Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Beyond
August 1st– 27th (17.00)

As we are told at the beginning by the narrator/detective everything we are about to witness is entirely improvised. I wondered how this was possible in the context of a play being – outside of ‘Whose line is it anyway’ – something of an improv virgin but soon I found out the ingenuity of the enterprise. Basically we were dealing with a real life Cluedo in which the stock characters found themselves involved in a murderous situation and we have to guess which one of them has committed the crime. The scene of the crime and vital object are decided by the audience by shouting out suggestions whilst a single audience member chose the victim and murderer by picking cards ( unknown to anyone except himself and the actors). In this rather inventive way the audience helps to create the show – and a unique show every time.

The show has grown, and we feel it’s a real challenge to keep it within the sixty minutes after performing it as a two-act interval show.
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This was how we ended up placing the characters in the setting of a Penguin festival, our mysterious object being some chocolate in the shape of a kilt. From this bizarre starting point one had to wonder how the actors would manage to create something that worked and allowed us to suspend our disbelief enough to enter into the fun. My misgivings were swept away initially by the sheer gusto with which the performers threw themselves into it. They came up with some truly inspired skits about penguin training and the cloak and dagger world of the international chocolate trade. There were some marvellously silly scenes such as sensitive penguin trainer Miss Gold giving her ailing penguin Tony mouth to beak resuscitation or a heated argument about chocolate piracy in a crows nest. I found myself entering into the surreal vision they were creating, made that much more enjoyable because I felt that we the audience had helped in some small way to create it.

The live piano accompaniment and the painted drawing room set were both reminiscent of the kind of church hall am-dram productions that the play was also in its own subtle way spoofing. They added to the atmosphere and charm of the show. For the first part of the show it was impressive how the flights of fancy seemed to flow and the jokes seemed to come easily to the cast. They seemed to be having fun trying to outdo each other with the quality of their silly chocolate related puns. The characterisations were bold and colourful and the costumes helped to create a strong cartoonish identity to each one reminiscent of the characters in the original game of Cludeo ( we even had a Miss Scarlet). I found it enjoyable seeing how the performers found ways to draw the characters together and create intrigue between them which gave the latter half of the play a real sense of unpredictability in terms of the ultimate outcome.

However as I’m given to understand is sometimes a problem with improvised theatre about two thirds of the way through, a little after the murder itself it all rather started to run out of steam. There was some noticeable stalling from the cast at times, things didn’t flow quite as effortlessly and the jokes either took the form of increasingly laboured puns or tumbled over their own ridiculousness into implausibility. I ceased to believe in their silly world and the spell was rather broken. Overall though there was enough laughter and good natured fun to forgive the slightly fumbled ending and I was certainly impressed with the quick fire skills of all concerned and the imagination and talent such an enterprise clearly takes.

Ian Pepper

Underbelly Cowgate

Aug 14-26 (21.20)

Welcome to the collaboration of the year. Welcome to the stunning fusion of youth & chemistry that is award-winning Zach Zucker & Viggo Venn; teaming up with LA-based, intergalactic dance force, Sun-Ra-inspired, Thumpasaurus. There is a story; set in a world taken over by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. A Frankenstinian doctor has created an anonymous worker for the company, played by Zach Zucker as the Pinnochio hero of the show. There is music; Thumpasaurus are just, like, ridiculously good. They look like a bunch of D&D kids, whose foot-stomping free-form jazz accompanies the action & whose bass player must have been born with a full size one in his hands, under some pool table in Santa Fe. There is dancing; of the Torrance Community Dance Group sort. There is clownerie, like Gaulier on ketamine, & above all there is laughter, lots of it. ‘That was like the Saturday Night Live sketches, but better,’ said my American wife, who should know.

Last year we met this amazing funk band in LA called Thumpasaurus and convinced them to come out to Edinburgh. They had a killer run and afterwards their singer Lucas wrote a 20 minute opera called Where Does The Love Go. We decided to team up and built it out to an hour-long collaborative show that is going to be very serious and artistic. Zach & Viggo

Where Does The Love Go? is an infinitely memorable show, very much of its time, an early record of humanity losing its soul to convenience. The stage on which it is set is simply ensembling with talent; Zach & Viggo are superbly accomplished performers while the band were, as I’ve said, exceptional. But there is more, for into the mix came the supercilious, carnival-barking character of Jeff Bezos, played by an actor I didn’t quite catch the name of, but actually outshone everyone else. Lets just call him Mr X for now, & I feel the show should be renamed Mr X, Zach & Viggo & Thumpasaurus! By the way, I am still singing the operatic theme tune as I write this, such an ear worm it is! A truly remarkable hour!

