The Mash House

Until the 27th (15.00)

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We all need ‘Texan’ Suzanna Gonzo in our life. She has the ability to heal us – perhaps not so much with the esoterics of her healin’ & revealin,’ but more from the fact that she can transfer that endless, pearly-white smile of hers onto your own face. Her show, then, is a wee waltz through her days as a Luxury Cruise Liner singer & her sexual adventures along the way. Suzanna’s real name is Katie Bridget O’Brien, a graduate of Philippe Gaulier’s Parisian clown school, & it shows. She’s incredibly adept at making us laugh. She has also embraced the singular character theme – her previous Fringe effort, Billy Was Tap Dancing With Seagulls, used a number of characters, but this time round she’s hit pay-dirt with her pink-clad, catchphrase-kicking, finger-lickin,’Cher-loving cowgirl, Miss Gonzo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NjMpFe7dTo

Watching Gonzo is like having a right good soak in a bubble-bath, for a good hour or so of warmth & fluffiness. This lady is a stylish talent, & like all the best comedy storytellers has the ability to transport us into an unshakable reality of hilarity. And that’s the beauty of it. You know she’s a comedy character – almost cartoonesque, really – you know that the Texan accent is almost too good to be true, & you now the wacky stories she’s coming out with are but joyous little baubles of comedy creativity…. but she’s so entrancing you become completely immersed in her world & are like, Suzanna, its my turn, please heal me…

Reviewer : Damian Beeson Bullen

Opium, Nightclub

Aug 21-27

PWYL

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Now this was a great surprise! Free fringe and absolutely Fantastic! Matt is a very funny guy with a wicked sense of humour. He does not take himself too seriously, but is meticulous and funny from start to finish! I was really impressed by this guy and a fantastic way to introduce my wee bro to the Fringe. Matt was at the door to welcome you as you entered the upstairs room in Opium, which must have had enough seating for 100 people and we had to negotiate for our stools at the back, so go early! His story is roughly based around a red dwarf type scenario and stays pretty true to the storyline all the way through! There is scene after scene of funny adventures as he supersoars on his journey through space – with tons of laughs from the whole audience.

The clue is in the title folks – it’s well worth an hour of your day and utterly amazing you can go and see him for free. I would be very surprised if this will be the case for much longer! My American friend didn’t quite get this one as much as my wee bro & I, so there may be some cultural barriers to overcome for it going worldwide. But who cares – not me and my wee bro who were absolutely killing ourselves. A great way to kick of anybody’s Fringe, if you are in town and anywhere near the Cowgate get along and see the show you will be in for a real treat!

Reviewer : Mark Parker

Espionage – Kasbar

4th – 28th August @ 6.15pm

Free – Non Ticked Show

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John Scott returns to Edinburgh from the depths of the Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle with his intriguingly titled show,  Smashes It To F**k. A regular face on the comedy circuit during the Fringe,  John is always one of these comedians that takes his show to another level.  Acquiring the Kasbar in Espionage, with a crowd of 35 to 40 people, this is a close up and personal hour of hard-hitting, stand-up comedy.  John takes an average day and turns it into a head-on collision of gripping, on the edge of your seat hilarity. From the first words spoken, John had the audience in barrels of laughter, clutching at his jokes as they were hurled towards us with precise meaning…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33vxUbUWZ6o

Swaying back and forward from his Small World to his Big World, Mr Scott takes us through new dimensions of political and self-conscious jokes, delivering direct and deliberate lines that hit you like a gale force wind.  Stunned with laughter you recover in enough time to deal with the next succession of mind-teasing jokes. With the Royal Family, Politics, Religion, War, Donald Trump, and pretty much everything else in the firing line, there is nowhere to hide when it comes to John Scott…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pkNx-MrStQ

A true marvel at crafting his art of stand up comedy, I felt this space was too small for such a giant.  This is funniness taken to the outer boundaries of our existence.  Planned purely with the audience in mind (and partly for himself), John can shock you, tickle you, twist you, bend you, entertain you, melt you, never offend you, with his twisted take on our daily existence on mother earth.  This is the best and funniest free comedy I have had the pleasure to attend at this years Edinburgh Fringe… Shockingly Brilliant !!!!!!

Reviewed by Raymond Speedie

Underbelly, Cowgate

Aug 19-28

Material :  Delivery :    Laughs : 

I was a little early for this one and had to wait 20 min for the show to start. So I was right at the front of the queue and first one in the room, where I was politely asked to sit right at the end of the front row! As I sat down and looked at the weird array of objects scattered around the stage I thought to myself – rookie mistake I wish I wasn’t right at the front,0 This guy is going to be all over me! Thankfully he was not; I love a good show but I am not too keen on being a star of it! Saying that, there was a lot of audience interaction throughout the show, with most of the people coming from the front middle. Spencer was actually very nice to them and didn’t take the mickey that much! He is a very funny guy, very quirky and you wonder what you have got yourself into from the start as soon as he appears on stage. Spencer has a way of seeing humour in just about everything from a noise, a squeak, a prop &… so on, with all of his observations very funny indeed!

