This is the first year I have ever visited the Edinburgh Fringe as a comedy loving artsy type person I was not disappointed and truly had the time of my life. Only there for two days we never got the opportunity to see half the things we wanted to and leaving was very hard. I was accompanied by my mother who is my comedy buddy because clearly I am the epitome of cool. It is something we both enjoy although it can make for some discomfort at the more risqué jokes - Jimmy Carr I mean you! Advantages being she pays usually dinner and drives so we are not limited to Aberdeen gigs.
Monday
Catching an early morning train we reached Edinburgh just after 12noon dumped our bags at our accommodation and head up to the Royal mile to catch our bearings as neither of us is that well acquainted with Edinburgh. We had booked quite a few shows online before we left so we picked up our tickets from the box office, by the time we had travelled those 20 meters I must have gathered a small tree worth of flyers. Unprepared, the number of flyers being shoved in my face was astounding. Usually this kind of thing disgruntles me but the atmosphere created by all the costumes and dancing and music compelled even me to embrace it.
Hamlet, our first show was in C venue-C unbeknown to me at the time there are numerous C venues, predictably I directed us to the wrong venue, finally making it I sat at table in the venue whilst my mum located some food. Joined at my table by a polite young man with a jumper I liked. He invited me to the play he wrote called
Maria 1968 which he described as "a play about a writer writing a play who has a flatmate who smokes a lot of weed influenced by Kerouac and Wes Anderson" I was sold after Wes Anderson,
Moonrise Kingdom being my favourite film this year. It was on in the same venue we were already in and I felt, what can only be described as, a burning desire see the play.
After booking a few comedians we had decided that we need some theatre and booked tickets for Hamlet without reading the description. Hence we were (pleasantly) surprised when what we thought would be a period depiction of Hamlet was actually a musical version set in present day with bright garish costumes. It was excellent as someone who has never read or seen Hamlet before the story was easy to follow and very entertaining, much kudos to Wellinton College for their humorous production.
Not having lost my desire to see Maria 1968 I relayed the description to mother omitting the weed smoking flatmate, convinced, we got tickets and headed up stairs to the correct theatre. Mother was slightly perturbed when I pointed out she was the oldest person by as least twenty years. She need not have worried as Maria 1968 was by far the show we were most glad we had not missed. Funny, witty, something about it works. The play is set in two dimensions, firstly we witness protagonist's Noah's life and interactions with aforementioned flatemate, his drug dealer and girlfriend who leaves him, this is interspersed with the tale of three friends in Greece Noah is writing on his typewriter. The two mix in a surreal cocktail that will wobble even the strongest horse's legs. We enjoyed it immensely and mother has proclaimed it her favourite show of the Fringe.
After in the Assembly area of the Fringe we went to our next show which was supposed to be a magic show by Chris Dugdale. I say "supposed to be" as it was more a self indulgent than audience pleasing and the less said about it the better. Seriously the guy played a show reel of his past tv appearances, not in my opinion worth paying to see.
Our last show of Monday night was my choice - Abandoman. Walking past the Comedy tent to use the toilets at the 2011 Applecart festival held in London I drawn into the tent by these two Irish men performing. I have been lucky enough to see them supporting Ed Sheeran and this was the third time Ive seen them performed live. Improvised Irish hip hop may sound like a juxtaposed comedy performance but you should grab the opportunity to see them if you can. The front man uses an extremely sharp wit and insanely quick thinking to improvise songs with audience members.
Click here to see them in action.
Tuesday
We first saw Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan who was disappointing. I knew her from Channel 4 show
Campus which I was devastated when I heard had been cancelled. The first half hour I found a bit too insensitive and unfunny. It was probably unfortunate for her and only fair to mention that she was talking about issues that were currently a bit close to the bone for us. However when she started talking about her daughter she was hilarious I just wish we could have avoided the uncomfortable first half.
The Weather was gorgeous and we soaked up some sun and refreshed ourselves with pear ciders in e4's Udder belly area before heading to Pleasance Courtyard to see Wittank. Wittank comprises of comedians' Kieran Boyd, Mark Cooper-Jones and Naz Osmanoglu who have come together to form a highly meritable sketch trio. Short, sharp sketches with some long running jokes I much preferred them to the Cambridge Footlights (friday) who were uninventive in comparison.
Being a fan of political comedy Marcus Brigstock's
the Brig Society was an amazing show to finish the day. Some lady heckled him and stole his coat which annoyed me, hecklers never win they just make idiots out of themselves and I despise their presence greatly. But apart from that his comedy was funny and informative which is something I believe the cleverness can be appreciated in. Politics is a very interesting subject but I often find it difficult to understand to be honest I'm often tempted to bury my head in the sand and just not think about government and politics. Comedy has made it accessible to me as It gives me true information in a entertaining way which I can understand. It also makes me think without depressing me. What with recession and government cuts etc it can scare me that everything is going wrong and there ain't no hope for any of us however panel shows to the rescue, I like to believe I'm reasonable well informed. This made the Brig Society show one that I not only enjoyed but also left feeling better informed about the world.
