So our timing this year has been pretty good as we’re in Buxton for Carnival weekend and either side of it – which means that we are here for the majority of the Fringe. Somehow in previous years we’ve managed to only catch a few days and so not seen many artists (well, only seen Matt’s show to be honest!) but this year we were determined to try and see more of the shows on offer.
Deciding what to see and booking online was made reasonably easy thanks to the Fringe website at http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/ However, their calendar is a bit clunky and so it was quite tricky to match performances to dates. Needing to then book tickets via a third party made the process even more confusing, especially as one of the shows we wanted to see (which was listed on the Fringe website) was not on the venue’s own site and so we couldn’t book for it. As it turns out, the show had pulled out of the Fringe so we were wondering why the main Fringe website was still listing it.
But these are just minor gripes. We did, in the end, manage to reduce our long-list to a short-list and then to a final few shows we wanted to book in advance.
Can’t be Folked - Perry Huntsman and Hilary Felstead on Monday 11th at 7pm
Our first taste of the Fringe is just hours after we arrive in Buxton. After a quick run up the road to dump our bags and a dash to The Railway for tea we are soon buying a pint of Buxton and settling down in our seats. Perry is an old acquaintance of Scott, who has known him for over ten years through Club Acoustic nights in Buxton. Hilary is a relative new-comer to the local music scene, and so we weren’t really sure what to expect.
We were put at ease, though, by Perry opening with Scott’s favourite song – Cocaine by John Martyn. Hilary added some harmony vocals, and the rest of the set consisted of the two performers taking turns to take the lead on a song, with the other either sitting out or accompanying on guitar or vocals. Despite Scott’s dislike of solo voice a capella singing, he was impressed by the one piece performed by Hilary in this style since a touch of reverb helped to smooth out the sound and provide greater colour.
After the show we make our way up to say ‘hi’ to Perry and then duck out the side exit of the Barrel Room to meet DaddyB in the bar. He finishes his drink and then we head over the road to the Old Clubhouse for a pint of Buxton Fringe. We sit outside and enjoy, but still marvel at, the late, light evening (it’s unbelievable how a few degrees of longitude make such a difference to the light in the evenings; it gets dark promptly at 8pm in Egypt but here it’s way past 10pm when you’re in darkness).
Club Acoustic on Wednesday 13th at 9pm
The regular Wednesday night session was not officially part of the Fringe (!) but is included in our run-down as it is an arts-based activity that we enjoyed very much! By sheer coincidence – or more likely because it was taking place in the week of the town carnival when it seems all old Buxtonians return to the town – two of Scott’s old friends and band-mates were also in town and performed on the night. Nick and Tim Butterley were fellow members of Mostly Harmless over ten years ago, a folk-rock band in which Scott played drums.
Nick went off to study Modern History at Oxford and is now a project manager for the new galleries at the Mary Rose exhibition in Portsmouth. Tim studied Physics at Durham and is now a post-doc astro-physicist who spends most of his time jetting around the world checking out enormous optical telescopes at the top of mountains or deep in the desert. But, most importantly, they are both still avid musicians who came to perform a few numbers at Club Acoustic. Opening with Lady Of The Sea by Seth Lakeman, Scott declared that he would never be able to play that song again as he would never be able to match the sheer quality of their performance. A second song, performed solo by Nick, was an original piece about searching through old belongings and finding photographs buried at the bottom of boxes.
Their dad, Eric, is also an accomplished performer and it was great to see him play a song explaining the mechanics of a steam locomotive on tenor ukulele. It was the first time Alice had seen any of these three chaps play, but for Scott it was a wonderful return to ‘the old days’. Indeed, Eric pointed out that of everyone at Club Acoustic that night the youngest performers – Scott, Tim and Nick – were also the longest serving members. Although they rarely get to go to the night any more due to living so far away, they all played at the very first Club Acoustic all those years ago.
