LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL REVIEWS FESTIVAL COMEDY

KATHERINE RYAN Dark gossip hits the mark ●●●●● THE NOT QUITE QUARTET High fives and top tunes ●●●●●

What you look like shouldn’t make any difference in comedy. Funny’s funny whatever the package. However, for Katherine Ryan, being pretty, diminutive, blonde and blue-eyed works rather well when what comes out of her mouth is as acidic as the lemons on her poster. Ryan won the Funny Women competition back in 2008 with a rather squeaky, somewhat contrived stage persona. Nature’s Candy, however, sees her in more relaxed but assured territory. Both the scripted lines and ad-libbed banter

display a sharp wit and she frequently has the feel of a young Joan Rivers as she puts a positive spin on her life after divorce and lupus bearing. She’s gloriously nefarious in places too; all talk about her daughter avoids any cutesy clichés, instead preferring to portray her toddler speaking like ‘a black gay man’ who she’s currently teaching about stranger danger, necessary because ‘she’s getting hot now’. Ryan’s mixture of the gossipy, the bitchy, the dark and the upbeat, strangely works very well indeed. (Marissa Burgess) Gilded Balloon at Third Door, 622 6552, until 27 Aug, 3.15pm, £9.50–£10 (£8–£8.50).

If you have yet to make your way through The Wire or somehow haven’t yet seen Fight Club or The Sixth Sense or Citizen Kane, best take some earplugs with you to The Not Quite Quartet. ‘The Spoiler Song’ does exactly what it says in the title but it would be a shame to miss out entirely just because you don’t want to know what’s in the box at the end of Se7en. Thankfully, the duo of Dale Campbell (an

excellent guitarist who looks a bit like the League of Gentleman’s Steve Pemberton aka Tubbs/Herr Lipp, and says not a word throughout the whole show) and Ricky Tart (who is prone to wearing one of those hilarious tops that’s designed like a shirt and tie, and has got more rabbit than Sainsbury’s) don’t just provide a means to narrow down your viewing choices.

‘The Girl Who Tasted of Cinnamon’ is a modern fairytale which namechecks Heston Blumenthal, while ‘The Hello Song’ is another fairly self- explanatory tune in their locker. All that, plus you may learn to perfect a ninja high five: that one prob- ably does need some explaining. (Brian Donaldson) The Caves, 556 5375, until 26 Aug, 7.40pm, £7.50–£8.50.

PAPPY’S An hour of undiluted joy ●●●●●

First rule of comedy reviewing: never sit in the front row with a big notepad on your knee, scribbling away without a care in the world. Sometimes it’s not easy to get a spot where you can remain in the shadows and utterly anonymous but in a venue as big as the Queen Dome, it can’t be that difficult to ‘hide’ from the performers. Still, as the poor naïve sap discovered, if you’re going to be make that (hopefully) one-off fatal error in anyone’s show, it might as well be at Pappy’s. Despite having plenty fun with the critic’s faux pas, there’s not a mean bone in any of their frames as Matthew Crosby, Tom Parry and Ben Clark bounce around their stage with joie de vivre spraying all over the crowd: can you imagine Jerry Sadowitz leading his flock into an impromptu Mexican wave?

The Pappy’s brand of infectious enthusiasm has never been in question; the problem has been with

a flimsy script or tendency to be daft for daftness’ sake. For their Last Show Ever! (fear not, it won’t be), they have arrived armed to the teeth with a flawless script in which every bit of anarchic silliness (a wonderful song about gloves or the recurring quiz show where losing means winning) actually drives the plot rather than just taking it for a wander up a comedic cul de sac.

At the beginning we are told by an ageing trio that tonight was the last show they ever performed

together and, told in flashback, they reveal the reason for their demise. Cue an hour of astutely choreographed dicking about with brilliant sketches featuring the commonality of cats, firefighters and trees and how to live your life with a ‘sympathy song’ soundtracking your sadder moments. After a succession of decent shows, Pappy’s have finally poured undiluted joy back into their fun club. (Brian Donaldson) Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 27 Aug, 8.20pm, £12.50–£14 (£11–£12.50).

GARETH MORINAN Slim pickings amid a frenzy of facts ●●●●●

Quite a busy boy is Gareth Morinan given that he has seven different shows at the Fringe including political debates, a bit of improv and spoken word events in which he speaks out about his opinions on David Cameron and Ricky Gervais (he’s not a fan of either). For his main Fringe show, Truth Doodler, he has concocted a multimedia stramash featuring a variety of characters (one of whom, Frenchman Pep Zoric, met the queue outside the venue) and a whole bunch of stats, figures and data analysis.

At under five foot tall, Morinan can’t avoid tackling his height but, in this show at least, avoids chatting about being cut from the final edit of Life’s Too Short. Instead, he introduces us to Major Beef (an animated bovine with an argumentative streak), bad rapper Clive X and hosts a game of Who Wants to be a Civil Servant? (Michael Gove was once Morinan’s boss).

It’s certainly an energetic and innovative debut, even if too much of it falls flat. Perhaps spreading himself a little less thinly across the festival might produce a more incisive follow-up hour. (Brian Donaldson) Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, until 26 Aug, 1.30pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7.50–£8.50).

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