For his no-nonsense approach to the currently somewhat prickly subjects of racial and religious integration (the apparent differential method being what you're not aloud to eat) he could be likened to a less forceful. perhaps more amiable Mark Thomas. His inherited Syntax and incredulous delivery is more akin to Jackie Mason.

Sufficient gravitas is afforded to the potentially sensitive subject matter and he offers a robust defence of comedy in wartime early doors. Like the finest of social commentators and comedians. Marzouk makes his point eloquently. entertains throughout and leaves the still hungry audience with a little food for thought.

(Mark Edmundsonj I Pleasance Dome, 566 6550. until 28 Aug. 9pm, $850—$950 (87—58).

MICHAEL MEE Tall tales from the little guy .00.

Even at 37, Michael Mee still has the self-effaCing. truckling demeanour of one who has been upended for lunch money and knows the taste of schoolyard gravel. He is every inch a veteran swot. a grown-up nerd and. most pertinently. a very funny comedian. Mee's new show is a potted autobiography of his difficult but never dull childhood in Cork. having arrived from Canada as a school bully's wet dream. It didn't help that the practice in Ireland at the time was to parade gifted yOungsters through the classrooms spelling sesguipedalian words and reading their pre-pubescent poems aloud.

There are the high intensity belly- laugh comedians. who toss out instantly hilarious one-liners you'll forget five minutes later. and there are the slow burners. the ones whose bons mots come back to you days afterwards. Literate. subdued Mee is among the latter. He speaks where others shout. muses where Others inveigh.

This comedic pacifism could be construed as timidity. and there are indeed times when Mee‘s act might benefit from a judicious injection of bile. but for the most part Confessions of a Swot is a warm-hearted. humorous and entertaining dilation on being the little guy and living to tell the tale. (Sam Healy)

I Gilded Balloon Teviot, 668 7633. until 28 Aug (not 76). 5.45pm, [9—570 (EB—£9).

FAULTLESS AND TORRANCE Face/Off farce COO

Imagine if Mel and Sue traded faces with dipsy Mel as the angular. bespectacled one. sarky Sue becoming the softer. slightly chubby blonde. While this is tricky to envisage. there is certainly something strangely reminiscent of the famous duo about Judith Faultless and Alys Torrance. And funnily enough, in this homage to John Travolta's Superior action flick Face/Off. the two do indeed swap faces.

Faultless is the chairman of ‘the John Travolta Films Film Club' and Torrance is her well-meaning but slightly dumb best friend. The movie screening is disrupted by the arrival of Alys' twin. evil Alys (though the two are never on the stage together), with whom Torrance has planted a bomb. Much is made of the Quick and clever interchange between characters as Judith becomes Alys. and Alys talks to her double in an effort to save the day. And while some of the jokes are just too lame to even merit a smile. it is played out with endless good humour that culminates in a puerile but very funny boob dance. Now that's something you'd never see John Travolta doing. (Rachael Street)

I Gilded Balloon Teviot, 668 7633. until 28 Aug (not 75), 8pm, EQ—EIO (EB—£9).

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1 1 18. Aug HOW» THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 33