Festival Comedy list.co.uk/festival
Telephone Booking Fringe 0131 226 0000 International Festival 0131 473 2000 Book Festival 0845 373 5888 Art Festival 07500 461 332 ISMA ALMAS Streams of gags keep this hour ticking over ●●●●●
brings plenty of laughs, as he announces he is ‘essentially unshockable’ in a deadpan squeal.
Silly voices are a strong point here, with Thom Tuck playing the terribly proper and massively over-acted part of a gentleman amnesiac, who is ‘as lost as a lamb in a forest full of bastards’. Welsh butchers pop in for cameos, and to exclaim things like, ‘Tom Jones on a dragon!’ or ‘Sweet Charlotte Church!’, and the unfortunately named Kriss Akabusi (no, not the real one, just a coincidence) also stops by after winning a golden ticket to the island. Quality performances all round, and a script dreamed up by a twisted, comedy genius make this a ruddy, bloody funny show. (Claire Sawers) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 22), 8.30pm, £10–£11.50 (£8.50–£10).
JOHN GALLAGHER & MATTHEW SMYTH Penguin-based humour has never seemed such fun ●●●●●
If you’ve been searching for the next big thing of Irish comedy, then this pair of social misfits might well do the trick. John Gallagher (‘renegade historian’) and Matthew Smyth (‘economist with nothing to lose’), take us on a breakneck adventure through friendship, love, and backstabbing in a set which simply refuses to let up over the course of its excellent 50 minutes. A Betrayal of Penguins (fear not, a
cogent explanation of the title is offered up early on) has the pair taking turns to outgag the other leading to a particularly high laugh rate. Their chemistry is apparent from the off and they are unafraid of being downright silly, though the whole penguin theme
and setpieces such as the Sigmund Freud family scene sketch are handled deftly. The only potential sour note is their over-use of the all-too familiar double act motif in constantly attempting to undermine one another, but this is easily forgivable when there are such fizzing jokes and fluid stage presence on display. (Brian Donaldson) ■ SweetHeart, 0870 241 0136, until 31 Aug, 1.20pm, £7.50 (£6.50).
The burka may be the most debated item of clothing in contemporary British society, but for any modern Muslim stand-up, it’s the equivalent of a comedy open goal. And Bradford’s Isma Almas is not one to slip such a gift past the post. Her warm-up act, Mrs Hussain, walks on and delivers gag after gag about her get-up, virtually hitting the target each time (while the screened ‘Addicted to Love’ spoof is a gem) before allowing the floor to the main act. Almas’ set is a likeable hour in the company of an able, if not startling, performer who has a solid story of racism and sexual awakening to tell. Some of her material is predictable (she adds nothing new to the ‘72 virgins waiting in paradise’ stuff) but there are enough surprises up her sleeve to keep things ticking over (not for nothing is the show called Isma Almas Bombs). Cutting down, or even ditching, the over-long, laugh-free Bollywood-style video finale in favour of a couple more strong anecdotes could lift Isma Almas to a higher plane. (Brian Donaldson) ■ The Stand III & IV, 558 7272, until 30 Aug, 2.35pm, £7 (£6).
THE PENNY DREADFULS A quality spoof from hammy trio ●●●●●
This positively undreadful show spoofs Bond and Hitchcock movies, Dirty Harry and The Prisoner in a delightfully strange hour of stupidness. Set in the theme park of Beef Island, Paul (an 83/4-year-old small boy, played by the giraffe-like Humphrey Ker) must help his hardnose Northern cop friend (David Reed) crack crime, and track down the mysterious Dr Lovable. Paul’s precocious worldly-wisdom
JONNY SWEET A hilarious PowerPoint portrayal of a dead brother ●●●●●
You could say that Jonny Sweet is probably quite a lucky geezer. Born with a face (agile) and voice (rich) that could only have led him onto one possible career path, he is utilising those assets to maximum effect in this, his debut solo Fringe show. Having larked about with Inbetweeners stars Joe Thomas and Simon Bird in sketch lunacy The House of Windsor and site-specific silliness The Meeting and currently starring in Tom Basden’s excellent Party at the Assembly Rooms, it was always curious to see how he would fare up there on his tod. Well, no one should have had any fears for him as Mostly About Arthur is a rollicking ride from the first moment he says the word ‘blurbist’ to the gloriously awkward musical finale. Arthur is our narrator’s
deceased brother, a man who made his living writing descriptions on the back of books such as Guantanamo Gay and Furtive Fork, but whose career went down the pan when he wrote a blurb for a book he hadn’t even read, invoking the wrath of the major blurb critic. With the aid of splendidly pitched PowerPoint, Sweet tracks Arthur’s beginnings in Filey through to his ultimate demise, the details of which are best kept secret.
Wielding some enterprising audience participation and never making a wrong move with the script or its delivery, Sweet keeps the laughs rolling as the bitter, awful conclusion looms. With the confirmation that he will play the young David Cameron in a More4 drama documentary, it could well be that Sweet will soon leave all this Fringe nonsense behind him. That would be a crying shame. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 4.45pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7–£8).
26 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 20–27 Aug 2009