Well, here it is. My review of Edinburgh.
My trip to Edinburgh took place across just over a week, starting on the 8th August, and ultimately ending on the 17th August. So why do I do? Do I write and release a blog while all the events are still fresh in my mind? Do I do so while the shows are all still on, so the recommendations actually have some weight? No. I wait until the day after the Fringe has finished, when everyone else is releasing their Fringe recap blogs on the same day. Great work, Tom!
There is one recommendation I can throw your way, however. A show that I really loved, entitled
Danny Mayo Presents: The Land of Giants. It stars two members of
The Spook School, a band I have declared my love for on numerous occasions. Not only are they talented musicians; they are also very funny comedians. This is summed up by their promotional material for the show:
Adam is the the runner-up, Chortle Student Comedy Award 2013; "star in the making" - Steve Bennett.
Anna is "quite witty" - ThreeWeeks.
Their show was a free show, in a venue that can only be described as "out of the way", in that wonderfully quirky way that many great Fringe shows are. It was a brilliant hour, full of wit, silliness, charm, fun, and a song about onions. I genuinely don't know what more you could possibly want from a comedy show. If you are in or near London, I strongly suggest you pop along to
their London performance of their show, details of which can be found by clicking here. Not only are they doing their hour, but another member of the band, Niall, is also doing his show. While I haven't seen his show, it should be pointed out that he does have a mustache, so bear that in mind. Tickets are only £3 in advance, which is an absolute snip. Sadly, I cannot make the gig (I am gigging in Brighton on the same night), but if I were free, I'd have already bought my ticket. There's only 23 tickets left, and it is on September 3rd. Get to it!
As a final note about The Land of Giants (the official name of their double-act), I got the pleasure - along with Sam, who came with me to most of the things I saw in Edinburgh - of hanging out with both Anna and Adam after their show, sharing drinks and laughs. It was lovely. They are very nice. It was a rare occurrence, in that we were four awkward people around a table, but it felt comfortable, despite the fact that we'd - bar some Twitter exchanges here and there - just met. The magic of Edinburgh.
Above is a photo of me and Sam both wearing The Spook School T-shirts, taken by Anna.
From our favourite free show, to our favourite paid show: Will Seaward's Spooky Midnight Ghost Stories. A midnight show, where Will Seaward - you guessed it - told ghost stories. I've read at least 3 reviews that compare him favourably to Brian Blessed, and I'd have to agree with them, for three reasons: his booming voice, his large stature, and the fact he's bloody hilarious. As we entered the venue, he greeted each audience member, saying "enter at your own free will"; once the room started to fill, he said to the audience "are you comfortable?", before starting to turn away, turning back, and following that question with "are you ghost comfortable?" - it set the silly and hilarity bars high early on, and they stayed there. His stories were peppered with silliness, non-sequiturs, and - most importantly - massive laughs, and I really mean massive. Of all the shows I've seen at the Fringe over my 3 trips, this was the one with the biggest laughs, and at a very consistent rate. Our enjoyment of the show is encapsulated by the fact that it was the first time I've seen a stand-up show in Edinburgh twice; the second time, we gave him a standing ovation. I'm not sure if he's a big enough name to tour the show far-and-wide yet, but if you find yourself in Edinburgh next year - and he's doing a show - make sure you see him.
I did see another show twice, but it wasn't a stand-up show: Mark Watson's Comedywealth Games. I really loved. Not only was it an hour of solid laughs, but it felt like a proper one-off Fringe event each night. The concept of the show was that 3 comedians are pitted against each-other, each representing a Commonwealth nation, and have to compete against each-other at numerous "sports". The audience is split into 3, with each third supporting a comedian assigned by Watson. These sports ranged from the 100m sack race (including having to pack the 'sacks' - in this case, sleeping bags - back into their drawstring bag to win the race), to "The Admin Pentathlon", where comedians (along with an audience volunteer) had to do 7 tasks all within 5 minutes. These tasks included sifting through a big bag of mixed vegetables and separating them into their separate veg; pairing socks; giving a makeover; texting a message to someone from the country you're representing (with the winner being whoever got a response first); and seeing who can eat the most yoghurts while running on a treadmill for 1 minute. During my 2nd viewing of this show, my friend and fellow comedian, Adele Cliff, volunteered to help Andrew Maxwell. Needless to say, they won, largely due to Adele.
