Fringe 2009 – An Introduction

Date: August 2nd, 2009 Author: Andrew Doyle
Category(s): A Fringe 2009 Introduction
Comments: 1

ScosGay Reviewers are: Tony Challis, Vicky Cooke,  Joe Daniels, Andrew Doyle, Jodie Fleming, Martin Powell and Martin Walker.

Andrew Doyle writes:

Last year’s fringe was a chaotic affair.  The problems began even before anyone had arrived.  The new internet booking system introduced by the Festival Fringe Society completely failed, meaning that pre-sales for many shows were decimated.  I use the word “decimated” quite literally; there was a ten percent drop in ticket sales.  After much flapping and finger-pointing, the Fringe Society director Jon Morgan accepted the role of scapegoat, bleated his apologies, and resigned after only one year in the job.

And what about the revelation that the bigwigs of the so-called “Big Four” venues (Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, Assembly Rooms and Underbelly) had been meeting in dirty underground car parks to hatch a contentious new scheme?  The result was the much maligned “Edinburgh Comedy Festival”, a phenomenon that served to marginalise comedy shows at other venues, and to stir a fresh debate about what the nature of the fringe should be.  Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth from promoters, comedians and columnists.  Tommy Sheppard, owner of The Stand Comedy Club, refused to be part of the idea, claiming that the Big Four were avariciously “trying to form a cartel to lever more sponsorship”.   The Guardian’s comedy critic Brian Logan called for stand-ups to “stand up for the fringe”, and David Lister in the Independent went so far as to declare: “the end of the Edinburgh Fringe is nigh”.

Well as a lapsed Catholic I’m quite fond of apocalyptic hyperbole, and to be fair to Lister, it seemed especially appropriate given the weather during last year’s festival.  The rainfall was so torrential it was like something out of the Old Testament.  Cheap umbrellas were being sold illegally on street corners.  There were rumours of poor underpaid students, innocently flyering on the Royal Mile, who developed bad cases of trench foot.  And as we huddled in those notoriously porous venues throughout the city, most of us were beset by a nagging feeling that we were being punished by a God with a clear distaste for light entertainment.  I didn’t actually see a plague of locusts, but the unrelenting swarm of idiots queuing up night after night for the abysmal Jim Rose Circus came pretty close.

Will this year be any better?  The government has predicted that by August up to 100000 people in the UK could be diagnosed with swine flu every day.  Thankfully, the health secretary Andy Burnham has come to our rescue, peppering our homes with leaflets informing us to throw away used tissues and not to sneeze directly into the faces of strangers.  Sage counsel indeed.  I hear that he’s planned another batch of leaflets suggesting that we chew apples rather than attempting to swallow them whole.  Until that day my lunches will continue to be a struggle.

So the world’s largest arts festival will be taking place at roughly the same time as the outbreak reaches its peak.  Festival-goers are a fairly sybaritic bunch anyway, known for making the most of the extended opening hours for pubs and clubs in Edinburgh during August, and subsisting on diets of Red Bull and questionable kebabs.  The combination of exhaustion, alcohol, poor nutrition, and regrettable sexual escapades leads many of us to fall ill at some point during the festival anyway.  For once, however, we can expect to see the smug, ascetic teetotallers falling by the wayside with the rest of us hedonistic ditch-dwellers.  And all because of a few Mexican pigs.

My own view is that we may as well embrace our inevitable doom.  Over a million people come to Edinburgh during August, each with their own particular cocktail of germs and viruses, so if the swine flu doesn’t get you, something else will.  The festival may turn the city into a kind of giant Petri Dish for a month, but with such an eclectic range of entertainment on offer it’s well worth festering here for at least a few days.

But what shows to choose?  When faced with the sprawling directory that is the fringe programme, being selective becomes a matter of financial urgency.  There are innumerable performers at the festival who will want to charge you for the privilege of disappointing you in a dark room, like some kind of really ineffective prostitute.

