Theatre 0 0 Dance
COMEDY PREVIEW
Phill Jupitus
Sean Hughes once suggested the Festival was little more than an opportunity for comics to live like barfly poet Charles Bukowski for a month. Not for Phill Jupitus. ‘l'm more of the Alan Bennett school,’ claims Sean's opposing team captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. ‘Eat biscuits quietly . . . Somebody asked me if comedy was the new rock 'n' roll. I think the only parallel is egos and microphones. Comedians are just noncey lead singers with no band!
And Jupitus must have met a few of those on the show he warmly refers to as The Buzzcocks. 'I like it when you get people on who are very showbiz. A lot of people in rock 'n' roll are more obsessed with being cool. Those boys in The Verve - I always wanted to give them a good slap.
‘Mark Lamarr said this thing about not wanting to listen to shoegazing idiots singing about how miserable they are. James Brown was brought up in the ghetto. okay. Radiohead are from Oxford! Beautiful English town - cream teas and Inspector Morse. So who wrote the lyric, “the bird is dead on my shoulder and I feel the spirit leaving my body?" '
The music biz is not uncharted territory for Jupitus. He was once a press officer for The Housemartins, and currently hosts a weekly show on GLR - in which, one assumes, 'shoe-gazing idiots' don't much feature.
'Last night I did a big beat and mambo evening,’ he says. ‘A great idea in the pub, but it was the most appalling three hours of radio London has ever heard. And let's not forget we can hear Chris Moyles.’
When not causing Marconi to spin in his grave or
(Rodger Evans)
A band apart: Phill Jupitus
taking the piss out of pop stars, Jupitus has recently been luwing it up with Stephen Fry and Jane Horrocks. ‘l‘ve provided the voice for Dandelion in a new series of Watership Down . . . It's nice to do something that my kids go “oh, daddy's a rabbit" rather than “no you can't watch Never Mind The Buzzcocks - he gets his nob out again. There he goes shaming the family on BBCZ.”
I For details, see Hit/ist, right.
Sinti the best: Klimt
THEATRE REVIEW Klimt *****
On Business
****
The story of Ernst Klimt, born in Germany in 1930 and thrown into a concentration camp aged nine for being a Sinti (a German speaking gipsy) is both moving and compelling. In a wider sense this also tells of the plight of the Sinti people whose numbers were descimated and culture virtually destoyed by the Holocaust. Ernst Klimt survived the camps and hustled his way through the bleak post war years, eventually becoming the political voice of his people.
Told with candour and without needless sentimentality, the story takes the form of episodic vignettes perfectly blended with musical contributions by Sinti musicians. The result is ceaselessly inventive and engaging.
Klimt takes the Sinti story up until around the 19605. In the present the Sinti often still go unacknowledged even in their own land and this emerges as a central theme of On Business. Playing as a companion piece to Klimt, this play lacks some context and the formers narrative drive.
Theatre Fahrenheit have spent six years honing these productions in collaboration with the Sinti community of Hildesheim and this dedication shows. Both productions display a willingness to play with the dramatic medium, featuring elements of physical theatre and clowning. At times the audience are addressed directly and then there is the excellent jazz inflected Sinti folk music.
It is worth recalling that the original spirit of the Edinburgh festival was one of reconciliation and understanding in the aftermath of World War II, an aftermath that for some is still raging. (Ross Holloway)
I For details see“ Hit list, right.
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What do you mean you haven ’t seen it yet. Get your finger out! Cruisaid Benefit Lee Evans and Julian Clary headline a plethora of comedy delights and all for a good cause. Others appearing include Phill Jupitus, Rich Hall, Terry Alderton, Phil Kay, Hattie Hayridge, Boothby Graffoe, Kevin Day and Vic Henley plus more to be announced. Benefit - Cruisaid, the Food chain and Stonewall (Fringe) Playhouse (Venue 59) 0870 606 3424, 27 Aug, 8pm, £75.50 (£74.50). Phill Jupitus See preview, left. Phill Jupitus (Fringe) Observer Assembly (Venue 3) 226 2428, 20-28 Aug, 8.30pm, £ 7 1/£ 70 (E 70/£9). Klimt See review, left. Klimt (Fringe) Theatre Fahrenheit, Netherbow Theatre (Venue 30) 556 9579, 20, 23, 25, 27 Aug, 8pm, £7.50 (£6).
-1: Cinderella TurboZone take the classic fairy tale and mutilate it beyond recognition. 17th century splendour mixes with pyrotechnics, acrobatics, puppetry and stunt bikes all to a thumping techno soundtrack. TurboZone Presents Cinderella (Fringe) TurboZone, The Quad (Venue 192) 662 8740, until 30 Aug (not 26, 29) 9.30pm, £72 (£9).
Paul Zenon The master of slight of hand, slick card trickery and self-proclaimed professional trickster and comedian returns for an all too brief visit. See preview on following pages. Paul Zenon: Turning Tricks (Fringe) Paul Zenon, Beck '5 Famous Spiegeltent ( Venue 87) 225 9999, 26-27 Aug, 9. 30pm, £70 (£9).
Howie The Rookie Mark O’Rowe‘s tremendous, blackly comic drama tells the story of two young men and their violent, frayed existence in Dublin. Howie The Rookie (Fringe) The Bush, Observer Assembly (Venue 3) 226 2428. until 30 Aug (not 25) 8. 10pm, £9 (£8).
19—26 Aug 1999 THE usr 49