Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Abi Roberts’ show, Anglichanka, started with the comedian greeting us at the door of this bunker venue, her funny, excited passion engaging us immediately and had us laughing even before we took our seats. One of her themes for the night, gratitude, was also apparent – in fact her gratefulness almost shone through her as she took great strides down the room to reach the stage, all the time encouraging our participation as she drew us into conversation by asking where everyone had come from. There were some French people in the audience, and to Abi’s delight, a few folk over from Russia, here to take in the Fringe. This was the perfect opportunity for her to embark upon her unique brand of comedic dialogue, switching in turn between English and Russian – the first UK comic to employ this eclectic blend of languages – as she proceeded to regale us, in side splitting fashion, with tales of her time staying with a Russian family when she was a student in the 90’s, having gone to Russia at the tender age of 18 to try and study Opera. She explained that while she was there she picked up the name “Anglichanka” which translates simply as “an English person in Russia”, and hence the title of her show.

This was an evening perfectly structured between uproarious hilarity and poignant moments where Abi seemed almost moved to tears at a particular recollection, then would straight away have us bursting out in fits of laughter as she cracked another joke. Along the way she offered us insights into the impact of the choices we make, how important gratitude was and what experience teaches us. Her enthusiasm never faltered as she instantly responded to the reaction of the audience, always ready with a quick one-liner. The creative ebb and flow was greatly enhanced by passages in fluent Russian which lent the whole act a totally unique flavour of worldly revelry. All this made for a stand-up routine which was   genuinely appealing and offered up an approach which was at the same time electric, edgy and deeply touching. One of the features I particularly enjoyed was the way Abi talked about the love and gratitude she felt for her very special Russian family, who had so little yet loved life so much. This served as a contrast to the many operatic and cultured people she encountered on her extensive travels, and was all the more touching for that. There was no holding back as she shared these feelings with us and laid out before us a cunning and passionate blending of character and cultural nuances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSorzlGQoF8

It takes courage for a stand-up comic to open themselves to possible ridicule and rejection and be the butt of their own jokes – not always guaranteed to work. It was an exhilarating experience to watch Abi Roberts navigate these dangerous waters and deftly keep turning the wheel to even more absurd and intense extremes. In fact Abi plainly revelled in it, winning us over from the start as a warm, welcoming and completely genuine host, inviting us to laugh AT her and WITH her in an evening of non-stop fast moving comedy that is well worth a visit. Just don’t blink or you’ll miss a joke!

Reviewer:  Daniel Donnelly

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters
Aug 16-27 (13.30)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Nathan Lang is a delightfully ebullient Australian fellow who creates wonderful sketch comedy as part of duo, Jon & Nath, but has now ventured into something of his own creation as well. World, welcome to The Stuntman, which is a childishly simple, subtly sophisticated & effortlessly remarkable piece of clownerie! The stuntman son of Evel Knievel, he pommels his way through his story & its set-pieces with pure enjoyment beaming from his face & investing his aura, an infectious blend which spreads through the room like a fishernet into which all of us are – quite happily – caught. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Nathan talked about his show in more detail;

The Stuntman is my first solo show, it’s so much fun and I just love doing it. Essentially it’s a clown piece – absurd, surreal, silly and interactive. There’s mime, but it’s not a silent show. It’s the story of a completely idiotic daredevil, told through physical comedy, games, actual stunts, and a few touching moments too. I decided to make it largely non-verbal so it’s accessible to everyone regardless of language.

Nathan’s ‘largely non-verbal’ Mr Bean style-patter really does work; a tittering, chittering medley of noises which accompany the show. The Stuntman also contains the funniest moment I have seen all Fringe, ‘Gordon’s hot chocolate time,’ & the whole thing is just a great, great watch. If the Fringe is a buffet-banquet with all sorts of choice nuggets to tantalize the tastebuds, then make sure, when you reach the plate of clowning about, to try Nathan Lang’s comically outlandish vol-au-vent.