ScotsGay will steer you away from such abominations by pointing out the shows that are most likely to bring a smile to your chops.  Thankfully, there are many to choose from.

Martin Walker’s Fringe Previews

Date: August 2nd, 2009 Author: Martin Walker
Category(s): A Fringe 2009 Introduction
Comments: 0

Not for the first time, HIV/AIDS outfit Waverley Care appear to be the charity of choice across the Edinburgh Fringe.  At Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh’s own LGBT choir, Loud and Proud, sing a cappella on the 29th whilst, at the same venue,  the capital’s LGBT theatre company, The Luvvies, bring back the hugely popular Squeaking Cleopatras on the 12th – an all male production featuring many a Shakespearean vignette.

If comedy is your bag, Waverley Care also benefit from the Tartan Ribbon at the Pleasance on the 8th and a Comedy Gala at the Festival Theatre on the 24th (a snip at £25 a pop).  And, after going down a storm last year, our friends at the New Town Bar are again hosting their Sunday Fundraisers, running throughout the festival.  More comedy later…

But first, dance, which isn’t really my cuppa, but The Sugar Dandies: Ladies Not Required should be worth a look.  Combining the glamour and drama of ballroom, the show features a special selection of their international hit dance performances, dazzling costumes, and endearing stories from their real-life upstream adventures as a gay couple in the conservative world of ballroom dancing.  In a dance form notated in ‘man’ and ‘lady’ steps, they seek to redefine social convention and challenge gender roles while humorously looking at their own identities.  Created and performed by champion same-sex ballroom dancers Bradley and Sören Stauffer-Kruse, the show is based on the highs, lows and peculiar moments of their unconventional dance careers.  Their flamboyant approach to ballroom dancing, often at odds with the art form itself, reflects their own personalities and experience.  For ten days only from the 5th at C Chambers Street.

Elvis Still My Heart at the Pleasance Dome from the 6th until the 31st is described as a heart wrenching, funny, sad and thoughtful tale – centred around three young people trying to find themselves.  This show is billed as a full-blooded, physical tale of love, acceptance and just plain finding out who you are – something I’m sure all of us can relate to.

For music lovers, you won’t find much better than award-winning New York songstress Rachael Sage, who brings her colourful brand of alt-pop and vaudevillian performance to the City Edinburgh venue on Clerk street.  Just five nights of Sequins & Shpiel on the 7th until the 11th will bring together highlights from Sage’s acclaimed back catalogue (eight albums and counting), new material from forthcoming album ‘Delancey Street’ and some quintessential Sage ‘kibitzing’ (which means chatting).

There’s a stack of shows of LGBT interest for theatre buffs, not least the wonderfully titled Jane Austen’s Guide to Pornography.  Playwright Brett has been reduced to churning out dirty little comedies full of muscled young men and enjoying loads of success professionally, but when it comes to romance his plays, just like his life, are sadly lacking.  One alcohol fuelled evening he reaches out to a ghostly muse in the form of 19th century novelist Jane Austen.  Sadly, Jane is on her last lungs and having issues of her own.  Her last novel, much like her life is lacking physical passion.  Longing to burst out of her corseted confinement and get down and dirty she scarcely knows where to begin.  It doesn’t help either writer that the central characters in each of their respective stories are not behaving themselves and their creators are having a hard time trying to reign in all the rampant carnality.  While Darcy’s sodomising stable boys, Marianne’s getting rogered rigid, actors and characters fall in and out of love and period, and Jane still can’t say “fellatio” without reaching for the smelling salts.  Duelling authors bitch across time as each seeks to help each other and become more than they are…  Catch it at the Zoo Southside throughout the fringe.

Queer at Augustine’s from 25th – 31st is an outrageous late night comedy drama about life, love and sexual diversity.  It follows the dysfunctional relationships of an eccentric troupe of cabaret artists attempting to mount a fringe show.  What can go wrong?  Everything apparently.  Features a stunning cast including Edinburgh resident, Steven Dow Cowan.