Scott had fun playing three songs, the first of which was the Nadya Shanab song Egypt’s Waiting for Me that he’d played with Nadya in Cairo just a few weeks ago. Considering the way events in Tahrir Square have ‘resumed’ over the past week, it was good to see so many people in Buxton take such interest in the lyrics – especially the verse in Arabic that Scott made a reasonable attempt at singing. His other songs were Red 6 – a Star Wars punk song he used to play with Order 66 but adapted here into a country style – and Fakenham Fair.
We spend the rest of the evening catching up and realising that Doomboggle goes down a little too easily at times. We’ve sat at a table just outside the main performing area, so feel able to chat (normally Club Acoustic is a hushed, dedicated audience affair) but later move further to the back of the bar to talk a little more freely and allow the performers their space.
Macbeth underground and Poole’s Cavern – Butterfly on Thursday 14th at 6pm http://wearebutterfly.com/
We had this show in our sights from our first browse of the Fringe website – a play in a cave? We’ve got to see this! We didn’t book tickets online but instead bought these in person from the Opera House booking office, as booking online would have incurred a booking fee for each ticket – not cool. We were lucky to get them though as all the other performances that night were sold out (the company were doing three performances a night).
The production was billed as a promenade performance and the audience of forty were brought into the cave by someone from Poole’s Cavern and then we were grouped together. As he left us there he said “Enjoy the show and just follow the witches.”
Scott used to work as a tour guide in this cave, and was looking forward to being back inside it. An enormous amount of improvement work has been done to the visitor centre, and the entire 1970s lighting system has been replaced with LED lights that are brighter, more energy efficient, and avoid plants and other things growing in the cave. These were used very effectively during the play to produce different effects in different scenes. Alternating red, yellow and orange mixes worked particularly well for the effect of a fire in the opening scene with the witches.
Their costume was ragged burlesque – corsets and skirts but covered in dirt and badly fitted with a surprisingly large amount of hessian. The male leads were dressed in trench-coat style military jackets, which they needed in the 8°C of the cave. Lady Macbeth’s opening scene saw her dressed bravely in a vest top and was then aggressively tied into a corset, but later in the play she too donned a heavy wool coat.
Different areas of the cave were used for key scenes, so that everyone in the audience was able to visit the full length of the cavern. Particular highlights were the use of the Poached Egg Chamber for the dinner party where the ghost of Banquo appears to Macbeth, and the end chamber for the witches’ final prophecy to Macbeth whereby they tell him he cannot be killed by anyone ‘of woman borne’. The glittering flowstone cascade reflected the blues and purples from the lights, and created very impressive surroundings.
The most memorable moment, though, came when all members of the audience were given tree branches in order to represent the wood and the advancing army of Macduff. Splitting the audience into two halves near the sink-hole of the River Wye, Macbeth engaged in a powerful and intricately choreographed knife fight with his enemy. To think that after a short 15 minute break the entire company would do the whole thing again was quite mind-boggling.
After the production we were all full of praise and on a high ourselves. We’d booked a table for dinner and so headed over to Nat’s Kitchen for some hearty grub. http://www.natskitchen.co.uk/ It’s fast becoming a regular stop for our visits to Buxton – locally sourced and well-prepared food at very reasonable prices.
Barrel of Laughs on Friday 15th at 8.45pm
Apparently this comedy stand-up night has been sold out in previous years and we thought it looked like a good way of seeing a cross-section of comedy when we couldn’t quite decide which specific shows to see. This night was a good choice as we saw about 10 minutes of stand-up from three different Fringe shows and then the compare and a final performer too into the mix. We went with DaddyB after having dinner together at a favourite Indian restaurant and had a really great night.
First up was the compere and, although he seemed a little weedy at first, soon told his tale of being a Buxton lad who is now a working comic and writer in London. His short routine focused on him returning to Buxton each year and looking for things that had changed. There were some great puns such as “Mood is now apparently Mist….Well I find that pretty unlikely.” He then asked what people’s favourite bit of the Carnival was but before Scotty could shout out “Throwing pennies at the Brownies!” DaddyB got in with “The fire engines at the end!” The comic picked up well on this and also questioned why the carnival always ends with a procession of cleaned up trucks from the various High Peak quarries “as if we’re like Stalinist Russia, proudly demonstrating the strength of our economic output.”