Reviewer : Damo

Underbelly, Cowgate
Aug 20-27 (22:20)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs: 

There is a wonderfully serene spot not that far to the south of Dublin called Glendaloch. There’s nothing much there; an ancient church, goats swarming the hillsides, & a scattering of houses, one of which was once the family home of comedian Danny O’Brien. Growing up in such an environment ensured Danny was imbued from an early age in the arts of telling stories with proper starts, asides & ends & which, most of all, entertain the listener. This is what makes ‘O’Brien’s 2017 Fringe show, RaconTour, a pleasure to watch. We laugh, but we are also taken on a ride, ostentatiously on the back of Danny’s family-inherited ‘piece of shit’ bike, a 1991 Honda Nighthawk which forms the central inspiration to this year’s show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFLS3PYXnF4

As a performer, Danny is a nice little vibe-builder, & flows ingenuously between his set-piece sections. His talent for story-telling effortlessly implants his adventures in our heads in the pictorial fashion, a rare ability in the comedian which I am sure sprang up from the long, drunken nights by the country fires of Wicklow. Danny is a good sort, an Irish comedian in the classic style – abortion & Catholic guilt are mentioned in extreme brevity – but not afraid to do his own thing at all. Aye, jumping on the back of O’Brien’s slightly rickety but truly sportive comedy bike is well worth the ride.

Reviewer : Damo

Hello Lolly, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
I’m originally from Retford in the East Midlands but I live in East London because I’m a wanker.

When did you first realise you were, well, funny?
When I was given the role of Margaret Thatcher in Cinderella at primary school. I was 8 years old and I got a standing ovation every night. It’s been downhill ever since.

What does Lolly Jones like to do when she’s not being funny?
I like to go disco dance, drink cider and go on dates with hairy chested men.

You’ve been washed up on a desert island with a solar-powered DVD player & three films. Which would they be?
Groundhog Day. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Maid in Manhattan.

You were on the Channel 4 show Hunted, how has the experienced changed you?
I now break a sweat every time I see a helicopter. I think it has made me appreciate how kind people are – so many people gave me lifts and food (and only one of the pricks dobbed me in). When you’ve been that scared, not much fazes you.

You are bringing ‘Orwell That Ends Well’ to the Fringe, can you tell us about it?
The Snooper’s Charter passed through Parliament last year with hardly any fuss. I’m here to tell you who is looking at your data and how it is being manipulated through the medium of laughter. I also give top stalking tips and share the best videos on the internet.

Can you sum up your show in a single sentence?
A look at how our lives mirror the novel 1984, paying respect to Big Brother and everyone’s favourite housemate; Kinga.

How has it been going so far?
This is the best Fringe I have had! My audiences have been lovely. I’ve sold out a fair few times which is ace cause it’s pretty early isn’t it?

This is your third time in Edinburgh. In one sentence can you describe the experience of performing in the city during the Fringe?
Too many flyerers, exes and shouty people in costume but absolutely fucking brilliant.

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Lolly Jones?
I’m doing a film with Sophie Thompson but first I’ll be playing a bearded lady at a circus-themed wedding.

You Can Catch Orwell That Ends Well @ the Fringe

The Caves : Aug 17-27 (11.40)

Sweet Venues – Apex Hotel
Grassmarket
7th – 20th August @ 7pm

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Within the walls of The Apex Hotel in a small dark room there are a cluster of chairs awaiting the arrival of the unsuspected audience for the fabulous and flamboyant Bentley Browning’s “Tinder Rehab”. With loneliness at an all time high (according to some people), there couldn’t have been a better time to land at the 70th Edinburgh Fringe with a show on how to find Love. With more people taking to online dating nowadays, Bentley would like to educate you in the art of online seduction or as some may call it, match-making. With an over excited and zestful audience, Bentley starts to take us on his journey of love and laughter. Tapping into the emotional areas of the human spirit he unleashes an avalanche of side-splitting jokes. Like a worm on the end of a fishing hook, he tempts and teases you with intimate questions about your sexuality and availability.We know where this is going !!!

“Tinder Rehab” is a show of comedy sketches and stand up. Delivered in a smooth, fun way you, feel the days stresses suddenly disappear, like a puff of smoke they are gone. To think he could have been a priest on Tinder looking for S.P.E.R.M. but thankfully he decided to entertain us at this year Fringe instead. Be aware, this show brings you into the act, quite literally. A single woman having her deepest dirtiest thoughts monitored and read out, a couple looking for love and me, a mime actor getting ready to go on a date. Genuis !!!!! Interactive shows are great and audiences always want to feel part of it, nothing better than being put on the spot. We have all experienced hurt, pain and disappointment in relationships, so allow Bentley Browning and his Tinder Rehab show to tickle you where you have never been tickled before. You may laugh, scream, chuckle, sneer or even cry but one thing is for sure, you will find love after this show. Well scripted, delivered and preformed this is a wee gem of a show and should not be missed.