Damo

Special Comedy Update

The Mumble have recently been informed from a very reliable source that Mr X has a name – Jonny Woolley. Apparently he directs all the Zach and Viggo shows but ended up acting in this one with a larger part than they originally planned! 

52 Canoes, Grassmarket
August 4-19 (20.15)

Material: Delivery:    Laughs:

Every year the Fringe flood which saturates Edinburgh with performance spaces penetrates newer & newer spaces. That’s what certainly comes to mind when sat in the basement of 52 Canoes, by the Grassmarket. But its actually an indelibly charming wee space, which was at capacity for the double-dose of stand-up that is Sikisa “Twix” Barnes and Adrian Tauss. These two comedians from that London bring a cracking show where their personal vulnerabilities in love, dignity & vocation are exploited with much amiability for our entertainment.

I love being able to interact with audience members and seeing their reactions to my jokes. No audience is ever the same
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‘Kisa’ came on first, combining the cheekiness of a Cockney wide boy & the attitude of a Streatham rude girl into a snappy set. There is a rawness to her soul-searching, but an almost elfin delight in the way she relates it. Her partner, Adrian Tauss, was playing a subtler tune, a little less attention-grabbing than Kisa, but entrancing all the same. Sharing his memories of the time a comedy promoter got the crowd to decide which comedians that night got paid thro’ their cheering is a perfect example of the aforesaid ‘vulnerabilities’ of our two acts.

Barnes & Tauss are very smart cookies, & a lot of fun to be with. They are just two of thousands of performers in Edinburgh right now, all of whom are vulnerable in one way or another. All are hoping for validation in what they do & who are they. The thing about Barnes & Tauss is that they are among the very few who are brave enough to admit it. If I were to give them one star, they’d probably take it on the chin, have a sulky ponder for a bit, then turn it into comedy stardust. But I’m not, they’re getting four, because they know what they are doing & they do it damn well.

Damo

Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom
Aug 12, 14-26 (19.30)

Material: Delivery:    Laughs:

Set in the basement of a plush bar The Newsroom was a slightly rough looking night club venue. I thought it would be a fitting venue for the expected degrading content of the show. And indeed around a quarter of the way in, several members of the audience stood up and left in disgust at the dire material. The perpetrators of this comic affront were Martin and Phil, known as Loose Brie, who have shared a flat for many years and came up with the idea of writing a show based on solving all of the world’s problems. In an hour. In tackling many issues very relevant to today’s media driven world, the dynamic between the two seemed only to highlight the contrast they created between themselves and caring responsible adults. The more sensitive the issue, the more distasteful their reactions – no blood, guts or gore, but plenty of nasty physical insinuations.

Mixed in with unspeakable content (of which more later) was some quirky witty banter between the two that was perhaps a product of the real time they spend together in their poky flat. They used improvisation that delighted them – they had a big thing with delight – which actually shone through but didn’t stop more walkouts in disgust. Did we know we would be walking the plank by coming to this event? It was a show filled with distaste and laughter, if you can manage it, in the face of two guys parrying with each other about faults and discrepancies, really about them living together.

It’s a highly physical sketch show, but all the context for the disgusting/distressing physical stuff we do is in what we say. It’s a much darker show without the words
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The title ‘Loose Brie Solve Everything’ afforded some good jokes, as they listed lots of things that need solving, from public embarrassment to which they gave the quick solution of acting weird all the time. They mushed around concepts, finding negatives about each other and then finding it difficult to have anything positive to say. Although it seemed to be about the world, really it seemed to be about them. No sooner had the general remarks and issues momentarily won our attention, than we were shocked back into the howling torrents of abuse as they set an imaginary fire under yet another idea.

Our thoughts dallied, wondering if we were safe or not just for being there. But we perked up, or slouched in our seats just to see what would happen next, and next it came. Martin used his Freddy Mercury lookalike joke to reel us in, and you know as performance goes he wasn’t too bad at it choosing to growl and speak loudly not to sing poetically. The same strain of intelligence that ran through all of it did bring with it a certain continuity like you’d find in a less disturbing version of theatre, it hits highs and lows, but their reality was to offend the sensibilities and discover who was willing to endure it any further.