Richard Fry’s Bully is a one hour “tour-de-verse” dealing with homophobic bullying at school, domestic violence in a same sex relationship, suicide, isolation and coping with death.  It also explores the cycle of violence that affects men who have violent fathers.  It’s not all doom and gloom though, it also manages to take the mickey out of such luminaries as Naomi Campbell, Loose Women and the ginger one from Girls Aloud.

Fry’s new show, Killing Me Softly, performed with Lizzie Roper, is about love, hate and… pop music.  A tragic accident shakes a small town in the 1980s.  When the survivors are reunited twenty years later they seek comfort in each other.  As they spend more time together, scars are reopened and passions are ignited.  What seems like a match made in heaven slowly descends into hell.  Both shows are at The Gilded Balloon throughout the fringe.

“Join a homicidal 10 year old, a singing abortion and a host of lesbian feminist angels on this taboo-busting joyride into the gaping orifices of heavy metal and shock comedy!” it says in the press release.  The Inconsiderate Aberrations of Billy the Kid is an outrageous rock n’ roll satire, guaranteed to put a bullet in the head of American family values – surely no bad thing.  Billy shoots his Mum because he doesn’t want to go to school.  But soon he realises that dead parents are almost as much trouble as living ones.  Will he ever manage to clean up the mess?  How long can Billy hide his crime before Dad discovers he’s seducing a pizza delivery girl wrapped in the skin of his dead wife?  Will the pizza delivery girl fulfil her aspiration of perfect customer service?  Performing at Just the Tonic at the Caves throughout the fringe, with a unique blend of bouffant clowning and live music from The Aberrations, this startlingly original production will be loved by anybody with a warped sense of humour and a delight in the bizarre.

Written and performed by Johnny McKnight, Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical takes in the Edinburgh Fringe as part of its tour of Scotland.  A one-man musical comedy extravaganza, join Little Johnny as he sashays, taps and vogues along his journey through life’s ups and downs.  Incorporating one-man confessional theatre and stand-up alongside traditional song and dance from the Golden Age of the Hollywood musical, Little Johnny takes to the stage and opens up in an all-singing, all-dancing tale through three turbulent decades – throughout the fringe at the Pleasance Dome.

Jeffrey Solomon’s award-winning solo play, Mother/Son, depicts a mother’s reluctant journey out of the closet as the parent of a gay son.  Performed throughout the fringe at the Sweet Grassmarket.

At the same space is The Timekeepers.  When an outrageous camp German homosexual and a conservative elderly Jewish man are thrown into the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, they have little in common, but humour is a great weapon.  The play explores the relationship between oppressions as the characters’ suspicions and prejudices give way to friendship.

The love that dare not speak its name is now the love that can’t shut the hell up!  From Cole Porter’s lyrics full of homosexual innuendo to Lorenz Hart’s autobiographically anguished lyrics, to Jerry Herman’s bright optimism, Stephen Sondheim’s wry irony, Kander & Ebb’s dark world and Rufus Wainwright’s modern sensibility, My Queer Valentine shines a spotlight on those who skirt away from the mainstream in the often complex and dubious areas of sexuality and the personal stories that define their lives.  Throughout the fringe at Universal arts.

No Parole takes the audience on a kaleidoscopic journey through the real life of a flamboyant, live-for-the-moment con artist mother, who has no trouble posing as an attorney, movie star, or paramour of a Spanish recording artist - as seen through the eyes of her young son who acts as her look-out and partner-in-crime.  Gay Peruvian/Italian Carlo D’Amore plays all the characters, from his mother as a vibrant, young woman, to her 60 year-old stroke-battered self, as well as himself, his brother, father, various law enforcement officials, doctors, and others taken in by his mother’s imaginative schemes -which run the gamut from fraud to international drug smuggling.  From Peru to Hollywood to an illegal New York City walk-up, this play performed nightly at Espionage, provides a vivid, hilarious, and tragic look into the life of an extraordinary woman who saw the world as her playground, and the son who must save her from herself.

