The Arthur Smith gig was advertised on Edinburghguide.com and not an official Fringe event, but could not possibly have been more of an Edinburgh Fringe gig "in spirit".

30-08-2004      Arthur Smith's Royal Mile Tour    Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

A freebie - so long as you are at The Castle at 2am on a Saturday night for this one-off event!
There are approximately 100 people waiting for Arthur, who is a few minutes late, like most Fringe shows, and starts with Arthur getting a lady in a purple dress and thick boots to snog the security guard.
Arthur stops at various points, clearly under the influence, and gives an excellent impersonation of a drunk pretending to a be a tour guide and not knowing what he is jabbering about, and making it up as he goes. It's not far from the reality.
There is help from a planted drunk on a statue, from people overlooking the royal mile, and the German tourist who has joined, not Edinburgh Police Force, but "the other one", in an effort to ensure that he does not get arrested. It turns out that he is God and has the power to destroy Starbucks with a stare - but unfortunately he looks the wrong way.
Our friend in the purple dress reappears chasing a dwarf riding a cycle whilst his helmet is on fire.
We also meet fire jugglers outside City Chambers (and somehow manage to suppress our urge to tell them what to do with their fire sticks) and Ronnie Golden, who busks Bob Dylan for us.
There are celebs in the crowd who are along for the ride down the Royal Mile as far as Tron Kirk, where the crazy world of Arthur S mith comes to a conclusion just afore 3am.

Crazy and fun. 8/10

30-08-2004    Salsa Celtica     Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

With drums, trumpets, saxophones, a banjo, a guitar, some flutes and a set of bagpipes, this ten-piece band take up the whole of the Spiegeltent’s stage.
From the go the audience is under the spell of the beat and the rhythm, which is mostly Latin, but the Celtic asserts itself, and on other occasions the styles just fuse together imperceptibly.
The lyrics are Spanish. I don’t understand a word. I don’t care.
If you do not enjoy a gig like this there must be something truly wrong with you. I would defy anyone not to, at the very least, tap their feet, as I am sure that most normal human beings would prefer to dance along.
Some of the numbers are quite long – again I don’t care, but after an hour of this, including an encore, I needed a rest, and so did most of the crowd.
For the rest of the evening I found myself humming other Latin sounds that I was more familiar with. I still am.

10/10

Salsa Celtica are at The Spiegeltent. 

30-08-2004 Adam Hills – Go You Big Red Fire Engine 2 – Judgement Day  Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

For those who didn’t see his previous show, Adam explains how a fireman came to yell his theme which he demonstrates with a late arrival, who also happens to be front and centre.

Calling out “go you big red fire engine” and getting the t-shirts in the most public of places is not only Adam’s goal but it is taking on a life of its own. An Aussie parliamentarian called it out and mountaineers on Everest took pics whilst wearing the t-shirt. The international aspects of this allow him an opportunity for some nationality based observations, mostly involving the Swedish chef from The Muppets!

He then turns to a social issue, and reports that Disney staff are instructed not to be photographed with sick or disabled people, apparently in an effort to ensure Disney characters are not associated with ill-health, or even death! They not only discourage photos, but security guards are instructed to usher Disney characters away from such people.

Adam has a false lower right leg. He happens to be in L.A. and decides to rush to Disney and have a photo taken of him, in shorts, in the grounds. A life-size version is revealed from behind a curtain to cheers and applause.

Adam then goes on to demonstrate what fun openly gay churchmen would be with a song and dance number that will live long in the memory.

It’s great fun with some social conscience. 9/10.

 Adam Hills is appearing at The Assembly Rooms.

30-08-2004   Scott Capurro     Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

Scott Capurro’s persona can be described as a cross between “Jack” from Will and Grace and Graham Norton.

This outrageously gay comic doesn’t so much appeal to the audience’s feminine side, but rather the inner bitch.

His scathing references to Perrier nominees will not endear him (especially in view of his short run at The Fringe), nor will his take on the local gay sex scene.

I found myself laughing at some of this bitchiness. Usually I reproached myself, but not every time.

There are some outrageously funny moments, but I left feeling in need of a shower, because I felt as though I had been involved in something sordid. Truth be told, a Scott Capurro gig is exactly that.

7/10

Scott Capurro is at The Pleasance Courtyard

30-08-2004                 Jimmy Carr – Charm Offensive      Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

Jimmy’s warm-up act is a big display screen. It’s well thought out and works. Nice start.