The first main act were The Wizards of Odd who came on and did a great routine perfectly timed to music which involved boxes and gloved hands. It’s hard to explain, but was very effective and good fun. This duo of comic magicians got the music going again and attempted a (sort of) juggling routine. The balance in the act seemed to be leaning towards the comedy rather than the magic, but this wasn’t such a bad thing. As they ended their 10 minute slot they announced that they were playing over the weekend and we resolved to try and catch their full show.
Next on was a guy doing stand-up. We can’t quite remember his name which is probably a good thing for him because he was terrible. The jokes weren’t funny although we attempted to laugh in the right places to avoid any more embarrassment on his part. Unfortunately (for him, and the audience) he turned out to be one half of the next act which saw him joined by a female comic lady to form the Teakshow sketch duo. We weren’t overly impressed by the sketches (erotic ornithology?) but one idea was quite clever – that of “posh Tourette's”. We again tried to laugh in the right places but this wasn’t going to be on our “to do” list. Although they received only a lukewarm reception at the stand-up night, they were really pushing their full show. Indeed, it was a little embarrassing that their manager was outside flyering people as they went to the bar for a drink and as they left at the end of the show.
After a short interval (of just enough time to buy a drink at the bar) the compare is back on introducing the next act. A man comes onto the stage in a duffle coat that is done up all he way to the top and he gives an innocent grin. This is Danny Pensive. He tells us that he is not Paddington, nor is he the love-child of Kevin Keegan, but that he does like goldfish and so he sings us a song about them in a high-pitched singing voice. We learn that he lives with his Nana and he tells us about a good game to play when you go to the supermarket. His voice is a great story-telling voice and his game definitely gets us laughing. He then tells us about how he likes travelling and some stories about some of the places he has visited. These are great tales – just such simple observations. His full show is on later and we exchange looks of approval before the next comic comes on.
The show ends with a random blonde girl (can’t remember her name!) who tells stories of drinks and drugs which unfortunately few in the audience can connect with. She does end with a great song that she sings and plays on her guitar about an ex-‘s new girlfriend being a minger.
We applaud with gusto as the show ends as it has very much been a barrel of laughs. Well worth the cover price and a good way to spend a Friday night. As the audience pours out of the room we turn to each other and ask “Danny Pensive in 10 mins?” to see if we fancy staying for the next show. We all do and so as we leave the room we straight away join the queue at the box office for tickets to the next show (trying to avoid the gaze of the Teakshow manager who is trying to flyer people for their show which starts just 20 minutes later).
Danny Pensive’s Map of Britain on Friday 15th at 10.30pm http://www.dannypensive.co.uk/
With time to buy another pint only we are soon back in the Barrel Room and pick seats a few rows from the front. On the stage (well, ‘slightly raised platform') there is a small telly on a chair and then a hand-drawn map of the UK on an easel. When everyone is in and sat down Danny Pensive slinks on from the side and presses a button on the telly then scurries off stage.
The VT plays and it’s a compilation of videos that he’s recorded when he’s visited various towns around the UK. It’s brilliantly funny and we spy him punting down the Cam in one of the shots. It’s all accompanied by a jinlge and we’re giggling throughout.
It finishes and we cheer and then Danny comes on stage. His first question, in his funny voice of course, is ‘how many of you have just come from the other show?’ and we give a deep cheer. He is trying to gauge what he can re-do and he tells the audience that he will re-do some bits, but that it will be OK. We can’t help but laugh out loud again when he sings his goldfish song!
We enjoy the show as the character is developed a bit more and there is more talk of his ‘nana’ and working in Timpsons. In character he gives a synopsis of what he is going to do which is “talk about some of the places what I have been to and things what I have found out about them. These are true and some of them are true and funny”. He continues in character to point out that for reviewers, or people who want closure, they may not find it in this show, because all he does is talk about the different places he has visited and that there isn’t any other story.
