The Cuckoo’s Nest
Aug 9-13/15-19/21-27 (13.50)

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Vicki from Dartford has slipped into a mild depression & fallen into a sofa-coma munching on digestive biscuits, flicking through the channels & barking at the telly. Modern existence in its most opiate form, but this young lady wants to rouse herself from her life-funk & do something, something cool. So we set off along her biopic, through dodgy jobs, dodgier romances, all suffered in pursuit of her chosen artform, to perform. From throwing up jagerbombs in a Dartford gutter, through supermarket counter politics, past her bumbling attempts to find love, to doing her glittering solo show for a full fringe, following Vicki’s journey is a frolicking odyssey of fun. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Vicki told us;

One Woman Army is a storytelling comedy show. I tell and act out stories from my life and play all the characters within them. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and this show started as me thinking about all the things that stress me out so I talk about awful retail jobs I’ve had, bad dating experiences, feeling out of depth in the acting world and the joys of living in Dartford. It’s basically me having a very relatable, witty moan about things. I perform the whole show in my dressing gown and it centres around me watching telly on my sofa and eating snacks.

She buzzes between scenes & characters with flawless accents & auras & faces, & she shows her scars to the audience, & she’s a wee hip-hop ninja, & she’s just, well, she’s just cool. A one woman sitcom, with a love of life in all its forms, I loved her, ‘these days its all about playing the field.. playing the game, but in the end we all end up playing with oursleves,’ a drop of wisdom making sense of the world we live in, as Ms Sargent is also trying to do, but she’s turned it into comedy gold!

Reviewer : Damo

The Underbelly
Aug 8-14, 16-27(15.40)

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Among the inner ribs of the Royal Mile, the Underbelly has created a black, stylish room which is one of the smartest performance spaces @ the Fringe. Sitting under its sexy black curves I immediately thought of Catwoman, & so I’d like to rename the room in which ‘TVs’ Dave Bibby strut his stuff the ‘Catwoman Cave.’ Moving onto the comedian himself, Mr Bibby is a jovial in the Georgian style, full of witty songs, silly costumes & fun games. His show is what he describes as ‘comedy tapas,’ a bit of everything for everyone, & his highly appreciative audience loved it. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Dave described the personal life-experiences which enters his comedy as being;

Anything that pisses me off. I have a song about the British Press in my current show. The printed media is dying and they’re not being very dignified about it. There’s a lot in my current show about LAD Culture – it’s not so much the lads I have a problem with more the way me, or anyone else in this industry who is from a working class background, is given that label. “How can he possibly play a King in Shakespeare when he spends his weekends drinking lager and watching football?”. By acting, go fuck yourself.

 

His routine is a dragonfly mix of stories, songs & fun times, & for me there were three stand out moments. The first is his playing of the British ‘lad’ to perfection, & in the process has invented a banter game in which people have to ‘hit the tit’ (a metal bell thing) when they guess the right answer… i.e. when Santa Claus becomes Banter Claus. One of the simplest & best comedy games I’ve ever seen at the Fringe, & I was cheering my head off every time someone got one right – both sides!  The other two highlights were an onscreen expose on the trolling he’d received after being on telly – self-deprecating brilliance – & his finale song about the tabloid press, a medley of eye-opening & satirical wonder. Dave Bibby is a one-man pantomime with an unpretentious desire to entertain first us, then himself. A guaranteed hour of mirthful hijinks!

Reviewer : Damo

Laughing Horse @ Moriarty’s
Aug 3-27 (17.00)

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Matt Duwell – pronounced duel – is a lithe gentleman in his 30s with something like a Persian beard quite unlike the one on his poster. What does remain from his poster, however, is the glass of beer, which I actually bought the fellow before he took to the stage,which he kept clutched in his left hand throughout his set in the fashion of an old-styles comedian. Indeed, Matt is a fine example of what is becoming a rare bread at the Fringe, a classic comedian who tells jokes without any gimicks. There is a central theme, of course, which Matt elaborated upon in a recent interview with The Mumble;

It’s a stand up comedy show about how pessimism can sometimes actually help us to be happy and optimism and memes about unbound potential are not necessarily a good thing. It’s also a show that has some crowd interaction and of course a lot of jokes that are quite glib about the world we live in. I’m very proud of the jokes and in many ways, it’s the result of my entire comedy career so far.

