The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show, Pleasance Courtyard.
An entertaining start to the day with the five short plays that constitute Menu Two. The first two, Honk and Of Their Own, could have been a little shorter and punchier, but the other three are excellent. The New Normal tells a surreal tale of an office that starts to eat and kill its employees, The Improv Class starts by being just that but then you realise that it’s a very different experience indeed, and Charity shows just how vicious opposing charities can be when they all vie for the same pound. The cast throw themselves into the show with great gusto and some very amusing characterisations and voices. I really loved the charity collecting whale! Menu One and Menu Three contain a completely different set of plays so you can collect all three!
Spin Cycles, Pleasance Courtyard.
A beautifully written examination of coping with illness by means of workouts and exercise on the spin bike. There’s an excellent balance between humour and tragedy, and the play is particularly perceptive when it comes to questioning one’s own lifestyle choices to see if you’ve unwittingly brought cancer on yourself. Written and performed by Jamie-Lee Money, a very likeable performer with whom you can easily identify. As someone who has done his time on a spin bike at the gym, I loved the way it took apart all that motivational cliche guff that trainers can sometimes spout! A very strong story and a strong, physical performance too.
One Way Out, Underbelly Cowgate.
A dynamic group of four young actors – Shem Hamilton, Marcus Omoro, Adam Seridji and Sam Pote – play a bunch of 17/18 year olds just finishing school, making university or work choices, and their plans for the future, which of course includes always looking after one another’s backs. But when Devonte applies to go to university, this causes the authorities to look closer into his UK residential status. His mother always looks after the passports, but is he actually entitled to one? As part of the whole Windrush scandal, this tells a vital and highly relevant story that shows the personal cost of those people deported for no reason of their own. Extremely well acted, there’s a very active and physical performance from all – including a fantastic stage punch! Well written, it also reveals different layers of racism within British society, including in those areas where you might not expect to find it. Oh, and there’s a deft magic trick too! A sad but important play – I found it very moving.
Jon Culshaw: Imposter Syndrome, Gilded Balloon Teviot.
You know what you’re going to get with a Jon Culshaw show and there are no particular surprises here, just a series of superbly performed impersonations, including some clever musical material. Slick and entertaining, perhaps the structure of the show is a little unadventurous, with Mr Culshaw taking us on a nostalgic tour of all the radio and TV programmes he’s done over the years. Nevertheless, it’s a lot of fun and there’s no doubting he’s a fantastic impersonator!
Glenn Moore: Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, Glenn I’m Sixty Moore, Pleasance Courtyard.
Finally got to see Glenn Moore’s show after many attempts to see it – and now I understand the hype. Mr Moore is a brilliant comedian, and this show is jam-packed with fast-flowing material, beautifully and anarchically structured, with loads of very satisfying callbacks, all about how he went into lockdown with his girlfriend arguing about whether or not they wanted to have a baby. A truly sure-footed performer, he rarely takes time to draw breath and is not afraid to use the entire auditorium to make his points. Intense! And don’t ever tell him his show is a laugh a minute!
Laser Kiwi: Rise of the Olive, Assembly Roxy.
The great thing about Laser Kiwi is that they are such a delightful threesome that they win you over with the strength of their personalities even before they’ve done any of their comic or circus-type business. Rise of the Olive is a rather weird and anarchic concoction of sketches and tricks; to be fair, not all of them hit the spot, but those that do are brilliant. I loved the singing ant and the recurring human olive, and the extended balancing the martini on the forehead trick was hilarious. A very enjoyable show.
Manbo, Underbelly Cowgate.
There’s only one man who’s man enough for the job of single-handedly saving the western world from the damn Ruskies and that’s Manbo, Sam Dugmore’s ridiculously funny comic creation – he’s strong and tough enough to win the war but also knows he couldn’t do it without the help of his faithful hound Fluffy. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this show but it’s one of the funniest hours of childish escapism I’ve enjoyed in a long time. He gets plenty of help from the audience, who provide him with a supporting cast of Contact Woman, Boris the enforcer, and his old buddy Adrian – who on this first night of his Edinburgh show was played by little old me. Extremely silly, but it taps into a juvenile play mentality that hopefully we all still have – and I loved it!