Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019

[DrGreggles]

My main issue with him is the number of times he has included punchlines or conclusions to routines in his reviews.
I can now only read his stuff if it's about a show I've already seen or will never see.

And he was a bit of a prick at Jordan's show too.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I know that's one reason why people - comics in particular- tend to dislike him. That and the fact he's pretty tough. But he's seasoned, knowledgeable and handy with distilling hour-long shows down into a paragraph or two.

[CaledonianGonzo]

No reviews for Nick Offerman cos they cancelled all the press tickets at the last minute 🤔

[Small Man Big Horse]

No reviews for Nick Offerman cos they cancelled all the press tickets at the last minute 🤔

That's strange, though I didn't think his last show was that great so can't say I've much interest in seeing him again. He wasn't bad, exactly, just a bit too smug in places.

[hummingofevil]

Brian Logan writes reviews for cunts who have no intention of seeing the shows but want just enough information to talk about it as if they have.He just gives off vibes of dead-eyed Londoners who want some cultural capital from reading his works but have zero appreciation of what a comedy show actually is.  I do broadly rate his opinion of what is good or not but I can't take any reviewers seriously who watch shows as a "reviewer".

The great thing about this site is that there are a few of us who just watch shows and give thoughts as punters. I've been turned onto so many great things by you all (thanks again to Macho for ace coverage) but when I see anyone with a notepad my heart sinks. Fuck them all

[CaledonianGonzo]

London Hughes just tore the roof off Pleasance Attic. The best show I've ever seen in that room.

[JCR]

I didn't watch that many shows compared to some, but my top five would be Maisie Adam, Stew. Lee, Tom Walker, Hastings & Cabana and Jack Turner. Worst was Titania McGrath.

Saw Demi Lardner tonight, was fun but I dunno why that show was nominated. May have been a shagged out final Sunday show, but it really needed more structure.

[Twit 2]

So what was JB's username on CaB?

[machotrouts]

EDINBURGH FRINGE 2019 SHOWS I'VE SEEN SO FAR PART 10


Fishbowl. French comedy play that's apparently been doing the rounds of Europe before ending up here, with a proper theatre budget and everything, like there's a whole set and shit. Not the words of me, the words of theatre reviewer and understander machotrouts. I'm used to seeing poor people in little caves pull plastic swords out of bags and that's it, that's the show, so this level of professionalism makes a change.

It's about 3 people in an apartment block getting up to some slapstick mishaps. It's 75 minutes long and there's no dialogue except some yelping and singing. I don't know about it. I mostly enjoyed it, I think. It might be too slick even for me, slick comedy liker machotrouts. There's not a very strong sense of mayhem to the whole thing. It's supposedly inspired by silent films, but it doesn't feel very undercranked.

There are two very funny bits in there, both involving large quantities of bodily fluids. (NOT cum.) (At least when I went. They might be a bit more flexible than I've given them credit for, I don't know.)


Emmy Blotnick: Party Nights. New York comedian who apparently used to write for "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert", which I don't actually know what that is but I feel intuitively like it's a bad thing? Sounds like one of those Drumpf joke talk shows that's on at like 3am every day that America has for some reason? Her material is a bit more Guys Isn't Beyoncé Amazing than I usually go for but I really took to her! I love her breathy and quavering voice, like she's astonished and overwhelmed by everything she has to say.

By the way this and Fishbowl were the last shows I've typed blurbs for that you can actually still see on the 26th, everything I have to say from here on in is out of date and a complete waste of our time.


Fern Brady: Power and Chaos. Nobody needed my blurb on this, because she sold her entire run way the fuck out ages ago. She performs with the confidence and assurance of someone who sold her entire run way the fuck out ages ago, spending a lot of the show leaning against the Monkey Barrel sign behind her. That's fine. She seems legitimately cool. Coolness is quite far down the list of what I look for in a comedian, to be honest, but I'll take it. Complains at one point that people find her scary. I don't find her scary, I want to be her mate. Let's be mates Fern Brad. That's a typo I'm sorry I've not slept much recently.

She could play huge rooms next year. Big stages where she'd need a specialised prop wall if she still fancies a lean. I don't know how she'll translate. I simultaneously feel like she should be a huge star and playing somewhere much danker and dingier than the Monkey Barrel. That's probably a very poor way of phrasing it when talking about an ex-stripper, but you know what I mean yeah, it's a compliment I'm being nice. Not slept.


