The Mumble remain dedicated to their role as
The most progressive publication at the Fringe

Every Sunday I like to go to Stockbridge & buy a couple of pounds of my favorite grapes, which arrive there from Mauritius that morning. Chomping on a juicy handful last Sunday, I began making my way up through the New Town, arriving in the York Place area where the trams are. This is Stand country, & a few years ago was the epicentre of laughter in the Fringe. These days its all a bit like a weekday wake & might as well be out in Fife, for there has been a seismic shift to one Edinburgh street in particular – the sloping, cobbled thoroughfare between the Cowgate & the Bridges that is Blair Street. This is the real epicentre of Fringe comedy these days; where comedians, punters & flyerers mingle in a smiling Sunset Strip.

Things evolve, & the stranglehold The Stand had on making people pay for ‘safe’ mainstream comedy has been utterly smashed by the innovations of the Free Fringe & its quality, liberty-laden shows. All things change – I mean I’m actually writing this article on a speech-to-text app walking through Holyrood Park on the way into town. So if Fringe comedy can evolve, what about the ancient art of reviewing. Think of those ancient Greeks who first stepped down from the Dionysis theatre during the reign of Pesistratus, who had just observed the very first play there from its seats, who have been babbling opinions & critiques to each other as soon as they left the hilltop. Criticism is as old as the performance art it observes, so how does its own evolution fare in 2019?

Well, not that much really. Beyond the windows of Mumble Towers, the Fringe Press of 2019 seems an archaic institution – chained to amateur rules dished out by a hereditary feudal demense, & a narrow luddite marking system which, even if the stars are split into halves, can only ever give a ‘marks out of ten’ assessment. But half-stars are an ugly aesthetic, a deformed evolution of the species. Like Darwin says, it’s not the biggest or the fastest that survives, but the one that adapts. If the five-star marking system is not to go extinct, it must evolve from its primitive 5-point Ape, through the Homo Erectus 10-point system of halves, & into something more suitable for an increasingly sophisticated modern world.

The trained reviewer can actually feel a show’s quality as 1,2,3,4,5 within moments of the start. So what are the qualities that provide such an esoteric sensation. Since 2016, the Mumble had identified three factors in each of its genres. For Comedy, we had Material, Delivery & Laughs; while for Theatre we had Stagecraft, Script & Performance. This was an improvement on the old system, where now in essence a score was obtained between 1 and 15, the Neanderthal if you will. As the Mumble went into the 2019 Fringe, we were still using this system, but have finally recognized there was still a certain imprecision to the score.

Under our old system, to obtain four stars, for example, a show needed to score 3.66 – which is simply closer to 4 than 3. The overall marks would then be described as a low four, a natural four or a high four. The eureka moment came the other day while sitting in two comedy shows. On one occasion I was the only one laughing, while at the other show the room was in uproar & I was sat stony-gilled. It was time to add that factor into the marking mix, the Room… how does a comedian play their audience, do they keep tickling funny bones like a comedy octopus, or is each viewer sat there playing on their phones.

Material:   Delivery: Laughs: Room:

The Room category in Comedy has a natural cousin in Theatre. I have called it S.O.D, with the first review to use it being published yesterday (before this article). Quick off the mark, the company sent me this email;

Dear Mumble

We have asked our wonderful PR company; we have asked the amazing Pleasance Press Office; we have asked the astonishing Head of Programming at The Pleasance – no one can help.
We are delighted by our review by the excellent Daniel Donnelly, but no one seems to know what S.O.D. stands for!

Please can you elucidate?

Many thanks
(and I’ll get the prize for the first one home with the answer!)

The answer is, of course, Suspension of Disbelief. I know my poetry, & within Coleridge’s wonderful Biographia Literia, he elucidated on the driving phantasian spirit behind his co-creation of the Lyrical Ballads with Wordsworth. Its essence is the state of mind reached where there is, ‘a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith… awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us.’ In modern lay terms its like switching off reality & becoming immersed in the production. Is that your mate Nigel before you? Do you see them behind the make-up, or are you lost in the drama & believe this drag-queen before you is the fabulous Nigella?

