Kasbah @ Espionage

August 9-27 (except Mon)

PWYL

Material :  Delivery :   Laughs : 

The wee Kasbah room is tucked up inside a warren of rooms in the Espionage venue. A tiny arena befitting an intimate night out rather than the stage for an excellent comedian, it was fairly full of expectant punters. Of course with the front row was typically empty. They need not have been afraid to take their seats though, as Njambi had already told me she didn’t pick on audience members, as she wanted to keep them on her side. She introduced herself before she came on, which kickstarted the laughs, and she slipped onto stage with her elegant black dress and braids; fitting for the dry, sardonic sense of humour that she was about to unleash on us. As dry as the Sahara, if you’re going to use an African stereotype.  ‘I’ve come by plane, just so you know’, and so begun her quick, cheeky unravelling of all those well worn Western stereotypes of African people. The flyer promises the following: ‘Having survived a beating that nearly killed her, Njambi McGrath is forced to confront the perpetrator, her father, for answers when their paths unexpectedly cross again.’ Although the painful relationship with her violent father formed the backbone of the hour, most of the flesh was in the form of punchy, hard hitting jokes, cleverly entwined metaphors and dead-pan one liners on a variety of topical subjects.

Njambi didn’t delve into a linear account of the story of her father as you might expect from the flyer. It must be such a painful story to tell that it has to be shredded up and tossed in to the script in a piecemeal fashion, padded out with piles upon piles of sharp, edgy jokes. This particular audience were a little stiff and quiet, not seeming sure of what to make of her material; unsure if it was OK for them to laugh or not. It was almost as if she was too clever for her audience, or perhaps the jokes were so hard-hitting and so dryly delivered, and served up with just a hint of a sardonic smile that they were falling on deaf ears. Come on guys, her Kenyan accent isn’t THAT strong…She throws in some comments about her father early on, so you get an inkling of his character from the start.  Her needing to lie to him in order to avoid a severe punishment. “Who painted on the wall? Oh, Banksy did it!” or “Who threw those stones outside? Oh it was the Devil!”.

To be fair though, her delivery was so fast that you had to concentrate to keep up with the constant of barrage of jokes pelting out surreptiously into the audience’s minds. I was a little sleepy and slow after a late night out, and my brain was still slightly on slow-mo, but there was only just enough time for one joke to hit and sink it before three more hard-hitters followed. It would have been good for her to pause and watch the tough nuggets to get digested by the audience fully before moving on. Let us savour and enjoy her wicked jibes in their full, succulent glory. She threw in jokes thick and fast with clever metaphors that had some of us dullards struggling to keep up. By the time the significance of one joke had hit us hard she was off, running down the track with another.

We all enjoyed the jibes at internet attention seekers putting their heads in crocodile’s mouths and expecting to be spared. As she named it, ‘Teaching assholes a lesson’! She imagined Donald Trump and Sarah Palin being tortured with general knowledge questions that they can’t answer. ‘What is the capital of Togo?’. The fitting punishment for their ignorance being ‘hugged by Muslims with ticking clocks’! And laughs came at twisting our perspective to being the recipients of all those unwanted cuddly toys dumped abroad, those that resemble the wild animal you’ve just had to flee and being the children suspiciously ripping the heads of sinister looking white dolls. Watching cows’ shit was much more entertaining, she muses, as the Barbies we got don’t even have a vagina!

She talked quite a bit about her childhood growing up in Kenya, laughing at the trials of having a battery-operated TV set, which when it cut out, had imaginative aunties as back up to fill in the blanks in the story. She pauses as she imagines talking to her aunt with the wide eyes of a child, “Are you sure there was witchcraft in Dallas?”  She talked about being grounded in good African reality rather than the Disneyfication of our hopes and dreams; that marrying for love rather than obeying your family’s wishes is really not going to work out for you. I must find a copy of ‘Love Brewed in the African Pot’, just to give my own Disney inspired ideas of ‘Happily Ever After’ a reality check. As she said, Beauty and the Beast a few years down the line isn’t going to be all it was cracked up to be, with him old, grizzled and foul and demoralised Beauty going to look for sex with waiters on holiday!

I think it’s difficult when you want to discuss some serious matters as part of a comedy show, which all good comedians attempt, but your audience have no cultural or historical reference points to really understand the depth of what you’re trying to convey. The horrors of King Leopold of Belgium’s holocaust in the Congo, the Mau Mau rebellion and the concentration camps run by the British a handful of years after the Jewish Holocaust are not subjects the audience was familiar with. I’ve studied African history, been to Kenya and my son bears a Kikuyu name, so by accident I happen to know a little of the subject matter. But we should all know this stuff. The British education system deliberately steers us away from facing up to our own historical crimes, and this is why new voices on the comedy circuit are like a breath of fresh air into the hidden vaults of our own shameful past.

There were very poignant moments as she recalled the full horror of what her father did to her and how she faced it. It’s so fast you barely have time to imagine the scene, but fleeting images are probably enough. It’s an inspiring story of hope and compassion; digesting the pain of it with both compassion and humour. She lost the crowd a little towards the end, perhaps because she was worrying about their muted reaction. It was very mixed; the group in front absolutely loved it and found it fascinating. The group behind, from the Scottish countryside, were bewildered and confused, muttering that they ‘felt cheated’. Having just witnessed such a unique and well constructed show for free, I wondered what experience they had been expecting?

