Gigging for a month, with a bucket for payment, in a converted meeting room in the Grassmarket where the flyerers can’t collect flyers and the barmen don’t know which beer they’re serving, could be seen as problem to some. Ollie Horn & Kathryn Henson however use this to their benefit in a manner which highlights their craftsperson-ship from the get go. Kicking off with some Groove Armada (at audience request) they beginning bantering with the crowd from the moment the doors open. I feel that we’re getting 5 minutes of comedy for free, the rest of the small audience do to, and this use of time to develop a rapport pays off throughout.
The theme of the show is simple. The audience vote for which of the performers is to deliver a ‘clean’ set, and which of the performers is to deliver a set of filth. The general warming up presents the audience with a conundrum. Kathryn is clearly the more comfortable with filth, indeed she alludes to it oozing from her pores, and presents visions of a Venom like sentient filth being which is urging to get out of her at any moment. The audience of course vote her ‘clean’, she delivers a set which is mainly focused around the very safe topic of ‘emotional assistance dogs’ and manages to accidentally throw in allusions to yeast, hard drugs, prescription abuse and shotgun weddings. It is all expertly performed, even if the audience is aware that she is playing Laurel to Ollies impending horny Hardy. She throws in some very neatly observed material on the duality of stand-up performers in general however, and this is where this 2-hander is elevated beyond some of its peers whereupon inferior shows feel like marriages of convenience, rather than genuine comedic partnerships. Henson pulls out a wonderful soliloquy early in the show where the ‘shadow self’ of the stand up performer is presented. This is a necessary breaking of the third wall to allow Ollie to really show off his filth chops when he takes to the stage.
Ollie is a big lad. He has presence, he also has a remarkably delicate touch when it comes to leaping onto stage shouting incoherent obscenities to clarify for us that we are now on the dark side of the show. As with the other male comedians I saw today, he managed to both celebrate, and mock, masculinity in a manner which pleased every corner of the room. This is true spirit of the Fringe stuff. Notebook in hand, we receive blow by blow accounts of this young, and apparently very virile, mans Casanovian escapades in such a warm fashion that when it comes to the big final punchline of the set, we already know that the laugh is going to be on him. We have been warmed to this by anecdotes of accidentally scatological massages & Newtonian physics as a self-confidence tool for gents of the larger persuasion during intimate moments. This is stuff which is simultaneously surreal in a Pyncheon-esque manner, and crowd pleasing.
The combination of the 2 back-to-back is akin to in seeing Henson attempt to deliver a clean act by wrestling with her own potty-mouthed Mr Hyde, and thus allowing the audience to make all manner of dirty jokes in their own head, & the filth act delivering obscenities with the gusto of a Mormon recalcitrant in the manner of a priapic Frankenstein’s Monster tearing down its masters laboratory.
This is a show which they would like the audience reviewers to describe as ‘The best show at the Fringe’, to allow them to afford a better venue next year. I urge you to see them, but I really can’t imagine how any venue could better frame this slick, confident, intimate hour of pretty much non-stop laughs. A Free Fringe show which delivers the atmosphere of The Stand on a Friday night, to an audience of 10 is a marvellous thing. It is, if not necessarily ‘the greatest show at The Fringe,’ not very far off. It’s charm very much comes from the fact that you are having the privilege of seeing 2 headline acts for one, in a killer partnership with new material every day, in a genuinely comedy club atmosphere.
As any gigging comic will tell you, one-liners are a deceptively simple form of stand-up comedy. The timing, the tone, the pace and the punctuation of every single gag requires a level of dedication and sheer bloody mindedness to master. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the joyous experience of watching one of the masters of the art, Masai Graham, perform 30 minute sets which contained as much consideration and dedication to their crafting as a 2hr Stewart Lee performance. So for Will Mars to dedicate a full hour, and a semi-autobiographical one at that, to the artform, is a bold statement of intent.
To deliver a whole set of one liners one needs to consider that an audience can only laugh for so long without feeling exhausted, and that preceding gags inevitably present an unavoidable economy of diminishing returns if delivered at a tempo which renders them subliminal to the crowd. Mars warmed up the crowd with some nicely high energy Daft Punk tunes which I hoped was to mitigate for the Thursday afternoon, sweat drenched slumber which takes over even the most committed of fans in the inevitable dungeons of whichever large venue one has been allocated by, in this instance, The Gilded Balloon. I murmured a soft prayer that it was not a portent of the pace of the performance to come.