Matt’s chief strength is the ability to work an audience; rapid-fire-patter & quick thinking enables him to help us to laugh at ourselves as well as him. There was one stony faced turnip who refused to laugh, & Matt noticed this & just like we tickle our toddlers he was determined to make said turnip laugh – it took a while, but the microsecond the turnip smiled, Matt pounced like a classy jaguar & announced his victory! Another reflection of Matt’s razor-sharp ability is the instance when, a long time after discussing with a couple how they first met, on some website called Hot or Not, near the end of the show he asked the lady her her name.  She replied ‘Lacey,’ & Matt immediately recalled that this was a perfect name for someone on Hot or Not.

Matt has been a permanent resident in Edinburgh just a couple of months now, & his show is the distilled quintessence of his comedy career so far ‘down south‘. Its good, the boy’s got talent, & I look forward already to next year when the Scottish osmosis kicks in & his material begins to be penetrated by living in one of the world’s finest, & windiest, cultural capitals. Of his recent arrival in the city, Matt told us;

It’s amazing and I absolutely love the city and the beautiful surrounding area. Best pubs, great cinemas and theatres, amazing people and plenty of discount supermarkets (I live next to a Lidl/ Iceland combo store!). I even enjoyed visiting Dunfermline. However, I am still not used to having conversations with neighbours that last 20 mins or having the heater on in July, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that. Right!!??

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Gilded Balloon Teviot
Aug 2-28 (23.30)

When rowdy, raucous & rambunctious is executed with as much as sexiness as Australian Kaitlyn Rogers pours into her onstage persona, there is nothing to stop our hearts pounding with unpurged pleasure. She’s hot, she’s happy, she flicks out her moves with the poetry of a ballet dancer, she’s got it, big time. Her show, ‘Can I Get An Amen’ is an internationally appreciated sermon on the saintly wisdom of Whoopi Goldberg, & delivered with her self-crowned status of ‘queen of the sass,’ as taught in the popular ashrams ran by American all-girl group, Destiny’s Child. A flamingo of some fluffiness, in a recent interview with The Mumble, Kaitlyn described the origins of her creation:

I wrote and devised the show myself by locking myself in a room and trying to make myself laugh. For a long time I didn’t know if the show would work because it’s definitely an absurd comedy that doesn’t sit in any one genre. It’s part clown. Part stand up. And a complete hot mess

This is Kaitlyn’s first Fringe, & early in the run, & you can tell — she’s so energetic & full of enthusiasm, & greets her audience one-by-one as they leave AND depart the room at the uppermost turret-tops of the Teviot. Inbetween she has us eating, or rather licking, out of the palms of her mesmerizing, silky hands as she weaves her magic like a sensuous comedy sorceress. Clad in a skin-clinging, leopard-skin catsuit, this hyperactive, golden-tinged darling lady is confident in her abilities. ‘Oh My God!’ she chirps, ‘this part is so fucking sick!’ & she was right to be so cocky, as were all the sections of her set except for one dramatic lull near the end, which comes on as sudden as a Tuscan sea-storm, & definitely one dramatic step too far for a polite British audience. But this was the calm before the inevitable hurricane finale, & when the audience were queuing up to get a photo taken with Kaitlyn as they leave, you know you’re in the presence of a proper star

Reviewer : Damo

The Community Project
Aug 6-13, 15-27 (18.45)

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Tucked away in a small room within the Grassmarket Community Centre, the energetic Sian & Zoe were waiting to unleash their mysterious concoction of sketch comedy and stand up. A “Sugar Coma Fever Nightmare” was created and designed for our pleasure by this young, female duo, and as darkness becomes light the nightmare scenario begins. With so much comedy around at the Fringe you never know what you are going to get, but, with Sian and Zoe you get it all. This show is faster than losing your Toupee in a Hurricane. They come at you like a bullet from a gun, hitting you in every part of your body with side-splitting jokes and sketches that relight the art of comedy sketching. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Sian encapsulated the essence of their show as being;

…still very much an alternative comedy show, so there’s lots of visual business and the offbeat stuff that we like. But the dream setting has given us loads to play with in terms of characters and sketches that exist just outside of reality. Please note that although the show is dream-themed, we have put a lot of work into it so having a nap through the show will not produce the same effect.

Clambering through the audience with their dreamcatchers, it is not long before they have taken over your life and for the next hour you are theirs to do what every they want with. The creativeness of this show allows the audience in and we were there, the duo pounced, swooping down like an eagle at full speed & gobbling you up without remorse. The acting and miming was refreshing to see, Charlie Chaplin would be a proud patriarch! The eating of a computer, the super hero that is Scrabble Man and the confusion that ISIS was the International Space Station was just for starters…

This nicely crafted piece of theatre, sketches and story-telling has you eating at your thoughts while laughing your heart out. People always say that kids say the funniest things but Sian and Zoe trump that by saying even funnier things. Hilarious, entertaining, witty, direct and clever, trust within yourself and go see this wee gem of a show as it should not be missed. A real joy and one off this year’s highlights thus far !!!!!

