Spotlites : 6th Aug – 14th Aug

Material : Delivery :  Laughs :

Dr Ahmed is displaying a very creative idea he had on how to be alive, while dealing with death in ones life. So, really, you can say that this show is suitable to every single human being on Earth. Unless you have worked out how to avoid death? Which if you have, well, congratulations to you! For content reasons, I would recommend an adult to accompany folks aged between 13-16 yo, and would say that the material is not suitable for anyone younger than this. Death is an intense subject for many to wish to even think about, so further discussion after this show between friends and family, maybe something that you would need or want to do. But don’t worry, I doubt that anyone would leave this show feeling sad. In fact, if you have experienced death in your lifetime, you will most likely find the performance very refreshing.

The Dr uses a mixture of industry practiced techniques, self taught, in order to communicate a beautiful message. Being a real doctor allows for perspectives not often shared on stage; if it does not make you giggle and consider altering your medical visits, then you must never have been to the doctors before.  As he walks us through his own learnings, we see diamond performance potential shine through. If you are not touched by the reason Dr Ahmeds works to be himself as a character for the purpose of teaching what he has to share, well, then you must not be human.

Ahmed is not perfect – his comedy timing needs slight attention, as potential funnies are swirled through a sea of energy; being lost within the time it takes for the bookends of the punchline to knock up on either side; The audience needs wee bit more of a chance to recognise and register sometimes, especially with puns. I prescribe two beats of silence on either side of the punchline. The singing needs about 10% more confidence, 8% of which should definitely be delivered through gently observing eyes; an optical drift, just long enough to catch a soul, before sweeping on again. I think if that were applied, the very last and most subtle of vocal jitters could smooth out and the sound would be worthy of a much larger stage show. I would love to see this Doctor find himself through his performances more, and would really like to watch him explore different expressions, like circus performance; as well as spoken word, poetically beat between operatic explosions. Definitely more performing please Dr Ahmed, but maybe less in the way of a stand up comedy style, in my opinion, as I think cabaret has your name written all over it.

My guest loved the experience and laughed regularly before summing up with words like “wow” and “this is the best show I have seen in the Fringe, ever! Actually? Yeah, no, actually, it is!” I would also love to see normal life doctors behave more like Dr Ahmed does on stage! Sometimes a dryness of character, displayed as professionalism is difficult to read, while people are not being academic and are being emotional.  Which I guess is the kind of emotional intelligence we all need to interact with, when dealing with grief in ourselves or in another person. I feel like grief is an effected emotional state of pure disorganisation, caused by emotions which are too strong to be put behind our own thinking, of how we feel. It is like we feel to much to be able to think. We learn out of it, but not without great effort and practise, usually over much time. Confusion can be invented between human beings, while there is a delay in empathy between emotional communicative transactions. I think both parties need to be in a state of feeling, thinking, acting, then both feeling again etc, before learning and healing to occur; at least this is what I discovered during my own experience of living with death. Feeling first, then thinking about how to act in order to communicate that emotion, helps us with being. It is nice to see Dr Ahmed shake off the stiff upper lip and get more loose with his expression. It’s nice to know how people are thinking while they talk to you, and with professional type figures, well – it is just a pure joy to see them be in an emotional state too.

Lovely show, and thank you for the support you are providing towards Macmillan Cancer Research, Dr Ahmed. Keep inspiring man!

Reviewer : Bobbi McKenzie

Pleasance “This” Venue / 3-18th Aug (15.30)

Material : Delivery :  Laughs :

The setting of Samantha Baines’ contribution to the Edinburgh Fringe 2016 is rather more interesting tahn your standard stand-up –  because if you arrive early, you may be placed in charge of dinging the Pun Master’s Bell. I liked this idea as puns are often missed without due care and attention, particularly if crafted as slickly as they are by Sam.  Some of her material is cheesier and more obvious than the glaring moon, don’t get me wrong. But I must admit, there were a few puns that would have slipped past my own gaze, if it hadn’t been for the ding – which invariably lead to an  “ahh”  followed promptly by a  “doh”!  But it can make you feel only human when a pun slips by you, especially when Sam needs to also prompt the bell master, into dinging the dong in the first place.

