SON OF BARNUM -
A STUNT TOO FAR
Mark Borkowski, PR guru and veteran of numerous festivals, now has his own show. Here, he recalls some of the headline- grabbing stunts he’s inflicted on Edinburgh.
Archaos In London we'd risked prison and. or death by driVing a car on two wheels aeross the Albert Bridge in the rush heur. so Edinburgh needed something even better. They used this other souped-up car in their act. so we took it Out of the theatre. loaded three i0urnalists into the back seat. and set off up Princes Street while they tried to iiiterView me. At the right moment the driver pulled a knob and the front and rear halves of the car totally separated in a shower of sparks. One of the poor journalists went into early IabOLir on the spot.
Jim Rose Edinburgh's very own Meira Knox. a sort of Caledonian Mary Whitehouse. was persuaded by us to believe in the existence of a totally bogus child welfare organisation called London Parents Lobby which was trying to get Jim Rose's Circus Sideshow banned for some reason involving the phrase peer taste'. When sne turned up to Support the mass protest the only person there. apart from the photographer. was Jim himself. who had to explain the whole thing. She was a good sport though. Our Meira. Zanouk al Habib This Archaos performer failed to appear at Edinburgh in 1990 because his conscience had told him to rush off to fight for Iraq against the Americans in the Gulf War. That one made the front page of The Sun.
The Peking Opera I was asked to publicise this company which was performing their Kung TSU Macbeth. I told the press that the terms of their contract stipulated a constant Supply of Kit Kats should be available. and not the noodles one might have expected. The Great Britain Chinese Restaurant AssOCiation threatened revenge and picketed the theatre. Tickets flew out of the box office. while inside. the opera singers chomped away on their noodles as USUaI, completely unaware of the ‘Great Chinese Kit Kat Scaiii'.
I Assembly Rooms, 226 2428. IO- 74 Aug.
7 7 .45am, £10 (£9).
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My Passion for Art Having gained notoriety last year with his regal-pestering antics. Aaron Barschak delivered a show which hit the depths of the Underbelly. Now. he's back with his Royal Command Performance in a Broughton Street boozer. How could anyone let it happen? Phoenix Comedy Cellar. 07874 793740, 6—30 Aug (not 76), 8pm, £7.50 (£6.50)
24 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE f; 1.2 Aug 2004
‘Comics are wilder than porn stars,’ says Jim Jeffries (photographed with friend)
men behlng sad
The Fringe has always been a playground for filth. This year, we have blokes shagging dogs, writing letters to Page 3 girls and working hard on adult channels. Mark Fisher discusses the tumescent rise of smut.
ex and comedy are perfect bedf‘eIIows
(especially if the bed has squeaky springs
and a deflated blow-up doll). Anyone who‘s ever sniggered through biology lessons knows what a laugh the whole body business is. But rarely has the Fringe responded with such gusto to our demand for smutty entertainment. While XXX works them into a hot and sticky lather in the theatre programme. we have three shows trawling the depths of carnal depravity in the name of comedy.
Leading the pack by a dirty raincoat or two is Sex Addict by Tim Fountain. the man who generously brought us Puppetry rift/iv Penis and Julie Burr/till is {IIt'UIX liven Fountain's friends were disturbed by the degeneracy of his new show at a recent preview performance. The
Puppetry boys were said to be shocked and Mark RavenhiII. author of Shopping and I’m/ting. told me it was ‘vile' (albeit with a grin on his face). Such reactions only make Fountain more delighted. The centrepiece of his show involves him logging on to gay chat-up site gaydar.com and finding a partner for the night. Having selected one. he'll be carried from the theatre in a rickshaw for a meaningless shag. (‘ome back the next night and find out how it went. It‘s this sort of behaviour that explains Iiountain‘s claim to have slept with 5()()() men and one lesbian (the now straight Jackie (‘Iune. as you ask). In the course of' our conversation. he also admits to sleeping with his female hairdresser and. once. with a dog. He says the dog made the first move. 'I didn‘t want to do a (iraham Norton and say.