Reviews Archive
The Reviews Archive from 1997.
Interviews
Interviews with stand-up stars.
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Boothby Graffoe, Assembly Rooms, EdinburghBOOTHBY GRAFFOE makes it look so easy.
From the moment he stepped on stage, the gags flowed seamlessly in a totally-relaxed stream of comedy.
His face is wonderfully expressive and his comic timing impeccable.
Graffoe also milked humour from his partnership with Italian virtuoso guitarist Antonio Forcione. Boothby can clearly play the guitar well himself, but by teaming up with someone so brilliant at it, he was able to be amusingly self-deprecating about his own skills.
The banter between the two men was great, with Forcione coming out with some very funny lines to Graffoe's pretend annoyance.
'Would I turn up at your show and play virtuoso guitar? I don't think so!' quipped Boothby. There was also a good balance to the show.
Forcione performed an extraordinary solo using almost every part of his guitar, including the sides and the back of the instrument.
It was also amazing to see how he could fine-tune his guitar while actually playing a piece. Graffoe did his stand-up on his own, and together the two masters of their crafts performed Boothby's comic songs.
It was an hour of quintessential entertainment, well rounded off when another Italian guitarist and a beautiful cellist from south London joined Boothby and Forcione on stage for a rousing finale.
Graffoe really is a gifted guy: very funny, musical and handsome to boot.
It's enough to make you sick with jealousy.
STAR RATING (out of five): *****
Chris Wilson
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Grandmotherfucker, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
PAT CANDARAS is an interesting character: one of 17 children, twice-married, New York grandmother and a fiercely independent woman.
And it is her great wealth of anecdotal tales, given sharp comic twists and red hot punchlines, upon which she relies in her hilarious monologue.
Like the Big Apple's answer to Victoria Woods, her stories come alive in the animated telling of them.
Key to this is that you instantly like her and relate to her predicaments, whether they involve children, relationships, sex or her sister, Helen.
Although they are many different types of comedy, most depend to some degree on truth. If an audience can buy into and believe what a comedian does on stage, his or her chance of success are greatly enhanced.
So it is with Pat Candaras. We know what she is saying is true and funny - and want to know more.
It is also a surprisingly gentle ride.
She is totally unlike the screeching crone you expect after seeing the provocative publicity material in which she sticks a finger up at the world.
And her material on authority is superb.
Rather than taking a one-track approach as most comedians would, Candaras is honest about both hating and needing authority figures in her life.
Here is a performer who has done a lot of thinking and come to some intelligent and entertaining conclusions.
It was interesting to see that youngsters in the audience related to her observations as much people of her own generation - a tribute to her skills as a comedy writer and performer.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Chris Wilson
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Tom Gleeson's Pirate Copy, Gilded Balloon, EdinburghLIKE A time traveller from the 1970s, Gleeson has landed in Edinburgh with a box of comedy tricks so old it needs carbon-dating.
He shows video sketches that could have come staight out of the Dick Emery or Mike Yarwood shows of television some 30 years ago.
And the youngish comedian displays musical effects - like an echo pedal - as if he'd just invented them. It was like turning up at Microsoft's headquarters to show Bill Gates your pocket calculator.
It wasn't clear what was going on here.
Is Gleeson's show a clever self-parody? If that was the case, it needs to be made much clearer, because at the moment he comes across as a performer who is as naive as he is dated. And the pirate video theme wasn't fully explored or explained.
But it wasn't all bad.
Gleeson's repartee with the audience was sharp, although it was alarming to see him starting to lose his rag with a Scottish drunk who, inexplicably, kept shouting out the word 'cricket'.
And the Australian comic's routines were quite amusing and his delivery was confident and strong.
It was, however, hard to understand the thinking behind the show. It would have been a good idea if he had some research on the state of play in British stand-up and television - before dragging a UK audience into his timewarp.
There was a lack of attention to detail. For instance, his video sketches contained references to Australian dollars and cents, rather than British pounds and pence.
You simply can't come to what is probably the greatest comedy festival in the world and expect to get away with fare that looks antiquated and rehashed.