The introduction of another genome into the star system, the aforetitled Expansion of the Mumbleverse, seems wholly natural. Our planet is divided into four seasons, the main elements are still earth, fire, air & water. The four bodily humors were part of Shakespearean cosmology, inherited from the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses divided the Ages into Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. Now the reviewing star system can also be divided into four harmonious parts. Marking-wise, to obtain those 4 stars, a show must now be awarded at least 3.75 points as opposed to 3.66. The overall marking goes like this

19-20 = 5 stars
15-18 = 4 stars
11-14 = 3 stars
7-10 = 2 stars
1-6 = 1 star

As cultural surveyors, The Mumble can now give a more detailed account of a show for both artist & potential audience member – its now a case of, “you need to sort your tiles out, pal, and there’s a bit of damp in your back bedroom – you’re wirings seen better days and of course you’re gonna have to update your boiler system, it’ll never pass the new laws.”

***

Damian Beeson Bullen

Underbelly, Bristo Square
August 6-13, 15-25 (16:00)

Material:   Delivery:  Laughs: Room:

Around halfway through Tania Edwards breakneck 45 minutes of slyly charming vitriol I had to remind myself, again, that I was supposed to be writing a review about this. It is as great a compliment as I can think to give, that I was almost too busy enjoying her set to actually spend any time analysing it while I was there. So here, in retrospect, are my reflections. Edwards is not one of those classic Fringe awards bait numbers, the ‘Theme Show’. Attempting to wedge some overarching universal truth, or hard won moral lesson, into her set. As she informs us from the off, she doesn’t have time for that kind of thing, as she is a new mother to a bouncing baby boy. So the theme, if we really must discern one, is tiredness, and raging against anything that has been unfortunate enough to come into her eyeline in the last few deeply sleepless months. This frequently includes the audience.

It’s essentially a top-ten hate list that gets added to everytime she peers through the lights and into the crowd. Over-sharers, pensioners, young people, her friends, her husband. Nobody is safe from her ire. She delivers it with such confidence and chutzpah, and a wicked winning smile reminiscent of Nina Conti at her most charming, that it never slides off into monotone Gammon-esque impotent fury. Enough self-deprecation is tossed into the mix to keep you on her side, her rage at her own post-pregnancy body is used to deliver some creatively surreal riffs instead of the standard stand up fare about ‘Spaniels Ears’.

The audience are captivated, and every piece of excellent crowd work was a testament to this. That her not so friendly chit-chat with a pair of Ex’s in the front row, who still lived with each other for the pragmatic purposes of paying the bills, felt like part of her set, and received the same belly-laugh reception, tells you that she has spent a hell of a long time really grafting at honing her schtick.

She closes the set with a ‘racist joke’ about her husband Sanjeev, that usurps expectations enough to have the audience exploding with increasing crescendo at each of the punchlines. A real jab, jab, hook combo of Vladimir Klitchko proportions. However, the most telling moment of the afternoon comes when she realises that she now has to finish up the set, after an uproarious ending, by asking for contributions to the ‘Begging Bowl’, present at all Pay What You Want shows. This too she spontaneously turns into a punchline, which has the audience cheering her all over again and putting hands eagerly into pockets to pay their share.

This show was at 4pm on a Tuesday in a sticky basement, less than a week into the Fringe, and it was standing room only. Grab a ticket to see Tania Edwards now, I’ll be astonished if she’s not gracing the stage at Live at the Apollo this time next year.

Ewan Law

Material: Delivery:   Laughs: Room:

Konstantin Kisin, of Russian/Jewish descent, became famous for refusing to sign a ‘Safe Space’ agreement before performing a show at a University, indeed choosing to not perform rather than compromise his principals regarding freedom of speech. During this occasionally funny, but regularly engaging, hour he gives us genuine food for thought around this topical, and thorny subject. His jokes, unfortunately, are not really that offensive. He’s certainly not in the same field as Tim Renkow (Who famously describes himself as being in the position of having nobody to punch down to because he is “crippled, Jewish and Mexican”), and over the evening manages to make jokes at the expense of Lefties, Righties, Glaswegians, Liverpudlians, and frequently, his Ukrainian wife. At one point he decides to kill 2 sacred cows with one stone by suggesting that ‘Jews loving money is a positive stereotype akin to the well endowed black man trope’. Well, I’d never heard that one before.

