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