Tag: Fringe

Sarah Cassidy was one of the ones I definitely wanted to see after the Misandry Madness Showcase.

Her full show turns out to be a fabulous look at sexual harassment she's experienced, pop culture, twerking, representations of women in the media, and how to do a good 'dick selfie'. About the only criticism I have is that I'd have moved the twerking demonstration to earlier in the show, rather than finishing with it, but the combination of the previous material and it is – like the rest of the show – something to make you think. It's just the least funny bit of it… Even so, this was the best thing I saw at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

I was going to give this 5/5 anyway, but should say that I discovered one of the benefits to sitting at the front in Fringe shows is that the performer(s) notice when you leave your phone behind and know who to describe when leaving it behind the bar for you to pick up after a frantic search and subsequent jog back from the next venue. Thank you again Sarah.

5/5

On at 7pm at the Southsider (venue 148) until the 20th August (no shows on the 13th or 14th). See it.

As well as the 'free fringe', if you walk around Edinburgh looking like a likely audience member, you can expect to be offered some free tickets to shows that normally charge, especially on the first week. With so many shows on, word of mouth is critical and if no-one's seen yours, that can't happen. I can't remember what I was on the way to see when I was offered this one…

He is Leo Conville and she is Sharnema Nougar. He has apparently been told not to say anything to the audience, but nothing was said about singing. So several of us are asked questions and encouraged to answer in the _style of _an ^op-er_-aaaa… Then she comes on, diva style, and before too long three audience members are holding her up as she plays and sings while lying down in their arms or hanging upside down.

Fun for the performers and audience alike, and would have been good value at the normal £5.

3/5

On at 5pm at Just the Tonic at The Tron (venue 51), until the 24th August (except the 12th).

Gareth Morinan was a data analyst in the civil service. After a time at the Export Credit Guarantee Department (the UK Government's semi-business which insures the export risks the market won't touch) he moved to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. After the 2010 general election, Michael Gove was appointed to it, despite having zero experience of education since leaving university, and rebranded it the Department for Education.

It's safe to say that Gareth isn't one of Gove's few fans (there was a rare sighting of one in the audience when I saw it!) and has lots of personal stories to explain why not.

A mix of the amusing and the horrifying (and the amusingly horrifying), it works despite none of it being particularly surprising – even though I had forgotten his part in the expenses scandal, for example, that was discovered to have claimed for illegible items and had 'flipped' houses to avoid tax – and despite Gove's removal to be Conservative Chief Whip.

It also includes a very heartfelt plea that people in charge of important departments have some actual experience and skills in things relevant to their departments, rather than just being a friend of whoever the Prime Minister is. The technocratic revolution begins here…

4/5

On at 3:40pm at Canons Gait (venue 78) until the 24th August.

I hadn't realised that this was done by the same woman behind The Coin-Operated Girl until she walked on stage: the link isn't on the flyer for either show.

This is centred around her experience of meeting someone who pretended to be interested in her, but was much more interested in being able to steal hundreds of pounds from her account. It turned out that a) the police couldn't do very much (he'd seen her enter her PIN) and b) he'd been conning a series of women into sending him money. Because of the first one, she went to a family friend who took her through the rules of a good revenge, including things like knowing when to start and stop, and not being a dick about it.

The audience is invited to contribute their experiences and suggestions too. It's a work in progress, and may well change through its run here, but it's already at a good standard.

3/5

It's on at 2:30 at The Beat (venue 56) until the 23rd August (no shows on Mondays).

Dan Willis has been doing shows on things he cares about for a while – the audience included a still-not-engaged-yet couple who he recognised from seeing them over the past seven years. This year, it's zombies, and specifically the funny side of a zombie apocalypse.

Much of the source material is from the first three series of The Walking Dead, with the slight spoiler that most of the starting don't make it to the end of the first one.

The basics of survival (lock yourself somewhere, preferably with a bath you can fill for water, get a number of the right sort of people together – survival experts are going to be more use than comedians – and then get yourself to a DIY warehouse for stuff) are covered, along with the way that bathrooms are, contrary to the advice of TWD, quite sensible places to be.

It's all fine stuff, done in a friendly way, but I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I had seen TWD or even if it convinced me that I really wanted to do so.

3/5

On at 1:15pm at the annex of The Liquid Room (venue 276) until the 24th August.

Miranda Kane used to work as an escort with the working name of BBW Melody. Having retired from sex work a couple of years ago, she's moved into comedy and has used the experiences to create a great solo show about her earlier life.

It starts with how she got into the business – easily and willingly, when she realised that there were people willing to pay for what she offered – and goes to some of the details how she was successful, before going to a look online at some of the people working in Edinburgh now and the mixed blessing of reviews.

Quibble #1 is that she treats some of her personal choices as universal good practice or as industry norms. Showing your face on an escorting website is not for everyone, no matter how much some enquirers want you to show it (most of them will never book you anyway), for example, and people have different condom preferences (there's no evidence that thicker condoms are more reliable).

The end of the prepared act is a countdown of the ten most popular things men asked / paid to do with her. Quibble #2 is that there's no reminder that the attention she got was down to how she marketed herself, and different escorts are going to get different requests. But so long as you treat it as reliable as a typical magazine survey, it's also fun.

Then comes a Q&A, with – on the afternoon I saw it – surprisingly few questions, so if you have a question about sex work, you've even more reason to go.

Miranda's personality comes across delightfully, and you can see why people paid hundreds (and occasionally thousands for longer bookings) of pounds to spend time with her. Being part of the free fringe means you can do it for free.

Highly recommended.

5/5

On at 5pm until the 24th August (except Mondays) at the Liquid Rooms Annex (venue 276) underneath South Bridge. See it.

Joe Wells doesn't like the Tory party to the point of supporting the 19th Century Whigs. They may have introduced the Corn Laws, but they weren't Tories. And they repealed the Corn Laws later, but sadly the Tories are still with us.

You can argue with some of the material – does anyone think that the Tories in power alone wouldn't have been much worse than having them restricted by the LibDems in coalition? – but it's delivered well and with a definite bite.

Obviously, the audience for this is fairly self-selecting: people who think that the problem with David Cameron is that he's not right-wing enough are unlikely to go. If that's not you, and you can cope with the steps down to the venue, then this is first-rate political comedy.

4/5

On at 12 noon at Viva Mexico (venue 274) until the 23rd August.