I still die on stage frequently. Last month I could feel the room drifting away during a high-profile big top bill in the Greenwich Comedy Festival, but my worst death of recent years was in August 2009 at a private performance for the Friends and Corporate partners of the Edinburgh Fringe, seated around desert laden…
This month, the former Perrier Awards for Comedy on the Edinburgh Fringe have been taken over by Foster’s, the beer company. The main award, which usually goes to an unknown turn, remains. But Foster’s has also invited the public to vote for a “Comedy God” from all the nominees of the last 30 years. This…
“What are days for?”, asks the curmudgeonly poet, Philip Larkin, is his poem, Days, questioning the very point of living. He is unable to offer any real comfort, concluding, “Ah, solving that question / brings the priest and the doctor / in their long coats / running over the fields.” For Larkin, the idea of…
Villagers – Ship Of Fools Essentially benign, Villagers here lay a tense and never quite consummated Eighties post-punk/neo-psychedelic guitar chug over nautical singer-songwriterly metaphors. Ship Of Fools is sure to comfort morbidly introspective young people who feel adrift, or at sea, or storm-tossed, so to speak, in their daily lives. Sadly, it seems to fade…
Every year at around this time journalist are asked for their tips for the best shows to see at the Edinburgh Fringe in August. Professional critics can’t just pick all the things they have chosen before and know are the best because, like the low rent entertainers they essentially are, they too need to vary…