Reviewed by Raymondo

Heroes @ Dragonfly
Aug 3-27 (18.10)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs: 

Sam & Tom are a couple of quirky sketch comedians in their mid-twenties, whose youth bubbles up through their fresh-faced banter like an alka-seltzer in a flagon of whiskey. Sam, with his gorilla swagger, & Tom with his slightly deranged boy-next-doorness create a sketch duo that is proper out there… somewhere. ‘Let us crack on with one of our stupidest bits,’ they assert, & off they go into something like a Saturday morning kids show for adults; silly, unpretentious & a wee tornado blowing around every part of the room &which whips us all into the wind-swirl. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Tom described their sketch creation being ‘suggestion-argument-compromise-frolic,’ & the latter word is the key to the show, as their dandified delivery blazes a trail of high-jinks, fly-japes & extreme jollity

The nuts & bolts of their giggletastic landscape is a tour through time in the mould of Bill & Ted’s Excellent adventure. Their weird, alternate universe is akin to comedy quantum mechanics, their thought-processes leaping about all over the shop like fun-charged atoms. The boys can act as well, & the whole montage is stupendously daft, but clever as hell as these mind-swapping mentalists pick up their muse, shake it about like a rabbit in a labrador’s jaws & toss the poor thing, screaming, into the room. Starting brilliantly, then descending (or ascending I’m not quite sure) into something I’ve never quite seen, Sam & Tom have created something modern for the Fringe, & also something funny – an intensely ludicrous sketch-comedy-cum-play that is undeniably entertaining.

Reviewer : Damo

Pleasance Courtyard
August 17th – 27th ( 18.45)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs: 

Playing host to Bunker Two in the Pleasance Courtyard is the gentle giant of comedy storytelling Kwame Asante with is debut show Open Arms. This Doctor of comedy slides onto the stage with ease and grace  proceeds to welcome you into his world of smooth-laced stand up comedy. With his origins in Ghana, this 6ft3 lad from Kent has had a pretty mixed up time of it and would like to share his incredible experiences with us. Take a seat and be prepared to be amused. Variations of somewhat delicate subjects are turned into a witty and hilarious bundle of side-splitting jokes. Approaching many topics that other comedians would never dare to relay, we learn a thing or two. He appears to have this natural feeling about him that allows us easy access to his universe of fun and laughter. Being a Doctor from 9am to 9am daily must take its toll on some, but for Kwame its like a hunting ground for material. People say the funniest things to Doctors and they’ve ended up in our laps at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In a recent interview with the Mumble, Kwame described his show as being a retrospective of;

The last three years, which has seen me graduate medical school, leave my family and home in South East London, and move up to Birmingham to settle into my new life as a junior doctor. It’s packed with funny stories, unexpected twists and hard-learned life lessons.

Observations of life’s grueling & mundane chores are utilized and diverted through different channels of humour . When right or wrong decisions are made the explosive consequences can be overwhelmingly funny and Kwame will be there to help you get through it. With political references to immigration, Black African Vampires, Welsh Dragons, race and a black Hitler, Kwame certainly likes to explore the unknown and tease his audience like puppets on a string. He even allows you to go out for fresh air to prevent anyone from fainting. What a gentleman !!!! This stand-up comedy will warm you and tickle you. Cheerful, pleasant, and fun to follow, the show glides along like a hovercraft on water arriving at your destination happy and content with the what you have witnessed.

Reviewed by Raymondo

Nightcap (v.383)
Aug 15-27 (23.00)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Last year, fledgeling Geneva Rust-Orta broke her Fringe cherry with her The Second Funniest Jew. She’s back again this year with her pal Ian Levy in tow, after returning to her native land & working the San Francisco comedy scene. Bringing Ian with her, he begins the hour with a classic American comedic patter, delivering droll humor as he clutched his microphone like a last pay check. Surreal in substance, the fellow even made an animated joke about Neville Chamberlain, which was completely unexpected & kinda funny. A warm & wonderful youthful comedian, his presence in the basement of the Nightcap, & his accented speech, really did cast a spell over proceedings & transport us all to the comedy nights of ‘Cisco.

Then the awesome wee bunny that is Ms.Rust-Orta came to the stage & I could immediately feel the passage of a tear. She began so much slicker, giving rather much the same material as last year she has refined her presence & delivery & was a joy to watch. In a recent interview with The Mumble  Geneva gave us the low-down on her developing set;

 I’ve tried to move on from dark bitter humour to dark playful humour. There are still holocaust references and a lot of sexual frustration in my material but I also think I’ve loosened up. My show is about feminism, sex, and Jews and how I have known them in my life.

