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FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews
NISH KUMAR: LONG WORD…LONG WORD… BLAH BLAH BLAH…I’M SO CLEVER Another accomplished and thoughtful set from a Fringe near- stalwart ●●●●●
Although Nish Kumar claims to flounder when asked to describe his style of comedy, it’s safe to say he’s politically engaged, passionate and playful. Politics is the loose thread running through this show, from Kumar’s love of ‘right-wing’ action films (he speculates their ‘left-wing’ counterparts would be seriously dull) to more obvious subjects such as gender and race. He assigns partisan politics to various creations, including a smart routine on Monopoly, and details how its conception as a left-leaning educational tool was ironically hijacked for unscrupulous ends. Stand-up comedy is a predominantly liberal / left pursuit, and that’s a notion Kumar touches upon in his show. While it’s likely that he’s performing in an echo chamber filled with approving laughter, every once in a while he’ll challenge the way a gag is received by an individual. The result is a slight frisson and the suspicion that he’s keen for a worthy challenger.
On the subject of race, Kumar neatly dissects the apoplexy that numerous internet commenters spewed in response to rumours that a black actor (Idris Elba) is frontrunner to play the next James Bond. He presents a well-argued riposte which nimbly segues into a sequence where he gleefully deconstructs the series’ theme songs while passionately belting out one of his own.
There’s a nice rhythm to Kumar’s show and while he often ventures into dark waters, his tight writing keeps everything bobbing along amiably. On the cusp of hitting 30, Kumar is also celebrating his tenth year in comedy. Despite his relative youth, he’s a confident and mature performer. He says tonight is his first ever sell-out show. It won’t be his last. (Murray Robertson) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 7.15pm, £9–£12 (£8–£10.50).
CALYPSO NIGHTS: JUAN, TWO? Irresistible Latin charm with music, madness and malaprops galore ●●●●● ADAM HESS: SALMON A human livewire sprints through a hugely enjoyable hour of half-truths ●●●●●
LUCIE POHL: CRY ME A LIVER Often obvious series of NYC characters brought to excessive life by an undoubted talent ●●●●●
For much of Calypso Nights’ opening, its host, Venezuelan DJ Juan Vesuvius, only uses two words: ‘Edinborg’ and ‘beautiful’. As he applies them to various objects around the room and repeats them ad infinitum, it quickly becomes apparent that those words don’t mean what he thinks they mean. This delightfully silly show is a surreal medley of music and comedy, although music isn’t quite as integral as its title would suggest. Juan’s apparent speciality is to mix together two wildly contrasting songs to create something new and beautiful. But when he’s colliding Snoop Dogg with Phil Collins, the results are predictably messy.
Juan also has a weakness for chutney which
sends him into an hallucinatory trip. And it’s during this glorious sequence that an initially uncertain audience properly embrace the stupidity. Whether he’s educating us on the tribulations of baby rhinos or confusing incense with incest, there’s an infectious childishness to proceedings and the show finishes with a flourish that has everyone wanting to join in. Juan is a delightfully bonkers host and it’s impossible to resist his Latin charm. (Murray Robertson) ■ Assembly Roxy, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 17), 9.30pm, £9–£10.
52 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015
It’s not only Adam Hess who needs a long lie down after one of his shows: an audience would welcome a breather, too. His hour of Salmon feels like it zips by in half the time, manically delivered by the host and enthusiastically welcomed by its attendees. Channelling the wildfire energies of Mark Watson
and Rik Mayall (while his voice was surely separated at birth from Josh Howie’s), Hess rips through a torrent of subjects and incidents, taking pot-shots at former girlfriends, getting huffy at being born on December 25th and recalling his propensity for having a nose bleed at the most inconvenient moments. Still, given that he admits stand-up comedy is
essentially one long fib, it’s hard to know quite what is and isn’t true here. You will desperately want to believe his tale of being a paid scarecrow and there’s clearly no denying his assertion that he was something of a dweeb at school. A rather gauche antipodean (surely the only one in Edinburgh this month?) makes very little of his moment in the spotlight but it only serves to drive Hess on to hysterically over-compensate in the enthusiasm stakes. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Heroes @ The Hives, 226 0000, until 31 Aug, 5.20pm, free (or PWYW).
Having made her Fringe debut last year with a deeply personal show entitled Hi Hitler, this American comic-actor with a German heritage is back. Lucie Pohl’s one-woman sketch affair features a diverse bunch of ill-fitting, contradictory and occasionally delusional New Yorkers. Indisputably talented, she has quality to burn on a series of oddballs including. most intriguingly, one of Putin’s sperm.
Pohl is able to wholly transform herself with a
stoop, a swagger or by merest dint of a new shape to her mouth. The best moments lie in the darkest recesses, such as the English migrant attempting to tell her mother over the phone that her new life in the Big Apple is a total triumph (it’s not) or a dim-witted and massively gummed murderer. Least successful are the more predictable, déjà vu types such as the over-demanding mother punishing her small son while her German motivational expert inflicted by a form of non-cursing Tourette’s is perhaps a little bit too Dr Strangelove. And do we really need another young airhead wittering almost exclusively in hashtags and OMGs? (Brian Donaldson) ■ Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 31 Aug, 4pm, £8–£9 (£7–£8).