Doctor Whom? My Search for Samuel Johnson features the multitalented David Benson from 24th – 31st at the Assembly Rooms.  This one man show celebrates Dr Johnson’s writing’s in his tercentenary year.  Designed for lovers of Johnson’s work, or those that have only heard of him through Blackadder on TV.  A fringe highlight.

Homosexual soldiers don’t exist!  The European premiere of Safe in Numbers explores the power of the imagination as a means of escapism.  Tragic truths of physical and mental abuse are expressed through the eyes of one man.  Political, dark, beautiful and containing nudity – the play runs until the 22nd at the Radisson.

To comedy then… now, raised in New York City by a Cuban comedian father and Puerto Rican dancer mother, Marga Gomez inherited a comedy persona that is energetic, endearing and provocative.  In her stand-up show All That Gomez at the Assembly Hall throughout the fringe, she holds nothing back.  Ms Gomez shares the joy and pain of orgasm during muscle cramp, her obsession with Jennifer Lopez, her fear of children and her tendency to get thrown out of gay bars.

Ben Lerman is a gay ukulele player from New York.  Check out his twisted songs about love, life, idols, pirates and anything else that springs to his mind at Café Renroc throughout the fringe.

The Boom Jennies are all women sketch troupe are personal favourites of mine.  Join Lizzie Bates, Anna Emerson and Catriona Knox in a boisterous sketch carnival at the Pleasance Dome throughout the fringe.

Local boy Craig Hill is back at the Fringe, this time at the Gilded Balloon for an entire Fringe run.  Certainly well worth seeing if you haven’t caught his act before.

Julian Clary returns to his Fringe roots as he celebrates his 50th year in Lord of the Mince. In a world where high camp and limp wrists rule , Julian does it better. From 22nd-27th at the Underbelly.

Back at the Balloon, making her Edinburgh Fringe debut and fresh from sell-out performances at Melbourne’s Comedy Festival, US comic Janeane Garofalo will be performing just ten nights from the 6th until the 15th.  In the US, her observational and self deprecating comedy struck a chord with audiences and critics alike – she was named in the Top 100 Greatest Stand-ups of all time by the US TV channel Comedy Central’s poll.  She has also had two HBO specials.  Well worth a look.

Deadpan comedian Hannah Gadsby just wants a quiet chat at the Assembly Rooms in Kiss Me Quick I’m Full of Jubes.  She’s “exploring the importance of self destructive behaviour and the benefits of defective memories”.  If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to grow up a little bit lesbian and accident-prone, with a mother who is slightly homophobic, misogynist and has a pathological fear of doctors, then this is the show for you.  Running throughout the fringe.

Bethany Black came, saw and conquered the fringe last year, with her observational musings on being a transsexual lesbian goth, amongst other things.  This year’s show, Love and Colt 45, promises much: “Ever fallen in love so hard you scared the other person off?  Sent them a clingy text when you’ve only just met them?  Tried to win their hearts by immolating their front lawn?  Ever pined for someone so much that when they went away you laid their clothes out on the bed to look like them and then threaded your key chain through the arm holes and put your sat nav where their head should be and hugged it as you drifted to sleep?  What?  Never?”  Beth is back!  Catch her at the Underbelly throughout the fringe.

And so to my all time favourite comedian, Mark Thomas. From 5th – 18th The Stand, his new show The Manifesto has probably sold out already.  If you’re lucky enough to grab a ticket then you’ll witness the best political comedian alive today.  Change the world.

Laid Back and Laughing features Karl Davison & Val Lee.  This unlikely, but charmingly complimentary, duo aim to amuse with tall tales from life’s subtleties.  Share Karl’s fixation with his international sock collection, learn how to flummox an angry motorist, and hear all about Val’s irritation with her transvestite husband.  From 8th – 16th at the Rat Pack.

Val also performs at Shush! at Fingers Piano bar throughout the fringe.  How do you keep your mouth shut with a bolshie best friend and a lesbian lover who thinks she’s Gloria Gaynor?  Val tells all.

