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This was my last day alone on the Fringe. The majority of the shows I saw on this day were pre-booked. Some were old favourites, one or two were things I thought ought to be good. By the time I met up with Mal and the others later on (10:45 ish), Fringe-fever had started to set in. I was a walking encyclopedia of shows and was started to get all "showed out". Part of this was the fact that I saw quite a few shows on these day and 3 of them were much longer than the normal one hour, plus three of them were in the same theatre - I was out of the room long enough for them to re-set and then let me back in. It's a much more weird experience going in and out of the same room to see quite different shows.
Friday was definitely music day!
Show: Zipp - 100 musicals in 90 minutes
Performed by: Pocket Musical Theatre Company
When: 12:00
Where: Assembly Rooms Music Hall
Cost: £11
A simple premise. Get four performers (one pianist and three singers) to do clips from at least 100 musicals in under 100 minutes (or your money back). As they said themselves - this is a show for the lovers of musicals, you get to see 100 in a short timespan, but it's also a show for people who hate musicals - you can get 100 of them out of the way quite quickly.
The show featured Giles Brandreth - this is not necessarily a good thing. Indeed, it worried me. If I revealed some of what he got up to, it might worry you too. However, this was not the Giles Brandreth we expect - this was the amusing and reasonably musically-competent showman who shepherded us through the show without presenting much of his trademark ego. In fact, the man got a standing ovation from a large crowd... this was quite an experience!
I enjoyed the show - they pay tribute to and also rip the piss out of the musicals they sing. Some of the highlights include - the complete works of Andrew Lloyd Webber in 60 seconds, a Les Miserables extravaganza and the flying car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - I hope to see this show again!
Show: Jerry Springer The Opera
Performed by: Kombat Opera
When: 14:35
Where: Assembly Rooms, Music Hall
Cost: £14.50
I booked this because I thought it looked comical. I did not realise four important facts about this show:
It's hard to say too much about the show and do it justice. They started with the rabble-style TV that is Springer, and demonstrated the archetypal guests, ending with a fantastic song/dance routine by the Ku Klux Clan. However, the show then, in its second Act, changed gear and asked the question - can Springer actually do any good? could he, for instance, resolve a problem? They put him in a debate between Jesus and the Devil and we all watched as things were played out with brilliance.
As an opera, this was the business - well performed, well written, it sounded good and looked good. As a bit of satire, this was also very wry. As entertainment, the show was packed with carefully crafted belly laughs. I came away from this a better person.
Show: Woman Wizard
Performed by: Robert Llewellyn
When: 17:10
Where: Assembly Rooms, Supper Room
Cost: £11
Website: http://www.llew.co.uk
Sorry Robert, I had high hopes for this show but it was only faintly amusing, rather than hilarious. I didn't go in as a Red Dwarf fan, or even a scrapheap challenge. I even turned off my computer-programmer brain. I thought you were going to offer some sort of insight into relationships or something. What we got was quite lack lustre - mediocre script with occasional highlights, and a rather rambling delivery. Even the graphics were irritating (though I looked at them with a computer head on - features on them moved around as you changed frame, which looked odd).
Some chortles... not worth seeing again. There were better shows in that particular room in the Assembly Rooms which I'd rather have seen instead.
Show: Whiter! Brighter!
Performed by: Bob Downe
When: 19:15
Where: Assembly Rooms, Music Hall
Cost: £13.50
So glad was I to have the chance to see Bob again, after a 4 or 5 year absence from this country, I didn't question the show too much. Plus, I was rather entranced and distracted by the jiggy rhythms of the female contingent of his "Apple White Dancers". However, looking at the show more critically, it did seem that he has been whiter and brighter before now.
Having said that, the audience enjoyed the show greatly, as did I, and there were many laughs as his stand-up and musical tomfoolery unfolded. Perhaps with a longer show he can be more the Bob I'd seen before.