This concern was dispelled from the moment our host’s droll Northern tone came through the PA system announcing the beginning of the show. 3 gags were delivered before Will had begun treading the boards, and rather than knocking us off our feet with the sharpest lines of the set, he warmed us up to the tone of the engaging, honest, funny and at times genuinely next level show we were about to receive.
There was a broad spread of demographics throughout the room, and over the course of the laid back, yet break-neck, 55 minutes and 300 gags, the laughter rippled around the room like waveforms. This is one of the most masterful aspects of Will’s show, he manages to deliver a set which has moments that everyone present could connect with. A recurring theme throughout my day of reviewing was white male comedians taking a beautifully human swipe at their own privileges in a manner which very much defies the notion that being ‘Woke’, & being precious, easily offended and virtue signalling are mutually exclusive things.
We are eased into the performance via clear status setting. He is ‘not good with people’, and ‘even dogs hate him’, and if it weren’t for the fantastically crafted darker sections of his act I would have complained that the low status positioning didn’t sit with the effortless performance and genuine warmth for the audience which came off the stage throughout. As mentioned earlier though, one liner sets are all about pacing, and Will Mars crafted this particular marathon with the skill and nounce of a ‘couch to 5k’ podcast coach. Some lovely ‘Yo mama’ gags, about himself, in which he dissected his neuroses and laid out groundwork for heavier material about his upbringing, showed his versatility with the form, and offered us a metaphorical ‘cup of tea’ to let us know he wouldn’t be spilling out his yarn in double quick time. He was not more eager to perform than to story-tell. This allowed the audience to appreciate the slick changes of pace when he moved into a more interactive mode, or crafted wickedly sharp close to the bone jokes on topics which most would comedians who aren’t Frankie Boyle would be too anxious to broach at 3pm.
There are very topical and serious themes of imposter syndrome, poverty, childhood abandonment, breast feeding, and domestic violence woven throughout genuinely gut busting 1 punch hits. I laughed so hard I was accused of being a shill at more than one point. The audience interaction showed Mars to be a confident and playful performer, and his decision to narrate a large portion of his own performance in the third person allowed him an intimacy with his audience that produced one of the most obscene and surreal flights of pornographic fancy I’ve seen spontaneously produced. ‘Tyrone’, the very handsome man sitting not too far to my right, I suspect may be traumatised. The rest of us were delighted.
There is still a lot of work to be done to polish this show up into the sum of it’s parts, and I was reviewing on a preview day. It is also inevitable that in a show with 300 gags there are going to be a couple of non-sequiters, and muddled linkage between sections interrupted the otherwise excellent timing on a couple of occasions. Given that the show was 55 minutes of one-liners, and a mini-story of Will’s life, a clearer form of delineation between the ‘sections’ would also have been beneficial. I would however pay hard cash any day of the week to see the topical aspects of this show played to anyone who thinks you can’t make good jokes about hard subjects and not punch down. There were numerous occasions when ‘sensitive’ topics which could have delivered 70’s style cheap laughs instead subverted expectations and presented our performer as someone we could all connect with. Quite an achievement for a show which is ‘just’ one liners. This is a talented man with a Fringe show that gives the punters exactly what they want. I left the performance with a smile on my face, laughter lines around my eyes, and a genuine warmth in my belly.
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 2022?
Well, not that much really. Beyond the windows of Mumble Towers, the Fringe Press of 2022 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.
The old system (R.I.P)
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.
A four-star Room at Gary G Knightley
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 in 2019. 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
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.“
Hello Daniel, so how did you get into comedy in the first place? I was actually in the pub after an Aberdeen game and got talking with one of the Scottish scene’s best acts and fellow Dons fan Chris Forbes. We got chatting and he said he was a stand-up comedian, I was like ‘I’d love to try that’ he gave me the email for Red Raw at the Stand. Six months later I went on stage for the first time and did 5 minutes at the Glasgow Stand, it was the first time I’d ever been in a comedy club! *Aberdeen won 4-0 by the way, a Jamie Smith hattrick.