We don’t need any more of a story though and we enjoy listening to his tale of visiting Swansea seven times by car – because of the one-way system and of trying to buy Worcestershire sauce when he visited Worcestershire. He has been to so many places that he can’t talk about all of them in his show, so he has a small matchbox with scraps of paper with all their names on and then gets people from the audience to pick ones out for him to talk about.
He picks out one and then goes to point out where it is on the map. After looking at the map for about 5 seconds in silence, he then makes a broad gesture with his hand and says “it’s here” before moving on. He also clarifies, to our amusement, that the reason Cornwall is coloured in a different colour (dark green as Wales is coloured, rather than the light green of the rest of the England) is because he picked up the wrong felt tip pen. That kind of mistake could’ve cost him a few marks in his geography exam is he’s not careful!
It’s a really great show and we’re very glad that we stayed to see the full thing. We bump into him outside (sans duffle coat and therefore out of character) as he’s loading his telly into the boot of a car and tell him we’ve enjoyed the show. He’s playing Edinburgh next month and we wish him luck. We’re lucky to have seen some really good acts this year at the Fringe and it’s becoming very clear that it is a stepping stone on the way to Edinburgh and many of the acts are using it as a preview opportunity to get some final shows in before hitting the UKs main comedy festival.
In Pursuit of Miss Adventure – Lab Monkey Productions on Sunday 17th at 1.45pm http://www.labmonkeys.co.uk/
We’ve been looking forward to this since we saw that Matt was bringing another show to the Fringe. We managed to see his first show a few years ago and since then he’s done two more touring shows and last year was one of the nominees for Best Comedy Show. Matt’s is a mixture of magic, scientific logic and Dave Gorman power point. Although we enjoyed The Wizards of Odd we know that they’ll be no rivals to Matt in terms of magical ability!
The theme of this years show is trying to find the formula for getting a girlfriend, as his character, Johnny Facade, isn’t having any luck in this category (in real life though, Matt married earlier this year!). The reviewer described some of the cultural references as being ‘dated’ but we really enjoyed him pointing out that if the Spice Girls are right then 1+1=1 (Two Becomes One) and maybe love does defy logic and science.
The magic in the show was just superb and Alice leaves talking non-stop about the possibility of getting Matt’s show to her students studying the Theory of Knowledge.
Rosie’s Pop Diary – Rosie Wilby on Sunday 17th at 9pm
We booked this when reading the write-up online in Cairo as it promised a night of music and comedy based on stories of the music scene in the 1990’s – just our sort of thing! Unfortunately though it was our one “miss” of the Fringe and didn’t live up to any expectations of a decent show
It turns out that Rosie wrote for a mid-90’s music magazine that Scott remembers, but the show only featured three short readings (two sentences apiece) from the paper. Rosie was also a struggling artist throughout the 90’s and into the naugties and actually the show revolved more around stories of this (and her fancying most of the band!). That wouldn’t have been so bad, except that the narrative was void of cultural references that it was impossible, as an audience member, to follow what was happening in order and what was actually happening in the pop/indie world as she was writing and performing in her band.
After the show we struggled to think what we would write as a reviewer because then you’ve got to find positives to talk about and all we could think of was how we would improve it. A good concept that could work better with a better balance between Rosie’s personal narrative and the pop diary or references to what was happening in the music world at the time. What we did enjoy were the location references – as she lived in Muswell Hill at the time and had her album cover photo taken in Archway below Suicide Bridge.
After the show we had a quick half in the bar while we completed our Fringe Questionnaires. We decided on 4 / 5 for overall enjoyment of the Fringe – noting that it only dropped a mark because of the price of shows (seven quid a ticket) and the heat and humidity in the Underground Venues – a bit of air conditioning or a de-humidifier wouldn’t have gone amiss. As favourite shows we noted Macbeth and Danny Pensive. It was only later at home that Scott examined the back of a ticket and saw in (very) small print that if you present tickets to five Underground Venues shows you get a ticket to a sixth show for free. It’s a good deal but a shame that this wasn’t on their website otherwise we would have planned our ticket buying around this. We spent the next few days scouring the programme trying to find another show we wanted to see in order to get our money’s worth, but we got the timing wrong for the one show we liked the look of and would have missed half of it!
