There are quite a few variety nights kicking about this comedy festival, but this one proved to offer the most unique and high quality selection that I’ve encountered so far.
This show is perfect for those for whom a single comedian in an hour is just not enough. This high value for money variety hour offered fast-paced and absurd entertainment. This was not just another assortment of straight stand up. Character sketch, songs, card tricks and maths stunts made it truly an evening of variety.
The ebullient David O’Doherty hosts this eclectic compilation of acts, sharing more than one of his hilarious ditties on his classic mini casio keyboard. Offering equal parts mirth and melancholy, O’Doherty reflected on his aborted love story with Shakira; annotated some of the less wonderful moments of the Fringe (ensuring the mood of the evening didn’t get too merry); and painted with pathos one man’s relationship with a Nintendo Wii.
Jamie Demetriou provided explosively energetic comedy sketch in the form of an unlikely and freakishly large choir boy bullied into delivering a less-than-holy hymn in front of his parents at his local church service. Ivo Graham, nervous and nodding enthusiastically, recounted his adventures in life and love as the vice president of the Historical Board Games Society of his university.
As well as entertained, we were educated - shown how to inspire a room of people to step up and do what it takes to never be like you. Later, Nick Mohammed as Mr Swallow ripped apart traditional Christmas carols with mathematical logic and blew us away with flips, his photographic memory and live action rubik’s cube resolution. At no point in his performance could one ever predict what his next stunt was likely to be.
Always varied and never dull, The New Wave provides calamitous and crazy comedy for your consumption this Fringe.