Reviewed by Raymondo

Just the Tonic at The Caves
Aug 3-27 (17.00)

Material:  Delivery:  Laughs:  

Gary Tro made his full room roar in laughter with Supercalifragilisticexpi Gary Trocious. A very amiable comedian, he roams about the comedy aether like a giddy zephyr, discussing last year’s fringe failure, his desire to run a marathon, his tendency to date girls with the same name, baldness, procrastination, lying, dolphins, love, dreams,children and, of course, Gary Tro. SA great variety of spices go into his comedy curry, but never too much, & the final result is a tasty dish indeed.

Gary is extremely accomodating with his audience, making us all feel a part of the show and he improvises with distinction surfing each spontaneous responses like a seasoned Bali surfer on a Beach Break. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Tro said the part of performing he loves most is;

The immediacy. I genuinely believe that the best art and performance happens in the moment. The biggest laugh that every comedian has ever had has come from something that they didn’t plan to do.

Tro allowed space for the ‘moment’ to happen and it helped relax his audience & let us connect with both comic & show. It takes skill from the performer for we spectators to feel so comfortable to have so honest interactions, but Gary is a wee master of the vibe. Supercalifragilisticexpi Gary Trocious is not easy to spell, but it is easy to have good laugh at.

Reviewer : Michael Beeson

Hello Steve, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Hi! I’m from London and am currently residing in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival.

When did you first realise you were, well, funny?
At the age of 7 when my best friend Josh would cry with laughter at everything I said. My parents blame him for me going into comedy.

What does Steve Whiteley like to do when he’s not entertaining?
I’m a big surfer, nothing beats a sunset surf sesh. London’s surf options are somewhat limited though so Croyde, Devon is my regular haunt. But keep that to yourself.

You’ve been washed up on a desert island with a solar-powered DVD player & three films. Which would they be?
The Usual Suspects – Heat – OJ: Made In America. It’s 7hr 47 minutes and I’m going to have plenty of time to kill.

Your Youtube channel Offkey Steve has been something of a hit. How has this changed you?
I mean I wouldn’t say it’s gone to my head, I’m just a regular kind of guy. All I ask for is that my fans don’t look at me in the eye when asking for autographs. I said ask twice, but it’s fine right? Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.

Comedy rap is one of your fortes, what are the creative processes behind these?
I usually start with a subject matter in mind and then write lines that rhyme, like that one. The biggest challenge for me has been putting comedy first. The priority used to be lyrics first and comedy second, but that doesn’t go down too well at a stand-up comedy night. People just want to LOL not wax lyrical about….lyrics.

You are bringing your show Wisebowm: The Struggle Is Real to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about it?
Sure, I wrote the show whilst I was living in a Buddhist community for 4 months, so a lot of it stems from my headspace at that time. It’s about urban poet Wisebowm who has wrote the world’s greatest…and only, urban poetry musical and is presenting it at the Edinburgh Fringe, which is really just a dry run for Broadway. The show follows his heroic struggles with addiction (to gluten), his attempts to win the heart of middle class beauty Samantha and how mindfulness came to his rescue. It’s a character comedy show mixed with comedy rap. There’s 110 sound cues and I play 6 different characters. I like to make life difficult for myself.

How are you finding things so far?
Really positive (I have to say that right). Genuinely happy with the response it’s been getting, the audiences have been very kind and receptive.

What is it about performing live you love the most?
I like that you can have an idea and perform it in front of a crowd that night. With my YouTube videos you go on views to appraise whether people liked it. Whereas with live comedy, the feedback is immediate. Laughter is my drug and I want to be high 24/7.

What other acts will you be seeing, or at least trying to, this August?
Tom Ward, Abigails Party, Abandoman’s Rob Broderick, McCann and Omobitan, Matt Hutson & Rob Copland, Jen Wakefield, James Acaster, Tim Key. The list is endless!

What will Steve Whiteley be doing after the Fringe?
Having a few days off to count all the millions made through my bucket donations. Then I’ll reinvest the money to make a few short films and a Wisebowm web series

You can catch Wisebowm at the Fringe right now

OPIUM : Aug 9-19, 21-27 (13.45)

Hello Vicki, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
I’m from Dartford in Kent. I’ve spent my whole life in Dartford. I still live in Dartford. My ancestors have been living in Dartford since the 1800s. It’s right on the edge of London so its not as pretty and green as most of Kent, it has a bit more…character.

