Identity Thief – 2021 Edinburgh Fringe

OK, last afternoon for me at the 2021 Fringe, with tickets booked for later on and in the evening, what do I want to see? There were two options, and this was the one I picked. Partly because it wasn't in the main edfringe.com site, not many other people did.

First up was Sam Rhodes. His material was mixed. The best one was a joke about forming a band called Scone that would only play 1970s songs by The Jam, Cream and Bread.. but would just spend all day arguing about the order in which they should be played. But there was another reappearance of the Chic Murray joke about a woman being a "redhead. No hair, just a red head" from.. the 1950s? There were also a couple of musical bits and I liked the Boss RC-505 he used for those rather more than the rest of his act.

After another short guest spot from Mia(?), it was time for Fiona.

"Fiona Clift .. performs 30 characters in 30 minutes" said the blurb.

Tick. If you asked me who was the most talented person I saw at the Fringe, Fiona would absolutely be a contender. (What with the guest spots it was actually 40 in 25.) It turns out that I've seen her puppetry skills too.

"Politicians, TV personalities, and some people from real life get all muddled up in character comedy mayhem."

Ah. What we actually get reminds me of spoof impressionists: 'I'm Frank Spencer.. ooh, Betty. I'm Tommy Cooper.. just like that!' etc etc. Virtually all of them are stand-alone impressions – I think there were two invented characters. The number is reached, but there's not much of any particular one, and there's no interaction between them.

The other problem is a cultural one. In the 1970s, the dominance of TV – all three channels of it! – meant there was a shared set of personalities that 'everyone' knew. Not any more. One impersonation is of a named woman with a 'poshcast' – a podcast for rich people's problems. It was probably spot on (see the talent) but I suspect most of the audience had never heard of her. Even in politics (the "Tory twats" section) while I've heard of Oliver Dowden, the number of people who could recognise him is very, very low.

So while I'd rush to see her again, please let it be with better material. Either have some invented characters with some depth (how Steve Coogan won his Perrier) or have fewer impressions done with more laughs.

2/5 for the show 5/5 for Fiona's talent though

The Bank Job – 2021 Edinburgh Fringe

The blurb was good:

"The motive: gold. The target: the Bank of England. The mission: to pull off the ultimate heist. The show: James Bond meets Oceans 11 gone bankrupt in this farcical comedy that is Mission Imposs- …wait, that's not right. The farcical comedy that is The Bank Job… Yeah… That’s right… You can edit that bit out right? (Epic heist music plays in the background)."

The blurb was the only thing that was good.

Like quite a few shows this year, it's in a semi-open tent. Unlike many of the others, it's near a major road – Nicolson Street is also the A7. Unlike nearly all of the others, no-one on the stage is mic'd. So not only are they competing with the traffic noise (including emergency vehicle sirens), if someone just outside the space is being chatty, then you hear more of that than of them if you're not seated at the front. I was not seated at the front.

The stage is also low (50cm says the official specifications), the seating is not raked, and some of the cast are not tall. All of the cast spend some time seated or lying down. The result is that unless you are at the very front, you may well only be able to see a fraction of the cast on stage at any given point.

I could forgive the technical failings if the actual material had been any good. Sadly, it is not. I have seen better plotted and funnier shows devised by a bunch of schoolkids. It aspires to be a farcical Bond / Oceans 11 / Mission Impossible, but it doesn't even get to be as good as 'mediocre'.

I bought my ticket in advance of it opening: the blurb is great. A look at their FB page says over 500 people also did that. This year, you can't buy tickets on the door at virtually all of the venues, so I suspect nearly everyone got theirs from edfringe.com.

Among the features of that site is the ability to leave a review. Foolishly, I did not check those before going – this year, you can get a refund if you can't go for Covid-19 related reasons. (If you bought tickets to this, caught Covid-19 and got a refund, consider yourselves lucky.)

I wrote mine without seeing the others. Having done so, I looked: there were about seven others going 'AVOID' for the reasons I've given and also three going 'best show ever!1!'.

I struggle to believe those three were genuinely independent: the show's been a hit in terms of seats sold. The space has just over 150 seats, and on the day I saw it, at least 120 had bums on them. Literally no-one was reacting in that way to it – I got louder laughs from people near me when there was a line about an "unfamiliar sound" when I muttered "yeah, laughter" to myself than they ever did.

Shockingly, later that day all of the reviews vanished when Aireborne Theatre had them hidden. Shame. Shame. Shame.

1/5 – I have seen worse, but not this year.

Quick round-up part 3 – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

Skullduggery

Yet another 'what's on now' choice. I wasn't sure at first, but by the end I could see how good Rachel Fairburn is at stand up. 3.5/5

Robin Boot's Rockomedy: Puns'n'Poses

Good musical comedy and chat. 3.5/5

Jollyboaty McBoatface

Wonderful 'best of' from comedy musical duo Jollyboat. 5/5

Ditty Fiddler

More comedy songs, this time from someone whose voice was going. Still very good. 4/5

7 Songs for Geeks

Having seen the first Jollyboat show, and not having enough cash to buy the CD, I had to see them again. Two songs are the same in both shows, but still great. I particularly liked the summary of Game of Thrones: 'Winter is coming, take off your clothes'. 4.5/5

Graph Giraffe

Gareth Morinan dresses up as a (short, he's 5'0") giraffe to talk data and heightism. 4/5

Company

50 Ways to Leave Your Drummer

A presentation about someone's project to be fired as a drummer by fifty groups. Nice idea, but being deliberately fired is easy… 2.5/5

Company – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

As previously mentioned, I am a big fan of Sondheim's Company. It's about the relationships of Bobby, a single 35 year-old man in New York, with his three current girlfriends and the four married couples he's friends with.

