FESTIVAL COMEDY | Reviews
CANDY GIGI PRESENTS: BECKY RIMMER’S BAT MITZVAH! A wonderfully barking foray into the adolescent mind ●●●●●
It’s Becky Rimmer’s Bat Mitzvah. She’s got the sparkling rhinestone frock, 90s tunes on the decks and everything’s going to be great. But only if her mum Gaye stops crying, dad Mervyn quits sleeping with men, and her ‘boyfriend’ Benjamin actually turns up. As we’ve come to expect of Candy Gigi, this is an absolute riot (almost literally) of a show and, as ever, it’s certainly not for the faint of heart as she pushes interactive clowning to its extremes, way beyond the comfort zone.
There’s plenty of audience participation (this reviewer made a hash of ‘performing’ as Becky’s mum and her hated friend Sarah) as Gigi / Rimmer bullies all of us into doing something. That said, there’s a weird camaraderie of us all being in this together. No matter how terrifying she is, we still want to get involved.
There are plenty shocking moments to be enjoyed this year:
impertinent questions of a downstairs nature, botched surgical procedures and a lot of fake blood. Plus Gigi has brought a car- full of inventive mad props both old and new; there are naked suits, merkins with penises attached, plus sheets with holes, and something pink and fluffy with eyes: we’ll leave you to guess what that might represent. What takes this a notch above Candy’s previous work is that in
among the gore and the grotesque, the most monstrous of whom is the spoilt party girl herself, there’s a surprisingly poignant depiction of adolescence. This is particularly evident in the songs about an impatience for her first period to arrive. Gigi captures something of that delicate age where girls begin to transition into women, yearning to grow up yet still being little girls in so many ways. Magnificently insane. (Marissa Burgess) ■ Heroes @ The Hive, until 27 Aug (not 22), 1.15pm, £5 or Pay What You Want.
ATHENA KUGBLENU: KMT A smart and relatable hour ●●●●●
LUKE MCQUEEN: THE BOY WITH TAPE ON HIS FACE All-round comedy madness ●●●●● GAVIN WEBSTER: IT’S ABOUT TIME WE HAD MORE WOMEN IN THERE Geordie comic takes aim ●●●●●
What we need in society is an intellectual exchange of ideas and a thirst to learn more about one another. This is what Athena Kugblenu manages to convey in a way that’s neither earnest nor preachy, just a good- natured hour of ideas that’s hard to disagree with. ‘KMT’ stands for ‘kiss me teeth’, something she
describes as an ‘ethnic noise’, the sucking-teeth sound people make when they’re not impressed. Turns out she’s been doing a lot of that lately. Brexit, Trump, the general election, the fact her Indian mother and Ghanaian father gave her a Greek name. ‘It’s important to laugh,’ she reminds us. ‘But don’t laugh too much at black jokes if you’re not black.’ Much of the show is made up of this good-natured
ribbing, but there’s more to her act than merely pointing out differences between people. Kugblenu explores identity: her first visit to Ghana when she was 18 left her feeling more British than ever, and there’s a balanced mix of intellectual discussion and pop culture, including a subtle but stellar Kardashian joke. KMT isn’t always linear and some repetitiveness creeps in, but Athena Kugblenu is so smart and amiable that any chaos makes her even more relatable. (Kirstyn Smith) ■ Underbelly Med Quad, until 27 Aug, 5.50pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).
52 THE LIST FESTIVAL 17–28 Aug 2017
The heights (or depths) Luke McQueen will go to in the name of comedy have been well-documented. His commitment to the joke has previously led him to seemingly soiling himself in public while trying to win his girlfriend back, disrupting a pub full of geezers watching the football so he could perform a gig, and packing out a room that he had falsely advertised as hosting a Frankie Boyle show. For this year’s ‘happening’, he’s pretended to be Tape Face, a move which he reckons has enticed some fans of the silent Kiwi comic into a comedy club basement.
Going somewhat against the grain of a regular
McQueen outing, there are no walk-outs tonight as a rapt crowd witness him toiling through an hour which is mainly focused on his failing career (though there are plenty stand-ups in town this month who would love to similarly fill such a room).
There are pranks aplenty as he insults his front row, blasts someone with a daft hair dryer, and sings outlandish musical numbers. Call it anti- comedy, call it absurdist nonsense, call it what you will; but a Luke McQueen gig looks, feels, sounds and probably smells like no other. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, until 27 Aug, 10.40pm, £5 or Pay What You Want.
Back at the Fringe for supposedly the last time, Gavin Webster wants to end on a high and so spends the hour talking about members of society he dislikes the most. After clarifying that the show title is not a reflection of his own thoughts, there’s a sense of relief from the audience, who were apprehensive that a set of highly controversial comedy was on the horizon.
Webster identifies the groups he dislikes: the self-righteous, the hippies, the militant liberals, the reactionary amateur accountants and . . . kids. According to him, the world would be too boring if they were our leaders. Instead, we should adopt a ‘pay taxes and don’t murder’ policy to encourage a (much) more liberal lifestyle. You may disagree, but he doesn’t care, and it’s his nonchalant attitude which makes listening to his tangents all the more entertaining.
Webster’s tendency to get sidetracked is a little wearing by the finale, and the occasional mention of Nazis and different religious groups are not his finest moments. But at the age of 47, he’s nailed the structure of his show and if you’re ever in need of a comic to make you feel more relaxed about life, Gavin Webster is your man. (Louise Stoddart) ■ The Stand II, until 27 Aug, 7.35pm, £9 (£8).