In any case, Sam spat jokes out like a leakage of matter from a blackhole of complete banter and the faces Sam pulled were like watching a dance off between opposing gravitational forces. Tickled my ribs like a martian with twelve arms and little sucker punch blobs for hands, so it did. Perhaps, in future, some David Bowie music could be measured in? Just to add a little third dimension to the equation, you know? It would make for a good entry/exit soundtrack and could also fill the subtly awkward silence during the reading of the thesis, which otherwise I thought was a great segment. Gives a justified reason to break out those dance moves too Sam, which I could see were already being contained like a nebula about to turn super nova!

I love that this woman uses her brain to think outside all boxes, and that her face becomes a canvas for the constellation of her emotion to explode. Sam applies a great use of sarcasm with excellent timing and slightly self deprecating appreciation of her own ego. The oxymoron is genius.  Not entirely sure whether this is a purposeful technique or just a very honed natural ability, but it certainly works for a strong delivery.

Heckle at your own peril in this show, cause the girl will beam you up like you were desperately seeking to be probed then leave the audience laughing at you, through a trans-code of pity and confusion; until you wonder to yourself, why seeking for attention while you were meant to be observing, was ever an idea that you forgot to actually think about, before your brain let it take off from your tongue, at a speed fairly slower than light.

Would love to have a pint with this woman, and would feel more than delighted to take my own Nanna or any other family member to see Sam’s show again. This act is one of my favourites this year so far, and the venue organisers have nailed the timing at which is appears. Just what you might fancy between a spot of lunch and your dinner, to heat you up into interconnected bi-lateral thinking, which can then help shift your dimensions of observation into the right gear, for taking in more festivities over the remainder of your evening, on planet Earth. Samantha Baines – Rock Solid mate! Shine on you crazy diamond.

Reviewer : Bobbi McKenzie

Bannermans (Venue 357)

Aug 6-9, 22-28 (1.45pm)

Laughs:    Material:    Delivery: 

Having been to see ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’ last year, it was a real treat to see Pippa Evans in her solo show ‘Same Same but Different’, which is part of PBH’s Free Fringe. We felt sure we were in for a great show of music and comedy. Pippa played to a packed Bannermans and was well received from the onset, with anecdotes and musical numbers interspersed with moments of audience participation that were great to watch, if not a little personal for those chosen few!

We laughed heartily at the detailed recounts of ‘cringy’ first time fumbles and being dressed in Laura Ashley as a young tomboy and sang along with the closing number “You’re Awesome” as we came to terms with the fact the hour was over. We were transported to the ‘wild’ as Pippa took on the role of Bear Grylls and had the audience in the palm of her hands. She is an accomplished vocalist, improv performer and comedienne and this show only affirms this. Stand out moments included her song ‘Roles I’ll Never Play’ when it became clear to us all that you can’t play Fagin with tits(!) and her fond talking about her Mum and her growing awareness that she was always right!

Although there was a script, Pippa’s skillful ability to improvise was woven through the show as she learnt more details about certain audience members as the hour progressed (Caution! Sit in the front row at your own risk!). Someone close by was ‘serenaded’ for a whole number as he resembled an ex-boyfriend… it could have been tense, but it was just hilarious. Her small but perfectly formed band was great, and they moved seamlessly through the planned and improved numbers. She handled huge topics with a light touch and tiny topics with a toothcomb. She knows her craft for sure and with humility she holds her humanness and frailties and has the ability to laugh at herself. It’s impressive, that is for sure.

