Articles by Jane Thompson

Patrick Turpin: A Brother for Jonathan

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Bannermans
31st Aug, 2014

Patrick Turpin cuts a vulnerable figure on stage, baring his soul (and, without giving too much away, his nipples) to the world in his debut hour that delves into childhood memories and insecurities...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrghhh! It's the Increasingly Prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Show - and It's Free!

It seems arbitrary, if not foolish, to award a star rating to something like the Malcolm Hardee Awards Show. The four, rather than five, star rating is not an indication of lacking quality, but of the fact that the Awards are unmistakably aimed at a specific audience...

Pippa Evans: Don't Worry, I Don't Know Who I Am Either

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Bannermans
31st Aug, 2014

Pippa Evans has something of the music hall about her - and thankfully, by that I don't mean dubious mother-in-law jokes and a touch of old fashioned racism. In her one-woman variety act, Evans delivers songs, characters and stand up comedy with charm and style, all ably accompanied by Yshani Perinpanayagam on the piano...

Testiculating (Waving Your Arms Talking Bllcks)

Eric Lampaert makes no claims to be tackling the big issues - in Testiculating (Waving Your Arms Talking B*ll*cks), he talks about everything and anything that catches his eye from airport security to death certificates...

Set List: Stand-Up Without a Net

In Set List, spontaneity is the name of the game; a selection of comics perform completely improvised sets in front of your eyes, with nothing to guide them but key phrases which are projected onto screens at the side of the stage...

Hilarity Bites Comedy Club: Showcase Show

Review
★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Cowgatehead
31st Aug, 2014

Hilarity Bites, as comedy showcases at the Fringe go, is a solid choice - a mix of an experienced compere and a good range of acts promising a solid hour of entertainment. Essentially a comedy club night reconfigured for an Edinburgh time slot, compere Freddie Quinn's laid back, conversational tones and self-deprecating gags set the audience at ease adeptly and quickly...

Hate 'n' Live

Hate 'n' Live is a night that revels in a non-PC, outrageous and often obscene approach to comedy. A showcase of stand up comics attempt improvised sets inspired by audience suggestions of the things they hate the most...

The Best of The Real MacGuffins

The Real MacGuffins are clearly skilled and practised performers, exuding a confident, polished stage presence from the start - playing the gracious hosts at this, a party celebrating the group's back catalogue...

Cariad and Louise's Character Hour

Cariad Lloyd prefaced the show with an announcement - her double act partner, Louise Ford, had left Edinburgh in the last few days due to unforeseen circumstances. But the show must go on, and Lloyd covered any gaps in the hour with grace and style...

The Comedy Zone

The Comedy Zone is a showcase night that comes with more than it's fair share of prestige, and no little amount of pressure. A strong history of turning out performers like Frankie Boyle, Al Murray, Russell Howard and Dave Gorman lends the night a credibility that many showcases lack, but it also places an incredible burden on the shoulders of performers who are just being introduced to the comedy scene - the true purpose of the night being to launch new faces into the limelight...

Toby: Fuzzbuzz

Review
★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Pleasance Courtyard
22nd Aug, 2014

Fuzzbuzz can hardly be described as a sketch show. Rather, the show follows the extended narrative of two sisters, Lizzie and Sarah, in the aftermath of a mysterious accident. Lizzie has lost her memory and her sister is acting as her deranged nursemaid, abusing her power to make money - the show is presented as a mock charity appeal on Lizzie's behalf...

Rob Auton: The Face Show

Rob Auton’s show has a mercurial quality, slipping somewhere between spoken word show, stand up comedy and theatrical piece. There’s no narrative to speak of, and the show takes the form of a collection of thoughts – a kind of ambiguous spider diagram around the word “face” that dances into the audience...

The Comedian's Comedian Podcast with Stuart Goldsmith

The Comedian's Comedian Podcast is a chat show that revels in the niche. Aiming to delve deeper than your average "how did you get into comedy?" questions, host Stuart Goldsmith examines what makes comedians tick by looking at how comedy is developed...

Abandoman: Hot Desk

Never have the dual interpretations of MC melded together so fluidly as in Rob Broderick, the leading light of Abandoman. As a rapper, Broderick never misses a beat in his improvisation, spouting lyrics with seemingly effortless style...

This is Your Trial

An interactive, improvised courtroom drama, This is Your Trial puts the audience under scrutiny, pulling people onto the stage as the accused, charged with ridiculous crimes. It's a comedy roast with a twist, the charges drawn up by Thom Tuck with a little help from the audience...

Richard Gadd: Breaking Gadd

Richard Gadd is a deeply disturbed young man. Crammed into a pitch black attic space somewhere inThe Counting House, in a room hotter than the sun and barred in by a scummy looking old mattress, we witness a hellish scene that is a multimedia experience - part play, part video, with sketches (although such a word conjures images of quirky "skits" that have no relevance in this dark world) and stand up - visceral, theatrical and very, very funny...

The Incredible Paul F Taylor

Theatrically interesting in the most accessible of ways, Paul F Taylor opens the show in the guise of an infomercial, claiming to be taking pills that cure him of his comedy lifestyle and make him more “serious”...

Joke Thieves

Take four comics and ask them to perform their own stand up routines. Then, in the second half of the show, each comedian is given a partner and performs the other comic's routine. Joke Thieves is an enjoyable enough evening, although it's hard to see past the gimmick to enjoy the bare bones of the comedy being performed...

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