YOUR DAILY SHEET OF EDINBURGH FESTIVAL REVIEWS: #14 THURSDAY 18/FRIDAY 19 AUG IN EDINBURGH GET THREEWEEKS COMEDY audience. Not Holly Walsh. Instead, she ThreeWeekscombines original humour, personal anec- DIRECT TO YOUR IN-BOX dotes, and Venn diagrams to string together Run, Deaf Boy, Run! a hilarious narrative anyone can relate to. There are even more reviews in the Steve Day / The Stand Comedy Club Detailing the true story of one epic broken ThreeWeeks eDaily email. As his title would suggest, Steve Day doesn’t elbow, complete with x-rays, she manages to Sign up right now for free at shy away from his disability, and neither comment on what it means to be a scared www.ThreeWeeks.co.uk/eDaily does it impair his comedy. Sporting a pair British woman. She jumps off a high dive, of hearing-aids, he is the first to make self- fights a Nazi, flirts with Rambo, and has the deprecating jokes about being “deaf with a pictures to prove it. By the end of the show, I little D”. The show’s focus is the journey of felt like I was sitting in her living-room watch- a man in training for the London Marathon. ing her home movies. Not to miss for anyone With no hint of a sob-story, Day is warm and looking for a light-hearted laugh and stories inspiring, but honest enough to discourage of rogue flashers. people from running the 26 miles for Pleasance Courtyard, 3 - 29 Aug (not 15), 6.00pm themselves, and still prone to tripping (7.00pm), £7.00 - £9.50, fpp88. tw rating 4/5 [tw] over words every now and then. A mixture of storytelling and stand-up, the show is Tim Clare: How To Be A Leader pleasant without being belly-laugh funny, but Show + Tell / Escalator East to Edinburgh / Tilt at least Day is comfortable enough to find ‘How to Be a Leader’ is a show with an humour in the size of his audience. intelligent premise, performed by an even The Stand Comedy Club, 3 - 28 Aug (not 4, 15), more intelligent comedian. This seminar 1:10pm (2:10pm), £7.00 - £8.00, fpp145. tw rating on leadership is multidimensional and 3/5 [ja] worryingly, despite Tim explicitly highlighting the simple tools leaders employ to gain Seymour Mace: Happypotamus power, by the end of the show, the audience Seymour Mace / The Stand Comedy Club are hanging on to his every word. It’s like Mental illness and diarrhoea are not obvious submitting to a true leader and competing topics for a show called ‘Happypotamus’, but for a reward for laughing the hardest. Seymour Mace takes these difficult subjects Giving everything from tyrannical rule and and makes us laugh. Charting Mace’s assassination attempts a skewed and struggles with depression, ‘Happypotamous’ comedic twist, Tim’s show is entertaining, covers some dark ground, but it is in these fast-paced and clever, forcing the audience pitch-black moments that the show is at to remain on their toes and engaged. In its funniest. Mace’s fight with the kitchen addition, hilarious raps on historical female bin and the expression of his desire not to figures demonstrate Tim’s skills as a become one of the “local characters” are wordsmith and his extensive potential. razor-sharp comic moments. However, when Underbelly Cowgate, 4 - 28 Aug (not 15), 8.55pm Mace is “being silly”, the set loses focus and (9.55pm), £8.00 - £10.00, fpp158. tw rating 4/5 [kc] pace, with sections of wacky drawings and humorous poems feeling like weak padding. Transformer On topic, Mace is darkly funny, but when he With their surrealist approach to sketch tries to be zany, he falls short of the mark, comedy that seeks to move away from resulting in a distinctly mixed set. cheap laughs and lurid gags, ‘Transformer’ The Stand Comedy Club II, 3 - 28 Aug (not 4, 15), times vary, £6.00 - £7.00, fpp149. tw rating 3/5 [ab] have produced fifty minutes of comedy that SNAP OF THE DAY: ‘Anton’s Uncles’ get physical at is refreshingly different. Minimally offensive, they focus on producing quick scenes with the Bedlam Theatre this Fringe. Photo: Kat Gollock The Antics: Premature memorable personae that are genuinely Ejokeulation funny. The return of earlier characters at The Antics just the right moments throughout the show is testament to its structural success, while public eye and a humorous letter-exchange introduce to your grandparents. Conversely, “Much better than the title suggested.” This their disregard for the fourth wall provides with a solicitor. Unfortunately, for all Joel’s he’s so exuberant and idiosyncratic that he’d was the consensus as we left the theatre an innovative approach to the genre. It is charm, the jokes are sparse, so