Pippa had this way of putting us at ease and making us feel included, just before she said or did something that made us think a little more deeply. She had a lovely take on not judging one another with some witty interspersed judgements! Then we all found ourselves singing ‘I won’t judge you’, to her, to our friends and then to the room, it was touching. She did this kind of stuff quite a few times and she did it extremely well. Jokes, flipped into something poignant or serious or potentially ‘sugary’; but it wasn’t, she meant it and so did we. Pippa Evans makes the world a better place; she is good for the soul. This is a performer who deserves the upmost respect.

Great stories, great songs, great human humour… It’s fairly simple, go and see this show! It’s free to get in but you will definitely want to pay for this golden hour of entertainment, and if your not convinced, the finale will have you reaching for your purse! People, queue round the block if you have to, she really is worth it. Pippa Evans – You are awesome!

Reviewers: Ali Bell and Denise Borland

 The Beehive Inn,

Grassmarket,  Edinburgh

Saturday 28th May 

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We arrive early at The Beehive Inn for an evening of Monkey Barrel Comedy… and it’s already heaving. It’s not surprising that it’s sold out; the line-up contains some of Scotland’s most popular comedians. We are shoe-horned into the small attic room above the bar and take our seats among the high-spirited crowd into an atmosphere of excited anticipation,  the crowd primed for a good heckle. As tonight’s compere, Rick Molland, takes to the stage; he finds he has a battle on his hands with a few lively hen and stag parties, one of which is accompanied by a giant inflatable penis that makes its way round the room almost earning a guest spot on the stage. Molland gets interactive with the crowd, finding out who everybody is, getting the banter flowing and warming up the room  for the frolics ahead.

Vladimir MacTavish

Material : Delivery :  Laughs :

Vladimir MacTavish is the first stand up on the bill and his opening line “I bet you are all thinking Philip Schofield has let himself go a bit” gets everyone laughing straight away. Vladimir’s material is a melting-pot of  everything, from current affairs, through sports, to travelling the world. His topical monologues are peppered with quick & witty jokes, while his observational humour is fresh and well received. Alas,  Vladamir sometimes falls prey to the sterotypical mocking of we Scots, but still unleashes a brand of laugh-out loud comedy  we would go to see again.

—

Derek Johnston

Material : Delivery :  Laughs :

Comic, Derek Johnston, was probably the most unique act of the night. Taking to the stage armed with a saw, he looked slightly mad with his menacing eyes as he loomed over the audience. Derek’s droll delivery and macabre story-telling was an unexpected surprise; although he may have lost the crowd a little as those stag and hen parties were probably not his target audience. An eclectic mix of anecdotes of family days out teamed with ghostly tales of psychotic dolls, the latter accompanied by creepy sounds supplied by Johnston while playing the saw as a musical instrument.

—

Daniel Downie

 Laughs:   Material:   Delivery:  

Daniel Downie is full of energy; bouncing on to the stage with a confident “take no prisoners attitude”. Tonuight’s audience are a feisty bunch, and they challenge Downie – but the fella thinks street-fast on his feet and was quick to hit back with witty responses. He regales us with tales of phone sex with his Spanish girlfriend and the hazards of learning a new language = a lesson to be learnt here is don’t get your nouns mixed up in Spanish, or you could be asking your girlfriend if she wants cock instead of chicken for dinner across a busy supermarket. This, along with Daniel’s up-to-the-minute material had the audience in stitches.

—

Harry Garrison

 Laughs:   Material:   Delivery: 

Earning the biggest laughs of the night was Harry Garrison, an instantly likeable character with a cheeky grin and a glint in his eye. Garrison cleverly uses music to deliver his quick witted, dry, black comedy. He starts to play his guitar and confuses the crowd into thinking he is here to perform an acoustic love song, this quickly evolves into the entire audience singing along to a dark and hilarious song about a mail-order bride named Fred.

Harry has a cracking blend of Kevin Bridges’ nonchalant attitude and Bill Bailey’s musical genius; his set is full of belly laughs and inappropriate songs that will stick in your head for days. This is a brilliant value for money night out; where else would you get four well-established, high quality comedians for only a tenner? It’s a great atmosphere with crowd participation and friendly banter in a cosy wee venue. There were maybe a few too many location specific jokes that were lost on our friends south of the border, but overall this a great night out that we will be coming back to and would highly recommend.

