'It's like the Royal Variety Show of the Fringe'
5th-26th August 2023
(not 17th, 21st, or 24th)
12.40pm-2.10pm
(90 mins)
"A vibrant, stimulating showcase of talent."
FRIDAY 19th AUGUST 2022
Pleasance One, Venue 33
12.40pm-2.10pm
Tickets: £15.00
TODAY'S SHOWS
Tom Waits For No Man
Music (music, rock)
Tom Waits depicted the poor, the punks, the hobos and the lost. He could also write a love song to shatter Cupid’s bow. D’Arrietta covers this terrain of tenderness to terror, and all the pathos in between. One of the 10 best shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe according to the The Sunday Times, his characteristic gravel-voiced sensitivity brings out the shapes and shades of legendary songs such as Invitation to the Blues, Martha and the wrenching Tom Traubert’s Blues. ‘The king of whiskey, smoke and late nights… exceptional’ (BroadwayWorld.com).
Jamie MacDonald: Reasonably Adjusted
Comedy (stand-up, solo show)
The New York Times – America's "Daily Record" – asked: what's the worst that could happen to you? Blindness won! Jamie's not sure it's that bad. The star of Life on the Blink (BBC Radio 4) and Blind Ambition (BBC Two) once hated his eyes, then he accepted them and nowadays he loves them (he had the same journey with olives). Emotionally detached psycho or just blind happy? Plus if everyone hates blindness why do they listen to audiobooks? As heard on BBC Radio 4's The Now Show and Museum of Curiosity. **** (Telegraph). **** (Times).
Magical Bones: Soulful Magic
Cabaret and Variety (magic)
Following a totally sold-out debut in 2019, the Britain's Got Talent finalist returns to the Fringe with 'a dazzling show... full of imagination and flair' **** (Guardian). Direct from appearances on America's Penn & Teller: Fool Us, BBC One's BAFTA Awards, ITV1's This Morning and Sky's Around The World in 80 Tricks, join Bones as he brings you a brand-new hour of the most awe-inspiring and high-energy magic you'll see this year. 'What's happening on stage really is magic' (Telegraph).
Taiwan Season: See You
Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus (dance, performers of colour)
Lai Hung-Chung is one of Taiwan’s most talked about young choreographers. This scintillating production for Hung Dance justifies the acclaim. It is a non-stop feast of intensely expressive motion and sensations inspired by ideas about loss, longing, confrontation and evasion. Watching the dancers’ bodies is like reading their minds. The difficulty that resolutely modern people have in connecting may be their strongest connection. The entire effect is both feverishly intimate and yet somehow coolly detached, qualities enhanced by handsomely sculpted lighting and the textured pulsations of an original and rhythmically varied sound score.
Manbo
Theatre (comedy, physical theatre)
Sam Dugmore (The Latebloomers: Scotland!) is locked and loaded as the greatest action hero of all time, unearthing his ruthless man skills to confront his biggest nemesis... himself. A deadly mission filled with calamity, 80s workout montage, explosions, evil Russians, suppressed raw emotion and a dog called Fluffy. High energy, rip-roaring physical comedy that will blow your socks off and leave you wanting more! Best Comedy Award (Adelaide Fringe) and Best Newcomer (Sydney Comedy Festival). 'Masterclass on engaging an audience through the power of pure silliness' ***** (Advertiser, Adelaide). 'Superb! Magnificent mastery of physical comedy' ***** (GlamAdelaide.com.au).
Don't Make Me Hate You
Comedy (stand-up)
Maureen Langan doesn't want to hate people; they make her hate them. Langan uses her quick wit and honest rants to lambast reality stars, politicians, hipsters, the politically correct and the easily triggered. 'Should not be missed!' (StageBuddy.com). 'Killer sense of humor!' (San Francisco Examiner). 'Laugh-out-loud hilarity!' (Magazine.DailyBusinessGroup.co.uk). 'I adore her and you will, too' (Alan Zweibel, original SNL writer and Tony Award-winning playwright).
Rebel
Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus (music, cabaret)
A live circus rock tribute to the original rebel, David Bowie. Stage dive into the mosh pit for a night of live music, glittering glam rock, phenomenal acrobatics, breath-taking aerials and spectacular heart-stopping sideshow. Combining music and circus, bringing to life an incredible body of work that spanned over 50 years, with an aesthetic that inspired generations.
Mervyn Stutter
Host and Compere
Mervyn has been in the entertainment industry since 1974. He started in theatre where he acted, wrote scripts, songs, and directed for around 14 years. In the 1980s, he became the 'regular topical song bloke' on the BBC TV's first ever daytime show, 'Open Air', fronted by a thin Irishman called Eamonn Holmes. Over the years he has performed weekly topical songs on many TV current affairs programmes and more of the same on radio. In the late 1980s, he took his comedy songs onto the Comedy Circuit and then touring theatres. Merv's first Edinburgh Fringe was in 1986 and he has been every year since. 'Pick of the Fringe' started life as 'Have you seen anything good?', a show to help answer the perennial Fringe-goer question. To title was changed to 'Pick of the Fringe' in 1994 and it he has built it up into one of the must-see Fringe shows.
“Mervyn Stutter is very, very good as compere of this chat show, for to make such a showcase work requires skill, talent and quick reactions. Stutter works the crowd like the showman he is.”
THE OBSERVER
