Pleasance Courtyard
August 15th-26th (20.15)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Sisters are doing it for themselves, or is it brothers transcending a range of limitations beyond their control? Mark and Christy are the co-founders of SISTERS: On Demand. Two young, bearded, cocky lads with confidence leaking out of them like an out-of-control toothpaste tube, gracefully glide onto the stage. From the very outset the laughs were rampant, drawn from the audience like a fish struggling for air, you’re hooked. Simply put, Sisters: On Demand is an app you can use to hire, these likely lads for functions which will guarantee more excitement than any Netflix film can offer.

Subject matter is important to any show and this one does in way disappoint. Grasping at life’s funny and difficult situations, we are catapulted from one sketch to another, ysing not much more than a white sheet, a baseball cap and a remote controller as props. I found myself being treated to some of the finest raw sketch acting on offer at this year’s Fringe. Diving deep into the sketches, we are made aware of how funny life can be; arguing parents using kids as ammunition, marriage proposals at an airport check in, sexual robots, a virtual reality Hitler game and not forgetting the local classic Sunshine on Leith, all of which add to this roller-coaster of a show.

A day without laughter is a day wasted, & the well conceived & professionally planned-out Sisters: On Demand is a barrel of laughs and a breath of fresh air. Mark and Christy have pulled together a delicious slice of sketch comedy – dark, bad, funny, direct, confusing, light-hearted, impressive and thought-provoking in the most questionable of ways – the laughter that rose riotously at the beginning remained with us all until the very end.

Raymondo Speedie

Just the Tonic @ The Tron
Aug 3-12, 14-26 (21.00)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

The Edinburgh fringe is phenomenal, just to see the craziness, of what all all these people are doing with their lives. It’s always so inspiring. It felt like running away to the circus for a week.
Read the full interview

Experiencing Barry Ferns the comedian work a room reminds me of Peter Oundjian conducting a symphonic orchestra. There is control & there is beauty. As an artist, Barry is not rude, nor is he shocking us for laughs – he doesnae need to be confrontational – he’s just happy to share with us all the one truth he knows, & we soon come to know, he gets comedy & he’s shit-hot at it too. He is what I would call a multi-generationalist, sweeping grandly over his topics from the millennials’ take on things & events, to the age-group of his sadly deceased grandfather – a man who turns up in this year’s show, fondly enough, via voice-overs recorded a decade ago.

Barry takes us on a personal journey, from playing with his birth-name Barry, to his hilarious experiences as a comedian in Sweden, & so much, so much, more. But that leads us to  the one flawback to his show – it feels too long. For Fringe audiences used to football-halves of comedy, Barry took us well beyond the sixtieth minute, drifting out of his well-sustained excellence & into feet-shuffling territory. At the start of ‘Barry Loves You’ it certainly felt as if I was watching a five-star show, & if Barry were to trim about fifteen minutes from his composition, then the malleable clay of his comedy will set into something we can define as a true objet d’art.

Damo

Bar 50
Aug 6-26 (15:30)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

How is it possible that from such an unassuming, almost melancholic delivery, volcanoes of comedy burst from our psyches to join everyone else’s in the audience, like the tectonic creation of a new world. That world belongs to Will Mars, a dedicated comedian with a surreptitious story to tell. In fact it is very much the story of being a stand-up, warts ‘n’ all, & deglosses some of the glory we lesser mortals assume when staring at the life-size technicolour images of the pantheon which surround us in the Edinburgh streets. According to Will Mars – and I do believe him – comedians are mortals too, who can bleed, & can also feel…

I do not want to give away the plot of his show, because every nuance of his tale must be appreciated without forewarning to fully appreciate the telling. A lovely Northern lad, he didn’t even need a microphone as he waltzed thro’ his rites of passage; from the gallon-a-girl gigolo of his early twenties, to the late 30s ‘worst version’ of Mr Mars, where he’s refreshingly unafraid to admit men also possess the tick-tick-ticking biological clock. It is impossible not to feel some kind of empathy for Will Mars, & he makes you laugh as you do so. As a storyteller he is a joy to experience; like a quirky terrier yapping jokes at our feet, when every now & again he’d sink his teeth into our calves with a hefty bite.

Damo

Pleasance Dome
Aug 16-26 (21:40)

Material:   Delivery:   Laughs:

Comedy is a strange beast. Or rather Comedians are strange beasts. Especially the nerdier varieties which make sure they obtained a degree in law, and have an innate love of computers and technology in general, just in case the dream of being a funny clown didnae pay off. Welcome to Yianni Agisllau and his most exotic of names. Yianni itself conjures images of beautiful melodies and Greek mythology – indeed our comedian possesses a face as handsome of that of a Greek God. Everything was going swimmingly until he opened his mouth. In an instant, I was transported back to Adelaide. Yep thats right Yianni is as Ozzy as they come. Not that this fact detracted from the performance. Indeed most of tonight’s audience were repeat offenders coming back to marvel at Yianni’s thought-proving show. Theatre 10 of the Dome was packed with people and it was as hot as a South Australian summer’s day. Just to make the Ozzies in the audience feel at home, he had an air conditioner on stage that made no difference at all.

Yianni has gone down a storm on the Australian Fringe Circuit, and with the strength of his performance, I can understand why. This guy works hard to keep his audience on the ball. His chosen subject matter, information technology, instantly creates a comedic tremor in one’s soul. His delivery was relentless, a comedian with a lot to say. I Human is an education into both IT history and the future of IT and its speed of evolution. Even the most celebrated of clowns would find it difficult to make this subject matter interesting and funny. Did I laugh? Well yes, it was a very entertaining hour and nerd comedy has found a new home in my heart.

