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Another day alone. A combination today of shows I'd pre-booked and those I'd seen on posters or advertised on the Royal Mile. I had wanted to see something more than just comedy. If I'm honest, I didn't really manage much beyond comedy and music, but today's shows were from a wide range of styles.
Show: War Of The Worlds
Performed by: The Martians
When: 10:55
Where: Bedlam Theatre
Cost: £5
This was a group I'd spotted standing on a street corner singing and playing guitars. They appeared to be having fun and seemed quite musical. When I discovered they'd be doing War of the Worlds in a 40 minute slot, I thought I'd wander over - there's not too much happening on Fringe mornings, and I had the time to spare.
I was not expecting the show I saw. Their line up consisted of "an actor", who did the Richard Burton-style narration, the pianist/keyboard player/musical director chap, a singer (a bit Westlife in his looks, but an earnest performer), an electric guitarist and a bassist. In their first 30 minutes, they lovingly recreated the first half of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. The only deviation being the extra member of the crew, who hopped about like a nutter, wearing deely boppers, during the Martian attack bits, and sprayed the audience with silly string when the heat ray was mentioned. However this gave their performance a warm touch.
After they finished the Martian invasion section, they did not have time to do the second half, so the narrator simply said "And the next day, they all died of a cold.", which ended the show nicely. They tailed their slot with performances of a few songs they'd been busking the previous day on the Royal mile. Great fun!
Show: Naked Voices - Extraordinary Acapella
Performed by: Naked Voices
When: 13:10
Where: Venue C
Cost: £7.50
Website: http://www.naked-voices.co.uk
Arguably, I saw a poster with a pretty girl on it and looked into the subject of what the Naked Voices actually was. Alternatively I used my love of A Capella music to draw me to this show. In truth, I've no idea how I decided I wanted to find out what the show was about, but I was soon attracted to the idea of a wide range of music, performed by a group like this.
With 16 performers and a slick show, this was a treat. The only non vocal instrument they used was the pitch pipe to get their key at the start of each song. They took virtually no prompting to get in key and delivered exceedingly clean performances. The large audience clearly appreciated this group as much as I did - they brought the house down. Highlights include their Agnus Dei, Samuel Barber (the Adagio for Strings, but not for strings...) and David Bowie's Golden Years (wap wap wap).
The group also run vocal workshops, and I'd love to have a go. However, they're Bristol based, so it's unlikely they'll reach Newcastle.
Show: 5678
Performed by: Angel Kitty
When: 16:40
Where: Pleasance Cavern
Cost: £7
Someone is murdering the kids from Fame. This was a murder-mystery musical comedy based around a school of performing arts. I heard about the show from a member of the cast, whom I'd met waiting to see a showing of The Establishment. As was my pledge to myself, I thought I'd give their show a go.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Oddly enough it turned out that the weakest performer of the troupe was actually the writer - perhaps she was more distracted by the rest of the action and so had trouble delivering the best performance, or perhaps I was just more bowled over by the rest of the talent on stage.
They had a series of interesting tricks and gags they used throughout the show, including apparently pulling a member of the audience onto the stage in the early scenes, only to discover that she could join in all the moves with them (perhaps a spoof of the streetfull of choreography often springing up in MGM musicals). They had songs where two or three people sang their own themes and words and it fit together and they had a masterful scene where a pair of actors, under a strobe light, performed as a video recording - they were able to freeze, rewind, slow-mo and mute this pair's antics... nicely done.
A basically clean show (apart from a few vague references to sexual perversion and drug abuse) which even featured a harry potter gag or too.
Show: 59 Minutes to Save the NHS
Performed by: Dr Phil Hammond
When: 18:30
Where: Pleasance Cabaret Bar
Cost: £9
This was the last showing of this lecture from the TV doctor and author Dr Hammond. He gave a very entertaining talk on the rot within the medical profession and NHS as a whole. Demonstrated how people just trust Doctors, regardless of their own sense of logic (a nurse in the audience took and swallowed a pill at his insistence, after which he then claimed not to know what it was and used her as an example of why people blindly follow Doctors' orders).
A few good anecdotes, a few shocking truths, a though provoking subject delivered with panache.
