Edinburgh Fringe 2022

[the science eel]

No which part? Old tricks still going strong? No one else at the Fringe at the same level?

Not bear baiting, just interested. He's a very important figure for me, but I've been at least a little disappointed with every show since Milder Comedian.

Oh yeah, he's not working up new material particulary often. But I just don't think there's anyone to compare with him. Still. The fact that he's less frantic than most of these acts - and that's one example - sets him apart. 

[SereneMackeral]

Is there anywhere specific to look for resales? After a ticket for Stewart Lee's 10AM slot at The Stand on Wednesday 17th.

[mrblondecutsears]

Is there anywhere specific to look for resales? After a ticket for Stewart Lee's 10AM slot at The Stand on Wednesday 17th.

Still a bunch of tickets available if you go directly to the venue's website:

https://www.thestand.co.uk/shows/1214-stewart-lee-basic-lee-work-in-progress/

[CaledonianGonzo]

I think that's a website glitch. Not sure you can actually check them out.

[mrblondecutsears]

I think that's a website glitch. Not sure you can actually check them out.

I bought tickets 2 days ago and it worked for me. Seems to be additional dates added at around 5pm each day so I'm assuming they put up a small selection of resale tickets each day.

[Malcy]

https://edinburghfestivalsforkids.com/

Might be worth a look / follow too.

Great thanks!

[DrGreggles]

Thanks for the Lara Ricote heads up guys.

[greencalx]

Right, so back from my first proper taste o' the Fringe post-covid.

First, I have concluded there is only one Face Pulling Troupe poster, and it's this one



For the guy on the right I maintain that's a fairly natural-looking expressions in the context of earlier years' posters. In fact the kind of face I tend to make when someone points a camera at me and I am trying to look normal. The other two are perhaps more face-pully than previous years, so maybe they've now decided to average it out rather than place the onus on the one guy. The older posters really seemed to shout to me: "the thoughtful one", "the cheeky one" and "the madcap one" so I was surprised when I saw one of their sketches that the performers seemed to have no personae at all - maybe necessarily for sketch performers, but striking nonetheless.  I've clearly overthought this massively, particularly for an act I have no intention of ever seeing.


Anyway, as advertised three shows with young calx today. First up The Listies - Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark at the King's Hall (trading as House of Oz). Wife and child had seen The Listies before, so we thought this was a safe bet, but it turns out the child's comedic tastes have matured considerably since then. It's a very slick and energetic performance, with pretty decent production values (in the context of the Fringe) and a venue that actually feels like a theatre. The premise is that the actors of Hamlet go down with a bug and it's left to the ushers and the stage managers to do the show. One of them is trying to stick to the script (or, at least, a heavily edited version of the script appropriate for a children's 1-hour show), but is dragged off course by the other two. The main thing you need to know if you are planning to see this with your weans is that it is very heavy on the toilet humour. The younger kids in the audience loved it, but my child sat stony faced until about the last 15 minutes where it got a bit more dramatically interesting. At the end he said: "It was all bum, farts and poo, and the clever jokes weren't that clever. 2/6". I'd say it's a well-done show for a certain demographic.

We then hoofed down to the Underbelly for Mudfish - Might as Well. This was a punt - a show that fit between the other two we had planned, temporally if not geographically, and I was worried it would be one of those shows where you feign mild amusement for an awkward fifty minutes by virtue of being one metre away from the performers. On paper the premise is that a twin brother and sister got stuck at the bottom of a well during some protest or other, and worked through their relationship with each other. In practice, this is a vehicle to provide a narrative to bridge a sequence of sketches that by themselves would be a be a bit lol-random. The performance was assured, the jokes a bit hit-and-miss (but I think landing more often than not), and the child thought it was great even though we both got a bit confused, not helped by one of them jumping ahead in the script and them having to rescue the plot in character which was done quite well. It was claimed this was due to a last-minute rewrite of the scene in question. I would give this a 3-and-a-bit stars in the context of the Fringe at large, but it hit the spot for the awkward age that's outgrown childish toilet humour but is not ready for shows that reference the full range of things that adults can get up to.