Reviewer: Lisa Williams

The Caves

Aug 4-28 (12:05)

PWYL

Material : Delivery :  Laughs :

Rosie Revan and Alice Fennell are a couple of talented, beer-swilling laddettes from East Landan mayt, whom after meeting on a production of a Jacobean classic, found themselves five years later sat in the Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow. On this occasion, Alice made the potentially planet-saving decision to beg Rosie to accept her proposition of becoming a comedy duo. At first Rosie said no. Then she said yes. Now they’re up here.

The ladies share a lovely patter bouyed up by some intelligently-laced voice-overs – its a great watch this. There’s also somethong quite entertaining about seeing them come out for each sketch with a beer or wine glass in hand. One assumes there was a lot of alcohol consumed during the creation of their sketches. Of these, a laughter-studded highlight was the Maid of Honour Speech made at her pal’s wedding by Rosie – proper class!

I used to live near Walthamstow, in Leytonstone actually, so I’m familiar with the breeding beds of their comedy muse. Both the multi-fissured fusions of modernity & the hustle-bustle-rustle of those parts of Landan Tahn are ever-presents in their work, which is all threaded together by the girls through their remarkable faculty for making people laugh. This is sketch comedy at its most prolific best, when the scenes change seamlessly & the laughs keep on coming. A real treat.

Reviewer : Damian Beeson Bullen

Gilded Balloon Teviot

Aug 3-28 : (19.00)

Material :  Delivery :   Laughs :

I love Teviot house as a venue its definitely one of Edinburgh’s top fringe locations.A stunning, gothic building with 5 levels, dining room, bars, turrets, stunning  woodwork throughout… and lots of rooms & stairs! So, when I got the chance to go and see Zoe Lyons there in the Dining Room, I was expecting a real ‘feast’ of comedy. Zoe comes with an excellent CV &  I was really looking forward to seeing her in person.  The show itself was pretty busy, and there was a decent atmosphere building up. After taking to the stage like a ninja on heat, Zoe established a wicked wee rapport with her audience as she recalled parts of her life’s twisting tale,  and the pursuit of that we are all looking for; belonging. Her medium, though, was classic comic banter; fast and funny with lots of genius built in. Her animal impressions are classic! I wish I had got a picture of the dog! Her Lizard was scary!

Zoe was pretty engaging with the audience throughout, and portrayed her story  honestly & professionally. There is no doubt she is a talented comedian with tons of great material but I tended to think this year’s effort was scattered pieces pulled together rather than one complete original show. There were a few times I was struggling to relate her patter to her theme, but to be honest I don’t think I really cared – there where quite a few moments during the show when I was killing myself with laughter. Overall I had a great night and she is well worth a visit!

Reviewer : Mark Parker

Just the Tonic at The Community Project

Aug 4-28 : (16.15)

PWYL

Material : Delivery :   Laughs :

If one would like to imagine what Dawn & French were like in their earliest incarnations, then a trip to see Siân and Zoë in action would come pretty close. They have a theme, & that is an adventure through space to search for the answer to mindfulness &  a better quality of life. They have props, & they use them with a cheeky indifference to whether they are actually any good. They have a custard-yellow bee-like uniform which in some scientific way focuses attention on their every movement. They have youth, they have pezzazz, & most of all they have comedy – oodles of the stuff!

Their act is silly & suave, & at times completely bonkers.”Hey do you want a coffee” – “I’ve cut off both your legs!” “I’m levitating!” was one wee snippet of a dialogue I managed to record in all the mesmerizing mayhem, which whipped us through a world of banana infections & funny faces…  somewhere in space. These girls have talent, & a sketch show with a difference. It seems the only place suitable for their far-reaching imaginations is the further reaches of the cosmos, & joining them on such a journey is a true counterfoil to those wishing to escape the terra-bound termite nest that is the Edinburgh Fringe.

Reviewer : Damian Beeson Bullen

Sweet Grassmarket

Aug 4-28 (18:35)

Material : Delivery :  Laughs :

Watching Luke Graves at work is rather akin to listening to one of the Icelandic Sagas of old, Egil’s Saga perhaps, when the life-long adventures of an epic hero are recited in a cheiftain’s hall. On this occasion we found ourselves instead in a modern-day luxurious hotel, & of course our bard has a microphone in hand as he delves into his own life to give us Luke’s annual account of his adventures. In 2016 we are witness to his recent engagement to Lauren – next year, he tells us, will be the wedding chapter of his saga, followed by the baby year & in 2019 his dressing up as Superman for parental rights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66xsrNdXldg

Luke oozes a peace-cruising demeanour as he delivers his material in a cute & poignant manner. His audience is very much with him, an intimate connection that finds many comedians’ egos difficult to circumvent. But the cheeky chappie in Luke is only a witty aside away as he thinks on his feet throughout his laid-back, friendly show. Perhaps Luke is a little too laid-back at times, but I guess he’s just a nice fella & that’s his way. He’s a bit like a wolf-pup – adorable with the occasional risque snarl. Indeed, just as one stares inanely at a lovely puppy, so I found myself at times simply gazing at Luke as he sported through his perfectly formed set.

So… I guess its a matter of how does one like one’s comedy. ‘I’m really cool with any of this,’ said one of the audience tonight, & I have to agree. Its good to see a comedian with a genuine smile & if its at a nice, steady pace when you feel fluffy & ready for humour, then Luke is definitely your guy.

Reviewer : Damian Beeson Bullen