Fringe 2010
Aug. 24th, 2010 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeI have seen very few things this year, and although I have one more thing lined up, I should really try not to see any more, even though it pains me to do so, because of no money.
I saw a preview of Nat Luurtsema's show "In my head I'm a hero". I started off finding her a bit awkward, overexplaining jokes and being more likeable than funny. However, then it transpired that she had been to the freemasons' school for girls, which I had been intruiged by when I went to their museum. THEN she showed us a video of uniform-clad girls doing drill in a rather creepy manner, which I loved and I am hers forever. Then she talked about realising that she was a superhero because she could go without eating, and then the further realisation (once she was locked in a room in a hospital) that she was in fact anorexic and being sectioned under the mental health act. Really good show.
Stewart Lee yay. Bits were weird, like he said that we weren't being a good audience, and I know that that's something he does, but it still makes me sad like I'm personally responsible for it all. It's a try-out for material for the next series of his TV show, and some of it was kind of familiar (the Richard Hammond story pretty much retold only with David Cameron (have I mentioned that the first time I heard the Richard Hammond story I totally thought it was true? Yes, utterly unbelievable though it is...)), and some cool stuff about charity, pointing out that every day Russell Howard does not cycle he is killing starving children, which I liked.
Jon Richardson is very grumpy, but also quite lovely, so that a discussion with the audience about which should be the second digit that you cut off a repeat offender seems rather amiable. I didn't like it quite as much as his previous work, possibly because there was less bile directed at what I think of as worthy targets. Still very good though.
This is Countdown, like the TV show, by comedians. It's ace. I was with my German friend, who despite going to university and school in the UK had managed never to see it or even hear of it, so we had to spend the time leading up to her educating her about it, and explaining that new Countdown was far inferior to proper countdown with Carol Vorderman and Richard Whitley. The contestants were Jon Richardson and Alex Horne. Alex Horne has actually been on Countdown, and he was pretty good. He got an eight letter word, but it was when there was a rogue number nine in amongst the consonants, so it was really the best he could have got. The host was Dan Atkinson being drunk and foul-mouthed, with Paul Sinha being Carol because he is a bit of a maths whiz himself. In dictionary corner were a young man I didn't know and can't remember his name (but he seemed pretty funny) and Terry Saunders, who told an anecdote so dull that it could have been on actual countdown. The clock was a man who came and danced for us each time. I really loved it.
Comedy Countdown was a late thing, which I had sadly scheduled for the night before I had to get up early to see Daniel Kitson's theatre thing "It's always right now, until it's later". It was worth such hardship. The set is just naked light-bulbs hanging down at various points, which represent points at two people's lives. He tells a man's life backwards from his death, and a woman's life forwards from her birth, and there is a tiny bit in the middle where they intersect, but that isn't the point of it, it's just about lives.
He opened being Paul Hamilton the poet, reading us pieces about Chairman Mao ("Mao, Mao, where are you now Mao?"). with some terrible puns that I loved wholeheartedly while other members of the audience seemed to be enjoying on a different/more intelligent level. I don't care. I liked him interrogating an audience member after claiming it was none of his business. I didn't much enjoy his rapping pensions advisor, but it was a really good show.
The Silver Stewbilee is supposedly to celebrate Stewart Lee's 20-odd years on the fringe, but is more to publicise/celebrate his new book How I Escaped My Certain Fate. (Which I have not got, but totally will the second I get paid.) It was a collection of some of his favourite acts - Kevin Eldon, both as Paul Hamilton and as the Look Around You guy; Simon Munnery as Alan Parker (failing to rest his foot on the monitor without knocking it over); Paul Putner as his American comedian persona; Bridget Christie as A Ant. Also surprise Franz Ferdinand and Frank Chickens. And Richard Herring starting heckling from the audience and then coming on stage to tear up Stewart Lee's book and throw it at his face. I really enjoyed Bridget Christie's bit, especially when she read out a list of ant-based jokes (she's more than that, I'm just pigeon-holing her). Also Frank Chickens I loved - I'm not sure that I'd describe them as hilarious (though I've totally voted for them as comedy god since) but they just made me incredibly happy to watch. I saw Sue Perkins in the audience (wearing a pair of 3D glasses tucked into her collar, which sort of put me off somehow), and then a man I thought was a comedian I'd seen recently, who I spent some time trying to work out who was, and now I think that he was in fact someone from my flist. So if you were at the Stewbilee, possibly wearing or near someone wearing a thundercats t-shirt, and a short-haired woman was staring at you - sorry. And also hello.
