list.co.uk/festival Reviews | FESTIVAL COMEDY
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LAZY SUSAN: DOUBLE ACT Dark laughs from 2014 Newcomer noms ●●●●●
TEZ ILYAS: TEZ TALKS A plea for tolerance plus robotic dancing ●●●●● HOLLY BURN: I AM KIRSTY K Method madness from talented Tynesider ●●●●●
There’s no doubting the talent of Celeste Dring and Freya Parker, aka Lazy Susan. Last year’s Best Newcomer nominees are slick comedians; in this second Fringe hour – which glistens with promise but doesn’t land as often as it should – they segue between sketches with lightning speed and an effortless confidence that beats many of their more established contemporaries. It’s a shame then that their material isn’t as
polished as their performance. Double Act takes on a similar form to 2014’s Extreme Humans; rather than a storyline linking each sketch, we have recurring characters that fit into an almost narrative- free hour. There are a few standouts: a sketch about dirty surgeons is darkly brilliant, and motivational speaker Jackie Sanchez (Parker doing a convincing Scottish accent) and her assistant T (Dring at her most ridiculous) is a highlight. But while there’s some very well-crafted stuff here, it doesn’t gel. Like the red sequinned curtain at the back of the stage, Double Act shimmers with delicious danger. And even though this might not be Lazy Susan’s best overall show, it’s certainly worth seeing these two comics in action. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 31 Aug, 8.10pm, £8–£10 (£7–£9).
Even before he takes to the stage, Tez Ilyas has one thing in his favour: a forename that can be utilised for pun after pun. Set up as a sort-of TED Talk (yep, it’s a TEZ Talk) in which the aim is to convert an audience of infidels to Islam, Ilyas tops it all off with his Tez Commandments (see?). Despite having an amusingly patchy beard, he hops on stage confidently in a sharp suit, assuring us that there’s much more to him than looking like an ‘over- enthusiastic Apprentice candidate’ before launching feet-first into his project. But within this mock conversion course (complete
with silly robotic dancing and criticism of grammar on racist graffiti) is a serious topic: Ilyas wonders why he has been made to feel like an outsider in the country he’s called home from day one. At least two people can be spotted wiping tears from their eyes at this heartfelt plea for sanity in a nation riddled with all manner of regressive phobias.
But not to worry, a gag is just around the corner to offset the emotion and things are back on track. TEZ Talks is an assured debut and more can be expected from Ilyas whether he sticks to his central theme or not. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 7.15pm, £10–£12 (£8–£10).
Holly Burn has always thrown herself wholesale into her performance, whether it’s as host of a site- specific foray (At Home with Holly) or as a murder victim who is resurrected as a series of characters (Living and Dying). Her profile has risen sharply recently with a video spoof of Victoria Beckham and a scissor-wielding appearance in Bad Bridesmaid. But with I Am Kirsty K, she returns to the Fringe stage with her most immersive role to date. Not only is Burn transforming herself into a slightly unhinged and manically yelping Whitley Bay girl, word has it that she’s being Kirsty K offstage throughout the entire duration of August.
Getting all ‘method’ on us is one thing, creating
a fully rounded Fringe hour is quite another; the latter falls down rather sadly as Kirsty goes on a national memorial tour to mark her gran’s death. Her relative has a few skeletons in the cupboard, naturally, which tumble out amid a game of hide and seek, and a eulogy that is the dictionary definition of awkward. Burn has an adrenaline-rushing ability which could really produce something memorable with the right project but her latest conceptual artefact falls way short. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 226 0000, until 29 Aug, 6.20pm, £5.
BUTT KAPINSKI A raunchy ride into gender politics and the seedy world of noir ●●●●●
Butt Kapinski is a private dick straight out of a Raymond Chandler story. He drawls his hard-boiled slang with a lisp that obliterates the letters L, R and S, all the while looking like Humphrey Bogart; if, that is, Bogey was a woman in a lumpily- padded trench coat. Butt is played by Deanna Fleysher, director of 2013’s Fringe talking-point, Red Bastard.
The story is a murder with the audience playing salient roles. Not only are they implicated in the crime but also in the performance’s success. All the noir tropes are present and transformed: the street lamp that cuts through the darkness is affixed to Butt like a third eye; the soundtrack is provided by an audience member; policemen, corpses and seedy underworld denizens are all conjured by Butt’s mush-mouthed oration and the crowd’s game participation.
Just as Butt is a grotesque parody of the hyper-masculine hero, male audience members are drafted in to play female characters and vice versa. The point isn’t laboured but draws attention to the disparity in noir gender roles. While men can be the hero, villain and everything in between, female characters are limited to love interest, sex worker or femme fatale. Our detective’s speech impediment allows Fleysher to utilise a kind of double- speak where Butt means one word but the audience hears another. Thus, transformed, ‘clear’ becomes ‘queer’ and ‘whore’ becomes ‘horror’.
Just as the genre holds a dark mirror up to the values of post- war America, the show analyses noir to expose its subconscious values. Led by accomplished clown Fleysher’s superb physicality, this theatrical comedy offers a thoughtful take on the detective genre amid a raucous thrill ride. (Suzanne Black) ■ Liquid Room Annexe, 226 0000, until 30 Aug (not 25), 2.10pm, free.
20–31 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 37