Geneva explores her muses with astonishing brutality; & even when she says stuff about the Nazis & the Holocaust – stuff that always sits uncomfortably with an audience – she simply plods on determined & unflinching. By the time she unleashes her uberfilthy, ridiculously ribald material of a sexual nature, you’re like its OK Geneva, we’re with you. Just towards the end she began to falter again, as if the nervous ghosts of 2016 had finally tracked her down, but this was a huge improvement on her previous stint at the Fringe. As for her future, you can’t rush genius & an idea of her final image is beginning to take shape on the roof of the Sisteen Chapel.

Reviewer : Damo

Hello Adrienne, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Brooklyn, NY

When did you first realise you were, well, funny?
I made a joke when I found out my parents were getting a divorce. I was 6. Dark sense of humor started early!

What are the differences between the UK comedy scene & that of Australia?
The accents?

What does Adrienne Trustcott like to do when she’s not being funny?
I have a really deep affection for mowing the lawn on a tractor and that takes up more of my time than I ever would have imagined. But listening to and going to see music is a biggie. When I’m not on the lawnmower.

You’ve been washed up on a desert island with a solar-powered DVD player & three films. Which would they be?
Waiting For Guffman., Dr. Strangelove and Days of Heaven.

What is it about performing live you love the most?
Oh god, I may hate myself in the morning, but I feel like every time you go onstage, you learn a shit ton about yourself. But maybe that moment, after you’ve been doing material that you want to work so badly, but it isn’t quite and that moment in a show when it works and it’s usually because you did something that totally surprised yourself.

You are bringing your show ‘One Trick Pony’ to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about it?
Well, I brought it here before. I really loved the show but it got really bad reviews – from everyone! And so I thought a lot about it and made it better and that feels like what a fringe should be about – the possibility of failure and improvement. It’s a better show now, so I guess I have to thank those harsh critics for that proper bashing I got last time!

Why Andy Kaufmann?
I was always sort of thrilled and terrified by him. And, I love how hard he is to categorize him – he’s thought of as a comedian but I reckon he was really a performance artist. I’m thought of as a performance artist and sometimes I think of myself as a comedian. So I’m playing around with those definitions as well as, the way he did, with ‘what’s funny’. Plus, some of his material is that kind of material that you connect to so deeply and almost have a sense of mourning because you will never get to do that material – like you love it so much that it’s hard to bear that it isn’t yours! I also play around with stealing his material. Since you can’t really do it. But maybe you can?!

Can you sum up your show in a single sentence?
This show is a raucous ridiculous comical (and literal!) wrestle with what’s funny, stealing material, yourself, your audience and your critics.

What emotive responses would you like from your audience, & what do you expect?
I like them to laugh a lot in the room and think a lot at breakfast the next day. I don’t mind if they feel squirmy too.

How do you find performing at the mega-mash-up that is the Edinburgh Fringe?
There is nothing like it in the world and one of the best preparations for how to survive the life of an independent performing artist. It’s like a hilarious, wet, boozy boot camp.

You can catch Truscott at the Fringe…

Aug 19/23/24/26 : The Hive (14.15)

 Polka Dot Dress and the photo with the Crow: photo by Allison Michael Orenstein  / Art Direction: Sig Olson 

Woops with Cat: photo by Allison Michael Orenstein

Sweet Holyrood

Aug 15-23, 26-27 (17:00)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Joe Jacobs is cool, a ‘Jewish comedian’ in the loosest sense of the term –  he barely scratches his faith – Joe is a dapper wee fella whose company well worth investing in this Fringe. Unpretentious AND funny is a difficult combo, but Joe’s got the blend just right, as attested by a wee guffaws & the snorts of understanding that erupted from a crowd made comfortable from the onset. Joe has his really easy, watchable vibe, who stalks his comedy like a panther at night, pouncing on the punchlines with a droll & almost smirky smile. But like I said; its cool, he’s cool… we’re all cool.

Joe is a confident cookie, who snippets his set with short, snazzy musical interludes such as impersonating a garage MC. Her also offers smidgefuls of social commentary, comparing life to Panini sticker albums, the Nazis to Edinburgh reviewers, & at one point shines a mucky telescope on the Dark Web. He also has a decent sense of humility, admitting the comedians’ life isn’t all that lucrative, but laughs it off & just continues with his set, cos the guy just loves to be up there, you can tell, & that makes a big difference when draping a room in comedy covers. There is a certain universality to Joe’s comedy, & if my dad was with me, he’d say ‘I really enjoyed that, Damian,’ which translates into the Mumbleverse as four stars.

Reviewer : Damo