Edinbrugh Shows 5 to 7 (plus 1)

At the Zoo, we picked up a sheet of reviews and found a couple of extremely favourable reviews for free Fringe events. We opted to go to one at 1:40 at a pub called the White Horse. Around 12:30, it began to absolutely tip it down and so Jamie and I decided to go there early, shelter and grab lunch. It is only now (or more accurately, this afternoon as I was composing this in my head) that I remember that Scottish pubs don't serve food. And so it was we were surprised to go in there and find it was basically a couple of shabby rooms with a long table with bottles of alcohol behind it.

And without warning, I found myself ushered into the back room by a man and told to sit on some chairs facing the stage er... corner.

I was not about to go back into the rain storm so I decided to stay and watch the gig. It was “Coolfun” and began with the compère/ warm-up guy getting the audience to do silly things. I think most people were there to keep dry but everyone seemed pretty generous (particularly the self-confessed hung-over chap sitting next to me who was possibly still drunk) and played along with clapping/ giving names and inane banter. One guy said he made instruments for surface science which took the guy back a bit and he fumbled for jokes. Alas, he didn't ask me what I did.

Nicely warmed up we got into the stand-up acts. The first two guys were not all that great. They got less response than the warm-up guy who didn't even attempt any jokes. One of them did rather odd knock-knock jokes while the other acted like he was on something and laughed at his jokes much harder than the audience and often even before he said them. But still, as un-great as they were, I tittered a few times and never grew uncomfortable. In fact, it was better than I expected for a free gig as the men pursued their own style and were prepared.

For your information, these three men were Ed Gamble, Tom Neenan and Jez Scharf but I am not sure which is which.

The fourth guy that came up... Nish Kumar... was brilliant.

Nish was good enough that I would pay to see him. I think he was as good as Matt Kirshen. He had an attitude and an ease about him and his stories/jokes were engaging and hilarious. It was just slick and professional and I hope he does well in comedy. His material was unspectacular in a sense- what I remember was about his home town and getting into fights- but the delivery made it seem like it had some meaning to it. Like instead of “here's some funny things that happened to me” the routine was about the way people lived, their prejudices and attitudes.

I left the gig happy to pay for it. I like that way of seeing shows. You pay what you think it is worth when you leave. I would perhaps go one year and only see Free Fringe shows.

We never saw the comedy we wanted to see. We could have stayed for it but we were buzzing from Nish and anyway, we wanted lunch.


That doesn't count as a show though. Our fifth paid-for show was at 5 that day. Ben Moor.

This was the highlight of my festival. It was always going to be. I fell in love with his work last year and there is honestly nothing in the comedy world that can surpass it in my mind. It ticks all my boxes: Word play, not necessarily puns- alliteration suffices; Twisted reality, my brother likened it to Pratchett in that respect but any fantasy or scifi with elements of parody will do; epic journeys of the human spirit. Or something.

We got seats in the front row. Just off-centre so not to be too insane about it. A little angle to watch by adds something, I think. Ben Moor came on stage as before in a suit and tie. And barefoot.

He performed Coelacanth which is the first story in his small collection published this year. He brought it to life with exquisitely perfected gestures and whole-body movements and let the emotions of the piece channel through him. The story of finding and losing love set against a back-drop of competitive tree-climbing with a father-son relationship made me laugh and then, towards the end, it almost made me cry. I blinked the tears away before they could form.

I blathered like an idiot at the book signing but he was sweet and tolerated me especially after I revealed my link to Mike of Transreal Books. I contemplated telling him that we wrote “Not Everything Is Significant” in the sand on Bamburgh beach last year. In a code that no one could read.

I did not.


The sixth show was at 9:45 at the Pleasance. We got tickets for this based on a recommendation from Matt Kirshen. Nick Doody. We didn't expect much as the room (Upstairs- where Ben Moor was last year) was only half full. But like Nish earlier that day, I liked him as soon as he stepped out and started talking. He was another personable comedian and he started off by talking about doing stand-up which felt like an open and honest way to begin. Not that other ways were dishonest (well, I suspect Rich Hall's was) but it did allow us to understand his motives.