Meanwhile… some poetry.  It’s a welcome return to the Fringe this year for Andrew C. Ferguson at Fingers Bar on the 13th.  A connoisseur, historian and the leading international authority on Scottish Common Good Law, it seems inconceivable that he could live in Glenrothes.  A true Renaissance man, Andrew’s body of work includes novels, short prose, poetry, and recently a musical project documenting the influence of Venus Carmichael, a Sixties singer-songwriter with a guilty secret.  He is currently working on a novel about an unsympathetic lech who wakes up with a hangover to discover his bathtub contains a corpse with its toe stuck up the cold tap.  For Underword Andrew will put aside his normal obsessions – fairies, football, Fife and sexy lawyers – to deliver new stories and recipes from foreign parts.  There may also be mention of sexy foreign lawyers.

Word Dogs is a savage accumulation of literary talent based in Glasgow, performing at Fingers Bar on the 21st.  It runs readings in the red-lit basement of the 13th Note Café.  Previous shows have included Urban Vertigo, Us and Them and The Invasion.  Bark worse than their bite?  Come and find out.

Writers’ Bloc is an Edinburgh-based spoken word collective which has appropriated powerful Soviet iconography for its own shallow purposes.  Its themed shows have ranged from the nutritional exposé Blood Doner Kebab and the colonial hymn Last Days of the Radge to the Satanic shocker To The Devil An ASBO and the vintage mystery Doyle M For Murder.  The group has toured extensively throughout Scotland and holds a British record for the most north-westerly spoken word residency in history, comprising two nights in an art gallery on the beach at Kinlochbervie.  Bloc’s members range from professional novelists to notorious drunks.

Well known in Edinburgh for his interesting oral style and humorous renditions of his short stories, Gavin Inglis is performing at Fingers on the 20th.  His published work includes Crap Ghosts, ten tales of incompetent apparitions and substandard spooks.

Finally, to the very best performance poet around today.  Luke Wright brings another solo show to the Fringe for the entire run.  If you haven’t seen this master at work before, do check him out.  And if you have, you wont need to read this before you go see him again.  A real fringe must-see for lovers of the spoken word.

Joe Daniels’ Fringe Previews

Date: August 2nd, 2009 Author: Joe Daniels
Category(s): A Fringe 2009 Introduction
Comments: 0

So, it’s the eve of the Edinburgh Festival and as the fringe programme works its way across the United Kingdom, one question remains unanswered: What should I see?  A simple question, but not one so simply answered, as the fringe programme tots up 288 pages of show listings.  With comedy by far the most vastly represented medium in quantity and varied in quality, it can be a bit overwhelming knowing what to watch.  In order to remedy this confusion, here are my suggestions as to what you’d be a fool to miss at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.

Firstly, Stewart Lee is a must-see.  His deadpan style and intellectual material have earned him a loyal fan-base, and deservedly so.  His show, If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One, is on almost every night of the festival at The Stand Comedy Club.

Another act who mustn’t be missed is Simon Amstell, whose ability to transform his misery into brilliant comedy has allowed him to make the leap from TV presenter to full-time stand up.  He tackles taboos such as being a gay Jew without having to adopt a stereotypical persona, and his show Do Nothing, which is on at The Bongo Club from the 14th August, could be the last chance to see him in a small venue before he makes the big league.

Anna and Katy are also on superb form and are playing at the Pleasance Courtyard.  This is sketch comedy of the highest order, with the comedy duo working together with hilarious chemistry.

Marcus Brigstocke’s show God Collar is also highly recommended.  Brigstocke’s angered attacks on right-wing idiocy get the balance of hilarity and polemic just right.  This time, he looks at religion and the existence of God.  Whilst certainly not new comedy territory, Brigstocke’s inventive writing should add a new spin (and vitriol) to the subject.  It’s on every night at the Assembly Hall.