The level of uncertainty seemed to be very much on purpose, for although they apologised each time for going too far, they then struck the chord of the kind of comedy where nothing and no one was safe. At least they got me thinking about my own mortality I questioned myself as to how I truly felt about the show I was seeing it was succeeding in doing that for me. This pair weren’t rock stars far away from the actualities of everyday life, these were two guys going through life more than willing to provoke the world (in a small night club in a plush part of Edinburgh’s West end)

For their amazing finale they took their trousers down, bare for all to see! I couldn’t believe it but as a member of the audience, when no one else reacted neither did I, it was socially bad but drew out some laughter as they pretended to speak out of their backsides. If this lot appeals to your darker sensibilities go and watch everything you have ever held dear be blasted away.

Daniel Donnelly

Just the Tonic @ The Caves
August 2-26 (22.10)

Material: Delivery:    Laughs:

The Dirty White Boys are back at the Fringe. They are white, yeah, they’re a bit naughty at times, but as for boys, nah, these guys are real working men in a realm which needs good solid performers. I love the physical quality of their act; they come across individually as a young Christopher Biggins & the bullying intensity of an early Ade Edmondson. As a double act they are the 21st century’s Two Ronnies; the sketch where they are speaking in unison is particularly sublime. The rest of their sketches do vary in quality – like a box of Quality Street – a couple were, well, sketchy, but when they really let rip it is comedy adamantine.

We exhaust one idea of comic potential and move onto the next one. No stone left unturned. And they’re really beautifully bizarre ideas this year
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Happy to indulge in international stereotypes & other such comedic archetypes, yet chucking original ideas into the mix, their show is a lovely blend of manic & amusing moments. Examples include a Crystal Maze clip, Judith & Valerie’s Avon sex-toy chat, Maud & Milo’s Motel & Mortuary & the opening Russian spy thriller which is a stormblast of guffawing perfection. The best, however, was the Pub Quiz section where the quizmaster focused all his efforts on the break-down of his marriage. Watching the Dirty White Boys makes one proud to be part of the Great British sketch tradition, which the lads are handling with confidence, deference & talent.

Damo

The Caves
Aug 12th-26th (14:00)

Material:  Delivery:   Laughs:

If there’s one thing you can’t flaw Ms Ford on it’s her honesty. Largely. Her show is based around the mostly true story of her life up to this point and she doesn’t spare any of the grisly details. The unboxed of the title refers to her father who was CEO of a box making company. I wouldn’t want to reveal anything more about the story in case I spoil the numerous surprises – suffice to say that her life is a lot more interesting than a few cardboard boxes. The big hearted Ms Ford tells her story with a delightful whimsy and energy while not shying away from darker territories and the pathos that goes with any show this revealing. I have rarely seen a comic being this candid about their personal life and it was certainly refreshing.  It is also apparent that she has a reasonable amount of experience in the field and I regret not seeing her previous show Kagool which, if this show was anything to go by, I’m sure would have been a treat for the senses. And treat for the senses it was. The stage set comprised solely of an unpromising stack of cardboard boxes. But they were soon brought to life with imaginative projections and ingenious sound design.

When I was 5 my Dad took me to his huge warehouse in the Fens in East Anglia. It was full to the ceiling with cardboard boxes and he said to me ‘one day all of those will be yours’.
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However, what really made this show stand out was the unexpected twist towards the end of the second act. I don’t want to give too much away but a shift in tone was created quite suddenly and to great dramatic effect. The M Night Shyamalan of comedy if you will. Certainly a brave move and one that, in less skilled hands, could have been disastrous. But all credit to Ms Ford she unshirkingly (is that a word?) stared into the void and the void stared right back. Only at us, the audience who, rather than recoiling, leaned in and pricked up our senses in anticipation of what would follow. Don’t be fooled by the cardboard boxes and apparent infatuation with Philip Schofield this comedian is anything but dull. If you can handle the truth, and maybe a little bit of R Kelly, this shows for you.

Victor Pope

 Pravda at Espionage

Aug 2-26 (20.45)

Lovehard are a comedy double act with some form at the fringe having garnered rave reviews for their festival show last year – but would this year’s effort match those giddy heights? The audience is immediately thrown into the action as two scientists struggle with the repercussions of an experiment gone wrong. They have inadvertently opened a portal to a deadly dimension of killer sound-waves, stored on a cassette tape which must now at all costs be destroyed. The cassette of course ends up going missing, and finds itself in the hands of our unsuspecting heroes, three geeky high school kids.

