9th
Edinburgh Shows
Second day of the Edinburgh Festival yesterday, and me and my lovely set off to sample the afternoon’s delights while spending as near to nothing as possible. This is easier than you might think with the plethora of shows that are part of institutions such as the Free Festival and Free Fringe. Armed with only our Fringe programme, our disregard for organisation, our poverty, and our attitude of devil-may-care adventurousness, we met up in a Rose Street pub and planned our afternoon on the back of an envelope.
The comedy song is not an unfairly maligned musical genre; the malignity is frequently fair. But I rather enjoyed Pig With The Face Of A Boy (The Newsroom, 13:55, 55 mins,) who played some silly and occasionally tasteless songs. Donald is a mild-mannered proto-Hugh-Laurie, and Dan plays the accordion. Their most memorable song titles included “Man ‘Flu (Has Crossed The Barrier Of Gender)” and “I Want To Eat Your Placenta,” but the real reason to go and see this Boy-Faced Pig is for the grand finale, “The Complete History Of The Soviet Union (To The Tune Of ‘Tetris’).” A perfectly respectable way to spend an afternoon. 2/5.
We crossed from east to west for Banterland (The Rat Pack, 15:10, 1 hr,) of which the best that can be said is that it ended early. Three nervous young comics, but no material, so no laughs. 0/5. I don’t mean to be cruel, and it is early days in the festival calendar, but I can’t advise anyone to go and see this. We were only there at all because it preceded the following:
I might have a biased opinion of Bad Things Happen In Trees (The Rat Pack, 16:20, 1 hr,) because I unexpectedly won a very welcome cup of tea from the awesomely hirsute Nick Helm, whose pleasingly ramshackle act alternates songs of sweetness with furious ranting poems and some tree-based disasters. My tea was very enjoyable too, although in one of his more ferocious moments I felt that perhaps Nick needed it more than I did. It’s an odd sort of mix, but rather a charming whole, so do go and see. 3/5.