Children of the Quorn™. By sketch duo "Megan from HR". I like the framing here – the show starts after its end, the stage splattered with blood and props after a séance gone awry, then to explain what's happened, rewinds an hour to the moment they decide to have a séance. They perform sketches just to pass the time waiting for the dead. Even has a cute little end twist (better deployed than the Maisie Adam one, if we're ranking twists).

The sketches were fine. They did pass the time. Mission accomplished.


Raul Kohli: The Greatest Hits. Ostensibly, a best-of show of all his greatest material to date – a compilation show sounds like the best time to jump in on a comedian I don't otherwise know. In fact, this was five-sixths him just asking every audience member one by one "So, where are you from?". Poor time management, perhaps – I'd like to think he does have better material than that. (To be fair, he had two shows this year. Maybe the other show was the one with the show in it.)

Actually, he asked every audience member one by one except me. I was front and centre! Okay, I was overlooked and wasn't really hankering to get involved anyway, fine. I put a polite fiver in his bucket at the end, and he steadfastly avoided eye contact even then. There was hardly anyone else there to distract him! Do I have beef with Raul Kohli that nobody told me about?


Eddie Izzard: Wunderbar (Preview). In my early teens, he was probably my favourite comedian. In my twenties, he's only really come on my radar when I wished he'd shut up and fuck off during the Scottish independence referendum. His main relevance to Cook'd and Bomb'd over the past decade is when you were all conspiring to keep him out of the Labour NEC. But I'd never seen him live before, and I just had to go for myself to confirm what I suspected: I'm not 13 anymore, and Izzard doesn't have another Death Star Canteen in him.

The political material is fairly unchallenging for his audience (damn, who knew Eddie Izzard would think Brexit and Trump are bad? There's even a fucking "covfefe" joke) and indeed me, as he didn't launch into the Make Everything The 90s Again centrist manifesto I fear he's got in him. (Though one phrase is quite telling – he hopes, when the world gets past Trump, we get "back on track". When specifically were things "on track", Eddie?)

The bulk of the show is history whimsy and animal whimsy. Gently, sporadically amusing. Ha ha yes that probably is what that animal would sound like if it could talk. I'm not in any hurry to see the "more political" hour that'll be in his full show.


Stewart Lee: Wok In Progress. I'm not in any hurry to see the "more political" hour that'll be in his full show. (I don't want to hear the views of someone who calls themselves "politically homeless" in 2019 unless they are literally coming out as a paedophile. In that one specific circumstance: fair enough.)

The 70 minutes we got was good. What do you want me to say. You know who Stewart Lee is. Fuck off


Mark Watson: The Infinite Show. The show is ostensibly about empathy. We're handed cards in the queue with the question "What's the thing about you that people don't empathise with?", and we anonymously submit our darkest secrets – or, in practice, boring "quirks" like "I eat the outside of a kiwi fruit!". Then Watson spends the show going through them on stage – or, in practice, spends about 2 minutes on this, oh don't worry Mark it's only the entire premise, while padding the other 58 with, so far as I can tell, a completely normal Mark Watson standup routine. I spent the show just sat there thinking FUCKING GET ON WITH IT.

At the end he's finally sifting through some cards like "ooh this one says 'I was raised by a cult'... normally we'd explore that, but today, it barely registers!" in such a way that he wants us to think, WOW, tonight has been SO crazy and wacky and off-the-wall that being raised by a cult is one of the LESS interesting things we've heard about, when in fact it's just poor time management at the end of a boring evening, the show having been pissed away by him wittering on about a disappointing trip to Centerparcs and his recent divorce. I empathise with the woman who divorced you mate, how about that.

[Brundle-Fly]

Brian Logan writes reviews for cunts who have no intention of seeing the shows but want just enough information to talk about it as if they have.He just gives off vibes of dead-eyed Londoners who want some cultural capital from reading his works but have zero appreciation of what a comedy show actually is.  I do broadly rate his opinion of what is good or not but I can't take any reviewers seriously who watch shows as a "reviewer".

The great thing about this site is that there are a few of us who just watch shows and give thoughts as punters. I've been turned onto so many great things by you all (thanks again to Macho for ace coverage) but when I see anyone with a notepad my heart sinks. Fuck them all

Parklife!