For the first 10 minutes he seems genuinely edgy and tense, and I can’t quite tell if this is nerves, or a physical manifestation of his tales about being ‘followed’ by the Russian Embassy on his smartphone. The whole affair takes a dramatic upturn however as he hits the middle section of the show in which he begins to draw our attention to what lack of Freedom of Speech actually looks like. A greatly affecting story about his Russian grandfathers criticism of The State wins the audience back onside, and this breathes fresh wind into his sails. He skewers ‘leftie’ hypocrisy with aplomb, utilising a series of increasingly unbelievable examples of left leaning friends who have been called Nazis, and the overall impression that one gets from his excellent political stuff is that he is, indeed, actually inequalities man at heart himself.

To have a genuine comedy scene, you need a freedom scene
(Read the full interview…)

He only comes close to ‘offending’ the audience at one point. There is a neatly boundary pushing section near the end where he riffs on the ‘N’ word. Not that one, but the sharp intake of breath was the only time in the hour in which it felt like he was really sailing close to the edge. There was one genuine issue of principals that I had with this evening. This was the suggestion that ‘being offended is a luxury that people with real problems don’t have’. I tell you what Konstantin, try going down to an Edinburgh homeless shelter on a Friday night and saying the ‘J’ word* out loud. You’ll find that offence can be taken, and responded to, in double quick time by those with the realest of ‘real problems’. A fine orator when he gets going, I’d like to see Kisin returning with something genuinely boundary pushing next year.

Ewan Law

(*Scottish pejorative term used to describe someone you think might takes intravenous drugs)

Orwell That Ends Well

Gilded Balloon Teviot

Aug 1-26 (19:00)

www.konstantinkisin.com

Material:   Delivery:  Laughs:  Room:

Yes, Gary G, get in my son! Nice one! Finally a comedian who I’m like, yes, that’s what I’m talking about. Well, what he’s talking about really, & its proper funny. A big-boned dandy fop with a beard, he personally gets the Henry VIII resemblance down straight away, & pops back to it from time to time through his set, which according to his catchphrase, never actually begins. I thoroughly recommend Gary to anyone knocking about round town in the late morning, for he fearlessly believes in his vision, that somebody can actually be as funny as he can!

Gary G Knightley could have been an opera singer, but has turn’d his lung capacity to instead taking a deep breath & unleashing 50 minutes of non-stop, brashy bold, direct & sparkly full tempo funniness on a crowd which just laps him up. Even those who are subjected to his dodgy line-crossing, which is like never cringeworthy, but I’m like in mi head, ‘come on brother!’ But he just gets away with it, he’s like a demolition ball flying through the room, wrapped in a rubber safety coating.

The show really feeds off of the audience, which means every show is different (and fun for me) Read the full interview…

The show title suggests the presence of Meatloaf, which in truth is almost negligible. Of much more substance is his piece on musical variants & their origins, such as Phantom of the Oprah (Winfrey) & the such like. By about 40 minutes in I felt his deep breath starting to fade a touch, its quite a full on performance from the lad. But 40 minutes of unwavering focus from myself is pretty decent – sometimes I’m looking at my watch after 5. So here’s to you Gary G Knightley, a refreshingly funny fella who possesses an undentable spirit & a sheer love of his chosen art!

Damian Beeson Bullen

Twat Out of Hell: Deluxe

City Cafe

Aug 1-25 (11:15)

www.garygknightley.com

Material:   Delivery:  Laughs:  

Ireland’s Mags McHugh and Eddie Mullarkey form a motley dichotomous pair who find fantastic humour in their differences and how they each fit into the world. Black Sheep is intimate stand-up which triumphs at making the audience feel as though they are in on the joke. From a comfortable settling down, an almost constant snigger accompanied the show. The individual jokes were funny but it felt as though there was a larger, underlying gag – one which took the piss out of everything.

The first time I did a real gig there was laughter. I was so shocked I came off stage early. Mag’s McHugh
Read the full interview…

McHugh and Mullarkey are talented and charming in their own right, but the show’s appeal lies in their unusual bond. They obviously have a deep respect for one another, and it would have been nice to see more of their compelling chemistry on stage. They deliver most of the show as individuals, and it struck me as a missed opportunity for more unique comedy as a duo. If they could pull off a whole back-and-forth style set, it could be really quite special.