He told us how since submitting his entry to the Fringe, his mother died. And that made it difficult for him. He told us how he questioned the point of comedy (and acknowledged how “wanky” this was). It wasn't funny but there were murmurs of laughter. Mostly, I was fascinated. He didn't really acknowledge his audience. He seemed to be in his own little confessional, speaking from the heart.

He motivated his theme for the gig in this way and then went on to embrace it: black and white (in opinion terms). He used the subject of the state of the country and declared that he hated the country. He went on to tell anecdotes to illustrate how bad it was and to litter it with quick jokes too. He ranted and raved and then stopped.

He declared how much he loved the country. And continued to say what he admired and to look at other countries and to be grateful he could be in Britain.

This approach made the act different from the others I saw. It had a forced persona to it in a sense but he opened honestly and said that he was going to do this. And it looked at our choices in attitudes just like Nish did earlier that day. But Nick also answered his question and found the point of comedy.

It wasn't as laugh-out funny as the other stand-up gigs but it meant a lot more to me. It certainly meant more than a man tormented by a fly or a man attempting to get by on very little French. It actually moved me. This was the best stand-up I had seen at the Fringe and it beats much of what I have seen outside it too.


The final show on the final day was Helen Keen's “The Primitive Methodist Guide to Arctic Survival”. This came at the recommendation of someone Mike knew and was indeed a charming show to end on.

It began with shadow puppets. A very strange start but they were pretty good. It then moved onto a cross between an enthusiastic lecture and stand-up as Helen Keen talked about her family and various explorers of the Arctic (going via a Christmas Carol parody on the way). It was full of facts, all fascinating or amusing (usually both) and I was quite entranced. She also played with the audience, making one member represent an explorer and all the audience members around him had to wear white (vaguely) conical hats on their heads to make him feel besieged by icebergs.

She was excellent and unique though she abruptly ran out at the end and caused some confusion by not following up on the “God helmet” she made an audience member wear. It was a refreshing change from stand-up and I do feel like I learnt some things that may appear one day on QI. If “How 2” or some similar show was still running, she'd be perfect for it.


All in all, we saw some excellent shows. There were also some street performers who got our attention (and our money). It was a brilliant festival performance.

Edinburgh Shows 1 to 4

The first show my brother and I attended was chosen based on time and place and of course availability. And thus it was that we saw Matt Kirshen at the Pleasance. He started off by “getting it out of the way” that he looked a lot younger than he was and declaring that the show was not about his age but, this time, his height. He went on to ask for the mike settings to be changed and to apologise for the noise from the (ineffective) air con unit. This kind of procrastination didn't really endear him to me and I braced myself for a bad act. He looked out at the audience with a huge grin and bobbing head, begging us with his wide eyes to applaud him, to like him. And as the show went on, I liked him more and more.

He wasn't offensive. It's a huge plus with me. Comedians that get by through criticising others leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. He also didn't go anywhere crass or lewd which was also a plus, not because I have any particular problem with that, it's just a girl can't really understand a boy's experiences so well.

But so far that is faint praise. I think I started to believe it was going to be a good gig when people started leaving. No, really... I thought that they were walking out but Matt Kirshen realised straight away that it was a toilet trip and gently chided them for interrupting him at a bad point as he was about to reach his punchline. He used the interruption and got back on track seamlessly without losing momentum. There was more than one interruption as another person went to the loo and of course people had to return also and each time Matt commented on it and made it into a joke and worked his way back to the routine without any problem.

It was pretty amazing.

The routines were about things that had happened to him and were mildly amusing on the whole occasionally becoming raucously funny. I especially enjoyed the comments on speaking French to a GCSE standard (and the time at which you know to call someone vous and not tu).

