Topic: Edinburgh Fringe 2010

[TIAL]

Best Newcomer nominees: Asher Treleaven, Imran Yusuf, The Boy with the Tape on His Face, Gareth Richards, Late Night Gimp Fight, Roisin Conaty

[CaledonianGonzo]

Coo...surprised at the lack of nom. for Des Bishop. 

And admittedly also surprised at Sarah Millican making the main list, especially after one of the judges really ripped into her on his Twitter Feed.

Bo and Boy might steal it, I reckon, if I were a gambling man.

Edit:  And no Kevin Eldon?

[scarecrow]

apparently there was talk of Ed Aczel receiving a nomination too, judges sniffing around his show all month.

[CaledonianGonzo]

apparently there was talk of Ed Aczel receiving a nomination too, judges sniffing around his show all month.

Yeah - I'd heard that the whole judging panel was into see him on Sunday night. 

I do like Aczel, but is his show this year substantially different to what he's done before?  We opted not to bother, more or less thinking that having seen him a couple of times we knew his 'formula'.  However, if he's changed gear or notched it up I'd certainly be interested in seeing him again.

In a non-comedy update, Alan Moore was on fine, interesting form at the Book Festival last night, and happy to press the flesh and wool-gather afterwards.  Interesting to see his face light up when someone handed something for him to sign that wasn't Watchmen or From Hell.

[Jake Thingray]

Doon Mackichan's show sounded interesting, maybe it'll play again somewhere.

[TIAL]

Best Newcomer is: Roisin Conaty

Panel Prize is awarded too: Bo Burnham

Best Comedy Show winner is Russell Kane


No 'spirit of the fringe' this year then?

[vrailaine]

Best Newcomer is: Roisin Conaty

Panel Prize is awarded too: Bo Burnham

Best Comedy Show winner is Russell Kane


No 'spirit of the fringe' this year then?

So... are Roisin Conaty and Russell Kane any good? I don't know either of them.

I liked Bo Burnham's reply to the Malcolm Hardee thing.

Acclaimed American comic Burnham – who is also on the shortlist for the main Edinburgh Comedy Awards announced later today – was named the ‘act most likely to win a million quid’ in the Malcolm Hardee awards.

After he was shortlisted for the accolade, named in honour of the late ’godfather of alternative comedy’, Burnham’s London publicists wrote to award organisers saying ‘making money is not what he’s driven by at all and [we] don’t think he’d be at all comfortable with receiving this award’.

But Burnham said he had not known of that response and added: ‘I am a very big fan of Malcolm Hardee. In America, I’ve worshipped Andy Kaufman and had found Malcolm in trying to research other anti-comics. For you guys to nominate me for that award, and then take the piss out of me when my someone said that I don't do this, my job, for money, is honestly, an absolute honour Yes. I care about money but I do kind of hate myself for it.’

[TIAL]

Surely anyone is as likely as eachother to 'win' a million quid?

[vrailaine]

Surely anyone is as likely as eachother to 'win' a million quid?

Yeah, I thought that myself. It might be just a way of sidestepping being perceived of having that silly "making money=a bad thing" mentality.

Edit: ...or it might mean the million would be undeserved.

[TIAL]

Ha, well that's a smooth way of hiding it.

[papalaz4444244]

@falsettosocks

Kitson & Lovett in fights with drunks, Grant in car crash, Khorsandi has power cut. Has God got a problem with comedians tonight? #edfringe

[Small Man Big Horse]

Russell Kane any good?

Russell Kane - Live at the Apollo - Part 1

No. Really no.

[vrailaine]

Dunno if I can bother watching a 6 minute video, his posters in Edinburgh made me hate him for some reason.
EDIT: Watched it, done nothing for me, maybe he's improved absolutely loads since then though.

Kitson and Lovett were in proper fights? Was Kitson doing Munnery's charity thing tonight or was that just a random fight on the street?

[grimoald]

Apparently Kane toned down his 'act' a fair bit this year. I really don't like him, but the show was supposed to be good, with a proper Edinburgh structure and ending. 

Bo Burnham is the most likely to make that much money as he has/is getting US TV and movie interest. I saw the show, and though I was absolutely wowed by his talent, the hour was more impressive than hilarious. He actually had too many jokes, a flaw which was exacerbated by the pacing of his songs/poems. Whereas Vine or Emo Phillips let the jokes sit for a second, Burnham was just relentless in his delivery. Consequently, some really good jokes were hidden amongst lots of average ones as the audience had to play catchup, which suggested he didn't know what his best material was. Also, a lot of it seemed mechanical, like he has found the forumla for comedy (i.e. deconstruction, misdirection, observations, pull-back-and-reveals, call-backs etc) before he's learned how to work a crowd.

