ROB BRYDON A smooth ride from a top chauffeur .0”.

Here’s the big question. What happens when the most intimate of comedies gets transferred to a big public space? What happens to the magic that so entranced you about Marion and Geoff in the privacy of your living room just you and Keith, the luckless chauffeur, talking softly and cheerin to his digital camera about his painful, painful divorce - when it shows up in the Assembly Rooms‘ Music Hall?

Well, here’s what: one of the funniest shows you’ll see this August, that's what. Keith Barret (aka Rob Brydon) is in performance mode - ‘lt’s not a show, it’s a talk,’ he corrects himself every time he gets carried away, which is often - and he‘s here to share his hard-earned knowledge about how to enjoy a happy divorce from your life partner.

This entails some deliciously absurd stream-of- consciousness rambles, a fair amount of riffing off the audience and eventually - an illustrated lecture about divorcees famous and obscure. Needless to say, we learn nothing, but we’re too busy laughing to notice.

In Barret, Brydon has a vehicle akin to Barry Humphries’ Dame Edna; a character whose barbed attacks, non- pc remarks and vulgar innuendo are somehow never anything to do with him. We laugh at deaf people, child neglect and animal abuse, yet his sweetness and innocence remains intact. Like Frankie Howard, he makes it seem like we’re the ones with the off-colour imaginations.

What is diminished in the transfer from screen to stage is the aching pathos of the character. Here Keith’s resilient happiness is contagious - he's like a cheerful mate who's good to be around.

Yes, we laugh at his naivety, but not so much at the pain that made his TV incarnation sit so close to the cusp of tragedy. Only when he takes questions from the audience does he reveal the emotional tender spots that make him such a rounded character.

But enough of that: here’s one hell of a clever, feelgood, belly- laughing show. (Mark Fisher)

I Assembly Rooms. 226 2428. until 77 Aug. 7.30pm, {‘7 7—.“ 72 {HO—ff] 7).

Monaghan and Mirza look good on paper, disappointing in reality

Making divorce happy: Rob Brydon replaces the pathos of Marion and Geoff with happiness

SHAZIA MIRZA AND PATRICK MONAGHAN

lranian descent can‘t mask promising, but patchy, material 0.0

‘Some of these Jokes you may have to think about.' Sha/ia Mir/a interiects in her own deadpan way. when she fails to get a laugh. lhe thing is. you don't really. The epiphany that you're on a ()lltfilflfik pony comes depressineg early on when she delivers it. the one ioke you hoped not to hear that night: My name is Sharia Mir/a. at least that's what it says on my pilot's license' It's a funny Joke. or rather. it was back in the autumn of 2001. lhe rest of her rriaterial is intermittently funny. delivered .vrth a glum nonchalance She deals WITH female facial lléfll. a Pakistani MUSIIH‘. youth and the \.'.ra‘,".'/ard nature of her erstwhile teaching profession. ller Jokes drop '.'.’llll a dead fflllllllfffli',, all the time supported by the fractured. tired arm of ethno cultural irreverence.

Not that any of this really ll‘étll‘:l‘, because anyone (toming on after Patrick Monahan 5‘, going to look good. This handsome. bouncy young rr‘an from Middlesbrough is of Iranian Irish distraction. so as you can probably guess. his act turns on a pinhead of merrwnes from his bonkers. gregarious youth His act is so urvlernoiirrshed that he is forced to milk every cough and murmur from the pit to fill his allotted time. A sad disappointment. (Paul Dale)

I Gilded Balloon Tex/rot. 72/5 2 7 f3 7. until 2‘3 Aug. 70. 750m. .‘750 50 do 6047.507.

JOHNNY VEGAS The Fringe's funniest father

You could say that Johnny Vegas is doing a frying pilllelft} relocation. Havrng recently spent time in a maternity ward to greet the arrival of one Michael Lawrence Pennington. Vegas is plunging headlong onto quite possibly the tiniest stage on the Fringe. ‘lt's good to get back to cacking yourself.‘ he insists. 'But once you're up there. you realise you've spent months absorbing useless information and all this stuff you've seen on Trisha comes pouring out. It's a huge relief to realise you've still got the power to shout nonsense at people.' His is the kind of nonsense that diVides audiences straight down the line. You may laugh into your socks or srt utterly bamboozled. but one thing is for sure . you Will go through an emotional wringer. 'What I do is confrontational. but it's more about JUSI not backing down. I hate that thing where you've run out of your three standard heckles, and you have to come out of character and say: "I'm Just trying to do a show and you're ruining it for everyone." But everyone in the room is thinking “no, I quite enjoyed watching you come apart at the seams".' Take that advice: don't prolong Johnny's ball. They only usually last about two and a half hours. (Brian Donaldson) I The Stand. 558 7272, 74 Aug. midnight, 1C 70; Cafe Ffoyal, 556 2549, 75 Aug, midnight, £70. Also playing the Stand. Glasgow, 08 70 600 6055, 73 Aug, 7 lpm, F. 70.

,' ‘-‘. Aug 27/1 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 27