Can you tell us about the Mountebank History of Scotland’ series and the ‘Mountebank Comedy Walk of Edinburgh’? It’s basically Scottish history with jobby jokes! I love comedy and history and wanted to combine the two. I had the idea for a comedy walking tour of Edinburgh for ages but it actually took me three years to write, I wanted to learn as much as I could about the history of Scotland and Edinburgh before I even thought about writing any jokes. The ‘Mountebanks’ were one of the first things I read about Edinburgh. They were street performers but kind of bullshitters. They’d perform tricks, tell jokes and then sell homemade ointments and potions after their performance, an American term would be something like a ‘snake oil salesman’. I thought ‘that’s perfect!’ My tour is a kind of a slightly exaggerated bullshitter’s version of a regular tour, so that’s where Mountebank came from. The podcast and YouTube series I started as a means of occupying myself through lockdown. It would take me hours and hours to research and write each episode so it was a perfect way of staying focused and sane during the pandemic.
You’re currently ranked no. 1 of 534 walking tours in the city on TripAdvisor! How does that make you feel? I left a teaching career in May 2019 – very well timed, few people were able to corner two dead industries during the pandemic, stand-up comedy and tourism, but this guy pulled it off! I had been doing the tour for about a year and a half before I left my job and it was going along nicely, but when the pandemic hit I thought I had lost everything. So, to now be ranked number one on TripAdvisor and selling out most tours is amazing, I’m very proud of myself. The best thing is being able to do something you love for a living, that’s what it’s all about.
Does the tripadvisor ranking outweigh the time when the Scotsman compared you to a cockburn’s haggis? For me it does, but by mum doesn’t really understand what it is I actually do so when the Scotsman compared me to a Cockburn’s Haggis she was as proud as punch, that was a big moment for her! Dingwall haggis is amazing by the way if you haven’t tried it!
When it comes to comedy at the Fringe, what are the secret ingredients to a good show? I think it has to be authentic. All my favourite Fringe shows I have ever seen I’ve always been blown away by how much work went into it and the person’s commitment to it, when that’s missing it’s always a bit meh. My secret ingredient isn’t really a secret at all, it is the support of Rick Molland and Sully O’ Sullivan who run the Scottish Comedy Festival. That, and my fellow performers and the staff at the Beehive, everyone embraces the Fringe there, there’s a great camaraderie. You’re paying a fair price to perform, we get great audiences, and you have the opportunity to actually profit off of your work. It’s the way the Fringe should be and we’re very lucky to have it.
What are you bringing to the Fringe this year? My show ‘There’s Something About Mary’ is an hour of stand-up comedy about Mary Queen of Scots and it’s on 5th-28th August 2pm at the Beehive Inn. I will also be running my Comedy Walking tour, the ‘Mountebank Comedy Walk of Edinburgh’ leaving every day from Monkey Barrel at 11am.
Why Mary Queen of Scots, & is she funny? She was undoubtedly charismatic, but her mother Mary of Guise was certainly funny. Henry VIII was interested in marrying Mary of Guise, when he complimented her figure Mary replied ‘aye I’ve a very thin neck’ which is frankly outstanding patter from her! Why Mary? I’m pretty boring, I don’t have any big life changing experiences or mad shit that has happened to me that I can write a Fringe show about so I thought ‘who has had the most remarkable, interesting life from Scottish history?’ And no one had a more spectacular and unfortunate life than Mary. We love glorious, romantic failure in Scotland and that’s essentially what Mary’s reign and life was – and that’s what this Fringe show promises to be, one great big, glorious, romantic failure!
Can you tell us about your dog? Brahan, aka the ‘Bonnie Prince’, he’s the softest, friendliest dog in Scotland and is probably better known on the Scottish comedy scene than I am! Brahan comes on all my tours, or most of them at least, when he’s not there people get properly pissed off! He’ll be at the Beehive everyday if you want to come say hello!
You’ve 20 seconds to sell the show to someone in the Royal Mile – whaddaya say? ‘Mary was pasty-white, loved a round of golf, and a bevy, she had an adorable wee Skye terrier dog, was locked in a bitter dispute with her half-brother, and in a bitter dispute between Catholics and Protestants, she was married three times, was implicated in the murder of her second husband Lord Henry Darnley, spent most of her adult life in prison in England, and was eventually murdered by a family member – come see my Fringe show about the most Scottish person who ever existed!’