I saw a preview of Nat Luurtsema's show "In my head I'm a hero". I started off finding her a bit awkward, overexplaining jokes and being more likeable than funny. However, then it transpired that she had been to the freemasons' school for girls, which I had been intruiged by when I went to their museum. THEN she showed us a video of uniform-clad girls doing drill in a rather creepy manner, which I loved and I am hers forever. Then she talked about realising that she was a superhero because she could go without eating, and then the further realisation (once she was locked in a room in a hospital) that she was in fact anorexic and being sectioned under the mental health act. Really good show.
Stewart Lee yay. Bits were weird, like he said that we weren't being a good audience, and I know that that's something he does, but it still makes me sad like I'm personally responsible for it all. It's a try-out for material for the next series of his TV show, and some of it was kind of familiar (the Richard Hammond story pretty much retold only with David Cameron (have I mentioned that the first time I heard the Richard Hammond story I totally thought it was true? Yes, utterly unbelievable though it is...)), and some cool stuff about charity, pointing out that every day Russell Howard does not cycle he is killing starving children, which I liked.
Jon Richardson is very grumpy, but also quite lovely, so that a discussion with the audience about which should be the second digit that you cut off a repeat offender seems rather amiable. I didn't like it quite as much as his previous work, possibly because there was less bile directed at what I think of as worthy targets. Still very good though.
This is Countdown, like the TV show, by comedians. It's ace. I was with my German friend, who despite going to university and school in the UK had managed never to see it or even hear of it, so we had to spend the time leading up to her educating her about it, and explaining that new Countdown was far inferior to proper countdown with Carol Vorderman and Richard Whitley. The contestants were Jon Richardson and Alex Horne. Alex Horne has actually been on Countdown, and he was pretty good. He got an eight letter word, but it was when there was a rogue number nine in amongst the consonants, so it was really the best he could have got. The host was Dan Atkinson being drunk and foul-mouthed, with Paul Sinha being Carol because he is a bit of a maths whiz himself. In dictionary corner were a young man I didn't know and can't remember his name (but he seemed pretty funny) and Terry Saunders, who told an anecdote so dull that it could have been on actual countdown. The clock was a man who came and danced for us each time. I really loved it.
Comedy Countdown was a late thing, which I had sadly scheduled for the night before I had to get up early to see Daniel Kitson's theatre thing "It's always right now, until it's later". It was worth such hardship. The set is just naked light-bulbs hanging down at various points, which represent points at two people's lives. He tells a man's life backwards from his death, and a woman's life forwards from her birth, and there is a tiny bit in the middle where they intersect, but that isn't the point of it, it's just about lives.
He opened being Paul Hamilton the poet, reading us pieces about Chairman Mao ("Mao, Mao, where are you now Mao?"). with some terrible puns that I loved wholeheartedly while other members of the audience seemed to be enjoying on a different/more intelligent level. I don't care. I liked him interrogating an audience member after claiming it was none of his business. I didn't much enjoy his rapping pensions advisor, but it was a really good show.
The Silver Stewbilee is supposedly to celebrate Stewart Lee's 20-odd years on the fringe, but is more to publicise/celebrate his new book How I Escaped My Certain Fate. (Which I have not got, but totally will the second I get paid.) It was a collection of some of his favourite acts - Kevin Eldon, both as Paul Hamilton and as the Look Around You guy; Simon Munnery as Alan Parker (failing to rest his foot on the monitor without knocking it over); Paul Putner as his American comedian persona; Bridget Christie as A Ant. Also surprise Franz Ferdinand and Frank Chickens. And Richard Herring starting heckling from the audience and then coming on stage to tear up Stewart Lee's book and throw it at his face. I really enjoyed Bridget Christie's bit, especially when she read out a list of ant-based jokes (she's more than that, I'm just pigeon-holing her). Also Frank Chickens I loved - I'm not sure that I'd describe them as hilarious (though I've totally voted for them as comedy god since) but they just made me incredibly happy to watch. I saw Sue Perkins in the audience (wearing a pair of 3D glasses tucked into her collar, which sort of put me off somehow), and then a man I thought was a comedian I'd seen recently, who I spent some time trying to work out who was, and now I think that he was in fact someone from my flist. So if you were at the Stewbilee, possibly wearing or near someone wearing a thundercats t-shirt, and a short-haired woman was staring at you - sorry. And also hello.
