things off to a deservedly lukewarm reception. leading him to fall back on the fine material about corporate nonsense which his non-Jocko crowds have been treated to over the lastyear
Mirman certainly gets the prize for the most nerv0us clown on the Fringe this week. endlessly sipping from his bottled water after removing the cap with a chuckle then screwing it back on. Then. straight away unscrewing it for another sip before nervously laughing some more. Amiable and with an incisive wit. lvlirman may have come here a Fringe too soon but I'm still carrying the token he handed me on how I should behave towards my parents. Hasn't worked yet. though. (Brian Donaldson) I Underbelly. 0870 745 3083, until 28 Aug (not 76). 9pm. 59—970 /£‘7.50—£.‘8.50).
TONY CARTER
The saint of shambles cranks it up .0.
Last year. Tony Carter inwted some oddball friends to help him with his Fringe show. This reViewer felt it was a cruCIal error and that ditching the dead weight to strike out on his own was the way forward for the New Deal comic. Thankfully. what we get With his 2005 set. Benefit Fraudster. is pure. unadulterated Carter. That. and a selection of his faVOurite videos which he insists on playing clips of for our ‘enjoyment'. Oh. and images of monkeys and dogs during a brief Interval.
Carter's haphazard tomfoolery with technology is to highlight his main pomt about the ‘power of muSic'. Play a )Olly tune over footage of fear and terror and it makes the image all OK in the end. whether that is a
36 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE l 1
plane crashing close to a crowd of onlookers or a CCTV scene of Carter in what could well be a hospital for the ill of mind. Or. alternatively. a sinister piece of music could be played over something largely innocent; the effect is much the same. Quirkin enjoyable as this all is. the shambolic Carter is still one of the most frustrating comics on the local circuit. An absolute killer set is within his being but this isn't quite it.
(Brian Donaldson)
I The Stand II, 558 7272, until 28 Aug (not 75), 6pm. £6 (£5).
AS SEEN ON TV?: CHRIS MCCAUSLAND
Nostalgic trawl through the telly of yesteryear 000
Actually. as not seen on TV. because Chris McCausland is blind. Nevertheless. being a professional couch potato. the young Scouse comic's set is strung together with amusing observations about what he ‘watches.’ Big on daft adverts and obscure Discovery Channel documentaries. McCausland gets exasperated over accident compensation ads designed to rip off gullible idiots and delighted to discover male giraffes have four foot long cocks while gorillas only have half that shaft length. In this infectious show. we learn that McCausland wasn't always blind and. as he casts his mind back to the telly of his youth and the lawyer-in-a-wheelchair crime show Irons/de. the recollection of one particularly ridiculous episode prompts an extended monologue about bomb disposal etiquette.
McCausland doesn't overplay his lack of sight, but neither does he ignore it. An anecdote about watching a Liverpool game in his local boozer and nearly causing a riot because he was listening to the radio commentary on his walkman and was thus eight seconds ahead of his fellow Supporters gets a lot of laughs. Better still is the one about his Festival roommate — a deaf comedian. w0uld you believe? — who suggests that McCausland starts his set with a skit on The Generation Game: 'Nice to see you.‘ in best Brucie voice, ‘to see you. would be nice' Indeed. it was. (Miles Fielder) I Pleasance Dome. 556 6550, until 29 Aug (not 76). 7.45pm, {37.50—88.50 (ES—£7).
NEXT ISSUE OUT
18 Aug 2005)
PREVIEWS
A bunch of shows opening this week
So, as a frenzy of shows start getting all those weird ratings blobs popping up beside their names, you’d think that the only thing going on now are reviews. Well, that would be quite wrong as some shows are opening up this issue. We’ve already highlighted comic geniuses such as Tommy Tiernan, Dwight Slade and Demetri Martin as well as up and coming talents like Laura Solon and some Irish fella called James Carr.
But that’s not all on the preview front. Russell Brand takes time out from telling the world about Big Brother to bring his caustic wit to bear with a scary sounding show, Eroticised Humour (Assembly Rooms, 17-27 August). JoJo Sutherland has been on Channel 4, too, and after her Wife Swap appearance is giving us her story of reality TV with Wife Idol: The Rivals (Hill Street Theatre, 18-29 August). And lo and behold, ex-C4 legend Paul Merton is back with his lmpro Chums (Pleasance Courtyard, 13—29 August). Hopefully never getting anywhere near a TV set sometime soon (we mean that in a nice way) is Bob Doolally (pictured), who is up and at them for two nights only (the Stand, 15, 22 August).
If you have had that song about the London Tube on your radar (the spoof of ‘Going Underground’, which may or may not seem marginally insensitive these days), the creators are in town as the Amateur Transplants (Medina & Negociants, 13-20 August). Old hands Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden are back (Gilded Balloon Teviot, 14-28 August) while young turk Mark Watson (Pleasance Dome, 15&16 August) takes last year’s 24-hour comedy extravaganza a step further with 2005 minutes of fun; work it out, it’s a lot more. Who says this Fringe Iark is an endurance test? (Brian Donaldson)
I See Fringe programme or www. edfringe. com for full details.