Deciding what to see and booking online was made reasonably easy thanks to the Fringe website at http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/ However, their calendar is a bit clunky and so it was quite tricky to match performances to dates. Needing to then book tickets via a third party made the process even more confusing, especially as one of the shows we wanted to see (which was listed on the Fringe website) was not on the venue’s own site and so we couldn’t book for it. As it turns out, the show had pulled out of the Fringe so we were wondering why the main Fringe website was still listing it.
But these are just minor gripes. We did, in the end, manage to reduce our long-list to a short-list and then to a final few shows we wanted to book in advance.
Can’t be Folked - Perry Huntsman and Hilary Felstead on Monday 11th at 7pm
Our first taste of the Fringe is just hours after we arrive in Buxton. After a quick run up the road to dump our bags and a dash to The Railway for tea we are soon buying a pint of Buxton and settling down in our seats. Perry is an old acquaintance of Scott, who has known him for over ten years through Club Acoustic nights in Buxton. Hilary is a relative new-comer to the local music scene, and so we weren’t really sure what to expect.
We were put at ease, though, by Perry opening with Scott’s favourite song – Cocaine by John Martyn. Hilary added some harmony vocals, and the rest of the set consisted of the two performers taking turns to take the lead on a song, with the other either sitting out or accompanying on guitar or vocals. Despite Scott’s dislike of solo voice a capella singing, he was impressed by the one piece performed by Hilary in this style since a touch of reverb helped to smooth out the sound and provide greater colour.
After the show we make our way up to say ‘hi’ to Perry and then duck out the side exit of the Barrel Room to meet DaddyB in the bar. He finishes his drink and then we head over the road to the Old Clubhouse for a pint of Buxton Fringe. We sit outside and enjoy, but still marvel at, the late, light evening (it’s unbelievable how a few degrees of longitude make such a difference to the light in the evenings; it gets dark promptly at 8pm in Egypt but here it’s way past 10pm when you’re in darkness).
Club Acoustic on Wednesday 13th at 9pm
The regular Wednesday night session was not officially part of the Fringe (!) but is included in our run-down as it is an arts-based activity that we enjoyed very much! By sheer coincidence – or more likely because it was taking place in the week of the town carnival when it seems all old Buxtonians return to the town – two of Scott’s old friends and band-mates were also in town and performed on the night. Nick and Tim Butterley were fellow members of Mostly Harmless over ten years ago, a folk-rock band in which Scott played drums.
Nick went off to study Modern History at Oxford and is now a project manager for the new galleries at the Mary Rose exhibition in Portsmouth. Tim studied Physics at Durham and is now a post-doc astro-physicist who spends most of his time jetting around the world checking out enormous optical telescopes at the top of mountains or deep in the desert. But, most importantly, they are both still avid musicians who came to perform a few numbers at Club Acoustic. Opening with Lady Of The Sea by Seth Lakeman, Scott declared that he would never be able to play that song again as he would never be able to match the sheer quality of their performance. A second song, performed solo by Nick, was an original piece about searching through old belongings and finding photographs buried at the bottom of boxes.
Their dad, Eric, is also an accomplished performer and it was great to see him play a song explaining the mechanics of a steam locomotive on tenor ukulele. It was the first time Alice had seen any of these three chaps play, but for Scott it was a wonderful return to ‘the old days’. Indeed, Eric pointed out that of everyone at Club Acoustic that night the youngest performers – Scott, Tim and Nick – were also the longest serving members. Although they rarely get to go to the night any more due to living so far away, they all played at the very first Club Acoustic all those years ago.
Scott had fun playing three songs, the first of which was the Nadya Shanab song Egypt’s Waiting for Me that he’d played with Nadya in Cairo just a few weeks ago. Considering the way events in Tahrir Square have ‘resumed’ over the past week, it was good to see so many people in Buxton take such interest in the lyrics – especially the verse in Arabic that Scott made a reasonable attempt at singing. His other songs were Red 6 – a Star Wars punk song he used to play with Order 66 but adapted here into a country style – and Fakenham Fair.