The much less known Sanderson Jones is also one to watch.  His show Another Heartbreaking But Ultimately Life Affirming Show About Death was well received in Melbourne earlier this year, and Jones – with his autobiographical yet hilarious stories – is set to be a big name in the future.  His uniquely inventive style and material make him emblematic of the new direction of alternative comedy, and he’s all the better for it.  You can see him at The GRV every night of the fringe.

Stephen K Amos’s show The Feelgood Factor, at the Pleasance Courtyard every night of the festival, is set to be great.  Amos’s own experiences of being raised in London as a second generation immigrant have been getting laughs for years, and since coming out on stage he has gone from strength to strength.  His timing is impeccable and is sure to gain some of the biggest belly laughs of the fringe.

Reginald D Hunter is also set to shock and amuse this year.  His show The Only Apple in the Garden of Eden and Niggas is on at Udderbelly’s Pasture every night from the 16th.

Retelling stories from her career at the Daily Mail, Bridget Christie’s My Daily Mail Hell looks to be a fascinating and hilarious insight into one of Britain’s most infamous institutions.  Christie will be performing every night at the Gilded Balloon Teviot.

American stand-up and actress Janeane Garofalo looks to be one of this year’s festival highlights.  Her self-depreciating material and her deadpan manner have gained her widespread acclaim in the States, and this, her self titled show, should secure her success over here too.  She’s performing at the Gilded Balloon Teviot every night up to the 15th.

For those who like their comedy musical, and their musicals camp, there is a vast selection of the ridiculous and the hilarious on offer at this year’s festival.  The picks of the bunch are Cabaret Whore (every night at Laughing Horse @ Espionage), Oklahomo! Far From Kansas” (from the 16th to the 22nd, at Sweet ECA), and Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical (every night at the Pleasance Dome).

That concludes the list of acts you must not miss at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. Stick to ScotsGay like glue and you can’t go wrong.

Andrew Doyle’s Fringe Previews

Date: August 2nd, 2009 Author: Andrew Doyle
Category(s): A Fringe 2009 Introduction
Comments: 0

The fringe is fast becoming dominated by comedy, which is understandable.  Laughing is as good a way as any to pass the time before our inevitable deaths.  And most of the best comedians in the country will be gravitating towards Edinburgh this August.

Let’s start with the gay interest comedians because, let’s face it, you queers are notoriously divisive and self-ghettoising.

One of the most notable gay comedians appearing at this year’s fringe is the fabulous Paul Sinha.  As an avid sports fan and a practising GP, he seems to confound all the expectations most people have of gay performers.  His material is intelligent and genuinely hilarious, and if his recent preview in the Udderbelly at London’s Southbank Centre is anything to go by, his Edinburgh run will be a festival highlight.  Catch his show 39 Years of Solitude at The Stand.

Paul Foot is a truly unique performer.  There is quite simply no one else like him.  He is another example of a gay comic who does not base his material on his sexuality; it is merely another incidental feature of his persona.  That said, he has some excellent material on the absurdity of homophobia which has provoked interesting responses from some of the unreconstructed provincial audiences that he has faced over the years.   His show, By the Yard, is on at the Underbelly on Cowgate.

The brilliant Zoe Lyons is another must-see act.  Her stand up appearances are fast becoming fringe favourites, and her new show Miss Machismo at the Pleasance Courtyard will undoubtedly be up to her usual high standards.  One of the most immediately likeable acts on the circuit, Zoe’s effervescent stage manner and rapid-fire gag rate makes her shows a safe bet for money well spent.

The Glaswegian comic Susan Calman is also definitely worth checking out.  Her show this year is based on a particularly hostile heckle she once received: “I wouldn’t fuck you if you were the last woman on earth”.  Comedians who work regularly on the circuit come to expect such outbursts from people who are too drunk to have a sound appreciation of their own banality, but Susan has nonetheless managed to find inspiration in this most witless of heckles.  Her new show The Last Woman on Earth at the Underbelly is the result, and judging from her past performances, it’ll be another excellent hour.