A photo I took just before the Pentathlon started.
The best event (no offense, Adele!), however, was the final event of the show. This event involved the comedians having to put as many layers of clothes from the audience on as possible during 1 minute. This led to comedians running into the audience begging for clothes, people throwing clothes towards the comedians on stage, people getting up from their seats to hang scarves, belts, bras and everything else on any piece of their comedian that is free, like some beautiful human Buckaroo. The rules dictated that they got 1 point for a typical piece of clothing, and 2 points for underwear. On the first show I went to, Jason Byrne received 30 points (beating the previous record of 16 by a massive margin) - without any underwear. I think the photo says it all.
Keep in mind he stood like this for around 3 minutes while the other comedians' clothe-count was established. It's fair to say he was rather boiling.
There was another show that stood out for similar reasons to the Comedywealth Games; another show that was a mixture of silly, madcap comedy, fueled by comedians competing against each-other. McNeil and Pamphilon Go 8-Bit was an interactive videogame show. It involved the audience being split into 2 - one side supporting McNeil, one side Pamphilon - as each host was represented by a comedian competing against another comedian at various videogames, including Mario Kart Double Dash, Street Fighter, and Bomberman. The string in the tail? For whichever team's representative that lost, the respective host had to do a forfeit. My favourite of these involved McNeil playing the first level of Pac-Man, something that he managed to complete in around 57 seconds. Easy enough? Sure. But then, all of the 100-strong members of team Pamphilon were given a Mini Cheddar to hold up, and McNeil's challenge was to run up the aisle, through the audience, and eat every Mini Cheddar - then run back to the stage - within 57 seconds. Amazingly, he did it. As a lover of Mini Cheddars, Pac-Man, and eating too much, it was one of my genuine highlights of the Fringe.
I didn't just watch comedy shows, though. I made a conscious effort to make sure I saw a nice variety of shows, one of which was EastEnd Cabaret: Sexual Tension. I've never been to a cabaret show before, so this was completely new to me. But y'know what? It was good fun. I enjoyed the songs, the forward nature of the act, and there were some funny jokes along the way. I don't think it'll be the last cabaret show I see at the Fringe. Another show that was different from my normal type of show was Morgan and West: Parlour Tricks, a magic show with a sprinkling of comedy. It was genuinely impressive to watch, even as someone who is only a very casual fan of magic. The narrative of the show was well-written, too; A very nicely put-together hour.
There were a huge number of other shows I loved at the Fringe; Ray Peacock's show was brilliant, as you'd expect. On the final night, I watched Comedy Countdown, which - even though it is "only" comedians spending 90 minutes playing Countdown - was genuinely enjoyable throughout, no doubt thanks largely to the strength of the comedic talents of the host and regulars, respectively.
I am not going to go in-depth about any more shows, though; there was one man who recommended at least 30 of his friends to me while we were chatting before going into a gig, and I stopped listening after the 4th, at most. There's only so many recommendations you can listen to!
Here is a photo of my hoody, with a load of badges that I got while at the Fringe attached to it.
As for the performing side of the Fringe, things didn't go to plan for me. I feel that I need to establish myself on the circuit first throughout this year, so I can actually get gigs that are worth doing next Fringe, instead of gigs that have audiences in the single digit numbers. One of the gigs I did do was for my friends at the AhhGee Podcast as part of their live show,
which you can find here if you so wish. It also features Loretta Maine, Wilfredo and El Britanico.
Lastly, the Fringe was brilliant because I got to spend time with so many lovely people. Thanks to Sam, PDT, Stainbank, Adele, Michael Bell (DING!), Andy, Grax, Adam and Anna. You're all brilliant. Without you, it would have been 90% less fun.
There you have it. I hope you enjoyed finding out about my Edinburgh Fringe experience of 2014. Feel free to leave comments, ask questions, and/or share this blog if you liked it!
Thanks for reading,
Tom.
A load of flyers from some of the shows I enjoyed. I wanted one from every show that I saw, but sadly I couldn't get flyers from all of them. There's also a CD of the soundtrack from The Land of Giants' show.
