Reviews Archive
The Reviews Archive from 1997.

Interviews
Interviews with stand-up stars.

Latest reviews
Scroll down to find review you want

It is hard to equal a show as funny as last year's hit Jeremy Lion's Happy Christmas, but Justin Edwards has done it again. This is absolutely hilarious.

From the moment children's entertainer Jeremy Lion (Edwards) appears on stage, the laughs flow as fast as the booze.

Lion guzzles his way through red wine, lager and whisky as he shows off his trade secrets of making a small child's birthday special: a deranged octopus, dead monkey and model child in a pushchair.

Lion is a beatifully drawn character - extreme but still just credible - and the Beatles-obsessed pianist Leslie (George Cockerill) was again the perfect straight man.

At times the audience simply could not stop laughing.

A great show!

SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): *****

August 2004
Chris Wilson



Open House, C +3,



Helena Thompson's tightly-written play opens with the residents of a seedy hovel planning a wake for their deceased housemate, Ben.

The poet Mairie, impressively played by Mich Duffy, had been in love with the dead man, Josh (Kev Murphy) had been his gay lover, and a tarty visitor Lizzy (Selina Chilton) another sexual partner.

Feelings run high between the three of them, leaving the old man of the house Charlie - performed with a great sense of presence by Keith Drinkel - forlornly trying to paper over the cracks.

The appearance of Ben's borther Edgar (James Thorpe), who calls in a debt to take over their home, threatens to compound their misery.

Quirky Helena Thompson's play is a sharp and witty take on scrambled relationships and squandered talent.

Director Sarah V Chew has made it work effectively and the performances are strong throughout, the scenes between Mairie and Lizzy being particularly amusing.

The production suffers, however, from a dip in pace mid-play, and, ironically, an over-rapid development of the Edgar character (clearly no fault of the actor who does his best with the role).

Overall, though, it is a commendable production that richly deserves a larger audience than it is currently winning.

SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ****

August 2004
Chris Wilson



Julian Fox - New Spaces for Role Models, Edinburgh



This show was just as weird as I had expected.

As well as being a coffee shop obsessive, as he demonstrated in his previous show about the Seattle Coffee Company, it turns out Fox is also a planespotter.

And he is particularly fond of Gatwick Airport, to the degree that he hangs out there and has walked the perimeter fence in 'just under six hours'.

As someone who passes through Gatwick on the train twice every working day, I was actually quite interested in the history of the place.

But despite his collages, diagrams, monotonal songs and so on, Fox did not seem to have found enough material at Gatwick to sustain an entire hour.

So he supplemented it with a short film he had made on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, a bit about Simon Le Bon and stuff about his Jewish faith.

A shame - because you left feeling that although the experience was quite enjoyable, something and nothing had taken place.

SHOW STAR RATING (out of five): ***

August 2004
Chris Wilson



Andrew O'Neill and James Sherwood, Apparently, Smirnoff Underbelly, Edinburgh



Andrew O'Neill and James Sherwood are two rising stars of the comedy circuit.

Apparently they have little else in common. O'Neill is an anarchist who dyes his hair red, Sherwood is a professional singer who could hardly look more ordinary. Yet they are both musical and share a cynicism about organised politics.

Their show opens with a very funny chat between them and then develops into character comedy laced with some straight stand-up.

I was very impressed with the repartee between them and the high qualify of some of the characters. Sherwood's vicar and O'Neill's occult expert were particularly good.

Sherwood's straight stand-up was not quite as strong, but, overall, this was a first-rate performances by two young comedians who are just going to keep getting better.

STAR RATING (out of five): ****

August 2004
Chris Wilson



Pear-shaped at Midnight, Holyrood Tavern, Edinburgh



This London club, transferred to Edinburgh Fringe for August, was its usual shambolic self.

Brian Damage and his wife Vicky got the show going with a send-up of the BBC's patriotic wartime radio presenters and a spoof of the Archers.

It was not bad, although it was pretty surprising Damage could not even the script, taking the shambles a little far.

After the break came the mandatory 17 acts, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It was a genuine open mic night where anyone could have got on and tried to do a bit of comedy.

Act followed act as a girl in the back row pucked up.

They ranged from another sicko Kieran Butler to three Bernard Manning impressionists to a Singing Cook to the talented Stephen Carlin, madcap Christian C Dunn and endearing Josie Long.

Washed down by gallons of Holyrood Tavern ale, it was great fun.

STAR RATING (out of five): ***

August 2004
Chris Wilson

Visit our sister site: Oliver's Poetry home

Get your poems published for free

Friends' Poetry home

Oliver's Poetry Garret Interactive Blog

Oliver's Poetry Garret No Frills Blog

A-Z of Poetry

Oliver's Poetry UK

Click here
for the Reviews Archive.