far removed from your basic stand up show. Bravo Mr Munnery, Bravo!

Simon Munnery – Fylm Makker is on at The Stand
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/simon-munnery-fylm-makker

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

St Andrews Presents – Blind Mirth Improv Comedy

By Ron Bingham

An improv troupe from St Andrews (the first, apparently), consisting of three ladies and four gentlemen performing a series of skits, sketches, games and vignettes based on audience suggestions. As each night is different I can only report on the show I watched, and I found it was generally of a good quality with only a few (inevitable) flat spots.

The show started with a few warm-up routines with one liners from each performer, then a few quick sketches. The main part of the show was a series of sketches linked to music played at random from audience MP3 players (I did not offer mine as the challenge would have been a bit much, what with my classical, jazz, comedy, Aussie rock, Japanese pop, French chanson and weird witchy music may have broken them). The suggestions from the audience were good but, after three weeks of nightly shows, many had already been done, so the troupe has come to the point where the suggestions are becoming more obscure by the day.

The best sequence for me was the search for Pigeon Island, where the evil German/Russian mastermind was turning women into cats, which he then turned into pigeons, which he made the women eat (?), which if I remember correctly, started with classes in organic farming where the seeds arrived individually by pigeon (see, it all makes sense). there was also something about parsnip soup made with cats, whose ghosts haunted the seance which was held in a room under the restaurant kitchen.

In conclusion, it was a fun show, the cast did a very good job of keeping the show flowing and the audience entertained, they’re all young and attractive and as long as the audience does their part and gives a lot of original imaginative suggestions, it’s an excellent way to spend an hour.

St Andrews Presents – Blind Mirth Improv Comedy is on at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/st-andrews-presents-blind-mirth-improv-comedy

Sex Ed: The Musical

By Ron Bingham

This is, as the name infers, a musical that teaches one about sex from start to finish, in (many of) its permutations and quirks. The cast consist of four teacherish ladies, one (eternally) pregnant pianist and a couple of teenage demonstration models. So that makes a cast of six ladies to one man. Can you tell whose perspective gets the most airtime in the show?

We learn about the changes that occur in the bodies of our demonstration models (do not worry, there is no nudity in the show – there is a lot of profanity and a few scenes of a weird nature though). We see the young couple get together and work through a relationship, break up and get back together again, while the teachers explore their own desires and sexuality. There are songs about diseases, variant sexuality and positions as well, but I won’t mention Condom-man and the shower of condoms.

The mainly young audience enjoyed this show loudly (talk about girl power) and at times I felt like I was trapped in a Hens Night. It was an entertaining show with some good harmonic singing and dancing but I think it could lose a song or two in the middle of the show as, at 75 minutes, I thought it was a bit too long. The cast also have (ÂŁ3) CDs and badges after the show.

All I can say is sex education has certainly moved on from when I was a kid, watching those Christian movies showing the sperm transmitted through a kiss which, even at eight, seemed implausible. Knowledge is a good thing and this show will teach you a few things about relationships if nothing else, although it did look like the main message was do whatever she tells you. There’s singing, dancing and filthy words. Bring your (teenage) friends along and their reaction will tell you how much they REALLY know.

Sex Ed: The Musical is on at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/sex-ed-the-musical

The Temps

By Colin Flaherty

In this comic play written by Sarah Bennetto we are thrust into the unforgiving and uncaring world that is a temp office worker. Sarah plays the put upon receptionist who attempts to get through the work day with the least amount of scars.

This world is populated by oddball people with weird eccentricities who are brilliantly portrayed by the cast. We have the terse Department Manager (played by Celia Paquola), the barely functioning CEO (Tom Webb), the lecherous pants man (Robin Clyfan), the more important than he seems Janitor (James Dowdeswell) and the scheming fellow temp (Alex Edelman). These hyper-real characters are ones that those who have ever worked in an office will recognise.

Often the audience is cleverly included in the office environment to expand the world beyond the stage which is quite fun. There is also a fair bit of de-construction with some witty, knowing winks to the audience that emphasised the light-heartedness of the piece. At times it seems as though the performers are trying their darnedest to improvise bits in attempts to throw their fellow cast members (and regularly succeeding). The decision to highlight the deviation rather than plough onwards gives the show a fun, loose feel and highlights their enthusiasm for the material, although an audience looking for a tightly scripted play may find this annoying.

The staging is quite simple with basic office furniture and characters frequently entering and leaving from either side of the stage. The high volume of foot traffic gives the plot a sense of speed in spite of the static scenes of dialogue. Although the transition between scenes isn’t always clear, the action takes place over a number of days so it gets a little disorientating at times.

It’s a show that dips its toes into the cringe comedy of other office based productions but doesn’t get too dark as it tells an interesting and amusing tale. Get a hold of all of your workmates and spend an hour in this disfunctional workplace.

The Temps is on at the Pleasance Courtyard.
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/temps