list.co.uk/festival cheese. Gruffly muttered absurdities come with a wry smile and one of his winning looks. As he says, ‘Irish people talk with their eyes’. (Laura Ennor) Udderbelly’s Pasture, 08445 458 252, until 30 Aug (not 15), 8.20pm, £12.50–£15.50 (£11–£14). Jo Caulfield ●●●●● Jo Caulfield wants everyone prepared for life’s realities, even if that means shattering a few illusions. Her husband’s been edged out of this routine by her friends (and strangers mistaken for friends), but her trademark snarky wit remains, finding easy targets in Jack Whitehall and Sue Perkins. Outspoken attendees even get to help her shatter some Americans’ illusions about virginity. (Matt Boothman) The Stand III & IV, 558 7272, until 29 Aug (not 16, 23), 7.50pm, £10 (£9). Kai Humphries ●●●●● There’s something about the Geordie accent (see Brummie and Somerset for details) that makes us want to laugh at rather than with anyone forced by nature to wield it. Humphries pretty much acknowledges this setback as he fails to overcome the hurdle in his pallid show about evolution. A likeable act but one that desperately needs an injection of sharper gags. (Brian Donaldson) Underbelly, 08445 458 252, until 29 Aug (not 16), 5.25pm, £9–£10.50 (£6.50–£9.50). Lee Nelson ●●●●● Simon Brodkin seems to have carved a niche for himself as mouthy chav Lee Nelson, and what’s not to love about him shouting, swearing and crotch-grabbing? The mind boggles. If you’re prone to a boggling mind, or are hot on sentence conjugation, this one is best avoided. The saving grace is Brodkin’s unrelenting affability, but if his game is satire he keeps it well hidden. (Rebecca Ross) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 10.20pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8–£9). Maeve Higgins ●●●●● I’d love Maeve Higgins to be my best friend. And it’s not just due to the whimsical stories and wonderful asides, she’d knit you a nice scarf too. On stage, though, she can stumble with silences not so much awkward as unnecessary. She could talk all day and keep you smiling, but just needs to work out exactly what she wants to say. (Thomas Meek) Gilded Balloon Teviot, 622 6552, until 30 Aug (not 16), 4.30pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7.50–£8.50). Maff Brown ●●●●● Some funny things have happened to Maff Brown. Funny, that is, in the way that you probably had to be there to appreciate fully; like his dad Lesal reacting to being widowed by moving to Korea and Skyping 23-year-old Ukrainian girls. Thinking his anecdotes wittier than they are, Brown just tells them straight and neglects to say anything amusing about them. (Matt Boothman) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 16), 9.30pm, £9.50–£12 (£8–£10.50). Mike Wozniak ●●●●● The moustachioed Portsmouth-Pole has been working on producing another Wozniak with his wife, but a month away at The Stand isn’t helping. Wozniak cuts a frustrated and edgy figure as he returns with Egg and Spoon, a far sharper set than his 2009 affair albeit one that dips into the kind of affable gore which marked his 2008 debut. (Brian Donaldson) The Stand III & IV, 558 7272, until 29 Aug (not 16), 9.10pm, £8 (£7).
Festival ComedyReviews at a Glance
New Art Club
Nathan Caton ●●●●● After Breakfast at Stephanie’s, you’ll have got to know the whole Caton family. Nathan Caton is perfectly endearing, and his observations on family life are at once sharp and accessible: that unabashedly racist or generally ‘un-PC’ geriatric relative sounds altogether familiar. Although Caton tackles issues of race with refreshing ease and sensitivity, a little too often the innocuous errs on the insipid. (Rebecca Ross) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 16), 9.30pm, £10.50–£12.50 (£9–£11). New Art Club ●●●●● A best-of compilation from the comedy dance duo (who can actually dance) in which Tom Roden and Pete Shenton replay their best bits. Loyal fans and Johnny-come-latelys get to see minimalist experimental pieces, clever wordy numbers and downright silly skits hung together by fine northern banter with none of the dross. Whether they’re mocking or celebrating contemporary dance, laughs are prioritised in this original, charming and very funny show. (Suzanne Black) Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, until 29 Aug (not 17), 7.15pm, £12–£14 (£11–£13). Nick Mohammed ●●●●● The memory tricks which Mohammed plays at the end of this show would be worth the entrance fee alone, but by then he’s already charmed our socks half-off with his fantastically irritating and inappropriate creation, Mr Swallow. He’s clearly too annoying for the odd punter who bail early, thus missing the show’s eye-popping climax but the Ivan Brackenbury-esque delusions and foot-in- mouth-isms have already garnered enough pleasures. