As time flies by, I've lost track of what day it is. Drinking has started at 1 o'clock every day, and finished at the other 1 o'clock in the day. Money is dwindling fast. Ok that's not true. But there have been complaints that I've not mentioned the amount of alcohol consumed. But this is me we're talking about. I think you can safely assume I'm not doing this fortified by cups of tea.
So yesterday. Dave Skinner. Mmmm. Liked the idea of his friend interviewing him as Brian Beloved, star of Brash Gordon. But to be honest that was about it. There were some funny voiceovers in between the sketches which were funnier. But then, mentioning being shafted by Sean Connery, whilst being interviewed is always going to be funnier.
Howard Read and Little Howard. I asked to see big and little Howard. The basic premise is big 'human' Howard is on stage, little Howard on the screen and they interact. LB is not quite 5yrs old, so a lot of the humour comes from his childish misunderstandings. It's amazingly clever. LB can even interact with the audience. No really. Unfortunately in the show I saw LB was in a coma, and so he was played by Dara O'Brien. They decided 2 have a laughter appeal to try and get him out of the coma. Wogan and Pudsey even showed their support. Ok all that sounds like I've gone mad. It's good, trust me.
Penny Spubb's Party. There isn't a lot I can say about this, disappointing is one word. Shameful, another. It had a good review somewhere, god knows where, but it was sold out and all the people in the queue were telling me it was supposed to be fantastic. That same audience bolted at the first chance through the fire exit 30mins in. Leaving me suffering. Thanks guys. I'm assuming the ones left are family members, friends, paid monkeys. They had 3 one minute sketches which were funny but ultimately not their own. Party games gone wrong. Such as musical chairs, but someone forgets to take away a chair. Etc. Enough said.
Toulson and Harvey. I really enjoyed. Set around a news team. Slight impersonations, names changed for comedy affect, ever Robert Righteous Self, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Kilroy. Blair, being kept in a cupboard by evil Blair. Two impressions of Blair, at the same time. What more could you want?
Angelo Tsarouchas is a good polished Greek Canadian. His stand up revolved around fat jokes, he himself is fat. Most jokes were a little too obvious for my liking, and I like a little variety in my life. An hour of fat jokes is a little testing. There was a McDonald's joke in there for those of us who like our McDonalds (Ali.) He wanted to know why the seating in McDonalds wasn't made for people who ate in McDonalds. E.g. If he hiccupped he would have given himself the hiemlich manoeuvre against the seating which was too close to him.
Janey Godley is one of the funnier women I've seen so far. She's written a book about her mad life which I want to read. Seeing the stand up show makes me want to read the book even more. She's very good at story telling. Whilst none of this will sound funny, it is. She was abused by her Uncle at a young age, her parents were alcoholics, her mother was murderd, she married a sufferer of Asperger Syndrome (See Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nightime by Mark Haddon), oh and her husband is related to the mafia, he possibly had her mother's killer killed. (That bit is still on going.) She's currently having scans for Breast Cancer whilst she is up here, so that's been written into the show too. Throughly enjoyable show, though not as laugh out loud as some of the other shows I've seen.
And so that was Tuesday.
Other little notes. I've seen Arthur Smith walking around, which I understand is an Edinburgh must. He is an institution here. I believe he isn't doing the naked thing any more, which is probably a blessing.
I've met John Pidgeon, who's chairing the Perrier this year. Seems a very nice and I can see him being very fair. Don't think he actually gets to cast a vote though.
Anyway must get cracking. 18 shows in 2 and half days. Plenty more to go.
3 comments:
Nice to see you're not suffering some of these acts dry. The Howards sound quite funny, more of a novelty act though or do they have legs ?
Good to hear about the drinking and the shows, but, we (possibly only myself, Lucy & Caz) would be interested to know how good the talent is (and I'm not talking comedy here)... Have you seen Richard Herring yet?! That's a joke by the way... I don't do myself any favours do I?!
Apologies, I have just re-read your blog and see the mention of talent. You say there is a distinct lack of it - positively thinking... it can't be as bad as The Underworld on a Saturday night... Can it?
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