Reviewers : Laura and Emma Murray

Drygate Brewery

Glasgow

Friday May 6th

When MC Scott Agnew paced onto the front of the stage at the Drygate, clutching a bottle of the his inhouse ‘bear-faced lager,’ – I knew it was going to be a good night. I’m a big fan of Scott & his in-your-face gestapo-gay humor, such as ‘my mother hoped for one of those decorator puffs, not one daft for cock.’ So, listening to Scott haranguing the two bald-headed stag parties at the front, & drinking my own bottle of the bear-faced – conveniently & regularly brought to my table by the barman – I settled down for what I hoped would be a good night.

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Michael Redmond

 Laughs:   Material:    Delivery: 

Dubliner Michael Redmond is in his mid-sixties, but you can’t really tell from this ever-ebullient fella.  His passage as a comedian began in an 80s barrel of deap-pan – well more like corpse-pan – one-liners, which won him a slot on Friday Night Live. It was at that time he created the famous-among-comic-circles ,“a lot of people say to me – get out of my garden”  and “do you ever notice how nervous people get when you follow them up a ladder?”. Stewart Lee writes of the garden joke, retold by Joe Pasquale at the Royal Variety Performanceof 1989 – & Redmond

The joke defines him perfectly as an odd, outsider character and hints at a host of other weird situations as yet unrealised. For once, the audience is made to use its own imagination. There are no clues, or helpful pointers… The everyday phrase, “hey you”, is disrupted and made bizarre by being followed by the unexpected “what are you doing in my garden”. It is, to invoke a now wasted phrase, a moment of pure comic genius. 

Three decades later, Redmond is a looser cannon, chit-chatting along with some terrible jokes which are mystifyingly brilliant. A self-admitted member of the bad-hair brigade, his comedy is something akin to listening to Slovakian humour in translation, but as Redmond himself would say, ‘fair play to ya, it was funny as fuck.‘ The funniest bit for me was when he brought up, as Irish comedians so sardonically do, the potato famine… but adding the disastrous ‘mange-tout’ famine into the mix.

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Julia Sutherland

 Laughs:   Material:   Delivery:  

The Gilded Balloon Comedy Night’s are designed to showcase Scotland’s best talent to the wider world at large, & into every session are thrown the staple albacentric gags, such as the Edinburgh-Glasgow rivalry, & the such-like. To a seasoned comedy-watcher, this can drag a little, but if it is treat like a an artistic distinction, then you really can gauge the competence & quality of a comic through the sub-genre. Weegiewoman Julia Sutherland – who only socialises with people who would forgive her – gets a B+ for her role in putting the tourists at ease with her stabby-Glasga quips, including all the females in the audience with titbits such as the H&M mirror gives a you skinnier image. Watching Sutherland is like going on a logflume – an incessant & rapid descent into her comic universe, which twists into fresh material & insights every few seconds.

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Ben Norris

 Laughs:   Material:   Delivery: 

And so to the night’s headline act. The guys cool, a possessing a sparkingly bright mind, which combined with his wonderfully witty observations of the familial mundane makes for a damn-fine comedian. A real crowd pleaser, we all burst into laughter as one, as if we were an orchestra who had been tuning up & just hit the note of harmony. Among his many great moments, I loved it when he went through the age demographic of the audience decade-by-decade, warming us all to him  the hypnotic, electric chant of his storytelling voice. Towards the end he began to stutter a little, his chit-chat I’d say not quite as strong as his material, but this guy really is what the quintessetial comedian ought to be

The Mumble:  Hello Paul Vickers, or should I say Mr Twonkey, welcome to Mumble Towers, Now, who the hell is Mr Twonkey?