An ice-cream and a pint, and then Comedy Club 4 Kids. This is the usual compere + 3 acts scaled down to fit an hour in total job. It can therefore be very variable, depending on who's on the lineup and also the nature of the audience. The kids were mostly in the 6-12 age bracket I'd say, and they did a good job of accommodating the spectrum with more interactive silly stuff from the compere, and more mature stuff for the older kids. The child got a bit frustrated because the compere did slightly too good a job of relaxing the audience, causing the younger kids to call out a lot which had one of the acts abandoning his punchlines before he got to them - which was probably funny for him, but not so much those of us who wanted to hear them. As is often the case in such a show, the middle act's material was weak (but mercifully brief) and the headliner (Mat Ricardo) did a very entertaining cabaret act with various tricks and excellent audience interaction. We may check out his full show, and of anything I saw today I think that's probably the safest bet for a family group.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Chloe Petts - Transience
For a debut show I found this only vaguely concerned with autobiography, but rather a strong, clubby set that approaches its central themes of sexuality and gender identity from a variety of angles - and one that should propel Petts firmly into the mainstream panel-show circuit.  Clearly polished by long months of on-the-road refinement and honed to the nth degree so that every second sentence is a laugh-line, it's an impressive calling card that wears its smarts easily and its influences (a vague Kitsonly resemblance) even more lightly.  There's a theme emerging at this year's Fringe of gender expression and - with its likely popular crossover appeal - Petts's show will be an easy sell to people with lower engagement or less at stake in the ongoing culture wars.  Taskmaster and Frankie Boyle's New World Order await.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Kieran Hodgson WIP:

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/kieran-hodgson-big-scotland-wip/performances

[DrGreggles]

Kieran Hodgson WIP:

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/kieran-hodgson-big-scotland-wip/performances

Good ol' Kieran - I'm already at the Courtyard that night and that show ends 20 minutes before this starts.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Rhys Nicholson – Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!
Nicholson seems to be something of a big deal in the antipodes, packing a large-ish lecture theatre to the rafters with a crowd clearly already on familiar terms with the immaculately-styled, waspish comedian.  And they justify the fandom with an intricate, precision-tooled hour of constant first rate laughs.  This show won the prize at Melbourne and - although I suspect it won't repeat that success here - the judges there obviously didn't award a lame duck.  The revelation on which the show's final third hinges maybe loses some impact in a country where they're not a household name, but it doesnt detract from an hour of consistently top-drawer comedy from someone who's clearly a natural.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Good ol' Kieran - I'm already at the Courtyard that night and that show ends 20 minutes before this starts.

Sadly I'm already booked up otherwise I'd be there with bells on.

[DrGreggles]

No More Jockeys was great last night.
If an audio of it mysteriously shows up I'll let you know...

[CaledonianGonzo]

Jordan Brookes - This Is Just What Happens
Another twisty, artful, form-scrambler of an hour.  We caught the WIP of this last August where - at that stage at least - it boded of a more straightforward hour of lower stakes stand-up.  Thankfully it's now evolved into something more convoluted and chewy and - whilst perhaps not quite operating at the full strength of his considerable powers as a writer - his command of language, expression, space and physical form still impresses. Tricksy maverick bastard of a comic and a true original.

[DrGreggles]

Sheeps are doing a few extra shows too

[Pie Pie Eater]

Has anyone seen or heard about any really good 'high concept' solo shows this year? It tends to be my favourite kind of thing but unless I'm just missing the info there doesn't seem to be that much about this year. I'm thinking along the lines of Natalie Palamides' Nate or Laid, Joseph Morpurgo's Hammerhead, Soothing Sounds For Baby or Odessa, Jordan Brookes' Bleed, that kind of thing (if that is a kind of thing)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Has anyone seen or heard about any really good 'high concept' solo shows this year? It tends to be my favourite kind of thing but unless I'm just missing the info there doesn't seem to be that much about this year. I'm thinking along the lines of Natalie Palamides' Nate or Laid, Joseph Morpurgo's Hammerhead, Soothing Sounds For Baby or Odessa, Jordan Brookes' Bleed, that kind of thing (if that is a kind of thing)

I love all of the shows you mentioned, Morpurgo's the best in the business for me right now, and saw a lot of WIP's this year and there wasn't a lot that I saw akin to the above (though there was a fuckload I didn't see, so this might be very wrong). Anyhow, the closest for me is Sam Nicoresti's Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture - the audio and video wasn't quite finished when I saw it, but the material alone blew me away and I thought it was a 5 star show in it's unfinished state, so highly recommend it. Oh, and I hope no one's put off by the title (as a couple of my friends were) as Sam is a very lovely, lovely human being and in no way edgy or trying to offend, if anything the opposite applies.

https://samnicoresti.com/

[CaledonianGonzo]

Has anyone seen or heard about any really good 'high concept' solo shows this year? It tends to be my favourite kind of thing but unless I'm just missing the info there doesn't seem to be that much about this year. I'm thinking along the lines of Natalie Palamides' Nate or Laid, Joseph Morpurgo's Hammerhead, Soothing Sounds For Baby or Odessa, Jordan Brookes' Bleed, that kind of thing (if that is a kind of thing)

Catts is definitely a concept .....but YMMV as to the actual hilarity of it.  It's as much a theatre piece as it is a comedic one.