It was interesting to see 16-24 year old girls in the audience all eye-fucking him too.

I do like Aczel, but is his show this year substantially different to what he's done before?  We opted not to bother, more or less thinking that having seen him a couple of times we knew his 'formula'.  However, if he's changed gear or notched it up I'd certainly be interested in seeing him again.

In a non-comedy update, Alan Moore was on fine, interesting form at the Book Festival last night, and happy to press the flesh and wool-gather afterwards.  Interesting to see his face light up when someone handed something for him to sign that wasn't Watchmen or From Hell.

Aczel did the same thing as the last two years, and I thought it was weaker than those efforts.

I saw Moore at Eldon on thursday.

[actwithoutwords]

Aczel did the same thing as the last two years, and I thought it was weaker than those efforts.

Ah, that's a pity. I hadn't seen him before but thought he was great this year, though obviously somewhat limited. I was wondering whether he deliberately manipulated the pacing of the show to match the graph of goodwill he puts up at one stage. The last twenty minutes tailed off quite badly and I wasn't entirely certain whether it was accidental or deliberate.

[vrailaine]

Bo Burnham is the most likely to make that much money as he has/is getting US TV and movie interest. I saw the show, and though I was absolutely wowed by his talent, the hour was more impressive than hilarious. He actually had too many jokes, a flaw which was exacerbated by the pacing of his songs/poems. Whereas Vine or Emo Phillips let the jokes sit for a second, Burnham was just relentless in his delivery. Consequently, some really good jokes were hidden amongst lots of average ones as the audience had to play catchup, which suggested he didn't know what his best material was. Also, a lot of it seemed mechanical, like he has found the forumla for comedy (i.e. deconstruction, misdirection, observations, pull-back-and-reveals, call-backs etc) before he's learned how to work a crowd.

It was interesting to see 16-24 year old girls in the audience all eye-fucking him too.

I'd say Burnham's already made a million easy, that musical he's doing with Apatow is well underway now.

Was sorta torn about going to see him decided not to as I reckoned I would probably enjoy him more on the inevitable HBO special of the exact same show(apparently I was wrong here, it's on Comedy Central in October) at home where I can do things like rewind, most reviews said that he seemed to be working off a very tight script or whatever, and was kinda worried that an overappreciative audience(specifically the 16-24 year old girls you've mentioned there) would put me off him, cos I'm a cunt like that.


Really have to do a really thorough look through a lot of youtube's big comedy channel things, there's bound to be some absolute gems in there... you'd think there'd be some sort of modern alternative comedy style movement coming out of it and all.
...it'll just be such a torture to find them is the problem.

Also

@JosieLong Daniel Kitson got into a fight with a man at a chip shop and then he was sick#hellodaniel

She has me blocked too! The worst I could've ever possibly said about her was "she's nice but I don't find her very funny".

[mobias]

Wow what a last day of the festival. Really didn't think I was going to get to see Kevin Eldon. He's been on in the middle of the afternoon all month and its just been difficult to find the time off work to see stuff during the day. Being a huge fan of his, particularly in Big Train and Jam I've been naturally pretty gutted to have missed him. Until that is this morning when a mate rang to say he had a spare ticket for his final show this afternoon and did i want to come. So I lied to my boss about having a dental appointment I'd forgotten about and I nipped up to the Stand this afternoon, grabbed a pint at the bar and sat down at a table right at the front. I took a sip of my pint only to be joined at the table by one of my favourite writers of all time - non other than Mr Ian Banks. He looked like he thoroughly enjoyed the show, as did I. No one bothered him and I don't think many people even noticed him. He quickly left at the end.

Why the fuck isn't Kevin Eldon much much more famous? He reminds me slightly of Rowan Atkinson. Great comic character performer obviously being strongly grounded in just being a great all round actor. Also like Atkinson Kevin Eldon has a slight other worldness about him whilst giving off a real warmth in his performances, he also shares that fantastic way with dialogue. Its a shame Kevin Eldon has never had a strong lead role in a comedic vehicle like Atkinson did with Blackadder. I'm sure if he'd had that he'd be much more of a house hold name.

I really wish I'd seen his show earlier in the festival, I would have loved to have seen it a good few times and I really would have recommended it to others. It was top notch stuff, all the characters were brilliantly done, especially the poet at the start.     