What follows is a brilliant parody of sci-fi, teen and horror B-movie tropes which manages to find room to spoof everything from Stranger Things to Back to the Future. The plot itself, if played straight, would be a supremely enjoyable episode of The Twilight Zone. Lovehard are clearly not only gifted comic actors but also scholars of the material with a real love of the genre sending up the cliches of teen movies such as proms, yard sales and bullying jocks to winning effect. They also find time to make allusions to Shakespeare and Greek Myth, but those of you wary of something highbrow which requires a degree in comparative literature to enjoy need not fear as this show is as gloriously silly as it is smart. The jokes come thick and fast throughout the show, involving plenty of fun with the stilted dialogue and anachronistic teen slang found in the source material (what at first feels a rather laboured joke about 60’s pop has a wonderful pay off later in the show which is well worth the wait ) as well as some brilliant use of breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience directly.

The pair are as gifted physically as they are verbally and there are some delightful moments of physical comedy which make good use of the pair’s gift for mime. I was particularly taken by a slow motion fight involving various characters. In fact much humour is derived from the fact that the cast of the little town in which the show is set is played by only two actors. This involves a fair amount of silly voices, exaggerated postures and a hectic pace which ably demonstrates the skills of the pair and their gift for self-mockery.

There is not much to comment on in the way of props, costume or set to the piece but what there is within the show is a very inventive use of sound. Unsurprising in a show in which the main threat is a killer sound-wave the use of audio is big aspect of the work and this handled with real subtlety and skill. The spooky electronic background music parodies only too well sci-fi TV themes such as Stranger Things and The X Files and the ominous reverb, angry static and distorted voices bring a real richness to the show creating a sense of atmospheric dread which the duo at times joyfully puncture. Along with the rest of the audience – howling with laughter throughout – I thoroughly enjoyed Tales From Elsewhere, a comedy spoof with real heart, intelligence and most of all laughter. I will certainly be interested to see what the energetic and imaginative Lovehard will unleash upon us next.

Ian Pepper

Pleasance Dome 
Until August 27th (not 13th) (12:25)

“Courtroom Play” … did exactly what it said on the tin. The economically sized stage – one must become accustomed to the small size of Fringe venues in Edinburgh city centre – was tidily set up to immediately point the way in to what lay ahead, with the words “Preston & Gates” projected on to a screen at the back and black drapes at either side of the stage acting like columns. The overall feel was like a Lawyer’s office in an older city centre building. I found the screen itself most attractive with its geometric shapes and cerulean blue light that glowed out over the audience.

The first character to grace the stage was lawyer Alex Stone, who stood alone and told us she was a hot-shot lawyer fighting in the name of justice. In fact we learn that she has come back to her home town, a place called Thatchford, from the big city firm where she works in order to do that very thing. And thus the scene is set for the story to unfold before our eyes. The action moves along at an easy pace, with plenty of scene changes, enlightening conversations, quickfire dialogue and wisecracks, performed with gusto by the all-star cast of Fringe comedians. We find ourselves effectively drawn ever further in to the drama, as we follow the scene changes and focus on each character in turn as the story develops.

The most striking, indeed the brashest, character in all this was inevitably the Judge, with his large wig and audience prompts. But it was more than the props – this character had a commanding presence as he presided over his court, set high above the stage, and the audience both respected him and collapsed in laughter at his gruff jokes. In the court scene, in contrast to the main characters’ dark formal dress, the stage and the judge’s high desk was all lit up in colour, giving the scene a feeling almost of a Spiegel tent, which gave the show a very appealing appearance.

When the three witnesses – all portrayed by the same actress – took to the stage, the set stood still and dark but for the spotlight that lit up the space. The dialogue was concise, and delivered with a kind, quiet respect for these justice seekers. It showed enemies (defence and prosecution) who are friends outside of their court battles overseen by the courtroom judge. There was cross referencing that was well thought out between lawyers in the courtroom scene. We heard each revelation with interest as we followed the twists and turns of the case (a murder). In some ways these scenes were almost like reading a book in a calm and considered way.

In the end, once the case is concluded and the story comes to an end, we are left feeling that the lawyers have done well and justice has been done – a most satisfying conclusion. The actors take their bow and we enthusiastically thank them with applause, cheering, and a few standing in ovation. If you like light hearted drama with plenty of plot then this show is the one for you – go along and be engrossed!

Review: Daniel Donnelly

Photography:  Kate Wright-Sanders