I walked into the heart of Edinburgh and felt the low key buzz of pre-fringe vibes. The Grassmarket, warm with laughter, was lit up; the smell of ale and good food in the warm dusk air ignited my senses. I was greeted with a smile by the friendly doorman who showed me to the top floor of the Beehive Inn & into the famous Comedy Attic. The venue holds 50/60 seats neatly packed into a dark square room.
I waited for the sold-out seats to fill, enjoying the background music while periodically peering out the window to the fun streetside. The lights dimmed at 11pm and Rick Molland took to the stage. As comperes go he was a little nervous and his voice shook for the first few minutes, but I was enlightened to his abilities once I realised how tough the crowd were that he was dealing with.
Three stag-do’s were present and Rick set about firing questions at them. The front row could not have been more boring. A dull combination of accountants and project managers, Rick had his work cut out for him so he impressed me by receiving a good few laughs.
The warm-up act was Gus Lindberg. He entertained with the inevitable covid chat, childhood anecdotes, audience interaction and some great Scottish banter. He pumped the room up to almost boiling point, before ending on a rather dark joke which gave a little more context to his potential versatility. I would like to see him headline sometime.
After a twenty minute interval, Rick got us prepared for more of the show. Headlining was Danny Deegan. He took the stage and introduced himself by explaining he had driven 4 hours to get to Edinburgh from Manchester and to be honest, what followed made me wonder if he’d wasted a his petrol. Self-proclaimed working class scum, Danny was more versed in rants, rather than bants. His timing was studied and seemingly well practiced, but he only hit on average a 20/30 percent audience laughter rate and it didn’t particularly tickle me. A pretty dry story-teller, he reminded me of a guy spraffing his life story to you while waiting in the queue for red bull and a packet of Lambert and Butler at the corner shop; someone you’d like to walk away from but that you’re OK with tolerating for the sake of being able to buy your essentials.
As for the forthcoming Scottish Comedy festival – a part of the Fringe – I have faith that its organiser, tonight’s very own Rick, will smash it this festival and the venue is just what u want if you like intimacy. Watch out for Gus Lindberg though, he was the top talent tonight!
Hello Paul, for this year’s Fringe you are premiering a new play called What Broke David Lynch ? On at 9pm, Greenside @ Nicolson Square, Fern Studio. You have also enlisted some familial support for the project – who is this gentleman with you? PAUL: Well, he’s my brother isn’t he. He was good in The Caucasian Chalk Circle when he was at school and he appears to still have it. He can certainly remember his lines – he already has them down or so he tells me.
Is that right Steve? You have experience treading the boards, or at least remembering your lines – can you tell us about your acting career thus far? STEVE: Well, acting was many of my artistic ambitions in my youth. I appeared in many school productions and even got an award for my contribution. I was generally cast as the comic lead. I was in the local youth theatre for a while too. I did Theatre Studies at A level with the ambition of getting in to RADA but then I got into rock and roll and that kind of put a spanner in the works. I did get a small part in a reconstruction on 999 emergency but that was as far as my professional acting career went. I’ve occasionally dabbled since. I was in a Leeds amateur dramatics society and I even appeared in a few productions by a certain Damian Bullen but music has largely been my priority in my later life. Although I have often starred in my own slightly crude home made music videos.
Paul, what about your own acting career? PAUL: Well I’ve only appeared as actor in my own productions really, I enjoy a challenge of something new, my one man Twonkey shows can only take you so far, I’m trying to push myself. Jennifer’s Robot Arm was my first theatre show and this is the follow up, pleased to have Miranda onboard she was magical as Jennifer and I’m sure she will shine again in this show.
Can you tell us about the show? PAUL: Never you mind about that lad.
Oh go on! PAUL: Well, if you insist! The play focues on a period in David Lynch’s life where he was trying to develop a suit for the Elephant Man. He’d moved to London & he was in a flat in Wembley & he’d been given a certain amount of development time. They believed that because he’d made the baby in Eraserhead it would be possible for him to construct a costume for the Elephant Man. But this proved to be a step too far for him, and he was unable to complete the task. Its kind of about how that affeceted him psychologically & how eventually he was able to see a way thro’ the problem & find some kind of resolution. But it’s also about the pressure of a young American director coming to London to make Victorian costume drama with Shakespearean actors.
