1 post tagged “edinburgh-festival”
Well, I managed to see a few random comedy shows during my trips to Edinburgh - a great night last Thursday at the BBC Standup Show, and a less compelling night last Friday at Assembly's presumptively titled 'Best of the Fest', and a few acts from the back of the TV festival bar at The George last night.
Of all the acts I saw, two comedy singers were my favorite. I normally hate this sort of thing, but I'd definitely go to a future show that featured either:
Jason Wood, a very funny singer, who impersonates 1980s female pop stars
Justin Edwards from the consultants, who has a fantastic dead-pan style. At the start of his routine he announced 'I'm not very good at the chat', before leaving the audience in stitches with his songs and supposedly incompetent 'chat'. Fantastic stuff!
Both these acts were at the BBC Standup show, which had hundereds fewer people in the audience than 'Best of the Fest'. I'm incresingly coming to the opinion that big comedy gigs just don't work. Richard Herring had some really good material, but the audience didn't get it. Meanwhile Phil Nichol was a big hit with a routine that involved getting his arse out and chasing members of the audience about the stage. I'm pretty sure I saw him do exactly the same thing a few years back, but I have heard he does much cleverer comedy for smaller audiences. In short, mediocrty rules at big gigs. That's just fine if you go to comedy once in a blue moon, and want an easy laugh with your mates. Not fine if, like me, you've seen quite enough of that crap already.
BTW, Gareth was also at the same gigs, and has a sightly different view.UPDATE: So, Phil Nichol won what used to be known as the Perrier award last night for his solo show. I didn't see it, but maybe this adds weight to the point - big audiences often don't serve great comedians well.