[machotrouts]

If it helps anyone looking to massage the last few beads of cum from the spent cock of the Fringe, the shows I really liked that are still happening on the 26th are: Demi Lardner (21:15), Jamie Loftus (22:15), John-Luke Roberts (17:30), Adam Riches (19:50), Zach Zimmerman (22:45), and Emmy Blotnick (19:55). None of them are sold out yet so far as I can see. Sorry about the cock cum bit I just said there was no need for it.

I'm seeing (and therefore not yet able to vouch for) Michael Legge, Sexy Lamp, Scream Phone, Alasdair Beckett-King, Sunil Patel, Ange Laviopierre, and Late'n'Live. So they must all be on as well or I wouldn't be seeing them would I.

[Small Man Big Horse]

So what was JB's username on CaB?

I mentioned it once and he pm'd me and asked me to edit it out, which I completely understand, if by some weird fluke I became well known I wouldn't want my CaB posts in the public domain, so it's probably best we not say it.

[Blinder Data]

Hopefully Jordan Brookes's win results in a UK tour because I've never seen the guy

[JCR]

Hopefully Jordan Brookes's win results in a UK tour because I've never seen the guy

I'm interested to see him on Live at the Apollo! It's hard to see that show being performed in theatres, but I'm sure he could give it a go.

[machotrouts]

If it helps anyone looking to massage the last few beads of cum from the spent cock of the Fringe, the shows I really liked that are still happening on the 26th are: Demi Lardner (21:15), Jamie Loftus (22:15)

No! 22:45! I need to correct that mistake because it looks like you can't see both of these shows if you haven't already but you can and you probably should.

[peanutbutter]

Stewart Lee: Wok In Progress. I'm not in any hurry to see the "more political" hour that'll be in his full show. (I don't want to hear the views of someone who calls themselves "politically homeless" in 2019 unless they are literally coming out as a paedophile. In that one specific circumstance: fair enough.)

The 70 minutes we got was good. What do you want me to say. You know who Stewart Lee is. Fuck off

huh?

[DrGreggles]

Stew mentioned that he hasn't written the 'political' first half of his new show yet (due to not knowing what the situation will be when the tour starts), so the WiP is of the 'fun' second half.

[peanutbutter]

I mean, has Lee described himself as "politically homeless"

[DrGreggles]

Not a phrase I recall him saying.
Always been 'old' Labour, hasn't he?

[JCR]

Lee said he was disillusioned with politics at the start of the WiP I saw. Got the impression he meant Corbyn, but I could have misread it.

[j_u_d_a_s]

I didn't watch that many shows compared to some... Worst was Titania McGrath.

Would be interested to see this after the mild critical response. Get the feeling this was expected to be the surprise hit of the festival, but as I posted earlier they were doing 50% off pretty quickly.

What were your thoughts about it JCR?

[typeforty]

Well, I've finished my Fringe at last. A stupidly expensive month (fortunately I took redundancy just before coming up here), during which I saw 84 shows... I honestly don't know how those of you who've done more than that managed to see them and stay sane. Here's what I saw in case anyone's curious and wants more details about any of the shows or acts on it - but it's not a very CaB-y list (I actually had a ticket for Kitson that I'd booked on a whim when they went up... Then I didn't go because it was so long ago I forgot...):

