Friday, 22 August 2014

Best Of The Fringe - 2014

Well we at PC towers are back from our August sojourn to Edinburgh ..... and although slowly recovering from the vast amount of alcohol and walking .... so as usual, here are the personal *ratings / the 'Best Of Our Fest' from the shows we personally saw:

Austentatious: (5 Star)
Improvised Jane Austen style playlet (but with largely professional and well practised cast) - Truly excellent and well performed - and worth every penny ... great reviews and you can see why.


On the Box: (5 Star)
Comedy musicians 'Bowjangles' in a TV station parody. Well performed, inventive and slickly written, its truly excellent and worth your time in even the most crowded schedule.


Henning Wehn 'Eins, Zwei, DIY': (4 Star)
Does what it says on the tin and makes you laugh. He is now a consummate comedy performer and far funnier than when on TV.


One Man Star Wars: (4 Star)
Mime, Mouth, Hands and Hans Solo. Very similar to his 'Lord of the Rings' to which he makes some allusion but still very good.


Frisky and Mannish: (4 Star)
Still very good, but compared to earlier versions of their shows there was a little bit of flatness, especially in the middle, where a 'dream sequence' seemed designed to fill a lack of material.


Winter Is Coming: (3 Star)
Australian comedy group but don't let that put you off .... however you need to watch 'Game of Thrones' to truly get all the references, and the gratuitous use of the 'C word' for no purpose, mean rating not higher.


Casual Violence: (2 Star).
Much the same as when we saw them a couple of years ago. Could do with a professional writer to harness some undoubted talent. Won't see them again.


Bears In Space: (2 Star).
Puppetry, comic skills and music. We were unimpressed, but many in the audience seemed enchanted by it. So we accepted that we 'just didn't get it' and give them 2 stars because it isn't always about us.


Neil Hamburger: (0 Star).
Apparently a Cult Icon - actually a turgid little act, obsessed with bodily fluids and foul imagery of ancient pop and film stars being forced to ingest them. When were Gene Simmons or Marilyn Manson ever 'legendary' in the last 30 years? The worst we have seen since Terry Clement: Din Times 8, for whom we once very generously gave a 1 star, but this one was so terrible, it just stinks the whole hour out and leaves you wanting a shower.

The reviews expressed on this post represent the 'personal opinion' of this blogger or those who expressed an opinion about shows to this blog only, and do not necessarily agree with other reviewers opinions. Similarly, the review stars are based on the criteria described below.

*The personal ratings system on this page are:
5 star - Exceptional
4 star - Very Good
3 star - Good or Better
2 star - Average to Good
1 star - Poor
0 star - Shouldn't be at Festival 


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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous27 August 2014 at 13:38

    We saw Neil Hamburger a couple of years ago, and couldn't make up our minds if he was meant to be post sureal or something clever and that we were missing the pont? Perhaps not. It could have just simply been lazy material, spiced up with very crude imagery and language.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No PC28 August 2014 at 20:29

      When we saw him, we thought a little bit the same (kinda Count Arthur Strong on drugs), but after 10 minutes we realised that we had a long 50 minutes to sit through.

      Delete

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