Typically well-dressed, smug and conceited, Jimmy lays into fat women and their men, Glaswegians, regional accents and anything that might cause offence, and gets away with it based purely on the fact that he is so openly smug and conceited..

I you have seen Your Face Or Mine or Distraction, then you know what to expect, but Jimmy’s style of selfish and offensive wisecracks is not to everyone’s liking. One man stormed out.

Most of the audience would come under one of the groups that Jimmy fires at. This is part of the charm. Anyone can be a victim, especially if they try to record part of the gig on their mobile and Jimmy spots them!

You have to have a lot of nerve and skill to pull this act off, which Jimmy does with nonchalance. You do wonder if he really is playing the role, or he is the role, and been smart enough to cash in.

In any event, if you don’t take him too seriously you should enjoy it, even if you feel a bit guilty on occasion.

8/10

Jimmy Carr at The EICC

25-08-2004

Jo Caulfield – Role Model  Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

The audience is asked before hand what annoys them. Hmmm…

The theme, Jo explains, came about when a women she knew told her that her that she had been advised to think of a role model, and become them, to get her through situations she had difficulty coping with. Jo therefore explores who our role models are.

We learn that most are men, although when women are mentioned, they are relations. Mothers, or grandmothers. As for the situations that might make us think of them, we come back to what annoys the audience. It seems some of us might be assuming these identities in very strange and very singular situations. Others become Clint Eastwood on an alarmingly regular basis.

Some of this is funny, but most is at best amusing, and again we find that when the material isn’t providing the laughs, they tend to come from the interaction between comic and audience, and Jo is accomplished at that.

6/10

Jo Caulfield is appearing at the Pleasance Dome.

25-08-2004

Colin Hay – Man At Work   Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

The former front man of Men At Work is “looking for his dance”. According to a drunken fan/critic from a show in Australia, Colin “used to have a dance”, and evidently he’s lost it. This is the first of a series of amusing stories that Colin tells in between playing several of his hits and favourite solo songs.

Colin has been up and down, almost literally. He tells us of a gig with Ringo Starr followed by first-class air travel by private jet, and then his own solo tour of the US in what sounds like the “fried-out combie” from Down Under, and no one believing that he wrote that song, because he isn’t Sting. It is at this point he does a lovely acoustic version of Down Under, and you can’t help thinking of Sting’s solo version of Roxanne. His wife joins him on stage to add vocals and dance for a finale.

This maybe a show for those who remember the hits or even know some of his solo songs, but if not, you should still enjoy the stories as well as some thoughtful pieces of music, which accompany each other very nicely.

8/10

Colin Hay is appearing at The Assembly Rooms.

25-08-2004

NewsRevue (25th Anniversary Gala Performance)  Reviewed by Andrew J. Moran

The 25th Anniversary show starts with the Guinness World Records award for “The World’s Longest Theatrical Run of a Comedy”

Featuring their best songs and sketches from their 25 year history, the NewsRevue cast of four, plus a sound and effects man, provide a satirical and hilarious side-swipe at many political and famous figures since 1979.

The songs are well known numbers with the lyrics substantially rewritten to suit, e.g. Bonnie Tyler singing “I need a hero…” becomes Tony Blair singing “I need a Euro…”. You get the picture.

There are sketches as well, with George Bush prominent, but I liked the rude one about the Lady who had Frank Sinatra singing when she was, ahem, unplugged.

Credit must also go to the Sound Man, whose humorous news announcements in between sketches enabled the cast the time to make their numerous costume changes.  

The show’s finale of the trial of Saddam Hussein set to music and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody brought the house down.

One or two of the quick sketches fell a little flat, but otherwise this was a great performance, which included most of the topical sketches that are to be seen during the rest of the run.

These guys can proudly stand beside the likes of Bremner, Bird and Fortune, Have I Got News For You, and pretty much any other news satire you can think of.

9/10

NewsRevue is being performed at C (Venue 34), in Chambers Street.

18-08-2004

Andrew J. Moran reviews  Des Clarke

Des Clarke (with an “e” on the end, he has been challenged to clarify) bounds onto the stage like a gazelle. His act continues at breakneck speed.

For anyone who has seen Des on The (Live) Floorshow and his several minute stints should be made aware – it is an hour of the same kind of thing at the same kind of pace.

Using his trademark of a stutter to suddenly go down a new subject route, and then usually (but not always) coming back to where he was, (eleven… eleven… I live in, I live in a clock! Me and the cuckoo…it’s a timeshare!), Des’s barrage of humour has the audience in his hands.