That is interesting – where & when was the catalytic moment where you decided you just HAD to turn this into a play. PAUL: I could just hear the dialogue – I could see the situations & also the idea of the moment where the terible costume is put on John Hurt & they realsied that the experiment has essentially been a disaster. I think that’s a manic moment & there was a also a dramtic point where David Lynch realised that he could direct the Elephant Man – apparently it was when he was at the Frederic Treves hospital & as he was looking down one of the corridors at all the gaslight fittings he could suddenly imagine the whole film – he could see how it would be, the atmosphere, he could see the mix of the hard industrial stuff & how he could tell the story. Its kind of about the fall he had before getting ultimate clarity, which enabled him to make the film. Because it was not as crazy as his last film, it was a more mainstream film in a way, it made him a global star, because people thought he had dexterity & that he was able to do different kinds of work, & that was really when he became a hot-shot director.
So, Steve, how are you finding working with your brother, have you collaborated with him before & is he a hard taskmaster? STEVE: I’ve worked with Paul many times before. Largely on music but this will be the first time in theatre. I tend to be a very bricks and mortar kind of guy where as Paul is a lot more trippy. He’ll tell me he wants it to sound sparkley and I’ll ask what key that’s in. I’m also much more of a disciplinarian than Paul so it’s me who’s the task master if anyone. Paul’s great to work with though as he will always come up with leftfield ideas that I wouldn’t think of. He’s a sucker for an extended freak sequence. He’s very good at making straight acts weirder and giving weird acts a pop sensibility. We fall out obviously cus we’re brothers but it rarely comes to fisty cuffs and we always get there in the end. I would liken our working relationship as akin to David Bowie and Mick Ronson.
Who else is working with you guys on the play & how do you all get on? STEVE: It’s just the very talented Rob Atler and Miranda Shrapnell. Miranda seems lovely and very professional. She puts a lot of energy in the role. Although I’ve only met her once on Zoom and once in the flesh. I’ve only met Rob once over Zoom but I was very impressed by his John Hurt.
So Paul, what has a possible punter of your Fringe show 2022 got to look forward to if they book a ticket? PAUL: Suspense, & the element of surprise – I think people will be moved as well because the final moments are very touching – & says something about the Human condition. So its not a complete laughter raft, there are moments of contemplation – & also its really a story of love & I think all the best stories are
Final question is for Steve, you are flyering in the streets of Edinburgh & you want to convince someone to come to see your show – what do you say? STEVE: If you’ve ever been curious about cinema or the artistic process then look no further. A great insight into David Lynch, one of the most creative and influential cinematic minds of the 20th century brought to you by Mr Twonkey. No stranger to surrealist flights of fancy himself with countless stand up shows and avant garde rock albums behind him. Featuring a cast of well seasoned entertainers you will be sure to be entertained, moved and tripped out in equal measure. If you’ve got a thirst for the alternative and aren’t afraid of a giggle or two, as well as shedding the occasional tear – this is the play for you!
PAUL: Yeah I might pop that about as a press release. You don’t mind if I credit it to Lyn Gardner from the Guardian ?
STEVE: Nae worries so long as I get the royalties.
PAUL: Don’t think you get royalties for journalism.
STEVE: I intend to change all that.
Etc., Etc.
WHAT BROKE DAVID LYNCH?
Greenside @ Nicolson Square (21.00) Aug 5-13, 15-20, 22-27
Hitting pipes with Flip Flops has proven to be a great success for JunNk. The Mumble caught up with the man behind it all
Hello Sam, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking? Hello! Currently I am sitting in sunny Florida, enjoying being back in America after not being able to visit for so long due to the pandemic. I was born in Essex, England but live in the south in the heart of the New Forest.
When did you first find yourself getting into the dramatic arts? As a kid, I was always a part of some amateur dramatic group; but it was when I first started studying Performing Arts at Brockenhurst College and being immersed with other talented performers where I thought this is something I wanted to do.
