What a day, rain, sun, rain, sun, make up your mind! Did another while of flyering; the similarities with carbooting keep popping into my head – big one, a nonchalant smile for all who gaze upon you and your wares (ie resting bitch face is not a good look). One chap made me laugh, he ran across the road when I caught his eye and waved my flyers in his direction, and no, he wasn’t running away, he came to me to take one!! Wonders will never cease. Anyways, on with three more reviews. I’ll go from light to dark I think, three very different shows, that’s the beauty of Fringe, there’s something for every taste!

So, silliness incorporated, The Last Gun starring, in many many roles, Will BF and a couple of sock puppets (what’s the Fringe without a sock puppet or two?). Right from the off when an audience member was urged to put a video in a video player (he was young, not sure he had much clue what he was doing!) the tone was set, daft, a tad retro, with audience participation.

The Last Gun was a film made in 1975, it sunk with barely a trace, never finding it’s audience, this show is a documentary looking back at “the garlic of films – very stinky”. The laughs come fast and frequently in all forms, impressive wordplay and sharp, funny dialogue, the characters in the talking heads documentary sections, visual gags (an easter egg, loved it!). The audience participation bits are excellent, there’s playdough and video-gaming (Will has written operating instructions on the back of his shirt to help the other player along), Will is equally quick and hilarious on and off script. The film is well realised, in fact I’d swear I got it out of Blockbusters in the late 80’s for one of my infamous movie marathons! ☆☆☆☆½

Next, with light and dark, Death Suits You is a musical black comedy where Death takes time out from his busy schedule to explain to us just how much time and effort he puts into each and every death (he’s been feeling very unappreciated). Death is wry and witty, he also has a damn fine set of vocals and great stage presence; live musical accompaniment adds to the drama of unfolding death scenes. Sam Hooper is excellent as Death, he really, err, brings him to life!? ☆☆☆☆

And now, the darkness, no, not the band, a stand-up from Vienna called Elias Werner. Ah, Vienna (come on, I’m not the only one!) I visited it twice briefly on my interrailling adventure, such a shame the film cartridge of my first visit was lost before I got home (so much retro going on in this post!), I even went on the Giant Ferris Wheel seen in that noir classic The Third Man. Is it a Viennese thing, noir?

Werner’s show is called Live, Deaf and Dark and yes, it is very dark, dark and intelligent; his delivery is dry with the occasional hint of a mischievous smile hiding below. This is his first time doing stand-up in the UK and at the Edinburgh Fringe (having come over in his van, Werner played a few shows on the way up to Edinburgh), so plenty of dark gems to mine there! Other topics he touches upon include family, dating online and his deafness, moving deftly between them with some neat callbacks (a loud guffaw escaped me at the schoolbag bit).

Many of his observations of life had heads nodding and some invoked a few sharp intakes of breath (from oo, that’s close to the bone, or, I can’t laugh at that, can I? It’s hard to tell). I know I generally go for the light quirky side of comedy but a little dark humour is a great palate cleanser, and it reminds us of our own dark sides, let’s them run free a while. There’s plenty to enjoy here before you step out again into the light, as he tells us, these are real stories – just not true ☆☆☆½

Time for my bed. G’night all!