FESTIVAL 8pm —10pm
COMEDY PREVIEW Jack Dee
Mr Dee: he's alright lack
Anyone who can make money but of drinking beer deserves a good kicking. But then again, Jack the lad has got more redeeming features than most. Like his perfectly cultivated sardonic wit. Known to couch-potatoes as the poker-face of John Smith's bitter as well as having his own Channel 4 slot The Jack Dee Show, and numerous telly dabblings, including the recent comedyodrama The Grim/eys, the boy is in demand. But, determined not to cut his stand-up roots, he returns to Edinburgh after a 70-date UK tour. Picking up where he left off. Dee puts Tufnell-stylespin on the mundane stuff of life. Relationships, rows, parent trouble, the whole domestic shebang is there, together with forays into space and technology. ‘I think the appeal of my stuff is that it is so ordinary. You don’t have to have taken huge amounts of drugs in your life to be able to tune in,’ he says modestly. As far as the Festival goes, he‘s all geared-up, but believes a short stop- over is more than enough. 'Most of all it means I don’t have to share a flat with people who put fireworks up their bottoms for a living.’ Er, quite Jack.
(Claire Prentice)
I An Evening with Jack Dee (Fringe) Jack Dee, Edinburgh Playhouse (Venue 59) 557 2590, 2i & 26 Aug, 8pm, £13.50 (£72.50).
COMEDY REVIEW Mark Little: Psychobubble ** it if
Striding about the stage With confidence and slapping on the friendly boyish charm, Mark Little's adventure in comedy is an expert guide on How To Interact With An Audience. Latching on to an idea, he Will turn it on its head, and shoot it off in a totally unexpected and entertaining dIFECIIOfT His fall-back material IS adequate though, as he discusses the merits of computers that play chess and Harold Bishop's sudden reappearance on Neighbours. His Phil Kay-like way of usmg an audience as a tool is where
most of the true laughs lie however, and though this may rely heaVily on whether you catch him on a good night, it'S worth spilling yOur wallet's guts for. (Danny Wallace)
I Mark Little: Psychobubble (Fringe) Mark Little, Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, until 23 Aug, 8.25pm, £8.50/[950 (£7 50/[8 50).
COMEDY REVIEW Dylan Moran — Gurgling For Money
* at it it
An honours graduate of the Bill Hicks/Dennis Leary school of method smoking, this crumple-suited reCipient
' by I 2.
“very funny...very sad... it's this life 3 i
- the ultimate test
of a friendship"
Thursday 2| -Saturday 30 August
6. I 5pm Venue 26
Chaplaincy Centre I Bistro Square (near Fringe Club) Edinburgh
50 THE LIST 22:28AM 1997
Stephen Message
"...a skillfully created. taut & moving drama.." Ann Fitzgerald, The Stage
in: (c (ms)
Fringe Box Office
OI3I 650 820i
9.00am - 9.00pm
of last year's Perrier cracks the wise with the best of them. Moran's is a world in which profundity and whimsy share a pizza while arguing over who left the fridge door open; tourists dress like three-year-olds, and folk move house because they discover a moth in the living room. His deconstruction of regional stereotypes and dissection of the male psyche are alarmingly funny as is a wondrous diatribe against his girlfriend's ex. Jealousy, insecurity and fixing tractors have seldom been so appealing. (Rodger Evans)
I Dylan Moran — Gurgling For Money (Fringe) Dylan Moran, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 24 Aug (not 2 7) 9.30pm, £8/f8. 50 (£7/f7. 50).
COMEDY REVIEW
Omid Djalili Is Ethnic * * t
Omid Djalili is very funny, but he actually seems to be struggling a little to fill this hour-long show, Consequently, the first half-hour (observational stand-up) is excellent; the second (bongo-playing, slide show, lighting effects) less so.
He is brilliant on ’cultural differences’ — like his Iranian mother trying to haggle in McDonalds - and he arcth mocks PC orthodoxies, assuring the audience that ‘it’s okay to laugh'. But his isn't merely 'the outsider's View of Britain': he's Just as incisiver funny on, say, bad Fringe theatre.
With Just a little more material, this would be a very good show. (Ed Grenby)
I Omid Dja/i/i ls E thnic (Fringe), Fringe Club (Venue 2) 226 5738, until 30 Aug (not 28) 9.20pm (70.30pm, 30 Aug) £7 (£6).
COMEDY REVIEW
Junior Simpson * ‘k i 1'
This man knows how to work an audience. Smooth and stylish, Junior Simpson’s first solo show is a polished and primed showcase. He's about as mainstream as is possible Without wandering into the realms of the hackneyed. From time to time, though, the odd unorigina! comic number slips in (the old Lassie Jokes about little boys
Junior Simpon: talkin' loud
falling down holes are back, only this time it's Skippy The Bush Kangaroo that does the talking). A gifted mimic and a top class comic, Simpson has a show that we believe deserves your attention. (Danny Wallace)
I Junior Simpson (Fringe) Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 28) 9.45pm, £7. 50/f8. 50 (£6.50/f750).
THEATRE REVIEW
Oz — King Of Clubs * **
A marriage between club culture and musicals seems destined for the divorce courts. But with energy and ambition aplenty, this young company sing, stomp and shimmy their way through the story of wannabe club owner 02. After fleeing his dysfunctional parents and falling on hard times, 02 returns with his tail between his legs and caught between loan sharks, girl trouble and a stop- start career. Ensemble scenes inject colour in a meeting between Annie and Pan's People but at times, the clutter is distracting. The plot may appear to have been cobbled together, but a fun concept and real talent lurk here. (Claire Prentice)
I Oz — King Of Clubs (Fringe) Ozmosis Productions, Cafe Graffiti (Venue 90) 557 8330, until 30 Aug (not 23)
9. 75pm, f 6 (f 5). See Free/oaders pages 5 8i 7
STAR RATINGS air it ii i ii Unmissable t t ir t Very ood * * 1r Wort seeing t it Below average at You've been warned
Sept 8,9 Sept 10, ll
PILTON VIDEO
AVID Media Composer Non Linear Computer Editing (2 Day Courses)
Avid MCAOO Off Line Editing Avid MCAOO Off-line Editing (Media Log, Digitising, Rough Cut, Proiect Management)
Sept '5, 16 Avid MCIOOO On Line Editing (Fine Cut, Real Time effects, Broadcast Quality output)
Course Fees “50/ £75 Concessions Piiton Video 30 Ferry Rd Ave Edinburgh EH4 ABA 013i 343 i 151 Fax 343 2820
Pilton Video Supperted by City of Edinburgh Council Arts Unit All Bookings from Monday 18th August 9.30om