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is an island

No time to write more than to say:

Tommy and the Weeks, 4.30pm, Pleasance Courtyard, final show is today (Monday). If you’re in Edinburgh, do go along.

I went along yesterday and it was very funny.

I’ll explain later.

American comedian Amy Lamé dropped me a nice email a few weeks ago mentioning that her show, Amy Lamé’s Mama Cass Family Singers (which I’ll refer to, for ease of typing if not ease of reading, as ALMCFS from now on), has a London run this month.

One of the highlights of my Edinburgh festival visits*, ALMCFS is a one woman show in which Amy recounts, with the assistance of family photos, video interviews and 1960s music, her life as a child star press-ganged into a Mamas and the Papas tribute band.

It’s funny, touching, and slightly mad. And there are sandwiches. It’s running at the Soho Theatre from the 15th to the 25th of this month at 9.30pm, and tickets, which you can book here, are £15.

*The other was the marvellous Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf

“David Benson - Why Pay More?” at the Pleasance is the third of David Benson’s one man shows I’ve seen at the Fringe, following last year’s “Conspiracy Cabaret” and 2004’s “Haunted Stage”. There is less of a central theme than to those shows , but once again Benson’s material is strongly autobiographical. It’s a mixture of songs and anecdotes, a deceptively gentle set with sudden and surprising moments of pathos. Benson is engaging and charismatic when himself and thoroughly convincing when he brings to life the various and varied characters in his stories. This is neither comedy nor theatre but an entertaing, thoughtful and enjoyable show.

The same day, I went to see “Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams“, the award-winning show which brought Benson acclaim when he first performed it in 1996 and which has returned to the Festival for its tenth anniversary. (Five shows of the ten show run remain as the time of writing.) It’s a touching mixture of biography and autobiography, bounding from scenes from Williams’s life to scenes from Benson’s, from soliloquy to audience interaction, and from comedy to tragedy.

Benson’s definitive portrayal of Williams is uncanny and a little eerie, not so much an impersonation but a real recreation of his not especially likeable character. Benson shows off his skills further as the voices of Frankie Howerd, Maggie Smith and most of the cast of Dad’s Army make appearances too. But this funny, affecting show is about Williams and Benson - raw and personal for both of them - and ten years on there’s no question the Fringe First award it won was well-deserved.

It’s that time again: the Edinburgh fest. I’m not planning to indulge too much this as a result of time and budget constraints, but I did last night make my annual pilgrimage to see The Comedian Richard Herring. His show, ménage à un at the Underbelly, is, like last year, your basic no-frills stand-up: one man and his microphone. And a glass of water. And some fruit and veg. OK, few-frills.

With donkeys years of comedy and Edinburgh Festivals behind him, Herring’s delivery is relaxed and polished. There were plenty of funny moments throughout, only some of which depended on the innate comedic value of rude body parts, and the intertwining of apparently unrelated subjects marked out a well-structured routine. An attempt to “push the comedy boundaries” just about worked and was worthwhile, and did succeed (if that was the intention) in making some of the largely-receptive audience uneasy.

There were, unfortunately, some moments that detracted from the show: the set was a little slow to get going, some gags didn’t really gel with the rest of the act, and a few bits of observational comedy were a bit naff. The nadir was a section on the de Menezes shooting which, while trying to make a worthy point, failed to say anything fresh or original and came 13 months too late to be topical.

Slightly underwhelming, then, but not at all a bad show by any means and there were more than enough laughs scattered throughout the set to make this an hour well spent.

So, votes counted and one vote each for Stewart Lee, Simon Munnery, Richard Herring, David Benson, Jay Aston, and Kiki & Herb. Bad luck to Bella, Pam and Ursula.

Lee and Herring were both funny, although their styles held no surprises: very much stand-up done technically well (especially Stew) with humour familiar to anyone who’s seen them before. Rich’s show, Someone Likes Yoghurt was less yoghurt-focussed than the title might imply. He kept the audience laughing throughout, even if, as he admitted, saying that Rudyard Kipling is a silly name isn’t exactly biting topical satire. Stewart Lee meanwhile took great pleasure in being as vulgar and blasphemous as possible, while still building a genuinely funny act (and reusing the old Lee & Herring “That’s for other people to say” gag). He probably had the edge with a more uncomfortable show, and because as it neared the end I was wondering “How on Earth can he get a good punchline from this?” - and then he did.

As Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, Simon Munnery headlined the first comedy gig I went to. I’ve seen him in various shows since and I always find him very funny. This year’s AGM was a bit more structured than in 2004 - there was even an agenda. Boothby Graffoe joined him for a crucifixion sketch that was all the more amusing for wondering off the script. Other highlights included a spoof Sherlock Holmes memoir and the business of the meeting: the annual motions. He, we and about fifteen other audience members went to the pub afterwards where he kept us entertained for a further hour-and-a-half going through the motions there weren’t time for - excellent value for money.

I had caught a great short preview in London of A Night of a Thousand Jay Astons - a lip-synched cabaret (with more than a little Cupid Stunt) telling the sad story of Miss Jay Aston, “the allegedly slutty one from Bucks Fizz” - and the full show lived up to that. Unfortunately the preceding play heavily overran and we had to leave less than halfway through to get the last train. I expect the rest was more of the same, though: three men and a woman all dressed as Jay Aston prancing around to Bucks Fizz songs. So if you like that sort of thing…

Kiki & Herb were great - best show I saw. They purport to be aging, boozy entertainers, born in the Depression, and they are, at least, entertainers. Darkly funny, accomplished and very enjoyable - and probably the only place you’ll see a Belle & Sebastian song tunefully screeched by a New York drag act. Unlike the previous time I’d seen them perform, the sound system was well calibrated and Kiki’s tuneful caterwauling was complemented, rather than drowned out, by Herb’s stomping piano and shouted lyrics. As it was the last night, we also got an encore, and then bought a copy of their CD on the way out.

David Benson (soon to appear in Little Britain) sang and talked about conspiracy theories, interwoven with interesting autobiographical pieces. The show was a little less focussed than last year’s (Haunted Stage) and one or two songs were a bit flat (courtesy of James Blunt’s rhyming dictionary) but still fun. Benson is sufficiently enthusiastic and charismatic to carry the show where necessary and it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. We benefited again from an end of term encore, and he finished off with a cheery rendition of The Physician by Cole Porter.

We didn’t see any real duffers, which I put down to our lack of theatrical risk-taking. Given the average fringe show price, we made an effort to see things we thought we’d enjoy. Maybe next year I should pick some shows at random from the listings and take the chance that I might end up in an audience of three watching a two-hour student ballet version of Marat/Sade. Or maybe not.

(Update on update: Image problem in IE now fixed!)

Inspired by Alan, and while I wait for the votes to pile up over the weekend, here’s a fun list of Celebrities I Spotted In Edinburgh.

1. Stand-up comedian Jo Caulfield, at Stewart Lee’s show
2. Comedy actor and writer David Walliams (who I also saw in Camden a few years ago) outside the Assembly Rooms booking office
3. Ben Miller, of Armstrong and Miller, waiting with his suitcase outside the Assembly Rooms
4. The comedians Tim Vine and Ross Noble in the Pleasance Courtyard

In 2004, I saw Rich Hall, Adam Bloom, Scott Capurro and Ben Moor out and about. In 2001, I saw Robin Ince in the street and Sylvester McCoy in the Pleasance Bar.