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  • Edinburgh Festival comedy blog #2

  • By Malcolm Hay

    Posted: Fri Aug 11 2006

  • Time Out's comedy editor Malcolm Hay finds his wallet is empty

    Edinburgh Festival comedy blog #2

    God's Pottery in 'Concert for Lavert

  • Gideon Lamb and Jeremiah Smallchild are a Christian acoustic music duo from New York. In their songs, they confront the tough decisions (about sex and drugs and so on) facing young people nowadays. They call themselves God’s Pottery. Through their ‘Concert for Lavert’ (at the Pleasance) they’re raising money for a child in Harlem. He has cancer.

    Of course, the whole thing is a spoof. This basic idea had the potential to cause serious satirical damage to liberal ideas about charity. But it doesn’t because it ducks out of causing real offence. To illustrate this I’ll need to give away the ending. They discover Lavert isn’t ill at all. He’s a kid with a vivid imagination who wants to draw attention to himself. At best, that’s mildly amusing. But what’s it saying? Naïve do-gooders can all too easily get conned? The plot twist at the end functions as an ultimate cop-out from addressing any issues. Feature continues

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    But, for all its failings, ‘Concert for Lavert’ has a whole lot more going for it than some other dismal shows I’ve seen in the past few days. If you’re up in Edinburgh for the Fringe at any point, here are two definitely to avoid. Paddy Lannigan’s ‘Songs of the Unhinged’ (Jazz Bar) features a middle-aged man singing very old-fashioned ‘dirty’ numbers. They’re intended to be shocking. They’re not. They’re juvenile and pathetic. More surprisingly, American Harry Shearer (he does the voice of Mr Burns and one or two others on ‘The Simpsons’) has concocted a pretentious, badly performed would-be commentary on the state of America in ‘This Is So Not the Simpsons’ where he’s joined by his jazz singer wife. More on this next week.

    Those shows to fight your way in to see (yes, they’re worth that much effort) include edgy and controversial American Doug Stanhope at George Square Theatre (though there’s a strong likelihood he’ll play London in September), Andrew Lawrence with his wonderfully outlandish ‘How To Butcher Your Loved Ones’ (at the Pleasance, in the aptly named Hut) and Andy Zaltzman’s super-intelligent and stimulating show at the Stand Comedy Club. Zaltzman was scheduled to be appearing with John Oliver, his partner over the past few years in live shows and Radio 4’s ‘The Department’. Shortly before the festival, however, Oliver was offered a job in the States on ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart’. That’s the kind of offer it’s almost impossible to refuse. Inevitably, Zaltzman is going it alone.

    The Laughing Horse ‘Free Fringe’ shows, at three different venues, serve as a useful reminder of that frequently voiced, but now rarely encountered, concept ‘the spirit of the Fringe’. Admission is free. The performers don’t have to pay for the use of the venue. London-based stand-up Jay Sodagar, who’s appearing at Laughing Horse at Lindsay’s, tells me he’s been getting bigger audiences, as well as having a much better time, than he’s had in Edinburgh before. What’s more, he’s not running up enormous debts.

    The price of drinks on the 'Free Fringe' is what you’d expect to pay in any normal boozer. The comedians are generally good and interesting. They include many from the London circuit. The approach seems light-years away from that of major places like the Pleasance, the Gilded Balloon, the Assembly Rooms and Underbelly, where tickets are overpriced (at almost a tenner, and sometimes more) for a show lasting less than an hour, and buying two small bottles of lager can mean taking out a second mortgage.

    After a show in the Gilded Balloon at the Teviot a drink or snack in the Café gives you the opportunity to study a collection of portraits of comedians by San Franciscan photographer Dan Dion, which are exhibited on the Café's walls. There’s a good cross-section of subjects ranging from Eddie Izzard to Lee Mack and Lenny Henry to Dylan Moran. ‘I believe that comedy is magic, and the spell that one person with a microphone can cast over a room of people is more impressive than any movie and even most concerts,’ Dion writes. Rousing stuff! The man’s really into stand-up. Then you notice the prints are up for sale. Fair enough, he has to make a living. But at £125 a time?

    Finally, for now, an oddity. Ryan Paulson’s ‘Pentecostal Wisconsin’ at the Teviot is listed under Comedy in the Fringe programme, although it’s actually a gentle monologue about growing up in small-town America. Essentially it’s Paulson’s own story. Mild fun is made of the Pentecostal church which he finally abandons. The tone is witty but sympathetic. This is the kind of show that’s so often overlooked at a festival containing (let’s be honest, folks) far too many productions. Suggested motto for next year’s Fringe: small is beautiful. Here’s another: cheap is very beautiful too.

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1 comment

  1. Posted by David Mcmurdoch on 17 Aug 2006 16:55

    Hey there I saw Songs of the unhinged and though it very good! Though me and my friends seem to be kinda 18 to 25 year olds and "get" that kind of stuff! I take it Malcom hay is old!

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