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 RHOD GILBERT A breakneck litany of hilarious disasters ●●●●●
Rhod Gilbert’s star is most definitely in the ascendent. Over the last year, he has been nominated for the if.comedy award, and performed on Live at the Apollo and the Royal Variety show. He is also the face of the Welsh Tourist Board (which he seems most proud of). However, this isn’t a show about success, this is about the things that didn’t pan out quite how he would have liked. Gilbert specialises in hour- long tales of woe. Where last year’s show ended with him having a breakdown at Knutsford services (a brief reprise of which is the launch pad for this year’s tale), 2009’s vintage culminates in an anger management course.
Over 60 minutes he recounts at breakneck speed the veritable litany of disasters and arguments that led to him having to confront his IED (intermittent explosive disorder) with 12 other ‘total losers’. The quality of the material and the verve and vigour of its delivery is a sight to behold. Unfortunately, since the show is a total sell-out, you might have to catch him on tour, but on the evidence of tonight it’s worth the wait. (Gordon Eldrett) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug, 8.45pm, £14–£15 (£12.50–£13.50).
For everything you need to know about all the Festivals visit www.list.co.uk/festival
Festival Comedy
LUKE WRIGHT His concerns may be petty but the poetry is not ●●●●●
You’ve got to hand it to Luke Wright. Since his first solo Fringe show in 2006, he’s come back to Edinburgh every year with a new collection of withering poems, each of which dissects the highs and lows of his chosen profession with equal menace and joy. The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright takes as its starting point the ex-Aisle 16 member’s idiosyncratic findings after carrying out a Google search on himself. It’s not the most original of premises but there are some startlingly funny results, including comparisons to two other Luke Wrights: England’s international cricketer and the star of a YouTube video who burns his butt with a lit cigar. The highlights come early and the show loses some steam in its final
third, but the sharpness of Wright’s poetry towers over its imperfections, from the biting critique of Web 2.0, ‘Thanx 4 The Ad’, to the bitterly nostalgic tones of ‘Mr Blank’. But it’s not all comically gloomy introspection and the ultimately uplifting tones of the final poem, ‘Raise a Glass’, seal Wright’s status as one of the UK’s most undervalued contemporary poets. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, until 30 Aug, 6pm, £6.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).
20–27 Aug 2009 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 33