FRINGE REVIEW: Jarred Christmas – The Hero Show

Like every right thinking member of society, Jarred Christmas wants to be a hero. Of course, he does mean a stereotypical hero, that has a chiselled chin, a rock solid chest and perhaps most importantly, a big cape. In his conveniently titled “Hero Show” Jarred explains why he deserves the accoloade of hero, from his experience of rescuing wet dogs, to doing battle with a hooked man on a touch rugby pitch, Jarred lements about his failed attempts, as well as whether a hero is someone who defeats bad and protects the innocent, or just someone who stands up for what they believe in, even if what they believe in taking a child to buy a light sabre.

Following Jarred’s impressive debut “Geek Show” last year, it was natural that high hopes were to be expected from the Kiwi comedian this year, and in terms of performance, you couldn’t fault the show, with Jarred throwing everything into getting laughs out of the slightest slip or comment from the audience. It’s a shame that this show, unlike previuos efforts, takes a while to find its feet. That said, like a true professional, Jarred leaves the big laughs until last, and his lip synced musical finale could be one of the funniest five minutes in the Fringe this year. An enjoyable hour long show from an incredibly energetic and promising comedian.

Jarred Christmas – The Hero Show is on at the Pleasance Courtyard at 7.10pm

FRINGE REVIEW: Toulson and Harvey

Sometimes, in the mystical genre of comedy, simplicity is the key. Big sets, props and overly elaborate special effects often make a straightforward show far less appealing than it set out to be. Toulson and Harvey have clearly realised this.

The format for their set is pretty straight forward. This is a sketch show, with no fancy backdrops, no props, just two men, some stools and a guitar, with Misters Toulson and Harvey performing a number of interlinked sketches in an attempt to explain why this show will be the last show that they will do together.

Blending sketches and scenarios with songs and a montage scene to the Rocky soundtrack, this fast-paced show comes across very much like a pilot for a potential radio or TV show, with a mixture of material which keeps the audience in stitches, alongside some not-quite-ready jokes.

An enjoyable show by two people who will probably make it quite big in the future.

Toulson and Harvey can be found in the Underbelly at 5.20pm

Thomas Canning

FRINGE INTERVIEW: Richard Herring

Legend has it that life begins at 40. It’s the age that you should be able to take stock of your life, look at what you have achieved, and feel content. That, or like my English teacher at school, have a breakdown and run off with the secretary.

Richard Herring has taken a different approach to it, he’s written a show called Oh Fuck I’m Forty, and taken up skateboarding. “The show is basically a stand-up show loosely themed around a childish man having to come to terms with the fact that he is getting old. Life doesn’t begin at 40, but one can certainly say that childhood is dead by this point. Thus I am contending with a mid-life crisis and the fact that my profession means I have to stay artificially puerile. All this, plus skateboarding and some jokes.”

Rising to fame in the 90s as part of Lee and Herring (we’ll leave you to work out which one he was), Richard Herring has spent the last 15 years producing shows like Fist of Fun, and This Morning with Richard Not Judy, as well as his own solo shows like Christ on a Bike, Excavating Rita and Talking Cock (the male answer to the Vagina Monologues). With so much material behind him, does he have a problem with people shouting catchphrases at him?

“It hardly happens at all, so when it does happen it is not that annoying. People usually shout ‘You want the moon on a stick!’ but it was Stew who wanted that, so I tell them that. Sometimes people will say some strange sentence to me and I don’t know what they mean and they have to explain that it’s a line from some sketch or other that I have forgotten, but to be honest I can pretty much go about my daily life without too much danger of being recognised.”

As well as all of this performing, for the last four years Richard has also posted daily on his own blog Warming Up, which has racked up an impressive 1752 entries. “Sometimes this is a slight worry, but although there are recurring themes (procrastination, weight gain/loss, bad gigs) I think I usually manage to keep it fresh. As it’s mainly based on my life and things that have happened to me or that I’ve seen, I can usually think of something new, though occasionally it’s hard to think of anything at all, so not all 1752 are classics.”

With nearly 20 years in the business, Richard Herring has become as much a part of the Edinburgh Fringe as being pestered by flyers or 36 hour sleeping patterns, so how does he cope with the Edinburgh experience? “A typical day for me at the Fringe involves sleeping until noon, watching TV until about six, and then popping over to the Underbelly to do
my show before going out and getting drunk. I have missed a few Fringes since I first came here in the 80s but this is still the 16th out of 21 possible Fringes. Not bad for someone entering their fifth decade.”

So can he see himself becoming the next Arthur Smith? “Arthur Smith is one of my Edinburgh heroes and it would be amazing if people mentioned me in the same breath as him. I think people are starting to notice how much work I have put into the Fringe, but it largely goes unremarked. If I got an acknowledgment of my achievement I would probably stop. It’s really that easy to make me go away.”

Richard Herring – Oh Fuck I’m Forty is on at the Underbelly at 8.20pm. For more fun-nuggets, visit www.richardherring.com or buy his DVDs from here.

