The Boards @ The Playhouse
 8th  – 29th August – 20:30
 £8 – £10.00

Winston Spear is a comedian from Canada whom was voted number one in the Canadian Comedy Awards for best stand up… so he would have come to his first stint at the Edinburgh Fringe with some confidence.  A wacky, unique and obscure individual, Winston embeds a strange, but interesting mime dance routine into his act.  His show starts with Winston on the Grand Piano, quickly informing us he can’t play the damned thing – or actually sing for that matter. From this funny start he appeared to float onto the stage with a Michael Jackson shuffle, moon-walking his way through endless facial expressions that had me in stitches…….

Next came the real body of the performance – a series of one-liner jokes which were funny in themselves but lacked that thread to held them all together. Winston is a winner with mime, for sure, & for me his quirky routines should remain the centre pieces of his show.  With appearances on Canadian TV and some film to his name Winston has had an active past & faces a promising future. Perched high in the Edinburgh Playhouse, seems a secret addition to the Fringe, but is worth definitely worth seeking out… Good show Winston!!! THREE STARS

Reviewer : Spud

Cowgatehead

8th-29th

12:30

Free (£5 donation gets a book of haiku)

****

Probably a cold

But according to Google

Hepatitis B

I think every lad I know would love to have James Bran as a pal – he just fits in with everyone, & when his comedy mojo is working its proper well funny. Somewhere in his mid-twenties (I presume), he has already gained an excellent calmness to the delivery of his material, which is placed somewhere between Quirksville & Southend-on-Sea. His show begins with a pleasant pre-amble, warning us of his twenty minute amnesty window when folk are free to leave without hassle, & also of how to treat any latecomers in the room – one is invited to turn around & give them a menacing, miserable look.

After these very pleasant pleasantries, Bran takes on a journey through his hilarious dream diaries, the invisible badminton of the show’s title, & the endorphin-inducing rush of tossing table-tennis balls at the wee basketball hoop set on his head (hasketball). Interspersed through these mighty comic highs are a series of hilarious haiku which he barks out to the audience as if he were Spike Milligan chortling through his limericks. The comedy that Bran manages to eke out of these syllabic brieflings of poetic brevity is amazing, as the following sample should reflect;

****

Condom in a hedge

Beside them owner’s knickers

Welcome to Stockport

Lockless bathroom door

The best case scenario

You catch me flossing

Snuck into the loos

We had a little fumble

Then she took a shit

****

The twenty minute amnesty window passed without  a hitch, followed not long after by the pre-foreseen arrival of latecomers, who Bran, differing form his normal modus operandi, yelled at to ‘Get Out!’ From here on in, Bran managed to maintain his high level of hilarity, & if anyone is on the lunch break between 12-30 & 1-30, or just starting out in the festivities, there is no better place than in the warm & fuzzy feltlands of Bran’s mind.  FOUR STARS

****

Reviewer : Damo Bullen

The Mash House
 Aug 17, 19-30              
£4 – £6
17.20pm
****   

Charles Booth is a character comedian, actor and writer and performs one cracker of a one-man show.  Set in the top room of the Mash House with blacked out windows, a pair of Deer antlers appear from behind a screen and with the added voice-overs off a car approaching we could only imagine what was in store. An impressionist with many character sketches, from swimming sperm, to the Miltonic sacking of Satan from Heaven his is a very interesting show indeed.
****
Charles performed 8 different sketches, all of which were well thought-out and superbly written. Maybe not to everyone’s taste, Booths is a kind of comedy which utilises elements of acting, stand-up and impressions . Well done Charles, for  this is truly no easy combination to assemble, & assemble well – but you’re done it, son.

****

The changing of costumes for each sketch were simple but effective . Booth’s show gives you a take on some of life’s more unspoken areas, the places we go to in our head but sledom share. The sketch on the sperm finding their way to vagina heaven was most entertaining, gaining many a laugh for the audience. Booth’s ability to support his comedy visions with well-created voices and expressions was fantastic and added much to the fun of the show.  He had me in stitches !!!!!   This is one guy we should watch out for as I am sure he will be back next year with more hilarious character comedy to release upon us. FOUR STARS

****

Reviewed by Spud

Maggie’s Room, Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters

August 6-9,11-16,18-23,25-30

£0/donation

***

***

The venues for the Free Fringe are sometimes a little disappointing, but expect to get what you pay for. It was a tight squeeze getting in and out of the hot, dark upstairs room in the heaving bar, but the young crowd was smiley and well behaved. Loud indie rock blared out with a disembodied voice from behind a black curtain (a little like an emo Wizard of Oz) encouraging us to wait it out until the best bit of the song before the show began. Stuart jumped onto the stage, looking like the Mad Hatter who’d lost his hat while overnighting in a car park. Wide eyed, with his silver hair high on his head, eyes accentuated with Marc Almond style eyeliner, you wanted to root for him and cross your fingers that he was going to make a genuine laugh tumble out of you. Which, again, in the Free Fringe, can be hit or miss. But thankfully, he did. Quite a few times.

His piss take of New Age therapies and the guff on the boxes of beauty products, the acceptance of which often need a complete lobotomy or at least suspension of any rational thought, were realistic and funny. He finished on a high, with a slight peek into his crazy ‘very self-aware’ unconscious. His purposefully rambling anecdote about being carried along the YouTube sidebar and his Jungian description of his freaky dreams showed me this was a man I could definitely relate to. He strikes you as a sweet natured, humble man who appreciates his crowd and deserves every success. THREE STARS

***