We met a little after Brexit, I cant remember what comedy gig, she made me laugh and then she helped me organise a few gigs and we’ve been laughing since. She’s a very cheeky lady. Eddie Mullarkey
Read the full interview…

Their potential as a committed double act doesn’t lessen the success of the current format. McHugh is a refreshingly peculiar and assured character; her fearlessness is both inviting and challenging. Mullarkey presents as a cheeky-chappy, class-clown type, but has a warmth in his eyes that gives away his compassionate wit. As we filtered out, both made a point of shaking each audience member’s hand which was a pleasant end to what had been a conversational show. You leave feeling as though you’ve just been to lunch at your bizarre but loved Irish family friends’ house.

Eilidh Sawyers

Black Sheep

Sofi’s Southside

Aug 1-25 (12:00)

Tweets by @sheepy_black

Monkey Barrel Comedy
Aug 7-13, 15-25 (12.00)

Material:   Delivery:  Laughs:  

In the fast-paced cyber-age we live in, people desire constant stimulation and instant gratification. Luke Rollason provides all of this. The breakneck pace of this show (heavily aided by the chaotic use of heelys) allows no time for daydreaming, instantly breaking any social barriers of embarrassment by immediately throwing the audience in at the deep end. Our participation is integral to the spontaneity and “infinite” variables of the show, where the unwitting participants are sure to look silly, yet not feel bullied, as we are encouraged to loosen up and not take ourselves too seriously.

Laughs: The total silliness of Luke Rollason’s Infinite Content had the audience laughing from start to end, from a wry smile through a guilty little chuckle all the way to irresistible laughing out louds. Delivery: Luke’s delivery and performance was excellent, his energy never dipped and the show never lulled – errors and hesitations were littered across the hour, but they were brushed away in good order & fine humour – even adding to the hilarity and unpredictability of the show.  Material: Many of the gags were old and classic tricks, superbly refreshed by the integration of technology and props. However, if this show lacks anything, its that hint of originality.

I recommend seeing this silly slapstick spectacle, blooming with interactive technology, absurd props, and an energetic backing track of retro arcade music. Full of wholesome and idiotic gags, it is perfect for a lunchtime laugh.

Mat Boyd

At some point in the recent Irish past, accidentally or by fate, two comedy comets collided at a gig, & have been fused together since. Eddie Mullarkey and Mag’s McHugh have brought a show to Edinburgh called Black Sheep, which according to Eddie is all about bringing, ‘some levity to the mental health discussion, laughing at yourself is the best therapy as Freud said. Together the two of us are bringing two very different life stories, Mags is in her 50’s and grew up a devout catholic. I’m in my 20’s and grew up with porn on a mobile phone. Different realities. Different struggles, different anxieties.’ On top of this, they have also committed to a vision called Snack Chat – with a 10AM start – yes, that’s right 10 AM.

Breakfast with the Black Sheep can be found in one of the City Café vencubes, & begins with mistress cheeky-smiles herself, Mags, dishing out yum-yums & sausage rolls from Greggs down the flowery brooks of her generosity. Then came the comedy, & my first experience of the slick, fun to be around, tracksuit-topped blue-eyed bard of Tuatha de Danaan, Eddie Mullarkey is one of those comedians who you laugh, or at least grin inanely, at whatever he does. He’s the MC for three comedians – typical floor-spot fare – & each morning there will be a different line-up drawn from the increasingly narrowing pool of comedians willing to get up before mid-day. Apparently Mags sometimes MCs as well, so they’ll always keep mixing it up. For my own visit, a large group of teenage Italian English language students from Ferrara were in, which our three guest comedians handled to varying shades between competency & bewilderment – great fun to watch!

Snack Chat is an extremely informal session, whose most important and essential parts are its early start & relative sobriety of gusts & performers. Most people across the planet are buzzing with energy in the morning, & you can really feel that kinda freshness in the room. With the line-up changing each day, the quality will always be different, so I’m gonna mark the concept, which is at the end of the day – or rather the beginning – a proper tidy way to start the day. Its perfect for folk checking out of their digs & have a couple of hours to wait for their train.

Damian Beeson Bullen

Material:   Delivery: Laughs: Room:

The Scotsman hotel was very plush, where hidden away was the Champion of Festivals venue where we were to meet Oleg Denisov, a stand-up comedian from the new realm of Russia. His comedy has been described as politically oriented, in which, as he himself stated, he has a vested interest. But as the show developed, there also emerged an interest in philosophy, a field he had studied in Russia. In his introduction, Oleg brought up the origins of the troll, a myth that came from Scandinavia, but then there was also the political troll, and neither ever had any good intentions. Thus did he set out his stall.