Mark ‘Divine’ Calvert

Pleasance Dome – AceDome
August 15-27 (23:00)

Creating a thematic improv show is like cooking up a curry. It’s all about the ingredients. Each night throughout the Fringe, Yianni Agisilaou dons the head chef’s hat & attempts to cook up an hour of entertainment using the spices, meat & veg of three different comedians. Thus, the show will always vary in quality, & on the night I was there the sparks were not flying alas. Still, many in the largish audience for such a late slot were thoroughly enjoying themselves with pints in hands; most of whom – my wife & I were guessing – were players of the game ‘Cards Against Humanity.’

After the conventional improv games which gel our performance trio into a street- fighting unit, the show-shift arrives at bouncing off the politically incorrect, fill-in-the-blank statements found on the cards given to every member of the audience. Our three comedians relished such mischievous fodder & seemed to thoroughly enjoy the occasion. Comedians Against Humanity is good if you’re drunk & uneasily offended, or the aforementioned fan of the card game – both groups of whom in the audience were in stitches. For the rest of us, its a bit like Jack Fultons, a frozen food retailer from South Yorkshire, whose customers are all very much aware of the street proverb attached to that store – ‘pay your money & take your chances.’

Damo

Opium
Aug 15-25 (14.30)

Material: Delivery:  Laughs:

David McIver is Daftness Incarnate is a more appropriate title for the laddie’s latest contribution to the Edinburgh Fringe. I reviewed him personally last year & I always like to see how comedians grow in 12 months, & I noticed marked improvement in David’s delivery – he’s a much slicker prospect in 2018 & is a cut above most free fringe shows.

McIver’s montage begins with him being beaten up with baguettes, & continues through a series of characters all loosely held together by a Decameronesque 18th birthday party. Each one is screamingly funny at times, & even when the jokes go off piste a bit, you still laugh anyway because Dave is just such a funny entertainer. This is the true secret of comedy & McIver has found the portal. Changing costumes before our eyes, we were presented with an Alan Partridge style ‘Supply Sergeant,’ a mid-life-crisis kinda, street-savvy ‘Cool Dad,’ & ‘Taz’, the Masculinity Guru.

There is nothing not to love about David McIver, & everything to praise. He is one of the rare comics in Edinburgh, actually, who I would say go & see again, when I believe you will end up laughing even harder. He’s a one-man comedy cult is our David & needs to be seen at least once every Fringe.

Damo

Picture this – you’re a parent out in Edinburgh with the kids for a few hours. You wanna catch a couple of shows that entertain both you & them – while seeing a bit of Edinburgh in between. Well, The Mumble has just found the perfect combo; Signor Baffo’s Restaurant at the Principal Hotel in the New Town at 11:00, followed by Fun Kids Radio’s Epic Roadshow Adventure at Bristo Square at 13.00. The beauty is, at the end of Signor Baffo’s show, everybody gets complimentary pancakes & drinks to fuel the wee hike across the Old Town to Bristo Square.

The shows themselves are full of energy, laughter & lots of audience participation. The technicolourful Signor Baffo is aimed at a slightly younger audience, who all sit cross-legged at the front, but everybody gets swept along by the sweet silliness of Signor Baffo’s attempt to become a proper cook in the absence of the boss, Signor Figaro. While the cat is away & all that. While watching, I recalled an ancient Tamil proverb which compares the sounds of giggling children to flutes, & listening to the symphonic laughter of the children became, for me, an integral part of the show. Dodgy puns & punchlines abound, but done so well its difficult for an adult not to laugh anyway, & the language-burgeoning kids are absolutely delighted with the gags, the action & the messy kitchen Baffo creates.

A wee wander across town later, on an increasingly damp Sunday, my family & I found ourselves at the grand old Medical College by Bristo Square for Fun Kids. Also in attendance was an American family who’d chosen the exact same passage as ourselves, & we happily shared thoughts on how excellent Signor Baffo had been, like a live version of Pixar’s Ratatouille. It was then time to enter the next show, a different affair in which the slightly older kids were led voluntarily onto the stage one by one – with a couple of parents as well – to aid our hosts’ mission. This was to save their radio show from the axe & involved a series of madcap games delivered with perfectly pitched ebullience by Bex Lindsay & Dan Simpson. The show is based on fact, actually, for Fun Kids is a real show on a real station, but given a twist for the stage. Cue the kids (& the parents) shouting out ‘BOTTOM’ at the tops of their voices, animal impersonations, dancing, karaoke, &, well, you get the picture – the variety rotates at breakneck speed.

I cannot recommend this wee sequence enough, both of which, in the scheme of things, are excellent 4 Star Shows & worth checking out in their own right. Perfectly timed & perfectly spaced for a full Edinburgh experience, Signor Baffo & Fun Kids are just what the doctor ordered for a family day out. By the time you take your leave of Fun Kids, clutching bags full of stuff handed out by Bex for later playtimes, its 14.30, with plenty of time left in the day to experience all the myriad other aspects of Edinburgh during the Fringe. Enjoy!!

Damo

The Principal Hotel
Aug 14-19, 21-27 (11:00)

Underbelly, Bristo Square – The Dairy Room
Aug 14-27 (13:15)

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.
Read the full interview

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
Read the full interview

‘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