STAR RATING (out of five): *
Chris Wilson
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
The Midnight Show, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh
THE SIGNS for this show were never good: four jobbing stand-ups, a very hot venue and poor sound insulation from the music event in an adjacent room.
Yet the crowd filed into the Gilded Balloon Backstage 1 - eager to make the most of it.
Geoff Whiting is a far-from-brilliant compere, a comedy hack who constantly says 'right' and uses stock lines beloved by mediocre MCs everywhere.
Put him in a suit and he'd be almost mainstream. All the same, he did a competent job at getting the audience going.
First act, Eddie Brimson, started with two jokes I'd previously heard told by other comedians. His performance got better but he was neither particularly original nor exciting.
Des Clarke was the only comic on the bill with any star potential - but his deliberately-confused, stream-of-consciousness style owed much to Lee Evans and Robin Williams. And his political material was a poor fit with the rest of his act.
Compere Whiting was becoming tiresome, dragging out the night with regular references to a lesbian couple on the front row.
Almost 90 minutes had passed by time the final act, Meryl O'Rourke, went on. The unventilated room was like the Black Hole of Calcutta and I felt more like a hostage than a reviewer.
O'Rourke is simply not a headline act.
Her friendly persona was OK but her material was too weak to close a show - and the audience clearly found it hard to believe her claims to great sexual promiscuity.
She also lacks comedy judgment. When people are hot and exhausted, to further irritate them with a Holocaust gag and passe material about sanitary pads is a bad idea.
It was a third-rate ending to a second-rate night.
STAR RATING (out of five): *
Chris Wilson
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Mark Little Is A Whingeing P.O.H.M., Assembly Rooms, EdinburghMARK LITTLE certainly has presence.
Like an Australian version of Al Murray's Pub Landlord, you cannot deny the power of his performance or the fearlessness with which he attacks taboos.
His show had much to commend it: plenty of funny routines, amusing poems and a lovely finish. Although a bit on the shouty side, Little comes across as genuine when he claims to have been a union rebel-rouser, general trouble-maker and urban anarchist.
And he knows comedy and how to shock an audience - unlike his former Neighbours co-star Lucinda Cowden whose Edinburgh show he gratuitously plugged.
The 'Mark in the dark' section of Little's show, in which he plunged the room into darkness and then detonated a loud explosion on stage, almost made me jump out of my skin.
Yet there were gentler passages, such as the phony barbeque scene, which were charmingly funny and made excellent use of background slides.
And he uses his Neighbours past well, winning maximum laughs with the way he expresses his hatred of Australian TV's most successful exports.
Little also knows how to play an audience, bringing them into the loop wherever he can, and using a guy from the crowd for a great finale.
He and the bloke did a silly Morris dance on stage while the punters stood and sang along - rounding off the show on the wonderfully jaunty note.
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Chris Wilson
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Lucinda Cowden's Bland Ambition, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh
AUSTRALIAN ACTRESS and former Neighbours star Lucinda Cowden invited the audience into her simple world - a place of heroines and villains; over-confidence and presumed success.
Pretending to drink neat gin and smoke a joint during the performance, Cowden attempted to shock while maintaining her girl-next-door voice and manner.
It was an unmitigated disaster.
Long stretches of her supposedly comedy show were laughter-free zones while she patronised the audience with her facile and contradictory views on feminism, politics and economics.
With her homespun brand of pseudo-intellectualism, Cowden was totally out of her depth, confusing and boring rather than entertaining.
If Cowden wants to be a comedian, she needs to learn the basics of the craft - and write some funny material.
If she wants to be an academic lecturer, she needs to go back to college and do some serious research, so has something interesting and intelligent to say.
On the plus side, Cowden clearly has some performance skills that could be put to better use with a good script and professional direction.
And she clearly would like to do something thought-provoking, if only she could get her head round what it is.
But, currently, the irony is that she claims to dislike the soap opera that made her famous.
Yet without Neighbours, Cowden would be most unlikely to be playing the Fringe with a show that fails quality controls on most counts.
STAR RATING (out of five): *
Chris Wilson
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Jackie Clune: Bitchin', Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh JACKIE CLUNE has a great singing voice.
