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OpM'IOPM theatre comedyrdance music books
COMEDY PREVIEW Lee Hurst
Most people will recognise Lee Hurst as the bald funny one from They Think It’s All Over, so it’s pretty surprising to find that the man doesn't actually give a monkeys about being on TV. 'T hey offered me the job and I thought what a piece of piss,’ he says. 'I wasn't even doing any material, Just being cheeky and getting paid for it. Result.’ Hurst quickly got bored with the work, however. 'It outlived its usefulness for me. I thought it was getting a bit stale and they weren't interested in changing the format so I left.’ Amazingly, for such a high profile comedian, this is Hurst's first ever visit to the Fringe. 'When I first started, I heard
these nightmare stories about comics going to Edinburgh and getting ripped off,’ he says. 'Comics were going up there, virtually selling out and then being presented with a bill by their agents. It seems a nice way for wannabee gangster agents to extort money from their artists and publicise themselves at
the same time.’
So what can we expect from Lee Hurst in stand-up? Well, value for money for one thing. Although scheduled for two hours, recent gigs have gone on
MUSIC PREVIEW Ram Vodou Band Haitian voodoo pop street rhythms
There is a saying that Haiti is 90% Catholic but 100% voodoo. The church is powerful but the spirits rule. That most arcane of theologies (voodoo that is, not the Church of Rome) arrived in the Caribbean from West Africa on the slave ships two centuries ago.
Ram are one of Haiti’s top bands, a twelve-piece combining traditional voodoo rhythms with a pop sensibility. Their visit to the festival will be the first time anything of this kind has been witnessed in Scotland, recent club dates having been played in London and Liverpool.
And the voodoo spirits, or Ioa, seem able to sway even the Foreign Office. After Ram’s application for visas met with a frosty response, their ceremonial prayers drew the British Consul from Jamaica to Port au Prince where he witnessed a special ritual and experienced an instant change of bureaucratic heart. Critics beware. (Rodger Evans)
I Ram Vodou Band (Fringe) Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 4-28 Aug (not 8, 22) 9. 70pm, £7.50/£8.50
(£6. 50/£ 7. 50). Preview 3 Aug, £4.
MUSIC PREVIEW
Cappella Nova
Early music choral ensemble
Britain ’5 Best is the title of choral ensemble Cappella Nova’s Fringe concert, but an audience from as far afield as Africa and Japan is as guaranteed as the promise of the performance. Apart from appealing to Festival visitors from home and
'My material ls like a really bad comedy hedge’
abroad, the concert is part of the International Association Of Music Librarians annual conference, which brings almost 400 delegates to Edinburgh.
Part of a busy schedule, which includes a civic reception and a ceilidh, the concert will feature the ’L’Homme Arme Mass’ by Scotland’s great Renaissance composer Robert Carver, Byrd’s ’Mass For 4 Voices’ and the contemporary setting by Peter Maxwell Davies of Orkney poet George Mackay Brown’s words in the carol, ’One Star At Last’.
’We really wanted to have something choral,’ explains Richard Turbet, who is events co-ordinator for the conference. ’And Cappella Nova are the best group in Scotland of their type.’ (Carol Main)
I Britain ’5 Best (Fringe) Cappella Nova, St Giles’ Cathedral (Venue 787) 226 5738, 7 0Aug, 8pm, £5 (£2).
COMEDY PREVIEW
Earl Okin
Fringe veteran’s farewell Cabaret comedy icon Earl Okin is hanging up his Fringe spats this year: ’Enough is enough’. A thorn in the side of the corporate comedy Fringe, Okin insists that great things lie ahead with an upcoming tour of Europe and South America. ’I went back over the songs I used in previous years and chose the ones that have been most popular, all the cherries.’
A great fan of world comedy, Okin is a great believer in the power of the smooth over the crude. ’The great difference between stand-up and music with comedy is that it is universal and you want to hear the
considerably longer due to the show's open-ended format. ’I've got so much material I've been going at it with a machete, a bit like a really bad comedy hedge. At a recent show, people started leaving because the car park was closing, so I always check parking restrictions at shows now.’
(Doug Johnstone)
I Lee Hurst (Fringe) E/CC (Venue 75 7) 0870 900 4555, 7-9 Aug, 9.45pm, £72.50; Queen's Hall (Venue 72) 668 2079, 23-24 Aug, 7.30pm, £72.50.
pieces again because they become classics. You wouldn't tell Beethoven to throw away the 5th Symphony, would you?’
So, it is farewell to the only raconteur who could sell Bossa Nova back to the Brazilians. ’it’s their last chance to come and see it done by a master.’ (Paul Dale)
I Old Horny Mouth Says Goodbye! (Fringe) Earl Okin, Cafe Royal (Venue 47) 556 2549, 4—28 Aug, 8.05pm, £7/£7.50 (£5/£5.50),'
Peggy Mel & Joao (Fringe) Earl Okin, The Bongo Club (Venue 743) 556 5204, 5, 77—72, 7 8-79, 25-26, 28 Aug, 4.20pm; 27 Aug, 2.20pm, £7 (£5).
COMEDY PREVIEW Rich Hall Gravel-voiced hillbilly alter ego Families are often the source of embarrassment. But when your
uncle is a redneck, serial bigamist jailbird, you’ve got genuine cause for complaint. ’I'm convinced there’s no blood relation at all,’ claims long- suffering nephew Rich Hall. ’I’m sure he forged documents to make himself part of my family.’
Since last festival, Otis Lee Crenshaw has enjoyed a further spell in the penitentiary and loved (and lost) yet another woman called Brenda, leaving him blue enough to pen new tunes such as ’Women Call It Stalking’ and ’Asses And Seats' (a homage to Arthur’s Seat). ’Otis is best when he's miserable,’ assures Hall. 'A happy Otis won’t make very good music.’
But why no sign of Hall himself in this year’s Fringe line-up? ’I'll do whatever dog treats they throw me, like Late ’N’ Live, but my uncle has clearly taken over; he’s eclipsed me and I couldn't be happier.’
(Kelly Apter)
I Rich Hall ls Otis Lee Crenshaw (Fringe) Rich Hall, P/easance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 4-28 Aug (not 8, 22) 9.25pm, £9. 50 (£8. 50),“ 25—27 Aug, 7.40pm, £70 (£9). Preview3 Aug, £4.
COMEDY PREVIEW
Ian Stone
Censored Jewish funnyman
Heard the one about the gentile Jewish comic censored for the crime of self-mockery? Ian Stone, the mildest stand-up on the circuit, found himself at the puritanical hands of an American in the Fringe office who took exception to his show title. And lo, on page 23 of the official programme, kike becomes k**e.
’I feel like I’m a Jew and not a Jew,’ Stone insists. ’I’m not observant at all, I never go to a synagogue, I don’t care what I eat, I’m with a Catholic. And yet, I look and sound, so I’m told, inescapany Jewish; I had to find a way of defining that and I thought ”kike”.’
Having recovered from the shock and been through the attendant asterisk negotiations, Stone had a mild- mannered show to write. ’l’m a bit like Clark Kent; halfway through the gig I go into a phone box and turn into Jerry Sadowitz.’ (Brian Dpnaldson)
I A Little Piece Of Kike (Fringe) Ian Stone, Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, 3-28 Aug, 9. 75pm,
£9/£ 70 (£8/£9).
‘Otis is best when he's mlserable,’ Rich Hall
58 THE [181' FESTIVAL GUIDE 3-10 Aug 2000
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