David Morgan is a talented gay comedian who is performing as part of The Lunchtime Club at Downstairs at the Tron.  David is from Solihull, which is a horrible place, but he’s extremely funny so it’s forgivable.  He will be performing with fellow whimsical youths Alfie Brown, Ivo Graham, and Joe Lycett.  Their press release boasts that ‘they can’t grow a beard, but they’ll make you laugh’, which is surely a bonus, as I’ve always mistrusted bearded men.  It’s never been clear to me why anyone would actually want clumps of protein growing out of their face.

Other gay-interest shows that merit your attention are Julie Jepson in Inner Badger at Espionage, Isma Almas Bombs at The Stand, Rosie Wilby in The Science of Sex at Sweet Teviot, and those fringe stalwarts Topping and Butch, who are bringing their unique blend of catchy tunes and filthy lyrics to The Stand in Twisted!

Now with all this talk of gay shows, you might well accuse me of being heterophobic.  I can assure you that this is not the case.  Some of my best friends are straight, although I would not trust them with my pets.  And if I’m totally honest, I have always found sex for reproductive purposes to be inherently disturbing, and rather vile.  Personally, I can’t think of a worse STD than pregnancy.

But just to prove how tolerant I am of the straights, I would urge you to see the following performers, many of whom are talented heterosexuals.  First off, there is William Andrews, whose new show Nitwit at the Pleasance Dome is his first full-length solo endeavour on the fringe.  He was one half of the 2008 sketch show Will & Greg which was, to my mind, the funniest show in last year’s festival.  I have since seen William perform individually, and he doesn’t disappoint.  In fact he’s so entertaining I’ve had private fantasies of kidnapping him and making him perform for me in my home.
I hope he doesn’t read this.

Alex Maple’s Press Release at the Underbelly is another solo debut from an impressive young comic.  Here he grapples with the world of PR, and with the combination of his caustic humour and intelligent outlook, this is likely to be a show you won’t want to miss.  The same goes for the quite brilliant Adam Riches, who is back on the fringe with his character show Rogue Males at the Pleasance Courtyard.

Jo Caulfield is another comedian who always delivers.  Her shows are consistently laugh-out-loud funny, and her audience interaction is a joy to watch.  So make sure you book tickets for Jo Caulfield Won’t Shut Up! at The Stand.  In fact, so confident am I of her abilities that if you do not enjoy her show following my recommendation, and you manage to find me out and about in Edinburgh, I will treat you to a slap-up feast at a restaurant of your choosing.

That said, if I suspect that you are lying in order to get a free meal, I will have you killed.

For musical comedy at the fringe, you won’t do much better than Fascinating Aida, whose 25th Anniversary Tour is on at the Pleasance Courtyard.  This year also sees the return of David Benson Sings Noël Coward at the Assembly Rooms, which was a big critical success in last year’s fringe.  The lyrically dextrous Kit & The Widow are making an appearance at the Edinburgh Academy in All That Twitters, and if their previous shows are anything to go by this should be another hugely entertaining evening.  If you’re in the mood for some camp cabaret, you should see 4 Poofs and a Piano in Smoke and Mirrorballs at the Pleasance Courtyard, and if it’s topical satire you’re after, you’ll probably enjoy the 30th anniversary of NewsRevue, also at the Pleasance.  This musical sketch show holds the Guinness world record for the longest running live comedy, so if you haven’t seen it before maybe now’s the time.

There are some excellent free shows at this year’s fringe, so there’s absolutely no excuse for you to miss them.  Speed Bumps at Espionage showcases the talents of three hilarious young comedians: Helen Huscroft, Rachel Anderson, and Luke Graves.  At the same venue you can see It’s Got Jokes In with Hannah George, Catie Wilkins, and Lou Sanders, all of whom I have seen and enjoyed on the London circuit.