Oleg talked eloquently, putting forth his ideas with quasi-debating techniques, interspersed with both heavy and light jokes. Ideas as fresh as he was. He was young, 30 years old, a fact he used to compare himself to his beloved Russia, also but an infant after some major social restructuring. This was a well-honed act, leaving us feeling relaxed and hungry for the next killer line, the next exuberant punchline.

The name comes in part from the “Russian Trolls” as a popular news story, and in part from a scholarly version of how the mystical creature called “Troll” was invented by Scandinavian people. Oleg Denisov  (read the full interview)

The momentum built in great strides, taking us deeper and deeper into concepts of freedom of speech in a truly masterful way. He compared Scottish culture to that of Russia, retaining always his own Russian identity and throwing ideas around like a juggler. It was wonderful to see and to listen to this well-crafted, energetic, yet calmly delivered rhetoric that he made sure to weave into hilarious, yet mind-expanding comments and queries. The jokes were sometimes risqué, but it was the preposterous debating that really drew us in, while still coming across as though he sincerely cared about the stunted state of his homeland.

This was a skillful, commanding, endearing and insightful take on personal reality, on finding strength and overcoming adversity in the face of seemingly ridiculous situations. Mixed with many painful and poignant moments in Russian history. Nonetheless, this comic philosopher was always optimistic, whi- sharp and as honest as you can be; a quality orator who choses out of necessity to bring his great thoughts to our attention using amazing comedy.

Daniel Donnelly

Russian Troll

Champions of Festival @ The Scotsman

Aug 2-26 (16:40)

From Seattle, to London, to Edinburgh comes the superlative Erich McElroy

Where are you from & where are you at, geographically speaking?
I’m from Seattle originally, but I’ve been in the U.K. since 2000 and
currently live in the mean streets of Kingston upon Thames.

When did you first develop a passion for comedy?
It started right after I moved to London. Comedy was in every function
room in town back then. Then the recession hit and the circuit slowed
down a lot. That’s when I started being a full-time comedian. In comedy
timing is everything.

What are the differences between a British comedy audience & an
American?
I have never really performed in the US as a stand-up. I started here
and gigged here – British audience are great. Feisty, a bit drunk, and
demanding.

You decide yourself as a centrist comedian, can you explain?
Well, I’m on the left side of the political perspective but I also
believe that to really get anything done, we have to recognize that
means sometimes moving to the center or sometimes even the centre. In
the UK and in the US (I still get a vote there) where both countries are
so polarized we can’t get anything done if we don’t try and meet half
way. I talk about that in the show, but in a funny way.

You’ve been on some highbrow TV & radio, how do you find the
experiences & just how politicized is the broadcasting output of
Britain?
The UK radio and TV tries way to hard to be neutral, especially since
the written press seems to go out of it’s way to be totally partisan.

You’ve got three famous comedians (dead or alive) coming round for
dinner. Who would they be & what would you cook; starters, mains &
dessert?
Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee and Lee Mack. The first two because they are
some of the best topical comics ever and the third cause he is one of
the best live comics I’ve ever seen and a lovely guy. I wouldn’t cook as
I”m awful at cooking. This will sound sexist, but my wife is a great
cook – but if that was wrong I’d get some takeaway.

You’re performing at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe; what are you
bringing to the table?
FUNNY! It’s a fun show, not a heavy political rant.

If your comedy style was a soup, what would be the key ingredients?
A bit of everything, with some good chunks of meat to sink your teeth
into.

Will there be jokes about Boris & Trump in your show?
One of each. It’s more about personal politics and our daily battles to
do the correct thing.

You’ve got 20 seconds to sell the show to somebody in the streets of
Edinburgh…
It’s funny, because it’s true. Actually, some of it’s not true, but
it’s still funny.

What will you be doing for the rest of 2019?
After this month? Sleeping. Then getting a giant bowl of popcorn to
watch all the Democratic Presidential Primary debates.

Radical Centrist

 Laughing Horse @ Bar 50

Aug 2-11 (14:15)

Tweets by @erichmcelroy

http://www.erichmcelroy.com