Festival Comedy list.co.uk/festival
Telephone Booking Fringe 0131 226 0000 International Festival 0131 473 2000 Book Festival 0845 373 5888 Art Festival 07500 461 332 ANDREW LAWRENCE High-pitched and hilarious rantings ●●●●●
enforced sexual fantasising for the audience, Australian Jonno Katz weaves a love story of a man, another version of himself, an enigma wrapped in a half-baked metaphor wrapped in a girl, and a mosquito that may or may not represent Cupid’s pointy little arrow. Katz exudes a kind of irresistible manic energy and like some lithe, leaping jester has no problem keeping a giggly crowd’s attention for a full hour with just himself and a lot of imaginary friends. When he admits he talks funny we think he’s referring to
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the accent, but his speech is also punctuated with highly-strung hoots of nervous energy. At his best he’s snapping in and out of different characters, adapting voice and body language to inhabit various crudely drawn but instantly recognisable personae. And while the
whole thing could have had a little more focus, it’s great to see some hilarious improvised riffing on a crowd’s unsolicited input. (Laura Ennor) ■ Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, until 29 Aug (not 16, 23), 6.50pm, £11–£12 (£10–£11). NEXT ISSUE OUT WEDNESDAY 18 AUGUST
Andrew Lawrence claims he doesn’t have a grand theme or gimmick to his show: he just wants to get a few things off his chest. Boy, does he want to get a few things off his chest. With most comedians you start to sweat for them after half an hour, concerned they’ll run out of material. The opposite is true with Andrew Lawrence: you begin to fear for the people being showered with bile in the front row. The brilliance of Lawrence’s act lies within its relentlessness. If he has an itch he doesn’t just scratch it, he worries at it until it bleeds. His whinging would be wearying were it not for the fact that his targets are generally deserving of the vitriol. A gifted mimic, he effortlessly conjures up his obnoxious Aussie promoter, his Brummie ex-housemate and his long- suffering girlfriend, while TV execs, dentists and purveyors of unhealthy breakfast cereals are all the subjects of his rantings. All of which are delivered at breakneck speed in a high-pitched monotone that would peel paper from the wall. (Allan Radcliffe) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 29 Aug (not 16), 9.20pm, £10–£11.50 (£8.50–£10).
CACTUS: THE SEDUCTION A manic one-man love story ●●●●●
After an unnecessarily lengthy preamble that includes a lesson in cultural and linguistic differences and 32 THE LIST 12–19 Aug 2010
STRASSMAN: DUALITY An ancient art taken to a whole new level ●●●●●
American entertainer David Strassman continues to single-handedly revive and redefine the ancient art of ventriloquism for the 21st century with this hilarious mind-bending psychodrama which might have been written by Charlie Being John Malkovich Kaufman. In the past, Strassman’s innovations have been physical in form courtesy of his patented Puppetronics system, developed with the help of a pal at NASA, and dramatic in terms of the character development of his main puppet, Chuck, a malignant and foulmouthed 13-year- old boy who, in Strassman’s celebrated show in 2000, sold his soul to the devil and became a real child. The world premiere of Duality takes Strassman’s
innovations in ventriloquism to a whole new level of complexity by exploring the psychological motivations of the ventriloquist and the relationship between the puppeteer and the puppet. If you thought that was fairly straightforward, this show, which quite brilliantly
reveals ever deeper and more disturbingly humorous layers of meaning while consistently wrong-footing the audience, may blow your mind. It takes place in the waiting room of a psychiatrist’s
office, where Strassman’s puppeteer – and Chuck – are anticipating the late but imminent arrival of the shrink. Initially, man and puppet argue like husband and wife in need of marriage counselling. Subsequently, the line between clever postmodernist routine and a genuinely disturbed mind becomes increasingly blurred as the man appears to lose control of his wooden creation. And then the show descends into metaphysical insanity concerning the notion of the inner self.
The writing is truly superb and the performance – or should that be performances? – breathtaking in linguistic and ventriloquistic dexterity. Providing much food for thought, Duality takes the ancient art of ventriloquism up several notches. Absolute genius. (Miles Fielder) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 7pm, £13–£15 (£12–£14).