Thomas Canning

FRINGE REVIEW: Andrew Lawrence – Social Leprosy for Beginners and Improvers

The last 12 months have been pretty good for Andrew Lawrence, seeing him going from fairly unknown comedian to a nominee for last year’s Best Newcomer award at the Fringe. He returns for his second Fringe with Social Leprosy for Beginners and Improvers, a guide on how to get people to avoid you, because, as Andrew puts it,pPeople are everywhere, and they can really fuck you off.

Although not as strong as last year’s debut Fringe appearance, Andrew’s stage presence and his ability to expel colourful language which manages to both offend and amuse at the same time holds the audience in his grip the entire time he is onstage. Some people may be disappointed to know that he has dropped most of the musical element of his act in favour of more narrative (the one tune he does sing during the show is more of a ditty than a song), but the show still delivers the kind of laughs that you can’t help but feel you shouldn’t be having.

With many shows this year at the Fringe claiming to offend and shock, this show delivers just that under a cloak of unexpectability, and demonstrates once again the humorously dark brand of comedy that Andrew is becoming famous for producing.

Andrew Lawrence – Social Leprosy for Beginners and Improvers is at the Pleasance Courtyard from 8.30pm

FRINGE REVIEW: Pappy’s Fun Club

This time last year it was obvious that Pappy’s Fun Club were going to be legitimately entitled to charge for their show. Having stormed the Free Fringe with an accomplished show performed on a stage little bigger than a shoe box, the troupe’s imagination was patently bigger than the venue they were sharing. Thankfully there’s no such problem this year.

After having assembled such a collection of memorable characters (oh dear God, for the day this lot replace Little Britain), the group have bravely decided to write an hour of all-new material. Unfortunately the quartet’s discernible chemistry isn’t quite enough to carry them through what appears to be a relatively disappointing first half hour. The first few sketches don’t quite hit their mark (though the group’s Bob Dylan sketch is almost worth the price of admission alone just to see Matthew Crosby ‘on’ drums) and the group occasionally play the chaos just the wrong side of am-dram. But then things kick up a notch and the depth that has only been scarcely hinted at is revealed, much to the audience’s inevitable delight.

The finale is one of the most inventive things you’re going to see on the Fringe all year, cleverly orchestrated and betraying the illusion that that Pappy’s Fun Club is just a well-tuned shambles. A special mention should also be made of Tom Parry’s ‘Taxman’, a character of such giddy comedic carnage that he threatens to steal the show.

It seems that change is good after all. Pappy’s Fun Club is the kind of caper in short supply at the Fringe, a healthy antidote to your common-or-garden-variety sketch show.

Catch the show at the C Soco, 4.30pm daily.

FRINGE REVIEW: Kirsten O’Brien – Confessions of a Children’s TV Presenter

Anyone looking for a frenetic hour-long dash of hyperactivity look no further than Kirsten O’Brien’s one-woman show, Confessions of a Children’s TV Presenter. Right from the off, Kirsten’s infectious enthusiasm wastes little time in winning the audience over as she takes the crowd through a potted history of her career. One thing’s for sure, you’ll never view the barren wasteland of children’s television in quite the same way again.

Although the material amounts to little more than a series of admittedly highly amusing anecdotes (her Brian Blessed impersonation is truly a sight to behold), the boundless fervour O’Brien exhibits lends the show an endearingly organised chaos. Although one can be sure that Kirsten has more stories than her hour will allow, it will be interesting to see her develop fresh material for next year now that the credit has been used up.

A lot of critics are going to point to the morbid curiosity of seeing Kirsten O’Brien out of her natural habitat as a reason for the constant difficulty in getting tickets for this show. However, the simple fact is, while some shows are content to drown in making their point, Kirsten’s first solo effort is simply exuberant fun from start to finish and sometimes on the Fringe, that’s really what you need.

Confessions of a Children’s TV Presenter is at the Pleasance Courtyard at 2.10pm

FRINGE REVIEW: Mitch Benn Music Club

Comedy shows based entirely on musical parody generally can tend to lie between one of two places. One is a good place, the other is, well, not such a good place. Mitch Benn thankfully falls slap bang into the former category.

Returning to Edinburgh with his band the Distractions for the first time in three years, the star of BBC Radio’s The Now Show and Jammin’ hosts this two hour rollercoaster of a show with a selection of well-observed musical parodies, taking on worthy targets like West End musicals, generic boy bands, The Smiths and a certain posh Army boy-cum-musician who can’t be named.

Performance wise, the show holds itself together well, with Mitch and his band filling gaps between the song with ad-libs and stand-up. Add to this special guest performers, who have to write an improvised song during the interval based on audience suggestions, a foxy flame-haired bassist and Macbeth sung in the style of Eminem and you can see why – despite there being a number of musical comedians at the Fringe this year – this one sticks out slightly more than the rest.

Mitch Benn Music Club is at the Underbelly Cow Barn from 11.15pm

FRINGE REVIEW: Lucy Porter’s Love-In

Lucy Porter wants to find love. Sounds simple enough, but the problem is that unlike in the old days, men don’t just ride in and sweep you off your feet anymore, you have to wear the right clothes, say the right things and ideally try not to embarrass yourself by singing songs while washing up.