When did you first realise you were, well, funny?
When I was a kid I used to always dress up and do silly voices and characters to try and make my big brother and sister laugh. I used to do a granny character when I was about 5; I used the halves of a Pokeball as fake boobs and used to hobble about saying ‘Cor blimey it’s like a cattle market in here’. It was some of my best work.

What does Vicki Sargent like to do when she’s not being funny?
Watch TV and films and stay in. I’m a complete telly addict. The quality of Netflix is better than any club in my opinion.

Why stand-up comedy?
I’ve always been a big comedy fan, my dad raised me on great comedy like Blackadder, Billy Connolly, The Fast Show, Monty Python, Morecambe and Wise and so on. So I always loved it and thought it looked so fun but didn’t really think I was funny enough. I went into acting and always got comedy parts. I then met Jen Wakefield doing a comedy play, we got on really well and she asked me if I’d ever want to have a go at doing sketch comedy. Going into comedy with someone else helped me make the transition and I loved it! I then took Logan Murray’s Stand Up course at the beginning of last year and that was brilliant and got me another step closer to finding my voice.

You have both acted on stage & appeared in films. How do these experiences aid your performances as a comedian?
A lot of my comedy is character based, I do lots of cartooning and voices and that has certainly been strengthened by my training in acting, voice work and accents. The first acting course I did was actually an Accents for Actors course and that awoke my passion for silly voices. Also just having that confidence and stage presence that comes with acting is really helpful when performing comedy.

You are bringing your show One Woman Army to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about it?
One Woman Army is a storytelling comedy show. I tell and act out stories from my life and play all the characters within them. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and this show started as me thinking about all the things that stress me out so I talk about awful retail jobs I’ve had, bad dating experiences, feeling out of depth in the acting world and the joys of living in Dartford. It’s basically me having a very relatable, witty moan about things. I perform the whole show in my dressing gown and it centres around me watching telly on my sofa and eating snacks. I share biscuits with the audience when they arrive so they feel all nice and cosy, because I certainly am!

How are things going so far?
Good! There are of course highs and lows but thats to be expected with the Fringe. I’m just happy if people enjoy my show and so far audiences seem to really like it…or maybe they just like the biscuits. Either way I’m chuffed to be a part of the most exciting festival on the planet and to be making wonderful friends all whilst making people laugh along the way. It definitely beats working on a meat and fish counter which you learn all about in act one.

Last year Vicki performed at the Fringe as part of a double act in ‘Jiggle & Hyde’ with Jen Wakefield. This year you are both going solo. What has been the motivation?
We just can’t stand each other. Only joking! Jen and I are still the best of friends and we are actually sharing a flat together for the Fringe. We both wanted to explore our own unique comedy voices and have a go at going solo. It’s really great because we are so supportive of each other. I’m a huge fan of Jen’s work and it still feels like we are part of a team, we just have our own shows. But don’t tell her I said any of that.

Can you describe the experience of performing at the Fringe in a single sentence?
It requires lots of resilience, strength and comfort eating but a good show makes it worth all the calories.

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Vicki Sargent?
I’d like to start working on my next solo show and try to get a head start. I’ve already had some ideas so I can’t wait to get gigging and try them out. Also theres loads of great telly coming on in the autumn so I can’t wait for that.

You can catch Vicky right now at the Fringe

Aug 9-13/15-19/21-27 : The Cuckoo’s Nest (13.50)

Hello Siân, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Hello Damo ! I’m at my Edinburgh flat trying to find some clothes. I moved house the week before the Fringe, which was very, very stupid. I had about twenty minutes to pack for Edinburgh before getting on the train, so what I’m wearing is a mix of stuff that I didn’t think was important enough to keep at home. Meaning I now mainly have to wear stuff that makes me look like a primary school teacher who’s just had a nervous breakdown and gone to Ibiza. But anyway – I grew up in Belgium, but I’ve lived in the UK for ten years now, and it looks like I’ll be staying on this island as it disappears further and further into a locked capsule hell of its own making.

When did you first realise you were, well, funny?
I think I did my first ever stand-up set when I was ten or eleven, mainly to avoid a weird man. It was some kind of summer camp type thing and we had to do an end of term talent show, and this dude who’d been following me around wanted us to rehearse and perform a tango. So I told him I couldn’t because I was doing stand-up instead. I can’t remember what I said or did for five minutes. But that particular kids summer camp on the West Coast of the US have never got in touch to ask me back to headline a gig, so they must have known I was going places.