Although some of the jokes are a bit corny, they still make you smile or chuckle, and by the time your mouth has reacted, your brain is taking in the next gag, which just ends up improving the reaction to the last gag, and so on and so forth.

All of a sudden, it’s over, and yes it has been an hour, despite your sensing that nowhere near that amount of time has elapsed. A Des Clarke gig is more than comedy – it breaks the rules of space and time, that no comic has had before…

8/10.

Des Clark is appearing at The Pod Deco in Clerk Street.

Andrew J. Moran reviews Dan Antopolski – A Whim Away

So far, Dan is in pole position for the best incidental music at a Fringe gig. “Mimoweh” (A whim away – geddit?) is played as the audience settles, then he comes on to the theme from “Wonder Woman”. Nice start.

The theme is lies and boasting. Plenty of scope there, and it’s needed as Dan flits easily from one subject to another as though there really are links between them – there aren’t, except for the lying and boasting thing.

Problem is, it doesn’t always work. Sometimes the total change of subject is funny, but too often it is amusing, and sometimes barely that. He mentions on a couple of occasions that he is a middle-class comic, but for no apparent reason. Is it to explain his highbrow attempt to explain why one particular joke is funnier than another by using algebra? If it is, it’s unnecessary, as the joke works without it.

The worst-case scenario for Dan with these tenuous or non-existent links between jokes is that he might get lost himself. He does, to his suitable embarrassment.

Dan has a good presence on stage, but with such hit and miss material, it counts for little.

6/10

Dan Antopolski is appearing at The Pleasance Courtyard.

Andrew J. Moran reviews Mark Thomas

Mark goes straight in. Target: Blunkett. A hit more certain than a cruise missile.

Then it’s the story of his first ever arrest (believe it or not), for attaching himself, to the underside of a vehicle.

Along with the story of the guy who was arrested for having an upside down US flag with an abusive message for President Bush, Mark’s stories are topical, farcical, but most of all funny.

Following an interval in what is roughly an hour and three-quarter gig, Mark then refers to his latest campaign against arguably the biggest opponent he has faced yet – Coke-cola.

The history is bad enough. The drink that started as wine and cocaine, there followed indirect involvement with Nazi Germany through ads in Nazi newspapers, bottling plants in annexed territories, the creation of Fanta because of the scarcity of ingredients to create Coke-cola.

The current day stories are actually worse.

We hear of murders, bombings, disappearances, paramilitaries, the loss of water supplies to whole areas – all because of Coke-cola plants.

Some of these actions were aimed at trade unionists. Unsurprisingly the union was broken, and Coke-cola responded by reducing the wages of its workers.

Mark Thomas is gifted at being able to interlace his stories with humour and pathos. He has done it better before, but only by nature of the material.

9/10.

Mark Thomas is appearing at The Bongo Club, and touring nationally.

Andrew J. Moran  reviews  Anvil Springstein – Bingo Nannas and Other Causes of Terrorism

Anvil is a middle-aged Scouse comic, so his source of humour is unsurprisingly growing up in Liverpool.

Despite his age, Anvil bounces around the mike with childish enthusiasm, even escorting an elderly gentleman, who has to leave early, to the door, returning to the stage to tell us it’s, “the Perrier judge!”

His childhood was laced with violence and cruelty, and revolves around a cruel family joke played by his “Mam” and aunt, after they won at Bingo (hence “Bingo Nannas”), and brought him home some bathing trunks, which were actually a pair of girls’ navy blue gym knickers. Anvil points out that physical pain is not remembered and can be gotten used to, whereas mental cruelty is remembered and far more destructive.

There is nothing new about the source of this material, and Anvil can be dismissed all too easily as just another Scouse comic, but Anvil is funnier than at least some of the “stars” of the Fringe Festival, and whilst he may lack the glossy TV appeal of some, he has his place on the comedy circuit.

16-08-2004                                            Richard Vallance reviews Durang Durang

I first saw Skullduggery Theatre Company at the 2003 fringe and was compelled to see their first night .  From one of the most dysfunctional families ever by way of a  spiteful god ( a capricious Philip Lawrence) to a widow (the elegant Natalie Haverstock) who is ironically taught to grieve by the socially inept Daniel Sung the cast deliver one amazing performance after another.

The company takes the audience from sympathy to frustration and release. and it is over all too soon.

This company is going places.

Richard Vallance

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