The happiest show in Edinburgh! Those of you familiar with the noble Baron and his far-fetched tales of daring do (riding half a horse, flying to the moon on a cannon ball etc) will not be surprised what wild, wacky and well-told tales are to be found at the Dexter Underbelly. The rest of you are in for the biggest surprise of your life. Not one, not two but three improvisers deploy three deft and daft tales to kill time waiting for the Baron to appear. Thankfully, and to the audience’s delight, he never does. Consequently, we are left in the hands of these mad-cap story tellers to beguile and divert us, which they do with aplomb. But it’s not just them - it’s us. Ken Dodd said, “You don’t just watch a live show - you’re in it!” And we were. Story after story is directed and re-directed by contributions, ideas and notions from the crowd and a litany of surrealism pops unrestrained from their minds. Dragons, aliens, cheese, baked beans, Jeff Bezos and elephants (I was a flying elephant - I was very good) all swirl and whirl through the minds of these brilliant improvisers to create a joyous show of wit, sparkle and simple happiness.
It truly is a delight
Unlike many kid’s shows it doesn’t patronise or talk down. It hits the target demographic right in their hearts and treats them intelligently, intellectually and with respect. Neither does it provided wink-wink asides for the adults. We are all in it together laughing at the same ideas watching three very fine improvisers whip us into a delirious frenzy of comic joy nor do they stint on the vocabulary (where else could you hear tomato sauce described by someone with a baked bean phobia as “the most fearsome and viscous of all the sauces”?)
It truly is a delight. If you have kids - take them. Take them now! If you don’t have kids go anyway and you’ll be rewarded with a show riddled with happiness and madness which epitomises everything the Fringe is about.
