COMEDY REVIEW God Show *****
Pau/ Wagner shows you one hell of
a God time
Whatever you see this Festival, don't miss Emmy award winner Paul Wagner's ingenious multimedia take on world religion or you'll have missed out on some of the best comedy on offer bar none. With a quick-fire performance that includes hilarious footage from around the world, documenting some of the weirder
members of the God-squad, this is a
comedy-club style stand-up routine that warrants a show in itself. There are also some genuinely thoughtful reflections on the Big Questions.
This is already a sure-fire hit, and that's without even mentioning
He could " : becomea
Wagner‘s army of freakish personas. Taking on no less than twenty different characters throughout the performance, including the man downstairs himself (via satellite, of course) and a permanently stoned, sexually-liberal Christ, Wagner's one-hour performance stands head and shoulders above a lot of other shows for sheer variety alone. Poking fun at everything from Christianity to Buddhism, Wagner still manages to avoid seeming offensive or gratuitous, making some genuinely enlightening observations that raise this show above the level of others of its kind. Intelligent, philosophical and always riotously funny, it’s nigh on impossible to find fault with Wagner's God Show. Watch out for this
guy. He's gonna be bigger than Jesus.
(Olly Lassman)
a God Show (Fringe) Paul Wagner, Club Pleasance @ Potterow (Venue 23) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 2 7) 7.30pm, £7. 50/£8. 50 (£6. 50/£7.50).
BOOK PREVIEW
Will Self
The terrible infant of British fiction Will Self? Oh, the one who writes about monkeys.Apes, actually. Among other things. After winning the Faber Memorial Prize for The Quantity Theory Of /nsanity in '92, he's had a string of best-sellers, including Great Apes, a surreal satire where the hero lives in a world resembling a PG Tips ad.
And what's he doing here? He’s promoting his latest book How The Dead Live, and discussing his unique take on writing: ’lt's a religious calling. In my fiction, the act of projecting psychically into different arenas makes it, in a sense, autobiographical.’ Interesting. Didn't he get into trouble on John Major's campaign jet a few years ago? Well, less said, the better. Let’s just say he’s known in literary circles as a bit of a hell-raiser, and he’s pretty okay about it: 'I think I’m the only self-confessed heroin addict in British writing.’ So there you go. (Olly Lassman)
,4 Will Self (Book) Charlotte Square Gardens, 556 6966, 79Aug, 6.30pm, £7.50 (£5.50).
BOOK PREVIEW ’- Michael Foot
Ex Labour leader speaks in favour of disarmament.
Since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear obliteration seems to have receded from the public’s mind, but the weapons are all still there. As they lie dormant in their SlIOS, we seem
not to perceive the fate, like the fist of God, that hangs over us. Ex-leader of the Labour Party and long-term member of the peace movement Michael Foot is keen to remind us of the dangers.
His book, Dr Strangelove, lPresume, speaks of the many possibilities of destruction that lie before us. Discussing the arms race between India and Pakistan, as well as the broader picture of nuclear proliferation, Foot urges vigilance, and seeks to reinvigorate the currently subdued and dwindling anti-nuclear lobby. The peace movement, he argues, has a major political role to play in the contemporary world. (Steve Cramer) . s53 Michael Foot On T The Bomb (Books) The Post Office Theatre, 624 5050, 79 Aug, 7.30pm, £7. 50 (£5.50).
should be just
BOOK PREVIEW Writers And Readers: Roger McGough
Roger’s still on the beat
In the first of two appearances at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Roger McGough, one of Britain’s best loved
‘ poets, discusses his inimitany
childlike writing style that captivates both school-kids and adults, and reminisces about the original inspiration behind his writing — the
i hippy-chic non-conformist world of the Beat Poets.