this show be a tremendous late-night drinking partner. after watching this, er, interestingly named just a shame that they lack this intensity in feels more like that of a fairly accomplished After hanging onto his every antiquated turn show. Title aside, this is a very funny group all their scenes. Arguably, it’s forgiveable as storyteller rather than a comedian. He also of phrase and laughing at his heart-warming of men who seem to enjoy their improv sketches move at a decent pace, allowing has a habit of announcing his punchlines anecdotes, I left the show wishing he were games - standard fare a la ‘Whose Line...?’ the audience to be quickly introduced to with, “Wait for it,” and finishing them with, “I my best friend. Go and see him now before and ‘Mock The Week’ - as much as their something different, but sadly it prevents thought that was good.” This doesn’t serve he’s headlining at the biggest venues. You audience did. The funniest moment of the them from being truly brilliant. him well, either. will have an absolutely smashing time, I show came when hapless Gav was unable Dragonfly, 5 - 29 Aug (not 15), 6.40pm (7.40pm), promise. Bedlam Theatre, 5 - 27 Aug, 18:00 (18.50), £6.00 - to guess what his team-mates were miming free, fpp100. tw rating 2/5 [ek] £8.00, fpp162. tw rating 3/5 [aq] Just The Tonic at The Caves, 4 - 28 Aug (not 17), to him; the audience howled with laughter 7.00pm (8.00pm), £7.00 - £9.00, fpp101. tw rating: as his team-mates grew more and more 5/5 [jf] breathless and frustrated. They’re not the Joel Sanders - Jokes That Got Me John Robins: Lift Your Skinny slickest, or the wittiest at the improv game, Fists Like Antennas To Heaven Kicked Out Of Tennessee Sharron Matthews Superstar: but this show still offers unadulterated fun John Robins Joel Sanders / PBH’s Free Fringe from a group of fairly skilled performers. Jesus Thinks I’m Funny Joel Sanders is almost apologetically The immensely likeable John Robins C, 3 - 13 Aug, 4.45pm (5.35pm), £6.50 - £9.50, Sharron Matthews sincere; he humbly thanks his audience possesses the remarkable ability of making fpp40. tw rating 3/5 [rs] Not only is Sharron Matthews a superstar, about five times for coming along. the awkward and outdated charming she is a force of nature. Far from her Anecdotes from twenty years in the US are and stylish. He utters the quaint adjective homeland of Ontario, Canada, she has The Hollycopter Holly Walsh reeled out one by one, and, while the show “smashing” eleven times during this performance without the slightest hint of squeezed herself into something black and Some stand-ups rely on vulgarity and the has a nice flow, it contains no real structure. irony; it makes him exactly the sort of polite, shiny with feathers on the shoulders, shock factor to coax laughter out of their His best material includes thoughts on feeling a disconnect with gay men in the articulate man that you’d be delighted to cont>> MORE REVIEWS PLUS NEWS, INTERVIEWS AND EXCLUSIVE COLUMNS: WWW.THREEWEEKS.CO.UK cont>> bringing some sparkle to our drizzly Nathan Penlington: Uri And Me storytelling with an apocalyptic tale of hell is very enjoyable bit of theatrical escapism. smile convincingly confers and finally settles Edinburgh evenings. She talks to us about Nathan Penlington’s po-faced performance and high water flooded with references Zoo, 5 - 20 Aug, 12.40pm (1.30pm), £7.00 - £9.00, the ambiguous tone of the entire piece. An pop-culture, a little of her real life and a bit mixes comedy with occasional magic. More to H P Lovecraft, twisted wordplay and fpp275. tw rating 3/5 [ah] enviably talented young troupe who will no about the visitation she had which inspired of a lecture on Uri Geller than a stand-up gig, subversive lyricism. Channelling hip-hop doubt go far. her quest to become an international rock his deeply researched project is a bizarrely rhythms and tribal chants, he’s impressive The Moon Under The Water Zoo Roxy, 5 - 20 Aug, 8.00pm (8.50pm), £7.50, star. Bursting into song with a gorgeous in full flow, conjuring images of postmodern, fpp274. tw rating 4/5 [ij] riveting hour -- I never thought I’d get myself Z Theatre Company cabaret voice, this comedy character is so caught up in the story of Uri’s life, but post-catastrophe wastelands or mocking In both content and execution, this devised passionate and strong, if a little rambling, Penlington draws his audience in with quick politics and pop culture in hyperactive verbal show makes for uneasy viewing. The Young Pretender and doesn’t shy away from sexuality or age.