Spencer’s routine is delivered at a reasonable pace and sometimes I was wondering what exactly was going on, but you just need to roll with it with this guy. Some moments are pretty out there while others are comic genius! it’s a weird collection of stuff that just shouldn’t be funny but so is & I guess that’s the true test of  a comedy genius; make people laugh from nothing! He is a lovely man who really cares about what he does and I adored the fact he went to the door at the end and thanked everyone personally for coming. His act looks very natural and perhaps even easy, though I am sure that to make the littlest things appear funny must take an exceptional amount of work to master. Well worth a visit take a friend or two and don’t be afraid to sit at the front.

Reviewer : Mark Parker

Pleasance Courtyard

Aug 18-21, 23-28 (20.30)

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The Pleseance is one of my favourite venue,s with a thriving courtyard & several bars as you wander through, all of which are buzzing, and an undercover seating area which looks great to chill out in. Tonight’s venue, Room 4, possesses quite a modest name; it’s massive and holds hundreds of people – & tonight the place was packed for the show. Jess likes to make everybody very welcome as they enter the room, even standing at the front to help usher everybody in. She is a very classy lady and has the looks & acumen of a real star. In a nutshell, her show is a classic – though she does go on about her divorce a wee bit too much. OK we get it… comedians deal with their sorrow by making it part of their show, but do we really care about other people’s loss? No! Is it funny? Not really! But Jess has a lot more characters she can draw on for material than just herself… every famous woman there has ever been it seemed! She is a highly talented impersonation impresario, and nailed every one of them, I felt!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYaPYt_z3Do

‘Impressive’ is a highly entertaining hour – the impersonations, singing & comedy weave together effortlessly & give the punter a lot more for their money than the average Fringe show. The supporting band are top notch, & were brought into the show at times, along with some great audience participation throughout! By the way – if you sit at the very front I hope you’re not shy and have some hidden talent.

I took a friend along to this one who absolutely loved it as well! Yeah, Jess does go on a wee bit about her divorce, but it’s not that big a deal really, & by the end of the show me and my mate would have quite happily signed up for the job of hubby number two. She is a very endearing talent and her ‘vision’ was thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.

Reviewer : Mark Parker

The Newsroom

 Aug 4-28 – (15.45)

PWYL

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Loose Brie is part of the Free Fringe, a rather rather insightful look into life played out in the middle of the afternoon in the basement of the Newsroom. Phil & Martin – the Loose Brie duo – appeared after what seemed like an age of shockingly bad intro music (did something go wrong backstage, perhaps?) & with oodles of enthusiasm driving them pell-mell through their pretty decent routine. I laughed – a lot – they had the right energy levels and charisma, they have excellent timing & a have a good crack with the audience — but something told me these dudes are by no means the finished article & can improve & then go on improving. Their material should evolve over time – there is certainly some stuff in there which doesn’t need to be here next time round, but some which clearly has to remain a part of their repetoire.

Overall though I was pleasantly surprised – the boys are not afraid to be a little bit out there and definitely gave it everything they had. They blended good audience participation into their show’s decent flow and we were never left wanting. Worth chucking a few squiddlies in the bucket for  if you’re in the right place at the right time..

Reviewer : Mark Parker

Queens Dome, Potterow

Aug 16-29 (19.00)

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This was one wild ride from start to finish! As I stood in the queue at the Potterrow to enter the show I noticed the venue had been done up with a jungle feel – wooden decking and fake trees floating about everywhere.  We were in the Queen’s Dome, & as I sat waiting for the rest of the crowd to come in I saw that even the ushers where up for this one! There was a real feel of electricity in the air — the word is out these guys are good! This was the biggest show I had seen so far with an audience in the hundreds rather that the tens. .

So, out they came, three seasoned professionals readying to blow the audience away. I was sat two from the front, so perfect eye-level view for the show (I did come to regret my view later!) These guys are in your face and loud, right from the start, in an action-packed, fun-filled carnival of testosterone. They have obviously been doing this a long time and it shows. They were funny throughout, with some genius comedy sketches thrown into the show that were simply brilliant. These guys are good – very, very good – they bounce off each other seamlessly, and I had a great time from start to finish. They never lost me once and all three were as equally as brilliant as each other. My Nana would love these total lunatics, and maybe my wee niece, but I would have to cover her eyes once or twice.

Reviewer : Mark Parker

Assembly George Square

Aug 12-29 : (18.35)

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Britney? Britney? Britney? ‘Why was this comedy show called such a thing?’  I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I turned up for this one. Eventually I eventually discovered that the show is in fact about a brain tumor, & well, we were all now supposed to see the funny side – that laughter is the best medicine.  The story is not all doom and gloom… it is a pilgrimage of hope, friendship, survival and love. It is about saying we should feel OK to speak about Britney and not to feel bad about it. Britney is a fact of life and she touches far too many of us. There were awkward moments for me as I watched, but this is the price of being confronted by brave, nerve-jousting comedians.

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Saying all that, however, I am very glad I went and saw them two girls in action… they have an incredible amount of talent, tons of depth, an endearing spirit and a very bright future. I did connect with the story probably a little too much for my liking and had a few tears in my eyes at the end. The problem was the Fart Twins – as the girls are more commonly known – were good, very good in fact! Hard not to like and very easy to connect with. Would I go back and see these girls again… yeah for sure! But for me, Britney was a touch too powerful.

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Reviewer : Mark Parker