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On For One Night Only At The Fringe
Aug. 21st, 2015 12:00 pmAs a birthday treat My Lovely Wife took me to see three comedy shows at the Fringe on Wednesday.
We went to see
The Thinking Drinkers Guide to the Legends of Liquor
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/thinking-drinkers-guide-to-the-legends-of-liquor
Mark Steel's Who Do I Think I Am
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Mark%20Steel%3A%20Who%20Do%20I%20Think%20I%20Am%3F%22
Chris Turner - XXV
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Chris%20Turner%3A%20XXV%22
All of the three shows were very good, enjoyable, and funny. Worth the entry fee.
The Thinking Drinkers is a mix of anecdote, sketch comedy and stand up based around a semi-serious consideration of the role that alcohol has played as lubricant to thinking and living in civilised society. Drink less, drink better is their watch word. The show is silly, in a good way. Included in the ticket price is a tasting of some nice beers and spirits. The feel of the show reminded me of the Doug Anthony All Starts in their early years. Tom and Ben are likeably, funny guys with excellent knowledge of their subject.
Mark Steel is a very polished comedian with huge experience. Left of center, in fact too left wing for the Labour Party. Very enjoyable. This was a stand up show about being adopted and finding his natural parents. I'd have enjoyed an hour of his stand up with out the incredible, I mean literally incredible, story that he told of how he tracked down his birth mother and father and their lives. I won't spoil it in case you are going to see it. If you are then I think the surprise and the way the story unfolds is part of the experience. If you're not going to see it, then google is probably your friend.
It is frankly the story of the century.
The final show was Chris Turner's XXV. For full disclosure Chris is sort of cousin of mine. He is the nephew of my sister-in-law and therefore my grown up nephews' cousin.
Anyhow, he's a stand up who does improvised rapping. He's very clever and charming. The rapping is very impressive.
Having done some improv in my time I've a little insight in to how you work an improvised component of your routine. So I spent a little time figuring out how he did it. Like magic, once you know how the trick is done it can be difficult to sit back and enjoy the wonder of experience but I was able to concentrate on enjoying the show and not working out how it worked because, again, it's hell of a tale.
Chris opens the show by explaining how, approaching his 25th birthday, his new girlfriend asked him if their relationship was serious and enduring and if he was committed to it and that he'd had to tell her that at the age of 15 was diagnosed with a rare, fatal growth disorder and given ten years to live.
Queue an improvised rap about the contents of people's handbags. Which actually fits in to the story about how being given only until you are 25 really, really motived Chris to do what he wanted to do, which was to become a rapper.
MLW and I had an interesting conversation about the similarities between improv, rapping and facilitation in the bar after because that is what the Fringe is for. There's a tripartate focus. What am I saying or doing now. What do I need to say or do later. How do I make all of this hang together. They are also things that appear magical from the outside but which rely on a set of learnable behaviours on the inside.
So it goes and all washed down some decent but very strong blonde beer and fueled by gormet burgers.
Home for cake and rum.
We went to see
The Thinking Drinkers Guide to the Legends of Liquor
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/thinking-drinkers-guide-to-the-legends-of-liquor
Mark Steel's Who Do I Think I Am
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Mark%20Steel%3A%20Who%20Do%20I%20Think%20I%20Am%3F%22
Chris Turner - XXV
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Chris%20Turner%3A%20XXV%22
All of the three shows were very good, enjoyable, and funny. Worth the entry fee.
The Thinking Drinkers is a mix of anecdote, sketch comedy and stand up based around a semi-serious consideration of the role that alcohol has played as lubricant to thinking and living in civilised society. Drink less, drink better is their watch word. The show is silly, in a good way. Included in the ticket price is a tasting of some nice beers and spirits. The feel of the show reminded me of the Doug Anthony All Starts in their early years. Tom and Ben are likeably, funny guys with excellent knowledge of their subject.
Mark Steel is a very polished comedian with huge experience. Left of center, in fact too left wing for the Labour Party. Very enjoyable. This was a stand up show about being adopted and finding his natural parents. I'd have enjoyed an hour of his stand up with out the incredible, I mean literally incredible, story that he told of how he tracked down his birth mother and father and their lives. I won't spoil it in case you are going to see it. If you are then I think the surprise and the way the story unfolds is part of the experience. If you're not going to see it, then google is probably your friend.
It is frankly the story of the century.
The final show was Chris Turner's XXV. For full disclosure Chris is sort of cousin of mine. He is the nephew of my sister-in-law and therefore my grown up nephews' cousin.
Anyhow, he's a stand up who does improvised rapping. He's very clever and charming. The rapping is very impressive.
Having done some improv in my time I've a little insight in to how you work an improvised component of your routine. So I spent a little time figuring out how he did it. Like magic, once you know how the trick is done it can be difficult to sit back and enjoy the wonder of experience but I was able to concentrate on enjoying the show and not working out how it worked because, again, it's hell of a tale.
Chris opens the show by explaining how, approaching his 25th birthday, his new girlfriend asked him if their relationship was serious and enduring and if he was committed to it and that he'd had to tell her that at the age of 15 was diagnosed with a rare, fatal growth disorder and given ten years to live.
Queue an improvised rap about the contents of people's handbags. Which actually fits in to the story about how being given only until you are 25 really, really motived Chris to do what he wanted to do, which was to become a rapper.
MLW and I had an interesting conversation about the similarities between improv, rapping and facilitation in the bar after because that is what the Fringe is for. There's a tripartate focus. What am I saying or doing now. What do I need to say or do later. How do I make all of this hang together. They are also things that appear magical from the outside but which rely on a set of learnable behaviours on the inside.
So it goes and all washed down some decent but very strong blonde beer and fueled by gormet burgers.
Home for cake and rum.