Oh, and at the risk of abusing my position at ScotsGay to plug my own show, I’d urge you to come and see The Holy Trinity at Madogs, in which I perform with two other stand ups: Ben Van Der Velde and Joleed Farah.  They’re both really good, even if I’m not, so it’s definitely worthwhile.  In any case, you rarely see a Catholic, a Muslim, and a Jew on the same bill, so if you want to find out whose deity is the right one, please come along.  I’m not going to beg.  It’s free, for God’s sake.  Just do it, bitches.

There’s a danger that with the proliferation of all these clowns at the festival, romping about and distracting us with their impish tomfoolery, theatrical ventures become consigned to the shadows.  We’ll I for one simply won’t stand for it, so I have some suggestions as to which plays might be worth the investment of both your time and money.

As a rule of thumb, year after year the Traverse Theatre consistently offers an exciting and diverse range of drama to satiate the most ravenous of literary appetites.  You can guarantee that there will be something to your taste in their programme, and because their quality control is so high, the production values will be invariably excellent.  The tickets prices may be above the average on the fringe, but it’s worth bearing in mind that in London’s West End you can often pay up to £65 for tickets to see shows that are so banal they can drive you to self-harm.  So, on reflection, the Traverse offers a good deal.  Look out in particular for Sea Wall by Simon Stephens, Orphans by Dennis Kelly, and Palace of the End by Judith Thompson.

With the government doing their utmost to accommodate religious groups in any way they can, often at the expense of gay rights, faith schools are becoming more popular than ever.  In some schools, creationism is already creeping back into the science curriculum, thanks to those imbeciles who demand credibility for their atavistic superstitions.  So while learning that the boiling point of mercury is 357ºC, pupils can also now be taught that this is the optimum temperature for roasting homosexuals in the afterlife.

It’s hardly surprising, therefore, to find that this year’s fringe programme contains a number of Darwin-themed productions.  There’s The Rap Guide to Evolution at the Gilded Balloon, Pentabus Theatre’s Origins at the Pleasance Dome, and the imaginatively titled The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or The Survival of (R)evolutionary Theories in the Face of Scientific and Ecclesiastical Objections: being a Musical Comedy about Charles Darwin (1809-1882).  Really trips off the tongue, doesn’t it?

I’ll be interested to see Chronicles of Long Kesh by Martin Lynch at the Assembly Rooms, a drama about Northern Ireland’s most infamous paramilitary prison.  The action begins with the British government’s disastrous policy of internment without trial back in 1971, and leads us up to 1984, just after the hunger strikes which led to the deaths of ten republican prisoners.  By looking back on the past, the play asks the important question of whether the political outcomes have been able to justify the human cost.  It promises to be an entertaining and powerful piece.

Bloody Lovely Productions are back again this year following their 2008 success with The Darkling Plain.  This year they’re at the Underbelly with The Tale of Lady Stardust, also written by Bea Roberts, which should be worth watching.  After all, how many other David Bowie themed cautionary tales are there on this year’s fringe?  Surprisingly few.

For the improvised experience, you won’t do better than Scenes From Communal Living, which is on daily at C Soco.  A fast-paced comedy about flat-sharing, this piece features a sextet of energetic actors, including the wonderful Rob Broderick, who is impossible to dislike.

Of course, theatre is barely worth bothering with if it doesn’t feature Lionel Blair.  So Sheridan’s eighteenth-century comedy of manners The School for Scandal at the Pleasance Courtyard will almost certainly make your to-do list.  Blair aside, the show boasts an impressive range of talent, including Stephen K Amos, Phil Nichol, Paul Foot, Marcus Brigstocke, Bridget Christie, Miss Behave, Ella Kenion, Huw Thomas, Clare Thomson, Richard Thomson, and Steve Jameson.  It’s directed by fringe veteran Cal McCrystal, which is a fairly reliable guarantee of quality.

By the way, did you know that Lionel Blair’s father was a Russian barber?  Just thought I’d throw that in.

Enjoy yourselves this festival.  And keep those antibacterial wipes to hand.