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COMEDY PREVIEW
Tortoisehead Present The Alans Have Landed Comedy, corduroy and free beer
Tortoisehead have pulled out all the stops to get the punters in. With writers from Smack The Pony and The 77 O’C/ock Show contributing, an ex- member of Coronation Street, and a zany array of characters, it boasts impressive pulling power. When you add the promise of free beer, it becomes a hot ticket. ’We all work hard just to get people in, and if that involves saying we’re the best thing since sliced bread, or that we’ve written for various TV shows, then that’s one way of putting it,’ says former ’Corrie’ star Pippa Hinchley. The Alans are the flagship ale- drinking, corduroy-wearing characters who link the sketches. Tennents Velvet sponsor the show and Hunchley believes this might help the performance, ’Of course it’s going to be hysterically funny, but you’ll have had your free pint beforehand, so you’ll enjoy it no matter what. How strong is it by the way? 4%? Oh good, it just gets better and better!’ (Maureen Ellis) -3. Tortoisehead Present The Alans Have Landed (Fringe) Gilded Balloon At Tailors Hall (Venue 36) 226 2 75 7, 4—28 Aug, 5.45pm, £7 (£6).
THEATRE PREVIEW
Rhymes, Reasons And Bomb Ass Beatz
One man fuses hip hop with theatre
Wildly diverse characters and similarly diverse locations characterise Rhymes, Reasons And Bomb Ass Beats, Harold Finley’s ambitious fusion of hip hop and theatre. Spanning London, New York, America’s Mid-West and Deep South, it traces the interconnected lives of ten characters — a motley crew which includes drag queens, rappers, drug dealers and preachers.
More cinematic than theatrical, given Finley’s love of the big screen, the piece flits between both time and location. ’It’s a dark, funny and sensual journey, but it's not about cheap thrills,’ says the writer and star of the one-man play. ’lt’s more about how
sexual feelings drive us and how we follow them.’ For Finley, music is integral to the play and hip hop
l l
COMEDY PREVIEW Notorious
Contrasts are a recurring theme with Hitchcock's Half Hour. Sketches in the show include the Notorious BFG, and Baz and Dave the Siamese Serial Killers. Even their name was a joke, as Neil Cole explains, 'It was a bit of a cheeky marketing tool, because people immediately think they've heard of you, even if they haven’t. They go “Hitchcock‘s Half Hour, I’ve heard of that," then, “Oh hang on, I'm thinking of Hancock" but you’ve got your foot in the door then.’ Resplendent in new suits (made by Saville Row tailor Steven Hitchcock) the pair have an altogether different show with animation, puppets and music. When they played at the Fringe two years ago, the show sold out in the first week, and Neil puts this success down to their comedy coupling. 'We do stuff that makes us laugh and hopefully makes the audience laugh as well. It works quite naturally really, we just bounce off each other, sometimes |itera|ly.' (Maureen Ellis) 3:; Notorious (Fringe) Hitchcock ’5 Half Hour, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 5—28 Aug (not 7, 27) 5.05pm, £ 8-£ 9 (£ 7—£ 8). Previews 3—4 Aug, £3.
was the natural chOice for the piece as
1 it’s ’raw, sexual and political’.
’ (Dawn Kofie)
Harold Finley bares his Bomb Ass Beatz
2;: Rhymes, Reasons And Bomb Ass Beatz (Fringe) Truly Fierce Productions, Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2 757, 4—28 Aug (not 73, 20) 4pm. £7.50 (£6.50).
COMEDY PREVIEW Perret & Limb
Into the outer limits with Perret & Limb
Perret & Limb have had a successful last couple of years at the Edinburgh Fringe, with Play Wisty For Me, their show based ar0und the life of Peter Cook, selling out and being nominated for the LWT Comedy Award. Flushed by this success, they’ve returned with a new show, about a boy from space called, you guessed it, Space Boy.
The idea for the show germinated at last year’s festival from some particularly daft ad libbing, and although scripted, there promises to
be plenty of improv nonsense.
42 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 3—10 Aug 2000
’There is a narrative structure,’ explains Space Boy Jeremy Limb, ’but there’s also a lot of goofing around and plenty of audience interaction.’ The show also promises see-through trousers, free space juice and some theoretical physics. ’I’ve just read a book on hyperspace,’ says Limb, ’and a lot of it sounds really silly. There’s always room for theoretical physics in a comedy show.’
(Doug Johnstone)
a Space Boy (Fringe) Perret & Limb, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 7, 27) 3.50pm,
£6.50/£7. 50 (£5.50/£6. 50). Preview 3 Aug, £3.
COMEDY PREVIEW
The Tapeman
The man who’s got things all
wrapped up
Parcel tape. Doesn’t immediately strike
you as the funniest thing in the world,
does it? But, one man saw its comedy
potential in 1997, and has since had
enormous success with the show he
created around it. Michal Nesvadba, a
huge TV star in his native Czech
Republic, was inspired to invent the clumsy
Discover why this duo are notorious
* character Mr Tapeman after seeing a
warehouse worker get in a sticky situation trying to tape some boxes together. Already an established mime artist, Nesvadba combined this talent with his new-found one for making tape sculptures, to produce a show comprising sketches and parodies, all bound together with tape. He uses over 1000 metres of it in each performance, and recruits members of the audience to help him make the pictures, costumes and sculptures. He’s been compared to Ennio Marchetto, which is a high accolade, but if you don’t enjoy it, you can always tell him to stick it! (Kirsty Knaggs)
I The Tapeman (Fringe) Scottish International At Dynamic Earth, Dynamic Earth (Venue 78) 530 3557, until 73 Aug, 4pm, £7 (£5).
THEATRE PREVIEW History Of Communism As Told For The Mentally Ill Ideology for inmates We have the discerning eye of former Theatre Workshop manager, Alan Tweedie, to thank for the Teatrul Eugene lonesco’s presence at this year’s Fringe. On a recent trip to the former Soviet Republic of Moldova he was so impressed with the ’slick, well-acted, well-directed’ production that he encouraged the company, who already have a