Can you tell us about your training? My musical training is all self-taught, I learnt to play guitar first, and used this skill through school and college for bands and musical theatre shows, which increased my love of the arts. However, it was when I started JunNk that I learnt how to play drums and piano. A ‘learning on the Job’ approach; I knew early on that JunNk had the potential to be huge, so I didn’t want to hold back.
By 2021 you have become quite the polymath – a performer, producer, director, and manager. Why so many strings to your bow? I have always strived for success in everything that I do; I want to deliver the best, which led me down a path of learning as much as I could, expanding my skills and knowledge in order to have the best understanding of everything I was involved in.
I started JunNk in 2008 with 3 of my best friends, from a performance point of view it was a 25% split on stage, however everything behind the scenes needed a lot more attention, everything from running the business, marketing, branding, bookings to building the equipment, arranging the music, casting additional performers. The list goes on, I quickly adapted the ability to do it all and I loved it. Producing and directing more JunNk shows as we started expanding, creating new ideas and opportunities for the company. It was, and still is, a rush and my passion for the show and my determination to ever expand makes it all worth it!
So, what for you makes a good piece of theatre? For me, it is about being able to create a world that you can immerse yourself into, a complete interactive experience; I want to forget about everything else except what I am watching.
You’re also quite an award winner – can you run us through a few? JunNk first won a Sky 1, TV show called Don’t Stop Me Now back in 2012 which was the start to our awards. Following that we went on to win the ‘Act of the Year’ award for our corporate engagements in the UK in 2013. Our Edinburgh fringe debut in 2016 led to us win the ‘Spirit of the Fringe Award’; fast forward to 2019 and our debut at the Orlando Fringe where we won 3 awards; Best Family Show, Pick of the Fringe and Best Marketing.
On to JunNk; where, when how & why did you get the initial impulse to create the show? JunNk started as a college project, and we had a dance exam for part of our performing arts course; collectively we weren’t the best dancers, so we created a very basic form of JunNk to get past the exam.
It was laid to rest after college until we entered a competition on ITV’s tv show Dancing on Ice, they were searching for an act to tour with the production show; I pulled the guys together to take part and we were placed 5th overall. We then entered a local talent competition in Bournemouth, we came runners up however a talent scout watched our performance and later offered us some work if we could create a 45-minute show. This was the starting point to the creation of the JunNk you see today.
Can you give us an overall picture of the JunNk experience? Truly like nothing you’ve ever seen before; using various items commonly found in a junkyard, the four hilarious performers energetically combine superb acappella singing, captivating percussion, innovative musical creations and mesmerising gymnastics to produce a lively, dynamic and fun show that consistently delights audiences of all ages and nationalities.
From using bottles as panpipes and watering cans as trumpets, to playing well-known tunes on drain pipes with flip flops and a PVC tube as a didjeridoo, a show that really is a unique and sensational whirlwind of pure entertainment that should definitely not be missed!
So its essentially a ‘rubbish-powered variety show’- how do the audiences react in every age group? We have been very selective with the variety that we add to the show to make sure we can reach a wide spectrum of ages. The show is perfect for all and due to the lack of spoken word also makes it popular internationally for all cultures!
Who writes the material for the show – the jokes, the comedy, etc.? The material normally starts with a basic idea, a song, a sketch etc and then we would workshop it in a rehearsal; essentially if we found it funny it would go in the show. Quite a lot of the show was generated by me and some of the guys just messing around. When it comes to the music, depending on the songs I would arrange some and bring them to a rehearsal and we would ‘JunNk-ify’ them.
Since its inception, then, how has the show evolv’d? Most things have a ‘sell by date’ so I try to keep most things updated and current, some bits of material continually do well with the audience so have become classic parts of the show. The biggest part of the show that evolves is the creation of instruments, I’m constantly coming up with new ways to make music, building more equipment to deliver even more unique ways to make sound!
Tell us about China & Abu Dhabi? Even though JunNk is based in the UK, we have done more tours in China and Abu Dhabi than England; both countries are unbelievable, I love them, and our show is always so well received. Incredible theatres and amazing people, I cant wait to get back over and tour them again.