The Mumble: So which installment in the Twonkeyverse is this, & what other incarnations have their been?

Mr Townkey: This year’s incarnation is Twonkey’s Mumbo Jumbo Hotel, & previously there have been… Twonkey’s Cottage (2010) / Twonkey’s Castle (2011) Twonkey’s Kingdom (2012)  / Twonkey’s Blue Cadabra (2013 – but I was also still performing it in 2014) Twonkey’s Private Restaurant (2014-2015) & Twonkey’s Stinking Bishop (2015). This year, alongside Twonkey’s Mumbo Jumbo Hotel I shall also be performing Twonkey’s Drive-in, Jennifer’s Robot Arm – this one’s actually a play, the second part of a double-bill at the Edinburgh Fringe, at Sweet Venues, where I’ll be doing a play with some actors & myself at quarter past 5, & then at nine o clock in the evening I’ll be doing  Twonkey’s Mumbo Jumbo Hotel, which is my solo show

The Mumble: What is the future for Twonkey?

Mr Twonkey: Well, the future is a series of Fringe performances at the Brighton Fringe, the Wandsworth Fringe, the Museum of Comedy, the Buxton Fringe, the Prague Fringe & then finally ending up at the Edinburgh Fringe – so there’s a lot going on this year, I’ve got a lot more gigs than normal. What I’ve done in the past I’ve sort of flipped between two shows, at the beginning of the year I sometimes perform last year’s show & then later in the year bring in the new show, but this year I’m just gonna go all guns blazing with a completely new show from the off. The idea behind that is that’s its easier – I just need to practice one show & make sure I remember that. The hard thing about it is that I’m in the glare of the lights from the word go – so the first performances of Twonkey’s Mumbo Jumbo Hotel in its entirity will be at the Brighton Fringe, where usually I have perhaps a few more little warm-up gigs beforehand. Although I have been doing little spots here & there, sort of under the radar gigs that I haven’t been telling people about where I’ve been trying out the new material.

The Mumble: So what is this latest incarnation of Twonkey all about?

Mr Twonkey: Well.. the overall storyline of Twonkey’s Mumbo Jumbo Hotel is inspired by retail parks, because, y’know, of an evening I sometimes need things like paint, or a screwdriver, or a drill, that kind of thing, so I make my way up to the local retail park. But when I lived in Marchmont, I didn’t have the convenience of a retail park, so we had to go out of town in cars or on busses. It was when I was sitting in a retail park that I started thinking about Twonkey’s Mumbo Jumbo Hotel. The idea sort of stemmed from the new Frankies & Bennys that was being built at my local retail park. And it made me think about Frankies & Bennys & how they’ve started cropping up all over the place, offering sort of New York Italian food, fast & simple. I looked on Trip Advisor & found big variations in the quality of the stores depending on the management of the individual stores. I started thinking about the idea of the boxes arriving with all the vintage black & white photographs of baseball stars from years gone by, & thinking about how they would erect a store from scratch in the same way they do with McDonalds, where they basic look of the store so they almost look completely identical… & of course there’s also the idea of globalisation – none of which is funny. But then I started thinking about if there was a slightly dilapidated run by me & Chris Hutchinson – who’s is my lead puppet – & it was for some reason not achieving its financial goals. A little bit shoddily run, a bit Fawlty Towers I suppose  – but the idea is its under threat – the bulldozers are gonna come – they’re gonna bulldoze it down & then replace it with a Frankie & Bennys. But what’s happened is that its sort of evolved as a storyline & now its told in Miniature Theatre -so I’ve basically got a little doll’s house, a small one, which is now called The Mumbo Jumbo Hotel, & I’ve got some small figurines & starting to tell the story, essentially, so the story is sort of taking place in another place, which is difficult for me to access, so I talk about the idea that I could, like in Alice of Wonderland, I could drink a magical potion, I could shrink to the size of a needle & then I could drop down a chimney and into a fireplace & then I’d arrive in the lobby of the hotel. A lot of it is like I’m the microscope & the show is the paper, so its a viewing vessel & I use my own head to explore the ideas & the possibilities of the characters inside the miniature object. Its working out rather well. There is a positive message about gay marriage as well, that comes across very strongly towards the end of the show, very strongly. There are also a number of murders that take place during the show, & there’s a few people locked in toilets trying to avoid attacks & difficult questions about accountancy.