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 29 Aug, 6pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8–£9). Noise Next Door ●●●●● A compact stage benefits this quintet’s matey charm and it’s refreshing to see improv performed with such a professional lack of corpsing. Audience members are incorporated but not humiliated and there’s a great deal of fun to be had in spotting the impending gags. It’s very rare to see improv comedy so consistently hit the mark. (Murray Robertson) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 18), 7pm, £11–£12 (£9.50–£11). Roaring Boys ●●●●● Armed with a synthesiser, a clutch of angry power ballads, and a hidden weapon (their French song about racist and homophobic grandparents gets the biggest laughs), Danny and Jonny are determined to blow up the studios of The One Show. Ludicrous, slick and energetic, it meanders too wildly at points, but showcases a pair of enjoyable, surreal character comedians at work. (Claire Sawers) Underbelly, 08445 458 252, until 29 Aug (not 17, 24), 5.40pm, £9–£10.50 (£6.50–£9.50). Rob Rouse ●●●●● So, what have you been up to? A half-decent comedian should be able to cobble together an entertaining answer to this simple premise and Rouse doesn’t disappoint. Without high concept, gimmick or whimsy, he relates incidents from his recent move to the countryside (in which a dead sheep figures heavily) with aplomb, his energy and genial delivery spinning the mundane into the finest yarn. (Suzanne Black) Underbelly, 08445 458 252, until 29 Aug (not 16), 8.30pm, £10–£12.50 (£6.50–£11.50). Roisin Conaty ●●●●● Having been invited to give a talk about the possibilities of ‘the future’ to the girls at her old convent school, Conaty is heavily conflicted. Should she tell them the horrible truth or sugar-coat the perils of joining the ‘real world’? This is the backdrop to Conaty offering a witty reflection on how the world has changed since she left school in the epochal year of 1997. But the hardest laughs are gained by her support-act, the Conaty-lookalike performance artist Jackie Hump. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 16), 6.15pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7–£8). Sam Simmons ●●●●● Some show titles require little comment when they are so horribly apt. For an hour which bounds around at breakneck speeds, as Simmons contemplates the things he loves and hates in life, its heart and soul is somewhat lacklustre. Taking part in a quiz-show style analysis of his life, Simmons offers little comedic retort to his interrogator before leaping into yet another ludicrous semi-
musical routine. The title: Fail. (Brian Donaldson) Gilded Balloon Teviot, 622 6552, until 29 Aug, 9.15pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10). Smith and Smith ●●●●● Some flimsy premises provide the platform for two men named Smith to come together. James W Smith talks of life and its problems (mainly children) in dry self- deprecation, though the pathos rarely pays off. Daniel Smith does, however, seem more at ease with his irreverent take on immortality, but these Smiths are more late 90s Morrissey solo than The Queen is Dead. (Thomas Meek) The GRV, 226 0000, until 29 Aug, 1.20pm, £5. Stuart Goldsmith ●●●●● Goldsmith insists he’s a Reasonable Man and his blokish bonhomie certainly doesn’t appear to mask a ghastly individual. Standing out from the crowd is his chief concern here as he recalls being a failed goth in white trainers, a street performer who (accidentally) hurts kids and the fetish club attendee way out of his depth. A warm and skilful set which, were the world a reasonable place, should set him on the road to proper glory. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 29 Aug (not 18), 7.30pm, £8–£9.50 (£7–£8.50). Tom Craine ●●●●● A small audience is always hard, but the achingly upper middle-class meanderings on offer here were never really going to lift the room. However, you have to admire the confidence of a man in his material when he repeatedly builds in spaces for audience laughter despite the repeated evidence of their redundancy. (Gordon Eldrett) Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 18), 6pm, £11–£12 (£9.50–£11). Tony Law ●●●●● Tony Law is by his own admission ‘loud and annoying’ and he has hit the nail on the head. The comic has some laugh-worthy material in his Brainporium, but it’s buried under the detritus of rambling, non-sequiturs and, at a particularly painful point, the impersonation of a one-year-old. (Rebecca Ross) The Stand II, 558 7272, until 29 Aug (not 16), 12.30pm, £8 (£7). Two Episodes of MASH ●●●●● There’s no denying the offbeat charm and wit of Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson, but this latest Fringe effort is given a fatal dead-leg by its uneven pacing and repetitious tone. Wilkinson plays the frustrated misfit and awkward loser to perfection while Morgan has nailed cheek-chewing exasperation. But do these attributes really have to be aired in virtually every sketch whether it’s scenes about Grandstand, giving bad news or Songs of Praise? (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 29 Aug (not 16, 23), 4.20pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8–£9.50). Wil Hodgson ●●●●● Wil Hodgson, rose-tinted spectacle-wearing nostalgist and collector, is on top form in Punkanory, with an object lesson in how to enthral an audience with nothing more than conversational trinkets, a wooden box and deadpan raconteurmanship. Car boot sales, the humanity of Care Bears, soft porn and soap-boxing all jangle together manically, as digression nestles within intricately detailed story, topped with punch lines sweet as a West Country cider. (Peggy Hughes) The Caves, 556 5375, until 29 Aug (not 16), 3.50pm, £8–£9. 12–19 Aug 2010 THE LIST 53