So Covid. How big an obstacle did it prove to JunNk’s progress? Live entertainment has certainly been one of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic, with ongoing and ever-changing restrictions plaguing its full comeback. Even in a pre-covid world, the entertainment business is far from easy, with live entertainment usually operating on a last-in, first- out basis, often being seen as a disposable luxury for most events. The pandemic caused the JunNk to lose two year’s worth of contracts overnight. Like many, the company was devastated, however persistence and determination managed to keep the company alive and growing and we are coming back stronger than ever!
In the dark days of the Lockdowns, did you ever feel like you wanted to give it all up? Honestly Yes, but that was on a cold dark winter’s evening during a power cut… it didn’t last! I then lit the fire and got to it. I turned to the digital age and quickly grew a TikTok following of eighty thousand followers, generating over ten million views. This was the spark I needed to kick JunNk into our post covid gear and start to get the show back out there.
Tell us about your collaboration with Dana McKeon? This started as a covid project, I met Dana while we were both performing on a cruise, she’s an incredible artist. We had similar goals and an equal passion for creating music, we started by covering Justin Timberlake’s – Cry me a River before deciding to write an original song together. We put our heads together and wrote ‘Love Language’ where I mixed the original sound of JunNk and the beautiful vocals from Dana to write a commercial pop / tropical house song. Love Language made it into the top 10 in the Malta PRS charts. Me and Dana have more in the pipeline so keep those eyes peeled.
You’ve now got an eye on America – what stokes the interest & what are your Transatlantic plans? So I started JunNk in Orlando, FL in 2018, we have 2 teams that are set for Cruises, theme parks and theatres, touching a market that we hadn’t been able to do with the UK team. America offers a world of opportunities, we have strong connections with Disney due to the Cruises we have done with them over the years, so we are now working closely with another production company to open as many opportunities as possible. A very exciting time that’s for sure.
& Finally, you’ve got 20 seconds to sell your show to a stranger in the street – whaddayasay? JunNk the manic love child of Stomp and the Blue Man Group, come immerse yourself in our zany world of comedy and music.
For this in person 2021 Fringe show called ‘Sam & Tim Present: Behind the Fringe’ we arrived at the Opium bar in Cow gate. The venue is used to having music gigs evident in its layout that looked like so many others but was a great space to feast on some comedy. Sam & Time arose on stage as colleagues in arms suddenly springing to life with their well travelling voices and into the first of their quick fire jokes.
All to do with what they called their show was in their delivery of the behind the fringe variety coming up with suggestions and hints at how to enjoy the fringe. As a comedy duo they informed us that as performers this was to be their first fringe but they had been visiting for 10 years where they saw their first Burlesque show.
They held some mock interviews pulling on stage two leather stools to perch on and to make their jokes. With one doing the asking of sensible questions the other; blowing them apart. Meeting in this way had a melody of comedic characters dressed to fill the space. There was no chance of gainful employment at that time.
The room had filled up a little as the jokes swung by and we were really caught up by the level of humour. The two danced well together balancing off of each other having very complimentary voices one large and more abrupt, the other more coy and bluesy creating the dynamics needed and nailed by their fast moving well pronounced dialogue, offering a gusto performance of their new status as comedians.
They had us twice with the interview skit. It doubled up into another interview that had the same answers of dancing, singing, pink fluffy scarf bearing and more importantly genuinely performing, with the same frustrated interviewer who didn’t have a square answer to any of it. There was a pleasure to it of youth and passion with jokes a wet as if they had just been baptised and without a sign of needing to offend or become distasteful, in fact the opposite was true
After we laughed hard and true at this collage of humorous insights it came to an abrupt end, I was just getting used to them. But we were left with a good feeling that our attendance had been rewarded with great quality and subtle and well earned place of worthwhile comedy. And with the feeling that we wouldn’t mind going back to one of their gigs knowing it will be a good time.
I turned up a little late for this Comedy called Tom Mayhew: From Rags to Slightly Newer Rags that was another online production. He read from his material and always went back to it if he had become sidetracked by the zoom audience with our mike’s switched on. Not just a guy on a screen, but a capable comedian with a bright future.
I am not suggesting that lightly because from what he told us he had climbed out of the world of benefits (or at least had started the journey) coming about when radio work came calling. The 3 or 4 audience was something he just worked with. Evidently understanding his crowd as an established comic should.