The Dark Room for Kids
Any Suggestions, Doctor? The Improvised Doctor Who Parody
Titania McGrath: Mxnifesto
Questing Time
Friendsical
Ollie Horn: Pig in Japan
Battle of the Superheroes
MarvelUs: Aww Snap!
Kevin Quantum: And for My Next Trick 2
The Afterlife of a Soap Star
Hero Worship
Matt Price: Broken Hooters and Geezers with Shooters
Samantha Hannah: How to Find Happiness (in a Year)
Sooz Kempner: Mega Drive
Ew Girl, You Nasty (Katharyn Henson)
Erich McElroy: Radical Centrist
Freeing the Edinburgh Fringe: Book Reading
A Better End for Game of Thrones
Andrew Silverwood: Call Me Janice
Sarah Southern: Tentatively Tory
The Hypnotist - Live and Outrageous
I, Tom Mayhew
The Addams Family
Kate Smurthwaite: Bitch
Werewolf Live
Redacted Arachnid
Adele Cliff: Undershare
Aidan Goatley: Happy Britain Part 1
Goddess
Japanese Sweet Wasabi: No Mask Required!
Shut it Down Carol (Edd Hedges)
Maths Madness with Kyle D Evans
Science Magic: Play with Your Food
Richard Wright is Just Happy to be Involved
Mark Cram: Centaur
Ash Pryce: Mind Reader
Kevin Quantum: Neon Future
Colin Cloud: Sinful
Glenn Doncaster: Sheep Still Don't Have a Working Knowledge of the DLR
Ask a Stripper
Hell to Play: Dante Wish Your Girlfriend was Hot Like Me
Paul Foxcroft: Debut
Action Figure Archive with Steve McLean
Love/Hate Actually
(No) Money in the Bank
Colt Cabana and John Hastings Do Comedy to Bad Wrestling Matches
Wrestling Mania
Joz Norris is Dead... Long Live Mr Fruit Salad
On It (Michelle De Swarte)
Pete Heat: Massive Wizard
Sidekick
Decree Absolute Vodka (Sarah Iles)
Gary Tro: The Greatest Superhero Movie Never Made
Isa Bonachera: The Great Emptiness
Ken Cheng: To All the Racists I've Blocked Before
Nasty Comedy
RPG Quest
Grainne Maguire: Guys... It's Problematic
Ed and Joz's Deleted Scenes
All of the Star Trek Films in One Hour
Hive Minds
Edinburgh TV Festival Presents: Russell T Davies
MarvelUs - Improv the MarvelVerse
The Immoral Maze (Steve N Allen and Erich McElroy)
The Shadowpunk Revolution
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: Roll Up!
Niteskreen
Ash Pryce: Paranormal Illusionist
The Great British Bake Offenders
Johannes Dullin Plays the Devil
Better Than Being Alone (Ros Ballinger)
Feed Wolf Ice Cream: A Comedy Show About Death
Confessions of a Taxi Driver
Voice of Authority
James Bran: Hack
Sam Russell: Privileged to be Here
Lucie Pohl: Really Really Really Really Really Really Real
Found Footage Festival: Volume 9
James Phelan: Troublemaker
Werewolf Live
Thrones: A Musical Parody
Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody
Alasdair Beckett-King: The Interdimensional ABK
Matt Parker: Humble Pi

END

[JCR]

Would be interested to see this after the mild critical response. Get the feeling this was expected to be the surprise hit of the festival, but as I posted earlier they were doing 50% off pretty quickly.

What were your thoughts about it JCR?

It was rubbish. The actress was fine but the script was drivel. I think for satire to work there has to be the suspension of disbelief that this could be a real person and this didn't have that at all, just an actress saying absurd nonsense; I suppose the problem to that end is some of the young people being satirized are at the point of self parody anyway, and for whatever reason the show didn't actually mention that multi national companies are so scared of causing offense that 'Woke' people are empowered, which I think is the core of it.

I quite enjoyed a sequence where the two minutes hate from 1984 was recreated, with her screaming surreal abuse at pictures of random celebrities, but aside from that it was very dull.

The core problem methinks is the show wanted to be edgy satire, and also wanted to be something 50+ year old ABC1's could enjoy, perhaps after Cambridge Footlights and Paul Merton's Impro Chums. And those two goals don't aren't very compatible.

[Brundle-Fly]

Well, I've finished my Fringe at last. A stupidly expensive month (fortunately I took redundancy just before coming up here), during which I saw 84 shows... I honestly don't know how those of you who've done more than that managed to see them and stay sane. Here's what I saw in case anyone's curious and wants more details about any of the shows or acts on it - but it's not a very CaB-y list (I actually had a ticket for Kitson that I'd booked on a whim when they went up... Then I didn't go because it was so long ago I forgot...):