Show: The Museum of Everything
Performed by: Club Seals
When: 19:50
Where: Pleasance Dome 2
Cost: £9
This was the antidote to dry museums. The club seals are a three man act, who have done TV shows in a similar vein. They did a variety of sketches based around what goes on in museums, National Trust sites and even overseas historical sites. In addition they presented snippets of their pastiche of the sort of shows you might see in a theatre within a museum - presented by an animatronic "Merlin" - actually a chap in a robe on a skateboard that allowed them to wheel him from side to side on the stage.
Comical and clever.
Show: Over The Rainbow
Performed by: Geoffrey Hayes
When: 21:00
Where: Pleasance Dome
Cost: £9
It's an odd thing to see a big name from your childhood TV turn up about 15 years older than you remember him, but wearing the same dungarees, foaming at the mouth slightly. This however, was a show I was glad I saw. Geoffrey told a story of what happened to his career in 1972, when he left the bright future that Z cars might offer to join the Rainbow team.
I'm not sure I believe that Zippy, George and Bungle were actually real people and that the show was a fly on the wall documentary, but I did believe in his basic premise which was that Rainbow should not have been axed and has not been succeeded by anything better. Geoffrey told his story with good cheer and panache - there were many laughs and he took the mickey out of his co stars, even doing gentle impersonations of the puppets involved.
At the climax of the show, which was set in something that looked suspiciously like the Rainbow house, the main counter was turned to reveal the neatly folded skins of his puppet co-stars, all three. This was an emotional moment and it made me feel really small - life without Zippy, George and Bungle... well, it's an injustice, even if you can buy them on "CDV" (sic).
Show: Ross Noble
Performed by: Ross Noble
When: 00:00
Where: George Square Theatre
Cost: £10
So popular that he scheduled extra sell out shows, the Geordie hero, Mr Noble, wandered onto stage, talked some bollocks and padded off. He had prepared about 3 things to say and the rest was clearly stuff that occurred to him as he blethered on - inspired by things happening in the audience, or noticing his own mannerisms and taking the piss out of what he'd just done.
I was amazed that he managed to keep it all in his head. He had some sort of stack of digressions - once he'd finished on his current digression on a deviation from a tangent, he returned to the previous topic as if nothing had happened. His hour-long show just flew past and we left in a slightly bewildered, but totally amused frame of mind.
The two ladies I'd been sitting near included, among their number, a rather more critical person. This girl claims to be researching for NASA in Astrophysics, towards her PhD, and was clearly not prepared to accept anything below perfection - she wanted Ross Noble to spend his show putting hecklers down and was disappointed that it seemed quite a tame show. There's no pleasing some people.
Show: The Establishment
Performed by: Various
When: 01:00
Where: Venue C
Cost: £5
Website: http://www.CtheFestival.com
Another night at this gig gave me another chance to see the Flight of the Conchords. It was this gig where, for some of the show, I sat near the front and gave my all as an audience member. I was hailed by the compere as "hearty man" - a sort of Brian Blessed of audience members. Later on I was described as the gay man on the front row by the camp singing act - second outing of the festival. He seemed disappointed that I'd no idea what "C.C. Bloom's" is... perhaps this proved my genuine lack of gayness - I neither played up nor down to his ramblings... he needed a victim and I was settled in my seat for the night.
Later on, we had two more belly laughers join the audience and the three of us were described as the "three hearty men" - the equivalent of "The Three Tenors". Good fun.
It was during this show that I witnessed the first stage performance of "Nick the box office man" - he was a fledgling stand-up act. So fledgling that they'd put him on stage before he'd had chance to work out what he wanted to talk about. In between panicking, he made a few good laughs. Unfortunately, all his mates from the staff cheered virtually anything he did, so it was probably harder for him to get into his stride.
An exhausting schedule, but I went to the Fringe to do and see as much as I possibly could. This is how I wanted it to be - rushing from one show to the next. I was keen to do this while I was still on my own, since it's not fair to drag someone else through this sort of thing, and it's hard to fill small periods of time when you're on your own.
Spent £61.50, saw 8 shows. At the day's end:
Total spent: £166
Total shows seen: 22
05 September 2002
Ashley Frieze