We spend the rest of the evening catching up and realising that Doomboggle goes down a little too easily at times. We’ve sat at a table just outside the main performing area, so feel able to chat (normally Club Acoustic is a hushed, dedicated audience affair) but later move further to the back of the bar to talk a little more freely and allow the performers their space.
Macbeth underground and Poole’s Cavern – Butterfly on Thursday 14th at 6pm http://wearebutterfly.com/
We had this show in our sights from our first browse of the Fringe website – a play in a cave? We’ve got to see this! We didn’t book tickets online but instead bought these in person from the Opera House booking office, as booking online would have incurred a booking fee for each ticket – not cool. We were lucky to get them though as all the other performances that night were sold out (the company were doing three performances a night).
The production was billed as a promenade performance and the audience of forty were brought into the cave by someone from Poole’s Cavern and then we were grouped together. As he left us there he said “Enjoy the show and just follow the witches.”
Scott used to work as a tour guide in this cave, and was looking forward to being back inside it. An enormous amount of improvement work has been done to the visitor centre, and the entire 1970s lighting system has been replaced with LED lights that are brighter, more energy efficient, and avoid plants and other things growing in the cave. These were used very effectively during the play to produce different effects in different scenes. Alternating red, yellow and orange mixes worked particularly well for the effect of a fire in the opening scene with the witches.
Their costume was ragged burlesque – corsets and skirts but covered in dirt and badly fitted with a surprisingly large amount of hessian. The male leads were dressed in trench-coat style military jackets, which they needed in the 8°C of the cave. Lady Macbeth’s opening scene saw her dressed bravely in a vest top and was then aggressively tied into a corset, but later in the play she too donned a heavy wool coat.
Different areas of the cave were used for key scenes, so that everyone in the audience was able to visit the full length of the cavern. Particular highlights were the use of the Poached Egg Chamber for the dinner party where the ghost of Banquo appears to Macbeth, and the end chamber for the witches’ final prophecy to Macbeth whereby they tell him he cannot be killed by anyone ‘of woman borne’. The glittering flowstone cascade reflected the blues and purples from the lights, and created very impressive surroundings.
The most memorable moment, though, came when all members of the audience were given tree branches in order to represent the wood and the advancing army of Macduff. Splitting the audience into two halves near the sink-hole of the River Wye, Macbeth engaged in a powerful and intricately choreographed knife fight with his enemy. To think that after a short 15 minute break the entire company would do the whole thing again was quite mind-boggling.
After the production we were all full of praise and on a high ourselves. We’d booked a table for dinner and so headed over to Nat’s Kitchen for some hearty grub. http://www.natskitchen.co.uk/ It’s fast becoming a regular stop for our visits to Buxton – locally sourced and well-prepared food at very reasonable prices.
Barrel of Laughs on Friday 15th at 8.45pm
Apparently this comedy stand-up night has been sold out in previous years and we thought it looked like a good way of seeing a cross-section of comedy when we couldn’t quite decide which specific shows to see. This night was a good choice as we saw about 10 minutes of stand-up from three different Fringe shows and then the compare and a final performer too into the mix. We went with DaddyB after having dinner together at a favourite Indian restaurant and had a really great night.
First up was the compere and, although he seemed a little weedy at first, soon told his tale of being a Buxton lad who is now a working comic and writer in London. His short routine focused on him returning to Buxton each year and looking for things that had changed. There were some great puns such as “Mood is now apparently Mist….Well I find that pretty unlikely.” He then asked what people’s favourite bit of the Carnival was but before Scotty could shout out “Throwing pennies at the Brownies!” DaddyB got in with “The fire engines at the end!” The comic picked up well on this and also questioned why the carnival always ends with a procession of cleaned up trucks from the various High Peak quarries “as if we’re like Stalinist Russia, proudly demonstrating the strength of our economic output.”