The Dark Room for Kids
Any Suggestions, Doctor? The Improvised Doctor Who Parody
Titania McGrath: Mxnifesto
Questing Time
Friendsical
Ollie Horn: Pig in Japan
Battle of the Superheroes
MarvelUs: Aww Snap!
Kevin Quantum: And for My Next Trick 2
The Afterlife of a Soap Star
Hero Worship
Matt Price: Broken Hooters and Geezers with Shooters
Samantha Hannah: How to Find Happiness (in a Year)
Sooz Kempner: Mega Drive
Ew Girl, You Nasty (Katharyn Henson)
Erich McElroy: Radical Centrist
Freeing the Edinburgh Fringe: Book Reading
A Better End for Game of Thrones
Andrew Silverwood: Call Me Janice
Sarah Southern: Tentatively Tory
The Hypnotist - Live and Outrageous
I, Tom Mayhew
The Addams Family
Kate Smurthwaite: Bitch
Werewolf Live
Redacted Arachnid
Adele Cliff: Undershare
Aidan Goatley: Happy Britain Part 1
Goddess
Japanese Sweet Wasabi: No Mask Required!
Shut it Down Carol (Edd Hedges)
Maths Madness with Kyle D Evans
Science Magic: Play with Your Food
Richard Wright is Just Happy to be Involved
Mark Cram: Centaur
Ash Pryce: Mind Reader
Kevin Quantum: Neon Future
Colin Cloud: Sinful
Glenn Doncaster: Sheep Still Don't Have a Working Knowledge of the DLR
Ask a Stripper
Hell to Play: Dante Wish Your Girlfriend was Hot Like Me
Paul Foxcroft: Debut
Action Figure Archive with Steve McLean
Love/Hate Actually
(No) Money in the Bank
Colt Cabana and John Hastings Do Comedy to Bad Wrestling Matches
Wrestling Mania
Joz Norris is Dead... Long Live Mr Fruit Salad
On It (Michelle De Swarte)
Pete Heat: Massive Wizard
Sidekick
Decree Absolute Vodka (Sarah Iles)
Gary Tro: The Greatest Superhero Movie Never Made
Isa Bonachera: The Great Emptiness
Ken Cheng: To All the Racists I've Blocked Before
Nasty Comedy
RPG Quest
Grainne Maguire: Guys... It's Problematic
Ed and Joz's Deleted Scenes
All of the Star Trek Films in One Hour
Hive Minds
Edinburgh TV Festival Presents: Russell T Davies
MarvelUs - Improv the MarvelVerse
The Immoral Maze (Steve N Allen and Erich McElroy)
The Shadowpunk Revolution
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: Roll Up!
Niteskreen
Ash Pryce: Paranormal Illusionist
The Great British Bake Offenders
Johannes Dullin Plays the Devil
Better Than Being Alone (Ros Ballinger)
Feed Wolf Ice Cream: A Comedy Show About Death
Confessions of a Taxi Driver
Voice of Authority
James Bran: Hack
Sam Russell: Privileged to be Here
Lucie Pohl: Really Really Really Really Really Really Real
Found Footage Festival: Volume 9
James Phelan: Troublemaker
Werewolf Live
Thrones: A Musical Parody
Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody
Alasdair Beckett-King: The Interdimensional ABK
Matt Parker: Humble Pi

END

Fuck me! Well done.

Have to say tho', your redundancy package must be quite substantial.

[typeforty]

It didn't know what it wanted to say most of the time. The only part where it was clear was on trans issues, with what amounted to a montage of "Ha ha ha let's all laugh at these so-called women". Also she did the joke complaining about Anne Frank's diary ending abruptly, which was hack fifty years ago.

[typeforty]

Fuck me! Well done.

Have to say tho', your redundancy package must be quite substantial.

I half price hutted a lot of things... I blew through my budget massively, to be honest. But I've been working there for ten years, so it allowed me to do this once in a lifetime thing (I don't think I have the energy to do the month again!).

[sevendaughters]

I mean this in the nicest possible way but it's like you went to every show I'd skip over in the guide (as well as some I would have seen, to be fair).

[typeforty]

I mean this in the nicest possible way but it's like you went to every show I'd skip over in the guide (as well as some I would have seen, to be fair).

That's how I picked them ;)

I do get that, though - there's a few on the list that were friends' picks (or friends' shows), but other than that... I think I was looking for something a bit different, something I hadn't already seen a hundred times. Because I like your Stewart Lees, your Michael Legges, your Josie Longs... But I know what to expect with them. And I live in London, so I'll probably have a couple of dozen chances to see them anyway. Clearly I'm a gambling man! I'd say generally it paid off.

[sevendaughters]

actually how was Joz Norris? hearing mixed things, with the negative chiefly coming from one friend.

[DrGreggles]

Accommodation booked for next year...