Show: The Legendary Polowski Murders
Performed by: Phil Brown and Gareth Tunley
When: 21:30
Where: Pleasance Dome 4
Cost: £10
Website: http://www.pleasance.co.uk/edin/prog/folders/philandgareth/index.html
After I'd seen Over The Rainbow on Thursday, I chatted to someone outside the venue about the Fringe and some ideas I had about doing something myself. This chap turned out to be Gareth Tunley, who told me about his show. As was my rule, I tried to find a time to go and see his show. Since Mal turned out not to be arriving until later than expected, off I went to see the Legendary Polowski Murders.
The show was exceedingly good and I hope that I hear more from this double-act. They probably deserve their own 6 part series on Radio 4, being exceedingly good character actors, with original material. Perhaps less original was their coffee gag (one cup with 36 shots of espresso in - it's a muthafuckaccino), but it was delivered well!
The setup was this. The 100 man audience was addressed by the two characters as though we were a group of rookie cops in a briefing. Some ludicrous murder set up was described and we watched our two head officers try to crack the case, while occasionally ordering random audience members to do things (which didn't actually need any participation, but kept the pretense up - they kept addressing us as "officers" and kept the house lights up so we felt part of the production).
Every so often one of the two would go offstage and return as an alternative character - usually either to advance the plot or to take the mickey out of the weaknesses in the other character. A stylish show with a lot of laughs.
Show: Charlie Chuck is Scrooge
Performed by: Charlie Chuck
When: 23:30
Where: Gilded Balloon Backstage 1
Cost: £8.50
Website: http://www.CharlieChuckProductions.thejohnfleming.com
I love Charlie Chuck. It's as simple as that. His daughter was flyering and I told her that I'd be coming to his show since the guy slays me. I nearly died laughing at his last show 7 years ago. In that show he was just doing his "woof bark donkey" stuff, and it became so intense, I nearly understood what it was all about.
This show was his answer to A Christmas Carol. He said that it had been an ambition to bring this to the Fringe and so he got off his arse and did it. Simple as that. Respect is due! This was Mal's first show at the Fringe, and could easily have set the tone for his entire visit. It was important that this was a good show - expectations were riding high. I'll say this: when I harangued the fellow who plays Charlie Chuck (David someone or other) the following day in the street, and complimented him on the show, I meant it.
We laughed a hell of a lot - perhaps this was in some way inspired by the classic Charlie Chuck antics, like playing the drums (quite well) using planks of wood, and then smashing them up at the end. Or telling silly jokes. Or going on about donkeys, one eyed dogs and the like. Or perhaps it was the Christmas Carol formula (no - they didn't really make much of a go of it). Perhaps it was the constant stream of script foul-ups which made the show seem funnier as they flailed through the material. Or maybe it was the sight of a man sitting at a school table eating sugar puffs with water... I'll never know.
Sadly, Charlie Chuck's audience is much diminished since his days with Reeves and Mortimer. However, he put on a good show and I laughed until I felt positively ill.
Show: The Establishment
Performed by: Various
When: 01:00
Where: Venue C
Cost: £5
Website: http://www.CtheFestival.com
I took Mal to this gig and we were both impressed and amused. One act was the living legend that is Peter Buckley Hill (who? - I didn't know either, but we soon worked out the in jokes and found him to be the genius that he clearly is - instantly likeable). Cheese grater jokes and soft toys abound.
The acts included Josie Long and a few other new stand-ups with varying degrees of amusement generated. Josie was a highlight - hope to see more of her (she was also in the Oxford Revue and a Marx Brothers show I didn't see).
The support band was Johnny Berliner and it confused me greatly the fact that they have a rule for when they're playing - they provide free toast to their audience. At the end, many of the audience went onto stage to dance to this band. All I could see was a sea of dancing bodies with the occasional young lady emerging from the crowd to delivery a plate of toast to the audience. Quite odd.
One thing of note - until this point, the audience at The Establishment had been average. Once you hit the weekend, apparently, the audience quadruples - it was positively buzzing!
Another exhausting schedule. However, there were many shows on this day which I would not have done the Fringe without seeing.
Spent £73.50, saw 7 shows. At the day's end:
Total spent: £239.50
Total shows seen: 29
06 September 2002
Ashley Frieze