He made me laugh throughout and even though the material felt under-inspired, his manner felt experienced and I came away thinking the show a hit.


Our second show was “After the Bomb”, a play at the Zoo. I saw two comedy plays last year at the Fringe and this one felt rather typical. It was sometimes funny and it was sometimes unable to get a laugh. I wasn't bored when watching it but I'm not going to rush out and insist that anyone else see it either.

The plot has something to do with Soviet spies setting off a bomb on a train... on which are other characters one of whom is an alien who escapes suspicion by claiming to be Welsh... and unrequited love and professional rivalry and the search for the perfect electrical appliance to settle down with. It's a slight mess but it leads to some good jokes and all the actors were committed to it. I class the experience a hit simply because I find comedy plays a hard thing to get right and this group certainly didn't get it wrong.


The third show was our first mistake. I understand that not every show will be enjoyable and so was willing to take a gamble. My brother was kind of eager to see this act as he had heard good things about it (and my casual hints about seeing Richard Herring fell on deaf ears) despite me saying “but I won't get any of it...”.

It was one man “Lord of the Rings” (condensed to an hour).

I kind of hoped it wouldn't be utterly obscure and impossible for me to enjoy. At the very least I would find out what happened in the second and third films, right?

It was utterly obscure and impossible for me to enjoy. The performer took on all roles plus sound effects, score, special effects and the part of geeky commentator who knows all the differences between the books and the films. At a break-neck pace, I couldn't follow a thing. I believe it required detailed knowledge of the films otherwise you would never know who was speaking or what the mime was meant to represent.

I got a few of the jokes. There was a good joke about Elvis and another about Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The performer also incorporated the sound of a siren from the street outside as it interrupted a death scene, appropriately enough. Plus I was amused by the running gag of people ignoring Sam's presence.

But that was it. I couldn't even follow to the extent of finding out how the films ended. I thought Frodo died at least three times only to be in the act again. Maybe if I cared enough I could read the plot on wikipedia but... I don't.

Rather disappointingly, my brother didn't like it either. Not sure why he didn't and I didn't want to press it because he shouldn't feel bad about choosing a dud show. The rest of the audience loved it from which I draw the conclusion that actual fans adore the show. I certainly did admire the performer. His energy was remarkable as he leapt and rolled and threw himself all around the stage. Plus he was sensitive enough to apologise to me and the other member of the audience who hadn't seen the films (he asked the audience whether there were any of us between films 1 and 2). That was nice of him, I felt.


Before wrapping this post off and having dinner, I will talk about the fourth show. This was Rich Hall. He came out onto the stage a touch too early and pointed out all the people still trying to make it to their seats. I wonder if this was done on purpose, whether he considered it the best way to start his act. I wasn't keen on it. It seemed to me that he could have easily waited thirty seconds for everyone to settle (the show ran over anyway). He told them off and pointed at various people in the audience he recognised (why exactly? Not much fun for the rest of us) and then he got started.

Once he started his routines, he was hilarious. He talked about Edinburgh (and the tram) at first and went on to talk about midges and caravans besieged by them from which you could by coffee. And as his criticism of midges mounted, he was attacked by a fly.

The fly was a bright speck in the spotlight and it came at Rich Hall perfectly on cue. He reacted brilliantly and soon I was crying with laughter as he riffed off it. The fly was soon joined by another fly and the hysteria mounted.

But the fly didn't go. Or rather it did, but it came back again and again and when it was away you couldn't help but let your eyes rove around, searching it out. Rich Hall was more distracted by it than I was and never really got into the rhythm of his routine. The show sagged and though what he said was mildly amusing, the punchlines never properly hit. I am not sure that his finale was what he planned it to be. I know that I had heard the story of how he met the Queen before and suspect he just fell back on old material as he lost confidence in the new stuff.

It was a shame.

I left the show feeling like I had laughed more than ever before at Edinburgh and yet I was disappointed that the show was so hollow and essentially was just about a man being distracted by a fly.