[lipsink]

I thought the exact same thing when I saw Eldon yesterday. He reminds me of Rik Mayal or Rowan Atkinson (when they were at their peak) in that he's just a frightenly raw talent. Anyone find his poet saying "Come to my show. Pleeeeeease!!!!" was bit too Partridge though? Anyway, I loved his show and  I loved Stew Lee's too. My seat for Lee was right in the corner where he walks out on stage and it was great to see an annoyed looking woman in the front row not smile very much at all through the entire show. Did everyone meet him after then? I bought '90s Comedian' off him and got it signed too. Sean Lock's show I just wasn't up for. Bleh.

[mobias]

Did everyone meet him after then?

A mate of mine went up to him outside the Stand and basically begged him to let him into the show last weekend but he told him it was sold out and told to see if there were any returns, which he duly got. I would have liked to meet Kevin Eldon, he seemed like a really cool bloke. In the Big Train commentaries he comes across as really nice.   

[vrailaine]

I was talking to Lee a bit after the Stewbilee. Was telling him why the other Dave Allen book was much closer to what he was looking for cos it sounded like he never heard of it in the book and I thinly they've similar cover images. He seemed pretty interested.

...then I asked him a question about performing material to the same audience, asked where I was from, said it was a good question but way too complicated to explain there and to email him about it. I assumed this was a polite way of saying "I can't be bothered right now". Still, nice man.

[PaulTMA]

Um, what's the bootleg policy again?  I may or may not have bootlegged the same performer as I did least year, though can't remember if sharing it was a faux pas or not.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Kitson and Lovett were in proper fights? Was Kitson doing Munnery's charity thing tonight or was that just a random fight on the street?

Kitson did Munnery's Mock the Strong show on Friday night, but was one of about 6 or 7 acts, so only did what seemed like 5 minutes before being replaced by a succession of folk including Simon Donald (amusing) and Shappi Khorsandi (not so much).  Rather than doing his 'Name! What d'you do?' impro/compere bit as of late, he managed a short routine about a man he'd seen while out and about with Josie Long and Maeve Higgins going up to strangers and punching them.  Dunno if it's at all related, though 'punching a man's foot off' perhaps indicates the presence of monopedal antipodean Adam Hills.

So there we have it.

Over the weekend, managed to see:

Paul Foot who had strong, strange whimsical material that was chockful of good ideas but, for reasons I can't entirely fathom, completely failed to make me laugh.  Not even at the homophobic shire horse, which I can see is funny in an 'intellectual' sort-of sense, but just didn't make the notional jump from brain to funny bone.  Glad I saw him, but Tony Law is doing a similar type of material and managing to make it hilarious.

Frisky & Mannish were more of a drunken night-out cabaret than straightforward comedy, but were good fun, even if some of the references went straight over my Brandy & Monica-avoiding head.

Stephen K. Amos and Andrew Maxwell doing the usual at a late-night thing.

Tom Binns/Ian D. Montford - I must admit that I did quite like Ivan Brackenbury (at least, I did the first time around) and so it was with this.  A nice blend of silly juxtaposition and excellent crowd-interaction meant that what might seem like a Shirley Ghostman-style awfulness could well have legs of longevity.  Overall, really rather splendid.

The Roaring Boys are, perhaps, ones to watch rather than the fully-finished article.  There were moments that I enjoyed and the show had plenty of pace and exuberance, but overall I found it a little arch.  Not bad for its teatime slot, though.

And now a little bit of a break from live comedy might be required....

[EEEEE EEE EEEE]

Um, what's the bootleg policy again?  I may or may not have bootlegged the same performer as I did least year, though can't remember if sharing it was a faux pas or not.

Stewart Lee? Do it. I don't think anyone minded last year and I for one would love to hear it.

[PaulTMA]

Stewart Lee? Do it. I don't think anyone minded last year and I for one would love to hear it.

Anyone got a jpeg of the poster I HAVE OCD.

[Marvin]

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/8/26/1282816614219/stewart-lee-poster-001.jpg

[EEEEE EEE EEEE]

http://www.edfringe.com/uploads/event/stewart-lee-vegetable-stew_17414.jpg

[PaulTMA]

Vegetable Stew from Monday of this week:

http://www.mediafire.com/?0rnz4wh49x4aijl

[EEEEE EEE EEEE]

Awesome, thanks

[vrailaine]

Anyone able to tell me if this is pretty much Bo Burnham's Edinburgh show?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXRVqzgJoZE

[lipsink]

Does anyone happen to know who the young kid comedian Lee was criticising in 'Vegetable Stew'? On the show last Sunday he did a bit about how much hype a young comedian was getting and seemed pissed off how he got praised for coming to the Fringe when other comedians like himself came every year and lost money.
He said something like:

"Oh, he's from the Internet. He's an Internet Phenomenon. What, like child porn? Just cos he's from the Internet, doesn't mean he's good."