Colin – Squirrel 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

Zoe Coombs Marr: Every Single Thing in My Whole Entire Life

By Ron Bingham

Zoe is a very energetic performer but she’s set herself a rather ridiculous task., in which she will try to relate everything that happened in her life using spreadsheets and other techie paraphernalia to try to find meaning from it all. Zoe knows it’s impossible, we know it’s impossible, but we’re going to have a lot of fun trying.

In an hour of course, the most she can do is find some significant stories that stand out in her memory and work from there. The first story was about the prevalence of frogs in Australia to hang about in toilets. This occurs mostly in country towns and caravan parks. I well remember my mum’s terror at coming back from a shower block to tell us there was a line of little eyes staring at her from the top of walls. Lizards, too. Anyway, back to Zoe. She was five and it happened to her at school, leading to an embarrassing situation of the kind that makes your skin crawl to remember.

We were then led on a journey through a random selection of events in her life, all of which had stories attached not all exciting or even very poignant, but she kept the laughs rolling. In fact, Zoe was having so much fun with today’s audience, that we ended up running over time by about ten minutes. We also got a little philosophy and some video footage from Zoe’s art school days. I still have no idea who Bomfunk MCs are.

The show was fast paced and Zoe hardly paused for the entire time of telling us about her youthful embarrassments. If you’re after the ultimate Aussie take on the meaning of life, this is the show to see.

Every Single Thing in My Whole Entire Life is on at Monkey Barrel Comedy until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/zoe-coombs-marr-every-single-thing-in-my-whole-entire-life

Phil Ellis: Come On and Take The Rest of Me

By Ron Bingham

Once again Phil has come up with a cracker of a show.

Starting with a DJ coming on to introduce our comedian of the hour, we are treated to yet more tales of woe and calamity from Phil’s life. These include going back to live with his parents at the age of 42, being dumped by his girlfriend for unspecified reasons which could involve the tiny flat he moved into, and some interesting habits. The DJ punctuated Phil’s routine with occasional sound-effects, often at random.

I think the saddest moment (for me) was hearing Phil’s show last year was nominated for a comedy award (which I think he was almost proud of losing). I have seen most of his other Edinburgh shows, and he improves every time. There are a couple of other cameos and some slides of cute dogs, a song or two, and some hilariously bad stories about the pointlessness of having too much stuff or trying too hard in life.

The room was full and the large audience was very vocal in their praise of the show. One of the funniest shows of the Fringe, but it should not be allowed to win any awards – as that might cheer Phil up and we don’t want a happy Phil!

Come On and Take The Rest of Me is on at Monkey Barrel Comedy until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/phil-ellis-come-on-and-take-the-rest-of-me