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The Kit Kat Club
Edinburgh: Christie's Comedy Cellar, Fridays ***
Ubercompere: Fraulein Fraser in her Kit Kat wrapper
Willkommen, bienvenue and indeed welcome to this new fortnightly night, hosted by the fearsome Fraulein Fraser. Based (with tongue in chic) on the Berlin nightclub immortalised in the novels of Christopher Ishervvood and the musical Cabaret, Edinburgh's Kit Kat is more cheap ’n' cheerful than devilishly decadent. Like other nights at Christie’s, it's a lo-fi affair, though the smoky, subterranean gloom provides an atmospheric setting, while the free cocktail on admission and tasty Kit Kat bars at the interval do provide a whiff of indulgence.
Mainly, though, the evening provides an excuse for Fraulein (better known as Suzanne) Fraser to strut her stuff in a Sally Bowles outfit, flanked by a couple of sturdy-looking gentlemen in the Aryan mould, whose clothing allowance appears not to stretch to shirts. Fraulein Fraser’s accent, it is true, places her origins closer to Musselburgh than Munich, but she carries out her duties with aplomb — despite her fascistic treatment of
: ousoow AND EDINBURGH mumm-
males in the audience who happen to lack a luxuriant head of hair or a companion for the evening. Be warned, meinen Herren und Damen, audience participation is both mandatory and ruthless.
Guest slots on the occasion of The List’s visit were filled by Gordon Brunton (as Teutonic as a Forfar bridie, though substantially more funny); and Australian jazz crooner G.T. Nash, whose Edinburgh debut was a reconnaissance mission for the Fringe, when she will appear in her alter ego of Madison Page. United at short notice with gifted local guitar-man Kevin Mackenzie, she charmed under-rehearsal into submission, and crooned amiably through a few classics, eschewing any Sinatra tributes in favour of numbers by Elvis Costello and wir ain Roddy Frame.
‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’ blares tinnin from the sound system in the interval. That may be an exaggeration, but at the Kit Kat Club you lend Fraulein Fraser more than your ears.
(Andrew Burnet)
Love!
bub Iy
Your chance to help judge the 1998 Perrier Awards for comedy
AND win a crate of champagne
Comedy is listed by date, then by city. Shows will be listed, providing that details reach our offices at least ten da 5 in advance of publication. Come y listings compiled by Claire Prentice.
é THURSDAY 25
Glasgow f Cheshire Cat Comedy Club Waxy‘s. 20 (‘audleriggs ‘52 8717. 0pm. Free. Silky. Ian l‘oy and l-"rxmk Quinn are the Mad Hatters \'.Illl Raymond Mearns eompereing. ' See Laughing Bag).
i Edinburgh ! The Stand 5 York Place. 558 7272. 8pm. I £4 (£3). The ‘amazing' (it says here)
Mitchell Anderson tops the bill, with support from improv expert Jack \V'eatherall and Liane ‘Red Raw' Ellis. Christie’s Comedy Cellar WJ. Christie & Son. 27-~3I West Port. 328 3765. 9.30pm (doors open 9pm). £4 (£3). Jolly japes from Colin Ramone. David Kay (regional winner of the National Comedy Store Competition) and Reg ‘voodoo' Anderson.
i l FRIDAY 26
Glasgow
Mad Cap Comedy Club Sloan's. Argyle Arcade. 357 5387. 9pm. £6. 'I‘ickets available from Sloan's or from record shop in De (‘ourcy‘s Arcade. Ashton Lane. The opening night of this new comedy club features the very famous Phil Kay plus Silky. Viv Gee. David
~~ Kaye and eleven-year-old Ashley Storrie.
p’ck or me WM"
Held every year during the Edinburgh Festival, the Perriers are the UK’s most coveted awards for comedy.
As in previous years, The List has joined forces with Nica Burns, the director of the Perrier Awards, to offer one of our readers a chance to join the ten-strong judging panel.
Your mission would be to see up to 50 shows (all tickets are free) and take part in judging meetings. You'll help decide who wins the Perrier Awards for Best Comedian and Best Newcomer; and at the end your efforts will be rewarded with twelve bottles of champagne to help soothe your aching laughter muscles.
f If you think you know a tickled rib from a pickled fig. and have plenty of free ' time during the last three weeks of August, write to us now. Tell us in about 250 words what’s good and bad about comedy. and why you’d be the
right person for the job.
Send your entry, including name, address and daytime
telephone number to:
PERRIER PANEL, THE LIST, 14 HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH EH1 1TE Entries should arrive by Friday 3 July
Last year's winners: The League of Gentlemen (left), and best newcomer Milton Jones (right)
7S Jun—9 Jul 1998 THE llST 65