The general autobiographical idea behind the show was a good stroke for his work where he could dive in and out of his material and remain relevant to us his audience. Creating this bond was an important way to make a good comedy progress, so he maintained it from beginning to end. The one hour aspect he used to drive home a funnier perspective almost squashing his performance and condensing the experience.
As this young man talked he delivered discursive concepts of social awareness and social injustice. His important work as a comic he claimed (quite rightly) was at the forefront of his life. He sympathised with actors and artists then brought out very absurd thoughts that literally triggered my good humour.
All of his material had a real sense of the injustices prevalent in our world today making him a kind of rebel comic ready to make the sacrifice for his beliefs. And his beliefs seemed to be very righteous and outspoken because of the severity of his subjects.
We loudly would agree with him even if he had only sprinkled in a circumstance or situation we could relate to. Using funny examples (in the most comic way) to underline his points of view. He compared us (humans) to pigeons with the notion that they have more rights than us.
Perhaps using the pigeon proposition specifically to stir our distaste because in our world pigeons seem very lowly and even despicable. It was a celebration of irony, intricately woven by a very confident writer. Sharpening his tools to seem like taking care of us lovingly then sitting back, arms folded proud of the chaos he’s just let loose.
We enjoyed his organisation keeping things in a delightful formation and in his wiliness to be a comic. He passionately wanted to sustain his beliefs in being one, with material good enough to take on tour and who knows what next. My enthusiasm for him is evident and that doesn’t happen without something having transposed.
This performance was more than fresh, without even trying, youthfully engaging, like an honour waiting to happen with a bright energy and very good wit. He did the work; he made the show which was really quite exciting. His vibrations were felt by all being great vibrations of complete laughing, inhaling comedy. We will see you next time somewhere.
When approaching a zoom meeting for this Augusts Edinburgh Fringe the nerves get going with a feeling of anything could happen. I tuned into this show called ‘According to everyone else’ by the hilarious Lorraine Hoodless was one such show. As more and more faces appeared for the stand up solo performance her tiny stage space had blue fairy lights decorating the scene. She with enthusiasm gave us a countdown and asked for cameras and mike’s to be on so as to feed on our laughter and responses.
She came on owning the mike in a beautiful sequined like dress to offer her comedic vibe. She used all sorts of themes to joke about with punch lines of abrupt comedy. She allowed comments from her audience that came across as heckling; something I have not heard in a while, so was refreshing to take part in.
Everything from addiction to dating, self reflecting; telling us of her relationship with alcohol, saying she was no princess. She seemed a lovely girl until using crass and uncomfortable ideas where you either laugh or become offended. All of which is in the name of a stand up set up that always prove to be very popular.
On the shared Zoom screen we could gauge faces and reactions. A couple also in Edinburgh took in the show in a hot tub. This tickled Lorrain greatly as she spent some time joking about it. The sight of these two was a pleasant one and gave a unique experience for me and everyone else. She used one liners, punch lines and these were often very subtle but once grasped were very funny evoking bouts of laughter from everyone.
She took us into space as well and into fashion and podcast jokes. It was a pleasure just being there listening to her talk in stories about things that she flipped into being laughter filled suggestions. In her bag of treats she revealed her love of dolls. But put a skit on it as she showed us various hairdos she gave them.
Her confidence was obvious and her wit was ever expanding. She had the idea of making drinking alcohol an Olympic event (who else would have thought of that?), and compared a cat to a piano. These polar opposites were a big source for comedy that though very light hearted was not afraid to push the envelope of taste and discrepancy.
Lorraine was very easy to take in even as a small figure on a laptop screen. Her dress and lights sparkled in beauty; her smiles were just as rewarding to us as they were to her. Viewing this show wound up a resounding success, some of her audience she knew but for me it was an introduction to her kooky, comedic celebration and charmingly fast and honest jokes about whatever she felt like. This is what live comedy is about, she held her ground and gave as good as she got.
But she came across very happy about her show and how it is being viewed in this year’s online side of things. Very happy to denounce things that should not be, and spread awareness for things that should. Sending a message comes from any genre, perhaps hit further home when it’s done with a good sense of humour.
Mumble Comedy 