Pleasance Courtyard – Squirrel Comedy

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

Arthur Smith and Phil Nice in OOF!

By Ron Bingham

Forty years ago, Arthur and Phil were a double act. Then Arthur went solo and Phil raised a family. Now, they are back together reminiscing about the old days, working through old wounds, playing with words and contemplating the ageing process and their lives together and apart.

The show starts with Arthur sitting on a park bench (on stage) reading the newspaper, and Phil joining him. From here, we are led on a journey through the minds and memories of two old stagers looking back on their lives and trying to decide if it was all worth the effort (yes, it was). Lots of wordplay, some physical humour and a little bit of a language lesson, this was a delightful hour playing to a full house of, mostly, people who had been carried along on part of Phil and Arthur’s journeys from their seats.

The explosive rift in the middle of the show was rather abrupt and painful, but possibly also cathartic for the performers. A well written and performed hour long reminiscence from two old hands, geared towards people who know who they are. Loved the music playing over the end – Simon and Garfunkel’s Old Friends.

Arthur Smith and Phil Nice in OOF! is on at Pleasance Courtyard
until August 18

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/arthur-smith-and-phil-nice-in-oof

Abby Wambaugh: The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows

By Ron Bingham

Another room too small (42 seats, I was told) to fit the audience the act deserves. The theme , The First Three Minutes of Seventeen Shows, is a clever way for Abby to tell her story in a variety of styles rather than a direct retelling.

We started with Abby relaxing the audience hypnotically into a acceptable state before being thrown into the first absurdist piece, entitled “The Vacuum”. From here, we went on a madcap journey through basketball mime, an old man trying parkour, “Scare The Banana” (my favourite) and more. The climax of the show, which started off as an essay on David Sedaris (harsh but fair – [sidenote; I recommend David Sedaris’ audiobooks for relaxing on long journeys]), but ended with Abby describing the trauma that led her to taking up stand up comedy a couple of years ago.

Abby is a very tall person from the USA somewhere in her 30s, who married a Dane and is now living in Denmark. She only started doing stand-up a couple of years ago, but was very confident on stage. Boy I am glad I wasn’t chosen to take part in the audience participation (how DOES one do “the worm”?).

This was the first show I can recall at the Edinburgh Fringe which received a spontaneous standing ovation at the end, so hats off to Abby and her director (who was in the audience). Well structured and a good mix of absurd and poignant. This should be moved to a bigger room, to ensure more people have the joy of watching a terrified fruit.

The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows is on at Pleasance Courtyard
until August 26

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/abby-wambaugh-the-first-3-minutes-of-17-shows

Anna Akana: It Gets Darker

By Ron Bingham

Anna introduces herself as Japanese-Hawaiian-Filipino, with a lot more mixing going further back (I think she grew up and lives in California). Her parents, who we hear about at the start and get to see (on video) at the end are definitely “individuals”. A brother and sister complete the family unit.

The show focuses on the suicide of her sister at the age of 13, back in 2007, and how this brought on suicidal thoughts, voices and other PTSD effects. It also indirectly led to her choice of a career in stand-up (which was paused due to a terrifying stalker). The show can get extremely dark at times but Anna is a confident and seasoned performer who always manages to bring us back (usually with some sexually charged reference or joke). There were a number of social media terms and words that I didn’t understand, but I’m old and out of touch with trendy young people and their ways.

There wasn’t a flat spot or dud joke in the entire show. If you’re worried about some of the issues mentioned above or don’t fancy hearing some very spicy jokes, it might be best to wait for the Netflix/Amazon/etc special. Anna mentioned they are supposed to be checking her show out sometime during the Fringe. Good thing too, as this is an excellent show which deserves a much wider audience than can squeeze into an Edinburgh hot box. See her before she’s properly famous.

It Gets Darker is on at Pleasance Courtyard until August 24

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/anna-akana-it-gets-darker

Elf Lyons: Horses

By Ron Bingham

Horses! So many horses! Elf introduces herself at the start of the show, then transforms into a series of horses and other characters for the rest of the hour.

We are thrown into a whirlwind of physical comedy, interacting with recordings, the history of horses and humans, and the joys of play acting as a child. There are some moments of audience interaction but although I did not partake, they DID look like a lot of fun (though rather dark). This is definitely not a show for the kids or people who are a bit squeamish, as there is a lot of quite bloody and gruesome miming.

Elf is a bundle of energy who bounds around the stage for the full hour, maintaining the characters, encouraging the audience, hectoring the engineer when they add too much thunder, and keeping us entertained without pause. We get scenes from Troy, World War 1, a children’s pony school, the bottom of a well, a racing track, and her childhood home. Everything fits seamlessly together and there is never a dull moment. I don’t know how Elf felt at the end, but I was exhausted just watching her flit from side to side of the stage.

The show was sold out on Wednesday and I expect will continue to sell out for the rest of the Fringe, as it is brilliant. Sit in the front row, and you might even get to be a bloodthirsty Trojan soldier for a few minutes!

Horses is on at Pleasance Courtyard until August 26

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/elf-lyons-horses

16 Postcodes

By Lisa Clark

Oops. I seem to have accidentally drifted into the Drama category of the Fringe. And yep, 16 Postcodes did not really do it for me. It’s not Jessica Regan’s fault it wasn’t funny enough, she’s not a comedian, but it was a deeply flawed piece of theatre about finding a home, with the main glaring problem being that we only heard about 5 of the Postcodes on offer.

The 16 postcodes are an interesting conceit to hang an autobiographical show around, Jessica was born in a town in Ireland with no postcode and moved to London for drama school and stayed, living in 16 postcodes over 20 years. The postcodes are all pinned to the screen behind her in chronological order. She asked audience members to choose the next postcode (any but the 1st: Acton or the 16th: Walthamstow). A cute idea, except that, the stories were so drawn out there was only time for five of them. I felt ripped off and annoyed and heard others making similar comments as we left. The show should be called 5 Postcodes.

The stories themselves were just too long. I realised that her “getting high on mushrooms in Acton” story was dragging on for so long that we weren’t going to have enough time to hear all the stories and it made me anxious, also nonplussed, as I’ve heard better and more interesting hallucinogens stories told by accomplished comedians. Waiting in Greenwich for news of whether she’s got a part in a TV soap while wandering about a park was like Waiting for Godot. Excruciating. Glad it had a happy ending but if you are a fan of her TV Soap Doctors, you may be disappointed, there were no stories or snippets of gossip from the show she was in for ten years here. Of course maybe that was under a postcode that was not chosen, who knows?

Most of the stories did not really work well on their own. Out of order some of the tales lost a lot of context. Or did they? it was hard to be sure. When her relationship broke up for the third time, we had not heard about the previous 2 times and had no context for the line “It saved my life”, in what way, was he abusive? Were there any previous stories about him? We’ll never know.

Jessica Regan is a comfortable person to spend time with and listen to, though it felt very “Actorly” and unnatural when she was in storytelling mode but perhaps my ear is used to a more natural standup style of storytelling. There is nothing offensive or unpleasant about her stories, but it was a bit torturous to sit in a room heating up like an oven to roast us as she told them. She had a largish fan and turned it off during the stories. It wasn’t helping much anyway. Making the audience sing “Maybe it’s Because I’m a Londoner” at the end was less forgivable.

16 Postcodes is on at Pleasance Courtyard until August 26

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/16-postcodes