Not great enough to make me part with £10 for her CD which she personally stood selling by the door as the 80-strong crowd left, but a great voice all the same and funny to boot.
Clune sings us through a history of lesbian divas, and, inbetween the singing, her stand-up reminds me of Jenny Eclair or Mandy Knight, dirty and deprecating. She could have a chip on her shoulder, if she could be arsed.
She does imaginative put-down and describes all type of lesbians, before telling us of her Yorkshire GB, that's Gay Boyfriend, not Geoff Boycott.
Bringing the act up to date, she slates the current crop of chart artists, reducing Steps, S Club 7 and even Gary Barlow to the level they deserve.
Her finale is the tongue-in-cheek track on her CD that she wants us to make Number 1.
Rating (out of five) ***
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Dara O'Briain, Pleasance, Edinburgh DARA IS 29 and a half and is looking for suggestions of things to do before he is 30.
He may not take up many audience suggestions, especially from the well-travelled lady in the audience who can't keep up with the topics, but 'The Big Man' (as he is often called when in Scotland) is already well-travelled and knowledgeable, sharing many of his experiences with us.
These included attempting to surf in Australia and making his dad proud by crashing the car for the first time on Christmas Eve.
There is more audience involvement with 'the most famous person you've ever met', which turns into a bidding process among the audience (Jagger at an airport check-in beats Shaun Ryder and his parents in the pub.)
Dara's own most famous celeb moment comes when he is totally hung over and trying to post a parcel in New Zealand.
On describing his travels, he introduces the tale of the woman from Cork for the first time, getting photos by the volcanoes.
The funniest moment for me was getting George W. Bush to make an apology to the Chinese.
In what was fast becoming an invited audience of radio phone-in fans, Dara asks what is the worst thing a new sexual partner could tell you about themselves and what to do if attacked by various wild animals.
In a cool game of comedy tennis, O'Briain quickly returns humorous replies throughout the show.
The audience loved it - and so did I. Grand!
STAR RATING (out of five): ****
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Condition of The Virgin (by Boothby Graffoe), Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh THIS IS an intriguing 70 minutes which opens with the explanation of how main characters priest Brendan Dempsey and gravedigger Peter Barry met 15 years before - in the graveyard where Barry was looking for dead people's names to use in his novel.
While preparing to dig a hole for Mrs Mannerman (who had died in strange circumstances, falling out of a sycamore tree while holding an apple), Barry sees - and thinks he is spoken to - by the Virgin Mary and this gives the previously unreligious Welshman the power of the faith.
Meanwhile, a junior reporter from the local paper is on her way to interview Dempsey about Mrs Mannerman - but on arrival she is not what the pair expected.
Dempsey and Barry demand to know who 'Susan' really is and for what reason 'she' is there.
This is a deep and at times dark tale from the mind of stand-up turned playwright Boothby Graffoe (pictured).
The performance is littered with laughs, such as the laying stilton cheese to attract a better class of mouse, and Barry taking the gravedigger job because there were no forms to fill in, only holes.
The show deservedly received a Fringe First Nomination.
Star Wars Trilogy in Thirty Minutes, Drummond Community Centre, Edinburgh
IN A galaxy far away from Princes Street in a school community centre 25 minutes walk from the main action on the Fringe, this fast-moving late-night show condensing the first three Lucas films into 30 minutes of dialogue and action attracted a surprisingly healthy crowd.
The scripts were well adapted and brought us the best lines from our favourite characters Skywalker, Obi-wan, Solo, Vader, Leia, even Chewbacca, R2D2 and Yoda plus many more in a 20-strong cast.
The action scenes and costumes were improvised well.
Spaceships were recreated by chairs and flashlights.
Meteorites were portrayed by bread crates.
Even The Force made cameo appearances to guide Luke in his battle with the dark side!
The speed of events brought laughs as did the props. If only all films could be condensed like this!
We were even warmed up by three songs before the show started: 'Living La vida Yoda', 'Her Name was Leia, She was a princess' and 'Hi, my name is, my name is Darth Vader'.
