The Definitive Guide to Comedy
**** (out of 5) Claire knows that Claire’s work seems inaccessible, tough to contextualize. Despite moments that you could easily categorize, such as when she’s paying homage to Marina Abramović, or to Britney Spears. Woolner can come across as aggressive at times, although to be fair, she is part clown, …
**** (out of 5) Dan Tiernan runs on two speeds: Calm and friendly, or intensely loud and in your face. But he’s no second coming of the late Sam Kinison. Oh, no. This 27-year-old Brit is gay and dyspraxic. And if you’ve never heard the term dyspraxic before, well, get …
****1/2 (out of 5) Larry Owens has received kudos and awards for his performance onstage in “A Strange Loop,” while TV viewers may recognize his magnetic persona from roles on sitcoms such as Abbott Elementary. For this show, though, Owens takes us back in time a few years when his …
**** (out of 5) The Umbilical Brothers are Australians David Collins and Shane Dundas, who’ve performed together as a duo since 1988. I spoke with them for my podcast back in 2017. A generation ago a two-hander live sketch show could be clever, physical, even both. These fellas are that, …
*** (out of 5) A former Best Newcomer at the Fringe in 2019, Huge Davies returns to Edinburgh with his second show, wearing his keyboard and deadpanning about murder. “If this were a funeral, I’d be killing it,” he quips. But it’s a bit more than that, more or less. …
**** (out of 5) At the start of the hour, you’re not quite sure what you’re in for here, as Titelman emerges, talking to her hand as a fake phone, but taking her time settling in behind the mic, all while background piano threatens to drown it all out. Eventually …
****1/2 (out of 5) A former Best Newcomer nominee, Janine Harouni returns to the Fringe with a new hour so polished and timely, she jokes it may just reproduce this year’s Best Newcomer, too. Because Harouni arrived in Edinburgh more than eight months pregnant. Her due date is early September. …
***1/2 (out of 5) A former Best Newcomer nominee, Bilal Zafar returns to the Fringe this year as a newlywed with a different domestic relationship on his mind, a more unexpected one as a new housemate in the months leading up to his wedding (to a white woman!) is full …
**** (out of 5) Two brothers. 1,000 banana slips in an hour or your money back guaranteed? One chaotically tricky masochistic clown show! Directed by one of his Los Angeles clown collaborators in former Fringe winner Natalie Palamides, Bill O’Neill has his own eyes set on the prize, even it …
**** (out of 5) Gays or geese? Buxton or boxing? I confess I may have been confused by this gay 30-year-old’s Manchester accent, a voice he says he obviously wouldn’t have chosen, even if it may sound like a retired lollipop lady and also make said ladies feel safe on …