The first main act were The Wizards of Odd who came on and did a great routine perfectly timed to music which involved boxes and gloved hands. It’s hard to explain, but was very effective and good fun. This duo of comic magicians got the music going again and attempted a (sort of) juggling routine. The balance in the act seemed to be leaning towards the comedy rather than the magic, but this wasn’t such a bad thing. As they ended their 10 minute slot they announced that they were playing over the weekend and we resolved to try and catch their full show.
Next on was a guy doing stand-up. We can’t quite remember his name which is probably a good thing for him because he was terrible. The jokes weren’t funny although we attempted to laugh in the right places to avoid any more embarrassment on his part. Unfortunately (for him, and the audience) he turned out to be one half of the next act which saw him joined by a female comic lady to form the Teakshow sketch duo. We weren’t overly impressed by the sketches (erotic ornithology?) but one idea was quite clever – that of “posh Tourette's”. We again tried to laugh in the right places but this wasn’t going to be on our “to do” list. Although they received only a lukewarm reception at the stand-up night, they were really pushing their full show. Indeed, it was a little embarrassing that their manager was outside flyering people as they went to the bar for a drink and as they left at the end of the show.
After a short interval (of just enough time to buy a drink at the bar) the compare is back on introducing the next act. A man comes onto the stage in a duffle coat that is done up all he way to the top and he gives an innocent grin. This is Danny Pensive. He tells us that he is not Paddington, nor is he the love-child of Kevin Keegan, but that he does like goldfish and so he sings us a song about them in a high-pitched singing voice. We learn that he lives with his Nana and he tells us about a good game to play when you go to the supermarket. His voice is a great story-telling voice and his game definitely gets us laughing. He then tells us about how he likes travelling and some stories about some of the places he has visited. These are great tales – just such simple observations. His full show is on later and we exchange looks of approval before the next comic comes on.
The show ends with a random blonde girl (can’t remember her name!) who tells stories of drinks and drugs which unfortunately few in the audience can connect with. She does end with a great song that she sings and plays on her guitar about an ex-‘s new girlfriend being a minger.
We applaud with gusto as the show ends as it has very much been a barrel of laughs. Well worth the cover price and a good way to spend a Friday night. As the audience pours out of the room we turn to each other and ask “Danny Pensive in 10 mins?” to see if we fancy staying for the next show. We all do and so as we leave the room we straight away join the queue at the box office for tickets to the next show (trying to avoid the gaze of the Teakshow manager who is trying to flyer people for their show which starts just 20 minutes later).
Danny Pensive’s Map of Britain on Friday 15th at 10.30pm http://www.dannypensive.co.uk/
With time to buy another pint only we are soon back in the Barrel Room and pick seats a few rows from the front. On the stage (well, ‘slightly raised platform') there is a small telly on a chair and then a hand-drawn map of the UK on an easel. When everyone is in and sat down Danny Pensive slinks on from the side and presses a button on the telly then scurries off stage.
The VT plays and it’s a compilation of videos that he’s recorded when he’s visited various towns around the UK. It’s brilliantly funny and we spy him punting down the Cam in one of the shots. It’s all accompanied by a jinlge and we’re giggling throughout.
It finishes and we cheer and then Danny comes on stage. His first question, in his funny voice of course, is ‘how many of you have just come from the other show?’ and we give a deep cheer. He is trying to gauge what he can re-do and he tells the audience that he will re-do some bits, but that it will be OK. We can’t help but laugh out loud again when he sings his goldfish song!
We enjoy the show as the character is developed a bit more and there is more talk of his ‘nana’ and working in Timpsons. In character he gives a synopsis of what he is going to do which is “talk about some of the places what I have been to and things what I have found out about them. These are true and some of them are true and funny”. He continues in character to point out that for reviewers, or people who want closure, they may not find it in this show, because all he does is talk about the different places he has visited and that there isn’t any other story.
We don’t need any more of a story though and we enjoy listening to his tale of visiting Swansea seven times by car – because of the one-way system and of trying to buy Worcestershire sauce when he visited Worcestershire. He has been to so many places that he can’t talk about all of them in his show, so he has a small matchbox with scraps of paper with all their names on and then gets people from the audience to pick ones out for him to talk about.