STAR RATING (out of five): *****
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Parsons and Naylor: Spin, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh THE SHOW in a nutshell - to repeat the cliche that the duo use regularly - is a live, uncut best of their radio show that is currently airing its second series on Radio Two.
The two former Spitting Image writers perform topical sketches with running commentary on the characters' objectives, flaws, decisions and the scenes outcome.
The humourous format is applied to the troubles in Northern Ireland, the party political conferences and various stereotypical situations such as American movies, gangster movies, Top 20 chart music and proud Northern parent.
Naylor starts the show by asking who voted and for whom, and then delights in telling an American that elections in this country only take one day.
Amazingly, there was no Geri Halliwell mention (by name) but a great gag about Victoria Beckham's toilet, which was printed in the People's TV page.
It was an entertaining hour from two experienced comedians.
Even when Parsons thinks quicker than he speaks and makes a fluff, the ad-libs compensate and get a laugh.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
News Revue, Chambers St. Theatre, Edinburgh
THIS SHOW marked the 21st anniversary of the News Revue team - and what a splendid way to celebrate their coming of age!
An hour of slick and downright funny material matched to music. Even questionable subjects were made funny.
A few items were similar to other topical shows, but News Revue went further and threw in Chris and Billie ('I Got You Babe'), Denise Van Outen in Chicago, Charles and Camilla, George W on Mastermind, Sven Goran Erikkson's translator, Geri Halliwell (I'm Really thin) and Anne Robinson among many others.
It was the best-written topical show on the Fringe and excellently performed.
STAR RATING (out of five): *****
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
An Infinite Number of Monkeys, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh
THIS WAS a neat sketch show performed by two male performers who were nominated for the Perrier Newcomers award last year.
No monkeys, but refreshing tackling of different topics rather than just recent news.
There was a fairly predictable opening sketch describing how man evolved from monkeys before moving to cavemen and through the ages, from Adam and Eve divorcing, Richard III and his 700 wives.
Funny sketches included the imaginary friend making other friends, the dictionary writers playing Scrabble and the shifty salesman selling space by the busload, and goods by the truckload.
I thought these were two confident performers who, if you threw in the three women from Lipstick On Your Teeth, could form the next Friday night television sketch show team.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Lee Dempsey: The Stand In, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh
'EVER HAD a bad day at work?' asks the leaflet that promotes the show.
'Ever had a bad hour at work?' was my reaction.
I found there was no dialogue to the show. It's all visual with no deep message (says the leaflet).
Sadly, this Mr Bean wannabee could not hold my attention for an entire hour.
The sketches were mildly amusing, as Philip battled the different jobs he is sent to by the worst job agency in the world.
These included triangle player in an Orchestra, locating rare spiders at the zoo, fashion model and stripper at the Women's Institute.
I think the show might have been bearable if cut to half an hour.
STAR RATING (out of five): *
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Adam Bloom: And God Created Adam, Pleasance, Edinburgh THIS WAS a strange show. Adam reassures us that he is not s**t.
In fact we are the wierdest audience he has had all year. He thinks we should be laughing more, belly laughing perhaps at his really good lines.
He runs through the mobile phone texting material that he performed on BBC1 for their Themed Text night in June.
He later tells us that he hates TV blondes, mentioning Anneka Rice and Vanessa but does not mention Ulrika who hosted the text night.
He claims his great achievement was changing the ringing tone of one girl's phone from Monty Python to normal ring mode.
Topics covered as he gets going are his likeness to Eminem because of the short peroxide blond hair and how to get the telephone number of the directory enquiries girl. It still seems to be playing on his mind that it is not the greatest gig of his life, before a heckler gives him the chance to score some easy brownie points.
Three years ago, Bloom did material with a Rubik cube in his fringe show, and he claims his finale on this occasion is Part Two of that.
Overall, it was an off night of sorts for a comedian experienced enough to bounce back.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Bag It Up: Lipstick On Your Teeth, Chambers St Theatre, Edinburgh
A SMACK Your Pony-style sketch show from three talented young actresses with various theatre and television credits to their names.