Elf Lyons' show is also meant to be a bit 'out there' - but not seeing it until it comes back to The Stand in the autumn.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Anyhow, the closest for me is Sam Nicoresti's Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture - the audio and video wasn't quite finished when I saw it, but the material alone blew me away and I thought it was a 5 star show in it's unfinished state, so highly recommend it.

Thank you, he was on my longlist but didn't manage to fit in to my schedule - might be able to jig things around (maybe I should ditch Patti Harrison on Friday night eh)

Catts is definitely a concept .....but YMMV as to the actual hilarity of it.  It's as much a theatre piece as it is a comedic one.

I'm definitely prepared to sacrifice some hilarity for a show that at least tries to do something interesting, so will try and check that out too, thanks! It does also overlap with my busiest time period though, curses.

[Pie Pie Eater]

The Delightful Sausage - Nowt But Sea
I saw these guys 4 years back and it didn't really work for me - and then I had a ticket for Ginster's Paradise but for one reason or another I wound up not going.  But this year it finally clicked and I thought this was an absolute hoot.  The writing was a lot stronger this time around with a raft of good ideas and strong jokes throughout.  Likewise the interplay and ad-libbing between the leads now lets the audience in on the joke, creating a vibrant, joyous atmosphere in the room - quite a feat for so early in the day.  The final video post-script is a cracker.

I really liked Ginster's Paradise but definitely thought this was a step up from that. Did have to spend quite a lot of mental energy preventing myself from shouting out

Spoiler alert

the answer to the Only Connect question

[close]

[edwardfog]

Has anyone seen or heard about any really good 'high concept' solo shows this year? It tends to be my favourite kind of thing but unless I'm just missing the info there doesn't seem to be that much about this year. I'm thinking along the lines of Natalie Palamides' Nate or Laid, Joseph Morpurgo's Hammerhead, Soothing Sounds For Baby or Odessa, Jordan Brookes' Bleed, that kind of thing (if that is a kind of thing)

I agree with SMBH that Sam Nicoresti is the best of a pretty small group this year, but here's some other options that half fit the bill:

Julia Masli - Choosh
Very good clown-type show about the immigrant experience

John-Luke Roberts - A World Just Like Our Own, But...
A show comprised entirely of alternate universes. Formally minimalist/experimental but very silly

Benjamin Alborough - Absolute Monopoly
Very good show where he attempts to redesign the board game Monopoly every night with input from the audience. Think he might have finished his fringe run already but worth catching where you can

The Duncan Brothers - Jeremy Segway: A Life Out of Balance
Bipoic of the inventor of the segway, performed on segways. They said they were taking this to Edinburgh but I can't see them on the main site

Edy Hurst - EDY HURST'S COMEDY VERSION OF JEFF WAYNE'S MUSICAL VERSION OF H.G. WELL'S LITERARY VERSION (VIA ORSON WELLES' RADIO VERSION) OF 'THE WAR OF THE WORLDS'
Pretty much what it sounds like

Jim John Harkness - Ecstasy of Dread
Haven't seen this yet but it looks pretty weird. Single performance at 1.50am on Saturday morning

[BritishHobo]

I'll give another vote to Sam Nicoresti's show. I also saw it at a stage where some of the tech stuff and some of the premise was still to be finalised, but it was, as always with Nicoresti, incredible. I'm really eager to hear the thoughts of anyone who sees him at the Fringe, to see how the finished show sounds. Ditto Sean Morley (assuming he's performing - I've not checked).

[edwardfog]

He's sadly not although he does have a new show in the works. I think he's boycotting the fringe

[WestHill]

Anyone know the run time for Tim Key?

I booked him at 10 then Snort at 11 but maybe that's a bit ambitious!

[CaledonianGonzo]

I think it was ~55 mins or so. But then you also need to get from the Pleasance Dome down to the Courtyard.

[the science eel]

Just back from Lara Ricote. Shitloads of charm and confidence, but I didn't really hear anything special really. Good not great.

[WestHill]

I think it was ~55 mins or so. But then you also need to get from the Pleasance Dome down to the Courtyard.

Great, thanks!

He's at the Pleasance Forth on the night I booked so I'll give it a go.

[DrGreggles]

Yeah, Key's doing runs at the Dome and the Courtyard.
Generally shows are starting 5 minutes late, so you can easily get to another Courtyard venue in time.

Seeing Sam Nicoresti's show tonight, so that should be worth reporting back on.

[WestHill]

Would be interested to know what the queues are like for Nicoresti. Really want to see him but it's not bookable is it.