fOfliV.l Gem-89m theatre comedy dance music books
’That whole scene in California, New York; Kerouac, Ginsberg, and obviously all the pretty long haired girls, really excited me. It was so exotic, partly about the poetry but also the whole social scene,’ explains McGough, ’Before that, poetry had been something to be studied, it was about dead people. Then suddenly the Beat Scene arrived, and everything changed}
If that wasn’t enough, readings from McGough's latest critically acclaimed anthology, The Way Things Are, feature on Monday 21 August at the Spiegeltent, making for an all-round McGough experience that, like his hugely successful and instantly accessible poetry, look set to appeal to fans and McGough newcomers alike. (Olly Lassman)
3 Writers And Readers: Roger McGough (Edinburgh Book Festival) The Napier Herbalists Lifestyle Tent (Charlotte Square Gardens) 228 5444, 7.30pm, £3.50.
COMEDY PREVIEW
An Evening With Lionel Blue Stress therapy Rabbinic style
A regular contributor to Radio 4’s Thought For The Day, Rabbi Lionel Blue’s chicken soup for the Fringe includes everything from a pinch of light-hearted Jewish humour, to more philosophical musings. ’Everyone feels so pressured these days -the rat race is tougher, people are terrified of failure; it’s so easy to poison yourself with bad vibes and bitterness. So jokes are a kind of psychic hygiene, they’re there to drain all the bad things out of your system.’
'One of the things I always like is for the lights to be turned up, so I can actually see the people I’m talking to - and audiences are free to ask questions too, so it’s more like a conversation than a performance,’ says the —
Rabbi. The perfect / antidote to the
annual chaos of the * ea... . ' Festival, Rabbi Lionel ‘ fr'mAxv
Blue's laid-back - ‘ pause-for-thought
the ticket for
38 THE lIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 17—24 Aug 2000
Blue skies all around
stressed-out Fringe-goers in need of a good dose of mental Shiatzu. (Olly Lassman)
I An Evening With Rabbi Lionel Blue (Fringe) The Queen’s Hall (Venue 72) 668 2019, 20 Aug, 7.30pm, £17 (£9).
BOOKS PREVIEW
Alexei Sayle
Comic turns author
The public at large would still primarily know Alexei Sayle as a comedian. The star of stand-up, television and film, has, however, branched out in recent years to incorporate writing as another string to his artistic bow.
He’s in Edinburgh to read from his book of short stories, Barcelona Plates, a best-seller on its release last year. We've come to expect political humour from Sayle, so should we anticipate such themes from his stories? ’I don’t think they’re particularly political’, says Sayle. ’But I tried to make them very accurate portrayals of people. Usually something nasty happens to someone, but it’s funny, and it’s life.’
Sayle speaks of the pleasures of his new-found career: ’lt’s not like telly or radio, where you have to pitch ideas at someone. You get much greater control over your work, which is an asset.’ (Steve Cramer)
Alexei Say/e (Books) The Speige/tent, Charlotte Square, 624 5050, 27 Aug, 6.30pm, £7.50 (£5.50).
MUSIC
Mika: Tribal Hollywood
Epic campery from Maori diva Think of Polynesia and what springs to mind? Golden, deserted beaches? Check. Grass skirts? Check. Mountainous islands, volcanos still waiting to erupt? Check. An extravagantly dressed transvestite, all flowing dresses and high heeled platforms, belting out Shirley Bassey as if his life depended on it? That’ll be Mika, then.
He started out performing when he was a child, his mother claiming that he sang before he spoke; he’s been an aerobics and breakdance champion, and for the past three years, he’s been a fringe regular. His show
(and it is most definitely a show, in the old-school,
vaudeville sense of the term) takes in everything from covers of epic ballads and classic pop tunes
(think Tom Jones,
Barbra Streisand, and anyone else who’s ever
been drawn to high camp) to
dangerously energetic breakdancing and Maori rituals.
Get up, get down, and remember
to watch out for the low-flying
cover versions. (Leon McDermott) 5;} Mika: Tribal Hollywood (Fringe) Mika, Dynamic Earth (Venue 78) 530 3557, unti/27 Aug, 7pm, 22—28 Aug (not 26) 70.30pm, £9 (£7).