Articles by Vyvyan Almond

Beyond a Joke? Comedy, Culture and the Public

Like many of us, Dr.

Musical Comedy Awards Showcase

The acts chosen from the London competition earlier this year are as varied as they are talented, representing the old and well-loved to the new and exciting.

Baby Wants Candy Workshops

American improv comedy troupe Baby Wants Candy are among the most familiar veterans of the Fringe.

The Mac Twins: Mac Yourself at Home

Greeted with an Irn Bru cocktail and two bottle-blonde lassies in tartan onesies talking about their ‘mam’, it is not difficult to guess the angle that the Mac Twins are going …

Next Best Thing

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
Opium
20th Aug, 2014

Katie Davison and Jay Bennett, weary and elated respectively, open their show with an awkward blend of high-fives and handshakes and an argument over why they’re called The Nex…

BattleActs! - Free

With so much improvised comedy around, every group needs a USP.

The Birmingham Footnotes: Don't Mind Me

This is just what you want from an evening of student stand up.

Four On Demand

Four on Demand is a free lunchtime showcase for the standup skills of host Alex Hoyle, ‘the Bad Boy of Niceness’, actor and comedian Becky Brunning (Six Steps to Joy), and co…

Choose Your Own Comedy Adventure

We are all, surely, familiar with the phenomenon of the choose your own adventure novel.

Six Steps to Joy

With some beat poetry, some interpretative dance and their patented Joy testing machine, comic actors Becky Brunning and Katharine Marwick claim that they can pull an audience out …

In Cahoots: Some Like It Hoots

Good sketch comedy is extremely uplifting, and it’s even better when you find it at the Free Fringe in one of the innumerable odd little rooms above bars.

Is He a Bit Simon Jay? - Free

With an enviable variety of excellent voices and a real commitment to his physicality, Simon Jay skilfully portrays the various characters crammed into the tragic life story of his…

Twice as Nice Comedy @ Maggie's Chamber

The ever-popular pub The Three Sisters is a fun place to wander into and pass a couple of hours (especially when it’s raining), and you could do worse than climbing up to Maggie’s …

Rainbow Rabbits with Rabies

The Free Fringe is a chaotic world.

The Edinburgh Revue Stand-Up Show

Review
★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn
10th Aug, 2014

Every art needs its new generation of practitioners.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Alone on stage, with only a uniform, an old bed and a painted sky, Andy Daniel lays out the story of sixteen-year-old soldier Thomas Peaceful, in an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo�…

Juliette Burton: Look at Me

Juliette Burton: Look at Me is not entirely what I would call a comedy.

The Moth of August

Four performers share a flat in Edinburgh, the setting indicated only by the Fringe guides and flyers which share the single table in the play’s single room with a pair of biscui…

Robin and Partridge: Robin Dies at the End of the Show

I must immediately declare that I have always liked Robin and Partridge.

Alice in Wonderland

Review
★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
2nd Sep, 2011

At the top of the staircase which leads to C soco, you can hear the sound of hushed voices.

Bob and Jim - Modern Urges

Review
★★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
30th Aug, 2011

The performing arts are undergoing a shift in inspiration towards the early Twentieth Century: Cabaret is on the up, Burlesque is increasingly acceptable, and in Comedy it is the m…

Mark Nelson - Guilty Pleasure

The first thing one notices about the White Belly is the air, which because of the damp in the disused bank tastes like the inside of a papier-mache aircraft hangar.

Agonise, the Comedy Problem Page - Free

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
30th Aug, 2011

In their free hour, Steve N Allen and Ria Lina read extracts from Agony Aunt pages and attempt to provide better advice using songs along with suggestions from the audience.

Grim(m) Tales of the Woods - Free

Review
★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
30th Aug, 2011

One cannot help but feel , when offered lesser-known tales from the Brothers Grimm, that there is probably a reason that they are not so popular.

Eric Lampaert

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
25th Aug, 2011

Eric Lampaert looks weird, he really does.

Frankenstein

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
14th Aug, 2011

ExADUS intercut dramatisations of extracts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with moments from and interpretations of Shelley’s own life, and the experiences that drove her to w…

The Artisan

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2011

Arguably, we are witnessing what one might describe as a ‘vintage turn’ in stage-performance.

All the Fun of the Unfair

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
2nd Sep, 2011

‘You’ve come on a weird night.

My Best Friend Drowned in a Swimming Pool

Review
★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
9th Aug, 2011

In Eva O’Connor’s new play, four friends recount, and dispute, their reactions to the accidental death of one of their number in a drunken accident.

Marcel Lucont Etc: A Chat Show

With his bare feet, eternal glass of red wine and implausibly heavy accent, Marcel Lucont is not one to let his French heritage go unacknowledged.

Matt Green: Too Much Information

Review
★★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
30th Aug, 2011

It’s hard to get excited about Matt Green, but it’s even harder not to be taken in by his confidence and easy charm.

Faust/us

Review
★★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
28th Aug, 2011

Here is another show which does not make a great first impression.

David Reed: Shamblehouse

Review
★★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2011

The first thing you notice is that David Reed really has created a Shamblehouse in the Pleasance.

Waiting For Alice

Review
★★★★
Vyvyan Almond
Edinburgh Fringe
14th Aug, 2011

As Lewis Carrol broods on his missing protagonist, and the White Rabbit is sent in search of an eight-year-old girl to fill the role, the Hatter, the Dormouse, the Hare and the Moc…

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