list.co.uk/festival Reviews | F E S T I VA L C O M E DY
P H O T O
: J A M E S D E A C O N
GOODBEAR: DOUGAL Clever, meta and cool sketch comedy ●●●●●
Apparently at the top of the show, the Goodbear guys are nowhere to be found. Instead Joe and Henry who work at the venue are going to fill in. Joe is nervy and Henry disrespectful of authority but the pair turn out to be surprisingly skilled . . .
Joe Barnes and Henry Perryment (see what they did there?) have returned to the Fringe after a break last year. Like the shift from their reluctant understudy alter egos, the movement from one scene to the next in Dougal is a subtle one. Their show begins with Henry’s imaginary gun and a competition as to who can fake the best death. Then off it runs dipping into filmic sequences, surprisingly sentient chimps and sinister puppets while occasionally swinging back to the pretence of the absent performers.
The sketches, if indeed you can call them that, don’t necessarily have the strongest of actual punch- lines but weirdly that doesn’t matter. Slinking into the next skit before you know it, the overall effect is simply mesmerising. The most bizarre and off- the-wall sections are suddenly and wildly hilarious. It’s clever, meta (which of course they signpost themselves at one point) and positively oozes cool. (Marissa Burgess) n Pleasance Courtyard, until 26 Aug, 7.30pm, £11.50–£14.50 (£10.50–£13.50).
ELEANOR CONWAY: YOU MAY RECOGNISE ME FROM TINDER A singular and engaging performance about modern relations ●●●●●
Eleanor Conway greets her capacity crowd as they enter, methodically directing them to fill the various nooks and crannies of this spacious venue. As she segues into a warm-up act for her own show, it’s clear that this comic is very eager to please others, even if one of the main themes running throughout this hour is a very determined pursuit of her own pleasure. While it’s 12 years since she’s had a relationship,
Conway explains that her singledom should not be confused with celibacy. And so she goes into excruciating detail about her numerous sexual peccadilloes. However, the spectacle of a sexually confident woman relating her myriad erotic adventures seems to encourage some crowd members to heckle, and some of her jokes lose momentum as she deals with yet another irritating interruption. It’s particularly annoying because when she’s on a roll, Conway is a really animated, engaging performer. As she approaches her conclusion, the atmosphere
falters a little. Nevertheless, Eleanor Conway is a comedian with a singular voice that’s well worth hearing. (Murray Robertson) n Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters, until 25 Aug (not 13), 7pm, donations at the venue.
BRODI SNOOK: HANDFUL A tale of relationships with dark undercurrents ●●●●●
Beneath Brodi Snook’s caustic, tough shell also beats a cold heart, or so she’d have us believe. Actually, it turns out that the Australian comedian is getting her head around some pretty complicated gender and relationship stuff while trying to be a feminist looking for love.
After giving some background on her family (we hear about her mum’s fridge magnets and her dad’s job as a detective in the drug squad), she shares a few Tinder disaster stories. So far, so normal, until she drops in that she was also the victim of a prolonged harassment case with a high-profile comedian. Suddenly her jokes take on new depth. When a guy sexts her ‘I want to do bad things to you’, she replies with ‘I want you to be prosecuted accordingly’. Her initial reaction to the incident with a former friend that turned sour when she didn’t sleep with him was to put herself into ‘self-imposed isolation’, staying home having what she describes as a ‘year-long panic attack’. Now she’s ready again to make sassy jokes and self-respecting observations like ‘women are not rehabilitation centres for broken men’. (Claire Sawers) n Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 26 Aug (not 13), 8.15pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).
FELIX AND THE SCOOTERMEN: SELF-HELP YOURSELF FAMOUS Music industry satire is funny in patches ●●●●●
Remember the Hoosiers? During the era of landfill indie, they topped the charts, caught the NME’s ire, and played to massive crowds at sell-out music festivals. They had two top-ten singles (‘Worried About Ray’ and ‘Goodbye Mr A’) and an album, The Trick to Life, that went double platinum in the UK. The release of a second album brought a third ‘top 11’ single and not much else. The chances are you never heard of them again. Until now. The band’s remaining members, Irwin Sparkes and Alan
Sharland, are trying their hand at comedy this year, with mixed results. Self-Help Yourself Famous has the two playing ‘Twitter- verified celebrities’ Felix Scoot and Lee Delamere (of the successful band Felix and the Scootermen). The thread of the show is a Brit School-accredited five-step programme that will bring fame and fortune to anyone wise enough to follow it. This device allows the duo to bring their real-life experiences to the table, satirise the music industry’s worst elements and air some grievances through a fictitious frame.
But the universe they’ve built isn’t especially believable. Felix and the Scootermen function only as a placeholder for the Hoosiers, with very little of the band’s already limited backstory thought out well. The five-step plan is a flimsy plot device too, abandoned to the extent you forget it’s happening.
Still, it's occasionally inspired, with the choreography and
music both wonderfully silly, and Scoot’s delusions a frequent source of comedy, while Delamere’s more grounded reflections show a lesser-seen side of fame. It’s not a million miles from After the Screaming Stops, the unlikely hit Bros documentary, but this is not nearly as well executed. (Craig Angus) n Underbelly Bristo Square, until 26 Aug (not 10), 4.40pm, £11–£12 (£10–£11).
7–14 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 51