Squirrel Comedy – Page 2 – We're Nuts About Australian Comedy

The Cryptid Factor Podcast Live

By Lisa Clark

A highlight this Edinburgh has been the last minute decision for podcast The Cryptid Factor to suddenly do a run of live recordings at the Fringe Festival. For an unknown reason Dan Schreiber, an Australian comedian living in London, who is one of the QI Elves amongst other things, gave up his Festival space of a live recording of his We can Be Weirdos podcast and changed it to a recording of The Cryptid Factor with his buddies, New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death, Jumanji, Uproar etc) and Leon “Buttons” Kirkbeck the show’s producer who is also a New Zealander and became part of the show and, somehow, (despite not being a comedian and the other guys being very funny), it’s comic relief / mascot. They sold out very quickly without the need for posters or fliers.

The Cryptid Factor is ostensibly Rhys Darby’s baby, beginning around 2013 then cohosted by David Farrier, as a space to talk about their passion for Cryptozoology. Dan took over when David had to drop out and Buttons just gradually became part of the show. The podcast is normally recorded from different countries when they get the chance with Dan in London, Rhys in Los Angeles, and Buttons in Aukland, which is why getting them all in the same room is quite the catch.

Lucky for everyone, the Cryptid Guys got to be together to record their daggy podcast in person and the enjoyment and affection for each other is palpable. A lot of the humour we enjoyed was pretty visual, including the fact that they forgot to bring a stand for the huge TV screen they physically brought in for the gig. Dan had been holding it up for the audience to see it but tonight we had the producer of QI offer his screen-holding services. They also had a segment where Rhys drew an obscure cryptid while Dan described it and Buttons tried to find a picture of it on his laptop. Our obscure cryptid was called the Dildo Monster and of course hilarity ensued. It all ends with Rhys blowing the Axtec Death Whistle he bought on his hols in Mexico recently.

The podcast’s areas for discussion are somewhat broader than chryptozoology and it is described as being about “all things weird that are yet to be defined by science”. They each begin by putting forth a bid to read the most interesting recent news item about weird science and after reading their headline, the audience gets to vote by cheering on one of them to be read out in detail. Tonight, Rhys Darby’s choice was met with silence, much to everybody’s mirth. The other main topic for discussion was their over night trip to Loch Ness to hunt for the monster. They did not catch it but had a really lovely time staying at a nearby castle and Rhys loved his breakfast. Buttons drove and they say they only made it back into Edinburgh with 45 mins to spare before our show. They must’ve been exhausted but did not show it at all, taking plenty of time meeting their fans afterwards being very kind and patient with them.

Ahh, the fans, the passionate fans, and particularly the Cryptid Knights who are the podcast patrons. The fans are looked after by the podcast with a lot of genuine benefits such as video recordings, merch and on-line cocktail zooms and the fans give back in turn; showering the guys with gifts, many hand-made. Quite a few fans bought tickets for every show of the run and how some of them could afford accommodation in Edinburgh at this late stage is a mystery. But it was a rare chance to see these adorable nutbags record the podcast together, live on stage for the first time. In turn The Cryptid Guys stayed out the front after the gig, chatting, signing stuff, accepting gifts. Then organising a big group photo every night.

It was a fantastic hilarious show and the core of the experience was just enjoying a bunch of genuine friends being silly with each other. Everybody had such enormous fun that the Cryptid Guys started talking about coming back to Edinburgh next year. Better start saving now if you want to see some old friends mucking about and making each other laugh about strange science & phenomena in front of adoring fans.

The Cryptid Factor Podcast Live has ended it’s run

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

The Chaos Queens of Reykjavik

By Ron Bingham

This is two 30ish minute sets from Icelandic comics Louisa Lara and Mekkin Roff, which takes place in a small basement room (about 20 seats – get there early for the comfy benches along the wall rather that the hideous wooden benches on the floor). Both comics have changed their appearance drastically since the flyers were printed.

Lousia was first, talking about living in Iceland and being shocked at the smallness of her home country when visiting other countries (apparently it has a population smaller than the NYPD). She also spoke of her recent divorce and having to start using dating apps.

Mekkin moved from Iceland to the USA when young, and talks about the cultural differences, living in London with friends and the joys of having a boyfriend. Tonight, it appeared most of Mekkin’s family was in the audience, which made her stories about her dad doing a runner from a restaurant and Grandad’s interesting style of racism extra funny.

This was a fun entertaining hour of stand-up from two confident women, and it deserves a larger audience. Hopefully they will get some extra exposure during the Fringe. Highly recommended.

The Chaos Queens of Reykjavik is on at Laughing Horse @ City Cafe until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/chaos-queens-of-reykjavik

Andrew Maxwell: The Bare Maximum

By Ron Bingham

Irish comedy legend Andrew Maxwell isn’t being as political as usual this year, possibly because of the chaotic nature of the UK’s politics making it impossible to have material that last more than a week. This year’s show looks at culture, especially Irish and Australian (Perth), with mentions of that art installation where people in New York and Dublin could interact in real time, which went so disastrously wrong, and the short shart Prime Ministership of Liz Truss as compared to the long reign of Queen Elizabeth.

We also had a poignant story about Andrew’s father and rugby, which got very emotional, and a tale of his nephew in rural Ireland’s bravery and dress sense. I liked how Andrew told us that his father always came to Edinburgh with him, and sat at the back of his shows, so often that he became a second father to all the Irish comics in Edinburgh. Pity dad thought his son’s comedy wasn’t as good as another performer, but that’s parents for you.

As usual, Andrew is well versed in the art of storytelling, knows when to break the tension of a story with a joke, and surprisingly good at kicking the set. The large audience (probably around 200) were enjoying the show, once they’d all dragged themselves out of the bar next door, and it was a thoroughly good hour of stand-up…. though Andrew’s dad would probably have said “not as good as Jason Byrne”.

The Bare Maximum is on at Just the Tonic Nucleus until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/andrew-maxwell-the-bare-maximum

The Umbilical Brothers: The Distraction

By Ron Bingham

Australian comedy legends The Umbilical Brothers are back in Edinburgh with a second run of their sold out 2023 show The Distraction. With a mix of technical wizardry, loads of cameras, props, tablet sized screens and two large green panels festooning the stage, Shane and David treat the audience to an hour of mayhem and surreal visual effects, all in real time on the stage. They are ably assisted by Bob the techie (apparently Bob has a show at 1am with Shane doing the tech job, but I can’t find it in the programme).

They claimed, at about the ten minute mark, that they have never experienced so many technical problems. This could be true, as many of the high-tech items were playing up tonight. Still, while the problems were being sorted, Shane and Dave kept the audience entertained with a running commentary or silly visual jokes on the big screen. Members of the audience helped in the show, mostly by having cameras pointed at us and allowing the Umbilicals to do terrible things to our images on the screen. Including me, but I still don’t think Shane got my voice quite right and at least they didn’t explode my head. There are also some scenes of giant rampaging babies.

The room, which seats around 200, was full of happy punters who all appeared to thoroughly enjoy the show. Even though I was there on a Monday (traditionally a day of rest for most shows), I recommend booking a ticket, as it’s a good fun family friendly show that’ll have you chuckling for days over some of the antics.

The Distraction is on at Assembly Roxy until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/umbilical-brothers-the-distraction