The Mumble: What does Mr Twonkey have in common with Paul Vickers?

Mr Twonkey: Well, we’re essentially the same beast, of course, because I am Twonkey. But really, Townley is like me if I was allowed to just be a really imaginative, interesting person all the time. Of course I’m not allowed to be that person all the time, its not fair on people. I need to do other things like work a job & provide people with money.

The Mumble:  What is your favorite Twonkeys?

Mr Twonkey: My favorite Twonkeys is always the one I’m working on, because that’s the one where you have all your current ideas that are fresh & exciting to you obviously. But, you know, in time, when I stop doing Twonkeys, if I ever stop doing Twonkeys, I will be able to work out then which are my favorite ones. I think a big turning point for me was Twonkey’s Blue Cadabra, because that was the year that I got nominated for the Toast Award for best cabaret, & it was quite an explosive kind of year & I think the thing was that was the year I became Mr Twonkey because before that Twonkey had been a little small puppet that was half-dragon, half-witch, & also an accountant, but then she died during Twonkey’s Kingdom – we had her death – so I decided that I would continue the show. Originally it was only supposed to be a trilogy – Twonkey’s Cottage, Castle & Kingdom – & that was supposed to be it – but then of course people liked what I was doing, so I decided I had to continue with it, so I did Twonkey’s Blue Cadabra. So, from Twonkey’s Blue Cadabra onwards its been a slightly different show because I’ve been Mr Twonkey, & I’ve embodied Twonkey’s character, well supposedly. That’s partly to do with the fact that during Twonkey’s Kingdom Twonkey fell off a chair & her arms fell off, & then I tried to pick her up, I dropped her again & smashed her belly open & her legs just went flying.

The Mumble: & finally, what can Twonkey fans look forward to this year?

Mr Twonkey: Well, they can look forward to me trying, as ever, to top the last show. I think the way I’m doing it this time is to have, a sort of build with the tension towards the end. I always like the idea of a show which ends on a sinister note, where you’re left with a lot of questions about what you’ve just experienced, & I think that this show has definitely got that aspect to it. A lot of its about finding a good pace throughout the show, you need to feel like you’ve had your dinner, but also you don’t want people to get bored, so that means keeping it a little bit fizzy & whizzy throughout.

Kings Theatre: Glasgow Comedy Festival

25 March 2016

The Griffin, Glasgow

15th March

 Laughs:   Material:     Delivery:

One-hour Comedy shows are rather like corn sheaves; they are planted in the winter, show their first green shoots in the Spring, start creating the cornbuds in May & are ready for the golden harvest in August. In the same way, comedians will start their Edinburgh Fringe show rolling in March – at the Glasgow Comedy Festival – hone it down Brighton in May & then reveal it to the world at large, fully ripened, at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Gemma Flynn, then, is very much caught in this cycle. Having survived last years ‘madmax dystopia’ of the Fringe, this diminutive delight set to work doing stuff, seeing stuff & picking out the funny stuff in all that stuff. Glimpses of brilliance glittered through a slightly jerky set, not helped by the clumsy use of her applemac in giving us clips of various things from modernity – mainly based upon the Kardashians (?!).

Watching Gemma in full flow is rather like joining her on the couch for a TV chat show. The room was packed, although most seem to have known Gemma, who she included in her patter; which, I must admit, had a really enjoyable & intelligent burr. Gemma is young, & so is her material, but she just kinda has it. As the year progresses, & she gets used to her material, sorting out the wheat from the chaff, come August we’ll all be sucking on her succulent cobs.