The sketches included actresses researching being whores for a TV role, Jennifer Lopez backing dancers, builders in a cafe, rude receptionists at a surgery, a neurotic Irish mother, Hackney girls with attitude problems and weight watchers' local meetings.
Despite virtually ripping off a Harry Enfield sketch about fruit and veg sellers, these energetic girls are fun to watch, although I'm not sure why during sketches involving only one or two, the redundant member/s stood at the back, facing the wall.
At one point, the unused team member turned into an usherette, finding seats at the front for latecomers.
Not quite the updated gentlemanís relish as advertised.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Woods and Hide: Wild On TV, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh
A PACKED venue with extra chairs added for an early evening show that some parents thought might appeal to teenagers.
We were even given sweets from a hyper member of the team while queuing up.
Yet this show was the wrong side of the watershed, and they were also short of their advertised claim of doing 60 characters in 60 minutes.
The show is fronted by an over-the-top Dame Edna-style lunatic and her co-presenter who looks like she has been dug up from the Les Dawson show.
They also introduce other acts, such as Ricki Lake, Judge Judy and Anne Robinson doing Eminem, and an annoying Geordie female TV presenter.
In between costume changes, they show spoof TV adverts on fairly easy targets like legal firms that get you £40 if you have a life changing accident and a type of colostomy bag which doesn't interrupt with your workday.
In a Stars in their Eyes moment at the finale, Jason Woods sings David Gray, and Pavarotti with the words he thinks they might use.
The shows claims to be what would be on TV if the performers were in charge of the scheduling.
But if this show makes it to TV, it won't be on cable or satellite.
Although it failed to live up to my expectations, I found it hard not to be somewhat entertained.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Far Too Happy by the Cambridge Footlights, Pleasance, Edinburgh
THIS WAS a strange, albeit well performed, sketch show using a wide spectrum of characters in unconnected sketches.
The main players were the Welsh grim reaper with gay tendancies who was kept fairly busy although some of his calls were hoaxes; Lee, the young Ford Fiesta driver who does his best to get in with the main gang at a party; the taxi driver who was expecting a child to 'just turn up' and the unhappily married couple struggling to get by and get on.
The large video screen backdrop helped to set scenery but was let down by the plot.
I was puzzled why the same characters were used in different sketches but not linked into a proper storyline. It seemed a bit messy and a wasted opportunity.
The main theme of the show seemed to be that not everyone can be happy - or happiness could happen at any time.
STAR RATING (out of five): **and a half
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Matt King Is A Child, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
THERE WAS no mention of the title in this late night show, although he did mention his dad early on in reference to cryptic crosswords.
If anything the title of the show should have included animals, which take up a lot of the hour. Aardvarks, zebras, lions and Noah's Ark all get a mention.
With the look of Lofty from EastEnders (remember him?) and the mannerisms of Lee Hurst in stand-up, King rambles through the show and admits he doesnít have a finish.
Although he could easily go on for an hour or more, at this stage of his career he is probably better suited to a 20-minute slot on a Friday night unless he can link the material to a theme and come up with a finale.
STAR RATING (out of five): **
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
Jack Russell: I Prefer Dogs, The Stand, Edinburgh JACK RUSSELL is a laid back sort of guy who is comfortable playing to the small number of people who have turned up to see him.
He even offers cushions to the last person laughing but only Simon in the front row manages to earn one.
The size of the audience means when we vote if we prefer cats or dogs, he can count the hands, rather than judge the voices.
Cats win, but only because the sound engineer votes.
Politics, religion and drugs are the subjects that Russell specialises in.
The current state of the Tory party and the leadership contest between Ken Clarke and Iain Duncan Smith get more attention that the Labour Government.
And he shows us two videos: the first one at the start of the show fairly mundane stuff just pulling a rope tug of war style with himself, but the second shows more inventive if not original efforts.
We even see in the background the boat that Russell tells us he lives on.
The videos were in Russell's own words, shambolic and messy but nice. I have to agree and think Russell could go on to bigger things if only he tightens up his material.
STAR RATING (out of five): ***
Peter Merrett
Edinburgh Fringe 2001 issue
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