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ventaThis summer, ChrisC went off to the Fringe in Edinburgh while I went to Whitby. Despite properly packing in the shows for five days, he still managed to miss a few things he wanted to see and we are slowly hoovering them up as they come to London.
At least, that was the plan. And it worked for me. ChrisC decided instead to be ill, and for two out of three I had to draft in an emergency replacement. (Thanks to Ebee, who heroically threw herself into the breach despite me being completely unable to tell her anything about the shows whatsoever.)
Ebee and I trundled on down to the Soho Theatre basement, which I've never visited before. It's laid out with little round tables, and four chairs per table, and your seat number written in chalk marker on the table. There seem to be slightly too many chairs, and navigation is somewhat tricky.
Anyway, we sat and chatted (to a background of Belle & Sebastian) until Ahir Shah arrived at the stage edge, shouted to introduce himself, and bounced up to the mic in the centre.
His show has a really strong start - he leaps full throttle into his first joke and sweeps the audience along with him. And - for the most part - keeps it going all the way through. There was an occasional drop of pace where he seemed to flounder a little, but it was a very solid, very funny hour of political commentary that gave the impression of being rather better informed than most.
It was mostly left-wing, as you might expect in a comedy club, although he did lay in to Jeremy Corbyn for a while too. ("Oh, come on, I'm doing an hour on the right, you can cope with two minutes dissing your boy".)
While waiting for Mae Martin to come on stage (background music of Taylor Swift, this time) I observed that the audience was unusually female-dominated. Female couples, in fact, added Ebee. Probably just as well ChrisC was still ill, we'd have stood out a mile ;)
Unfortunately, Mae Martin was also suffering the winter maladies a bit, and was battling with a cough all through the show. I don't think it detracted all that much, but she looked like she was having a difficult time of it.
The show turned out to be a long and rambly story about the nature of brains, addictions and obsessions - with lurid examples from her life. She is one of those people who steps on stage and is immediately appealing and engaging, who gives the impression she will never run out of words. She could probably tell you about her trip to the supermarket this morning and it'd still be hilarious.
I feel the story didn't have quite the depth it might have had (despite some interesting comments on brain chemistry), but it was an extremely entertaining way to spend a bit over an hour. She's on tour round the UK at present, so if she's coming your way: go and see her.
I went along to see Dolly Would this knowing basically nothing other than the snippet that the theatre company, Sh!t Theatre, put in theArgos Catalogue Edinburgh Fringe Program:
Oh look, Sh!t Theatre again, what is it this time? Oh, is it unemployment? Is there a crisis? Is the government doing something wrong again?
No it’s a show about Dolly Parton.
We fucking love her.
And... yeah. Well. Um.
I'm not sure what I can do to describe this bit of theatre. I mean, I could tell you what happened. But if you're not going to see Dolly Would it would sound like nothing on earth, and if you are going to see it, it would be full of spoilers and sound like nothing on earth.
After two fairly normal stand-up shows, this was properly batshit fringe theatre. There were funny bits, and informative bits, and a good dose of WTF and a couple of awkward silences. And some really clever bits of writing, and a few chunks of... nope, no sure what that bit was all about. And one of those lines that just completely catches you on the hop and gives you the giggles... and you then realise that you're the only person laughing. Ah well.
If that sounds like your sort of thing, then go and see it. It does that sort of thing quite well.
At least, that was the plan. And it worked for me. ChrisC decided instead to be ill, and for two out of three I had to draft in an emergency replacement. (Thanks to Ebee, who heroically threw herself into the breach despite me being completely unable to tell her anything about the shows whatsoever.)
Ebee and I trundled on down to the Soho Theatre basement, which I've never visited before. It's laid out with little round tables, and four chairs per table, and your seat number written in chalk marker on the table. There seem to be slightly too many chairs, and navigation is somewhat tricky.
Anyway, we sat and chatted (to a background of Belle & Sebastian) until Ahir Shah arrived at the stage edge, shouted to introduce himself, and bounced up to the mic in the centre.
His show has a really strong start - he leaps full throttle into his first joke and sweeps the audience along with him. And - for the most part - keeps it going all the way through. There was an occasional drop of pace where he seemed to flounder a little, but it was a very solid, very funny hour of political commentary that gave the impression of being rather better informed than most.
It was mostly left-wing, as you might expect in a comedy club, although he did lay in to Jeremy Corbyn for a while too. ("Oh, come on, I'm doing an hour on the right, you can cope with two minutes dissing your boy".)
While waiting for Mae Martin to come on stage (background music of Taylor Swift, this time) I observed that the audience was unusually female-dominated. Female couples, in fact, added Ebee. Probably just as well ChrisC was still ill, we'd have stood out a mile ;)
Unfortunately, Mae Martin was also suffering the winter maladies a bit, and was battling with a cough all through the show. I don't think it detracted all that much, but she looked like she was having a difficult time of it.
The show turned out to be a long and rambly story about the nature of brains, addictions and obsessions - with lurid examples from her life. She is one of those people who steps on stage and is immediately appealing and engaging, who gives the impression she will never run out of words. She could probably tell you about her trip to the supermarket this morning and it'd still be hilarious.
I feel the story didn't have quite the depth it might have had (despite some interesting comments on brain chemistry), but it was an extremely entertaining way to spend a bit over an hour. She's on tour round the UK at present, so if she's coming your way: go and see her.
I went along to see Dolly Would this knowing basically nothing other than the snippet that the theatre company, Sh!t Theatre, put in the
Oh look, Sh!t Theatre again, what is it this time? Oh, is it unemployment? Is there a crisis? Is the government doing something wrong again?
No it’s a show about Dolly Parton.
We fucking love her.
And... yeah. Well. Um.
I'm not sure what I can do to describe this bit of theatre. I mean, I could tell you what happened. But if you're not going to see Dolly Would it would sound like nothing on earth, and if you are going to see it, it would be full of spoilers and sound like nothing on earth.
After two fairly normal stand-up shows, this was properly batshit fringe theatre. There were funny bits, and informative bits, and a good dose of WTF and a couple of awkward silences. And some really clever bits of writing, and a few chunks of... nope, no sure what that bit was all about. And one of those lines that just completely catches you on the hop and gives you the giggles... and you then realise that you're the only person laughing. Ah well.
If that sounds like your sort of thing, then go and see it. It does that sort of thing quite well.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-10 06:55 am (UTC)Do you need to know anything about Dolly Parton to see the third one?
no subject
Date: 2017-10-10 07:57 am (UTC)I was a little confused early on in the show because there were some references to a famous interview with Dolly, which I didn't know about, but I picked it up well enough.