Except that here, they've made the central character a 30 year-old woman, Bobbi. Two of the couples are same sex ones too. So I was curious as to how well it would work, especially when cut down to a run time of eighty minutes.

Obviously, there's no longer an interval, but at least a couple of songs have also gone (I don't remember hearing 'Have I got a girl for you' and the one with the women being rude about the air hostess girlfriend) as has the second visit to the divorcing couple with the balcony – no asking Bobbi about any same sex experiences here, because we already know she's bisexual! Personally, I would have made one of the other couples the 'two women' one too.

There are also some technical problems with the production/venue. The cast isn't mic'ed but the (probably recorded, as we don't see any musicians at the end) backing is amplified so the sound balance between the voices and the musicians isn't great. Sitting at the front is highly recommended, particularly as a couple of the cast aren't as good or audible as the rest. There's also a distinct mains hum on the speakers when more of the lights are on, so someone's not rigged things very well…

… but apart from all that (!) there is lots to like and the basic idea works very well indeed.

4/5

Quick round-up part 2 – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

Woop Woop It's Da Sound of That Pauly

Another 'what's on here, now?' pick, this is Paul McDaniel trying out material in a tiny space. (This time I was a third of the audience.) One section involves hitting himself on the head with an old-style phone handset to a pre-recorded soundtrack. Alas, the biggest laugh was when he did it one more time than the recording required. 2/5

Breaking the Magician's Code

Kane & Abel don't do the magic as well as Caspar Thomas – their central trick isn't that impressive either – but their stage presence is much better for a similarly sized space. 3/5

Peter Dobbing: Armchair Futurologist III

A chat about things that may or may not happen soon, including the chance to try some. 3/5

How to Be a Psychic Conman

The companion show to How to Talk to the Dead, this covers the sort of stuff done by litigious fraudulent spoon-benders. (I don't know if you have any particular one in mind.) Again, some of the tricks are explained and some are left mysterious. 4/5

Men With Coconuts: Improvised Bond

Mysterious Moments of Magic

Mysterious Moments of Magic – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

I had seen two shows by John Henry Blackwood in 2014, so obviously I wanted to see his latest. As with Séance, this has him presenting one trick across the length of the show along with others, but here the theme is time travel.

As mentioned elsewhere, I can be a tough audience for magic shows, but here although I can see that the central trick is probably a couple of forced choices, it carries a significant element of risk – if a volunteer doesn't behave, the trick will be exposed – and is done extremely well. The supporting tricks, including those involving a tiny plunger and some screamingly obviously marked cards, are also done flawlessly.

Very definitely recommended.

4.5/5

Men With Coconuts: Improvised Bond – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

The second of two improvised Bond films I saw this year: while it's always difficult to compare improv shows, I suspect that this one is consistently better than the other one.

For one thing, it's quicker to get going: the title comes a quick vote from three suggestions shouted out (when I saw it, the winner was 'Sphincter') and then it's on with the action rather than more explanation and setup. The title sequence is done live and, more usefully, there are four actors* on stage rather than two.

The highlight for me was the discussion in the briefing, where the imaginary paper list given by M to Bond had just one item on a second page. A couple of minutes of argument between those two and Miss Moneypenny about the best way to get the word processor to avoid that – changing the font size or altering the margins on the page or… – followed. The other show would probably have known to have called that line by its name in typography, a 'widow', and made a comment about how Bond had created lots of other sorts of widows. This lot were just being silly.

4/5

* They're all male, disappointingly.

Quick round-up part 1 – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

This year, I was able to be in Edinburgh at short notice for three days. Next year, next year..

Shaken Not Stirred: The Improvised James Bond Film

Strictly Come Trancing

Are You Really Being Served?

Caspar Thomas: Magic and Mentalism

It's a mix of technically very well performed magic, with some simple mentalism ('Think of a single digit number…'*) but with a distinct lack of stage presence. Performing for your table or in a small space, I'm sure he's wonderful. Off on a stage in a – for the Fringe – large room, he's far less impressive. 3/5

Makin' It Rain

How to Talk to the Dead

Caution: Filming in Progress

Matt Macdonald: Break in Case of Emergency

Techno Glitter Penguins

* Seven, right?

Techno Glitter Penguins – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

This is the latest evolution of Nicole Hendriksen's inspired 'alt-comedy' series of shows – it's too late to see Rainbow Rabbits With Rabies or Honeycomb Badgers on Acid, but if you did, you'll recognise their parentage of this generation.

It was interesting to see the difference that the type of room makes: last year's was in a small but often full cramped space, and this year she's in a large attic with – when I saw it – fewer people. (Perhaps it's because you need to pay up front this year, rather than being part of a free Fringe, or perhaps people prefer to see her other show.) Rather than clambering over everyone, here she starts by offering high quality vegan popcorn in a friendly fashion. It still gets delightfully weird quickly though…

The political bits were the best bit for me. Not talking about Brexit or politicians, but on gender and sexuality. So while there's a routine demonstrating the difference between men and women when it comes to getting sexual, she checks people's pronouns first. And doesn't assume that people like the same things sexually or that two people need to like all of the same things. No-one gets touched without consent either, even by the not entirely sane – ok, bonkers – characters she becomes in the middle.

Awesome presence + good material = great show.

4.5/5

Matt Macdonald: Break in Case of Emergency – 2016 Edinburgh Fringe

Walking back to a multi-stage venue and using the 'what's on here, starting now?' method of picking what to see, I ended up being the audience for this spoken word piece on relationships and why watching too many RomComs is not necessarily good in terms of trying to live up to 'movie love'.

It needs the ability to pay attention, but rewards that nicely with a story that is not overwhelmed by the louder shows next door. I smiled in recognition many times and laughed several times.

3.5/5