F E S T I VA L C O M E DY | Reviews
P H O T O :
M A T T C R O C K E T T
SEAN MORLEY: SOON I WILL BE DEAD AND MY BONES WILL BE FREE TO WREAK HAVOC UPON THE EARTH ONCE MORE Ambitious and creative absurdist set ●●●●●
Sean Morley’s opening ‘joke’ is worth the admission price alone. It’s a sprawling, high-concept fantasy featuring a prank-loving king, several demons and an essential element of audience participation. Morley is present in real life and through pre- recorded voiceover, where he lends his lyrical skills to describing the landscape. He has the audience completely keeled over as the scene – somewhere between The Mighty Boosh and Tolkien – plays out. What follows is equally unpredictable, with the comic reinventing himself as a mischievous talk- show host interrogating audience members with the big questions of our time. In the hands of a lesser comedian, this bit would have the potential to collapse but Morley directs the section with intellect and wit.
This is a delightfully ambitious, endlessly creative hour of lo-fi comedy, which covers fear, self- acceptance and trust. Find what you need to find, but prepare to laugh very hard indeed. (Craig Angus) n Heroes @ The Hive, until 25 Aug (not 21), 3.20pm, £5 in advance or donations at the venue.
ROSS SMITH: CRYING / SHAME An emotionally stunted man with gags to die for ●●●●● MOTHER Daft skits and chemistry to burn ●●●●●
Ross Smith has a problem with letting it all out. Tears don’t come easily to him; indeed he’s unable to recall the last time he cried. Even when a core member of his family is close to death, the only dry eye in the house belongs to him. Down the other end, he has a ‘shy bladder’ which leads him to race for an unpopulated cubicle whenever nature calls on a night out. A row of urinals can then become the backdrop to a battle of wills that he knows he will never win.
After a debut show last year about him taking a leap into the unknown (replacing another Ross Smith on a lads’ holiday abroad), he’s not sure that many people are especially inclined to exit their comfort zone. Indeed, he was quite content to avoid doing the Fringe this year and stick to an easy life.
That he did return will hopefully reap some
benefits down the line. Ross Smith is a terrific joke- writer and amiable company for an hour. Whether he is able to crank it up a notch, get out of his own comfort zone and reach for the next level is up for conjecture. (Brian Donaldson) n Just the Tonic at The Tron, until 25 Aug, 1pm, £5 in advance or donations at the venue.
Mother is a slick London sketch duo made up of Laura Curnick and Jack Mosedale, friends that met at an improv class, as one skit handily explains. Dressed in a Björk t-shirt (her) and Celine Dion top (him), they present a conveyor belt of characters, starting with two annoying female telly presenters who blame women for . . . most things apparently, while flashing terrifying grins. Later a male feminist reads his poetry at an open-mic night, revealing unsavoury views on women much to the host’s horror, and there’s a song about getting overexcited about wearing lanyards. It’s fun, daft stuff with camp shout-outs to Cher
and Donna Summer alongside lots of corpsing and chemistry between the pair. When they’re not ‘Mothering’ it up together, Mosedale does a ‘gay time travel’ podcast called The Hole Seekers and Curnick is an actor – good training for their scene about a performer interfering in a Chekhov translation.
Although some scenes don’t quite take off, the one about surreal London train station names offers a flashback to Alan Partridge’s horse-racing commentary, and the finale is fabulous. (Claire Sawers) n Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 26 Aug (not 14), 10.15pm, £10.50–£11.50 (£9.50–£10.50).
AHIR SHAH: DOTS Just another hour of intelligence, ideas and jokes ●●●●●
P H O T O :
T H E O T H E R R C H A R D
I
As a refresher course for Ahir Shah devotees, he kicks off Dots with the familiar routine about the culture clash of his voice and skin colour. It hits the mark as usual, but today there’s an extra resonance because Shah is suffering badly from a sore throat, his vocal cords sounding as though they are about to snap at any second. Fresh top-ups of water are called for on several occasions during the hour, but despite such a clear impediment, this is quite simply another blistering Fringe set from one of the country’s true rising stand-up stars. Dots tackles another cross-section of overarching ideas and
personal incidents which bash against each other causing several layers of friction between politics, history, censorship, religion and society as Shah continues to seek nothing less than the meaning of existence. But with jokes. And plenty of them. He rails against the Twitterati’s insistence that everyone must have a fully formed opinion on everything at all times, when it should be perfectly OK to sit out the odd argument now and again. Shah is amused and amazed that ‘person of colour’ is an acceptable phrase now, the meeting which gave the thumbs-up to that particular ‘c’ word was clearly convened without his knowledge.
As the world threatens to implode, Shah is trying hard to better himself; he’s been on and off anti-depressants in the last year while his trips to the gym have proved to be disappointingly positive occurrences. With two Edinburgh Comedy Award nominations in a row having made their way to him, few would bet against this year being marked by a hat-trick of shortlistings. For passion, intelligence and gag-writing expertise, Ahir Shah is positioned permanently on the winner’s podium. (Brian Donaldson) n Monkey Barrel, until 25 Aug, 1.45pm, £7–£8 in advance or donations at the venue.
50 THE LIST FESTIVAL 14–26 Aug 2019