In this, her sixth solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Lucy takes us on an exploration of the troubles of romance in the 21st Century, from meeting the right person to the all important question: just what is love?

Having already established herself as a Fringe favourite, Lucy Porter again delivers a gag-filled show that is universally funny to all who watch it. Although fairly unambitious, the show provides an hour of charming whimsy, which regardless of whether you are married, in a steady relationship or someone who is constantly running low on toilet paper, you can’t help but smile at.

Lucy Porter’s Love-in can be found Pleasance Courtyard at 7.50pm

DVD: Hyperdrive – Series 1 & 2

It is 2151. Britain has launched a fleet of spaceships to protect the nation’s interests across the galaxy. Interests like a new road system into the Peterborough Enterprise Zone and good spots for a new Tesco Galactic.

It’s not the most immediate of sitcoms, and inevitably it draws comparisons with the practically peerless Red Dwarf, but give Hyperdrive a chance, and it’ll catch you unawares. It takes a few episodes to get into, but once you’ve tuned into its particular brand of easygoing humour, you’ll be hooked.

It’s space-setting would make it all too easy to rely on madcap plotlines and ‘hilarious’ aliens, but writers Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil (of Black Books and The Armando Ianucci Shows pedigree) have bravely sidestepped the temptation to plug the show full of simplistic crowd-pleasing gags.

The use of character-comedy legend Kevin Eldon should give you a about the style of comedy at play here. Obvious jokes are few and far between, with far more reliance on character awareness and clever interaction between cast members than the standard sitcom. Eldon’s sociopathic Officer York steals many of the scenes, but using little more than a twitch of the mouth rather than a daft catchphrase.

The main draw to Hyperdrive, however, is Commander Henderson, played by Spaced and Shaun of the Dead star Nick Frost. His natural acting and idiosyncrasies wring humour from the driest of lines, and he is genuinely a joy to watch.

Hyperdrive relies on the characters endearing themselves to you over time, so this package of both series together is your best bet. Along with all 12 episodes, this three disc collection has cast and crew commentaries, a set tour and video diary, deleted scenes, and a behind the scenes featurette with Nick Frost.

Click here to give it a go.

FRINGE INTERVIEW: James Dowdeswell

Wine. Not the first subject you would think you could base a 60 minute comedy show on. But then this is the Edinburgh Fringe, the home of original comedy, so it comes as no real surprise that wine is the subject of James Dowdeswell’s new show.

“I first got interested in wine for my dad’s birthday last year” he explains while sitting in a bar on the Royal Mile. “We went to a vineyard in Burgundy, I had a few samples and really liked it, so I went home and read up on it and here we are. Edinburgh’s great like this as you can come up and talk about anything, like wine, and people will come and see it regardless. It has been a bit difficult rehearsing the show in comedy clubs though, I’ve had to just throw in the occasional wine gag if I see someone drinking wine and hope for the best!”

The show, the aptly titled, Wine, at the Smirnoff Baby Belly this year, explores the many mysteries of wine, bringing its joys to the people and away from the pretentious world it’s known to inhabit. “The show’s shaping up nicely, but to be honest it can only get better for me. The second warm up gig I did, I did it in a jazz club in London. There was free wine and the evening was going well, but then I noticed that half of the audience weren’t drinking the wine, and when I questioned them, and asked if they all knew each other they revealed that they were all part of a drug rehabilitation course who were on a night out to see some comedy and hadn’t realised I was on. Thing was, one person in the group was drinking the wine and when I asked why he was drinking and no one else was, he said ‘I’m a recovering heroin addict, I think I deserve a drink!’ There are some moments in life that you can’t prepare for, and I think that was one of them.”

Blending quick fire gags with more constructive prose, it’s clear to see that James has a knack for comedy, having come far from the Jongleurs Best New Act award he won in 2000. “I used to say that my influences were more the classic comedians like Kenny Everett and so on, but nowadays I seem to base more of my material on the narrative style of comedy, like Dave Allen and Dylan Moran.”

So with the Fringe in full flow, why is it that so many acts flock to Edinburgh each year, making it the world’s largest fringe festival? “The thing with Edinburgh is that there is just this buzz when you get here. It’s probably the only time in the year for a comedian when for three weeks you are in the same place, with people you know. Also, you get to see some of the best names in the industry, and regardless of whether you are actually any good, performance wise, everyone is welcomed, regardless of talent. The number of people who have come to Edinburgh and been launched, especially in recent years, helps build this element of romanticism about the place. Plus it’s essentially comedy boot camp. You have to perform the same show for three weeks in a row, and hopefully it can only get better.”

With time running out, we had to ask one final question to James. What with it being the Edinburgh Fringe, if we were invited to a party, would it be better to spend £15 on a classy Petit Verdot, or £3 on a bottle of Bulgarian red and claim it’s the next big thing? “If it was me, I would go for a nice cheap £5 Chilean red, although Argentinean red is also good at the moment. Just forget anything from France. With French wine you have to pay a lot of money to get a really decent bottle.”

Wine tips and comedy. What more could a journalist want!

James Dowdeswell – Wine is on at the Underbelly at 7.05pm. For more laughs, visit www.myspace.com/jamesdowdeswell