Comedy

After 25 years of real success, and some controversy, the Perrier Awards have gone. In their place, as indicators of what’s regarded (by one particular panel of judges, at any rate) as the hot comedy talent on the Edinburgh Fringe, we have the If.comeddies. First an explanation: the new sponsors of the awards are Intelligent Finance, a Scottish internet bank. Now the necessary comment: the new brand name doesn’t roll off the tongue.

Could ‘the Eddies’, as a term, one day create the same frisson as the Oscars and the Tonys? Let’s wait and see. At least they got off to a good start this year with a convincing shortlist for the main award (Phil Nichol, We Are Klang, Paul Sinha, Russell Howard and David O’Doherty) and two other inspired choices: superbly scatty Josie Long (she featured prominently in TO’s recent feature on comedy’s best new talents), who won the Eddie for Best Newcomer, and marvellously inventive Mark Watson, who took the Panel prize as best representative of the spirit of the Fringe. All seven take their shows to the Garrick Theatre at some point over the next five weeks in the If.comeddies season, once known as the Perrier Pick of the Fringe. Feature continues

Dublin-based David O’Doherty (he lives close to the canal in one room of a large sub-divided house; he’s told a bongo-playing prostitute used to live next door) opens the season this Thursday and Friday in a double bill with Josie Long. He describes his show as ‘a mix of talking and songs’. It changed quite a lot in the months before Edinburgh. ‘First it was going to be the musical adaptation of my life, then bits from my unpublished autobiography, then it became scenes from a highly exaggerated made-for-TV movie adaptation of my life. It’s ended up a combination of all three. With sweet beats.’ The songs are performed on two keyboards dating from the mid-’80s. It’s non-aggressive stuff. Alongside Long’s remarkably positive and gentle ‘Kindness and Exuberance’, it’s sure to create a wholly upbeat evening.

We Are Klang (that is, pictured left to right, Steve Hall, Greg Davies and Marek Larwood), can lay claim to being the only true loonies to make the shortlist. Larwood, in fact, gets it dead right with his summary of their intentions: ‘Audiences can expect moderately offensive skulduggery in the form of three dickheads trying to perform stupid sketches.’ Their act’s a load of nonsense, complete with partial nudity, audience abuse and a talking bottom. They’re clowns and anarchists. Physically, they’re so ill matched they form a perfect trio. ‘Klangbang’ is their third show together. By the sixth they’ll be set to rule the world.