He picks out one and then goes to point out where it is on the map. After looking at the map for about 5 seconds in silence, he then makes a broad gesture with his hand and says “it’s here” before moving on. He also clarifies, to our amusement, that the reason Cornwall is coloured in a different colour (dark green as Wales is coloured, rather than the light green of the rest of the England) is because he picked up the wrong felt tip pen. That kind of mistake could’ve cost him a few marks in his geography exam is he’s not careful!
It’s a really great show and we’re very glad that we stayed to see the full thing. We bump into him outside (sans duffle coat and therefore out of character) as he’s loading his telly into the boot of a car and tell him we’ve enjoyed the show. He’s playing Edinburgh next month and we wish him luck. We’re lucky to have seen some really good acts this year at the Fringe and it’s becoming very clear that it is a stepping stone on the way to Edinburgh and many of the acts are using it as a preview opportunity to get some final shows in before hitting the UKs main comedy festival.
In Pursuit of Miss Adventure – Lab Monkey Productions on Sunday 17th at 1.45pm http://www.labmonkeys.co.uk/
We’ve been looking forward to this since we saw that Matt was bringing another show to the Fringe. We managed to see his first show a few years ago and since then he’s done two more touring shows and last year was one of the nominees for Best Comedy Show. Matt’s is a mixture of magic, scientific logic and Dave Gorman power point. Although we enjoyed The Wizards of Odd we know that they’ll be no rivals to Matt in terms of magical ability!
The theme of this years show is trying to find the formula for getting a girlfriend, as his character, Johnny Facade, isn’t having any luck in this category (in real life though, Matt married earlier this year!). The reviewer described some of the cultural references as being ‘dated’ but we really enjoyed him pointing out that if the Spice Girls are right then 1+1=1 (Two Becomes One) and maybe love does defy logic and science.
The magic in the show was just superb and Alice leaves talking non-stop about the possibility of getting Matt’s show to her students studying the Theory of Knowledge.
Rosie’s Pop Diary – Rosie Wilby on Sunday 17th at 9pm
We booked this when reading the write-up online in Cairo as it promised a night of music and comedy based on stories of the music scene in the 1990’s – just our sort of thing! Unfortunately though it was our one “miss” of the Fringe and didn’t live up to any expectations of a decent show
It turns out that Rosie wrote for a mid-90’s music magazine that Scott remembers, but the show only featured three short readings (two sentences apiece) from the paper. Rosie was also a struggling artist throughout the 90’s and into the naugties and actually the show revolved more around stories of this (and her fancying most of the band!). That wouldn’t have been so bad, except that the narrative was void of cultural references that it was impossible, as an audience member, to follow what was happening in order and what was actually happening in the pop/indie world as she was writing and performing in her band.
After the show we struggled to think what we would write as a reviewer because then you’ve got to find positives to talk about and all we could think of was how we would improve it. A good concept that could work better with a better balance between Rosie’s personal narrative and the pop diary or references to what was happening in the music world at the time. What we did enjoy were the location references – as she lived in Muswell Hill at the time and had her album cover photo taken in Archway below Suicide Bridge.
After the show we had a quick half in the bar while we completed our Fringe Questionnaires. We decided on 4 / 5 for overall enjoyment of the Fringe – noting that it only dropped a mark because of the price of shows (seven quid a ticket) and the heat and humidity in the Underground Venues – a bit of air conditioning or a de-humidifier wouldn’t have gone amiss. As favourite shows we noted Macbeth and Danny Pensive. It was only later at home that Scott examined the back of a ticket and saw in (very) small print that if you present tickets to five Underground Venues shows you get a ticket to a sixth show for free. It’s a good deal but a shame that this wasn’t on their website otherwise we would have planned our ticket buying around this. We spent the next few days scouring the programme trying to find another show we wanted to see in order to get our money’s worth, but we got the timing wrong for the one show we liked the look of and would have missed half of it!