Who are your favorite comedians, & why?
I love Lou Sanders, she’s all-round absolutely dementedly brilliant. I love how Maria Bamford combines little skits and sketches into stand-up comedy. There are so many others – Mae Martin, Chris Betts, Tiff Stevenson, Paul Currie and Evelyn Mok are the acts I’m most excited about at the Fringe this year. And I guess the first comedian I ever properly got into was Dylan Moran – the little offshoots of ideas he peppers through his set are like tiny beautifully-crafted comedy baubles on a dour, existential Christmas tree.

Can you tell us about the night you run, “Sextroverts.”
Sextroverts is a comedy night I run with a sexual health clinic, to promote better sexual wellbeing in the LGBTQ community. We get a mixture of pro comics and completely new acts to come along and do jokes about sex, love, intimacy, relationships, being a shuffling queer, being a flamboyant gaylord – whatever. It’s always big, messy, wild and fun. It’s a weird one because it’s about building community as well as a comedy night, which gives it a pretty unique vibe. It’s my baby and I’m extremely proud of it and excited to get it back up and running in September.

What is the London comedy scene like in 2017?
Well, I’m just a fledgling little comedian on the DIY scene, but that’s a really fun one to be part of. It’s suprisingly easy in London to set up and start running your own night. Me and Zoë run a mixed media alternative comedy night with our friends Sam and Tom, and our director Jon Bailey, where we bring all our favourite acts to come and try new stuff out. That’s loads of fun. London is absolutely teeming with brilliant new nights all the time. There’s something for every weirdo out there.

What does Siân Docksey like to do when she’s not being funny?
I like to sit with my parents and try to convince them I’m funny, and have them reciprocate by trying to convince me to try and get a real job.

You’ve been washed up on a desert island with a solar-powered DVD player & three films. Which would they be?
But I’m A Cheerleader, Nina Forever, and a constant live-stream of David Beckham sleeping.

What is it about performing live you love the most?
Stuff lands completely differently with different audiences. Because I’m such a new solo act I feel like I have so much freedom, so I’m having loads of fun this year just trying out ideas on people and seeing what happens. The first time I saw Tiff Stevenson perform I was blown away – I’d never seen a comedian make stand-up look so effortless and chatty. I saw her kind of by accident, and then brought all my friends to see her again the next day. They both LOVED it.

You are bringing the rather fabulously titled SIÂN DOCKSEY’S TOTALLY CASUAL AND FREEWHEELING MYSTIC COMEDY: LEMON TORPEDO to the Fringe. Can you tell us about it?
It is a stand-up show about me turning myself into a lemon, and persuading everyone that this is the only sensible option.

You are also doing show called Sugar Coma Fever Nightmare with Zoë, what’s that all about?
Sugar Coma Fever Nightmare is a sickly sweet horror-comedy sketch show burped out from our horrible dreams. And some of the audiences’ dreams, if they dare. It’s the third sketch show we’ve brought to the Fringe together and it is the darkest and best.

This is not your first time at the Fringe, what are the secrets to surviving the Edinburgh in August?
Don’t panic. Focus on doing as much promo as you can manage, but mainly on doing your show(s) every day as well as you possibly can. And make time to hang out with other acts and see shows you wouldn’t come across otherwise. There is this consistently cool thing about the Fringe : apart from how HORRIBLY EXPENSIVE it is to come up here, which is shitty, Edinburgh has this kind of mystic quality where you get back what you put into it. If you stay focussed, do a good show, put the effort into marketing it and remember to have fun, then it will be great.

You can catch Sian’s solo show this Fringe @

Aug 3-27 : Laughing Horse @ 48 Below (12.00)

& also her comedy sketch duo @

Aug 3-27 : Just the Tonic at The Community Project (18.45)

The Community Project
Aug 9-13, 15-27 (13.30)

Material:  Delivery:  Laughs:  

I saw Funz and Gamez by the Grass market, Edinburgh, @ The Community Project. This is a comedy show that touches on adult humour (fun for all ages). Phil Ellis’ Funz and Gamez was hilarious, entertaining and involving for kids (and some lucky adults). Sometimes it strayed into humour which I didn’t quite understand, but the adults were laughing their heads off.

Sweets were “chucked” at children and caught by children, all in all a great show. I enjoyed the “horse racing” and the cuddly koala… delightful. The Teletubbies Sun (Jonny Vegas) is all grown up now and is not so sunny, but he does blow clouds (of cigarette smoke). If Funz and Gamez comez to your town I highly suggest you and your adults come along .

Review by Ivy Oakman (aged 10)