A work in progress

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Goodness me, how time flies when you’re having fun! Just have time to give you a quick rundown of shows so far – before I have to run back up to the Gilded Balloon for another one.

First night, top show was Russell Howard: Work in Progress what a lovely lad still and blimey it was 2007 when I last saw him at the Fringe, before all the fame on the telly. In second place comes Rob Kemp: The Elvis Dead, more on this show later, but if you like the film Evil Dead II and old Elvis songs, go see it! In third place on the first night, sorry guys, The Pin: Backstage. It was still very good 4☆, but at times it felt a teensy bit lame which was a shame because most of it chugged along fine with brilliant flashes from time to time.

Thursday I managed four shows. No obvious order of brilliance here, Games by Henry Naylor was more of his usual, minimal stage, thought-provoking, powerful female performances – go, watch, learn. Belly of a Drunken Piano at the Assembly Rooms, if you like Tom Waites you’ll love it, if you don’t you won’t. My highlight was Martha, it’s so long since I played it. Next up Felicity Ward: Busting a Nut, a bundle of neurotic joy! One of my favourite Aussies. To finish the evening with a bang Thrones! The Musical!  Definitely more on that later!

And that’s only up to last night! There’s another five I’ve seen so far today, and two more to come!!

Onwards and upwards!

Bruce 💘 Lily

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Yes, Lily James has stolen my heart! Ok, so I’ve had a yen for her since Downton Abbey and then War & Peace. I’d heard Chris Evans on Radio 2 wax lyrical about her performance in Mama Mia! Here We Go Again! but yeah, crikey, and some. Her joie de vivre, the bonniest of smiles, and I think she may have had tips from her timelord boyfriend on how to fit an amazing wardrobe into one small suitcase! He’s one lucky guy that Matt Smith, but as he is the second best Doctor in the new run (yes, David Tennant beats him by a gnat’s crotchet) I reckon he’s worthy. I thoroughly enjoyed them both in the film of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. And her with wotsisname from GoT in Branagh’s Romeo & Juliet in 2016!! Talk about the passion, baby! Oo, and there was Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, I really should watch that again sometime soon.

So yes, I did go to see Mama Mia! Here We Go Again! I may well go see it again depending on how long it stays around, but I reckon that could be some while yet. The casting of all the younger parts was good, but especially the girls, they really captured the essences of their older selves. Omid Djalili, an old Fringe favourite, was in his typical bit part (he’s the ticket guy at the pier). Dominic Cooper again was sadly underused but, well, it wasn’t his film to shine, and he’s just there as part of the eye-candy.

The only part that didn’t work for me was Cher as Donna’s mother. She really wasn’t much good – apart from the singing, ok that was a bit awesome. It was like some executive wanted to throw in a big wow factor and decided Cher was it. The film didn’t need her, you could edit out all references to her character and the film would still work perfectly fine. Sorry but I just felt she was incongruous to the rest of the film.

The final big musical number with all the main cast in Abba gear was wonderful, and didn’t they all sing amazingly – apart from Pierce Brosnan, again!

After that, home to beans on toast and Gotham. Man, that is so fine! After Gotham on E4 is Supernatural, a show that’s been going a long time now. Never saw earlier series but since it’s followed Gotham I’ve vaguely watched it, well the tv’s still on, but OMG tonight’s episode!!! Farscape went Looney tunes, Angel went muppet, tonight Supernatural joined the Scooby gang! Yay!!

All in all, this has been a rather good evening, even if it is finishing rather later than I intended.

Nitey nite, everybody, nitey nite  x

 

You should go see Incredibles too!

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Just in from seeing Incredibles 2, wow, that was sooo good! Brad Bird is a genius! Tomorrow I’ll do Mama Mia 2 straight from work, see I’m getting in the film-going now before the Fringe starts on Wednesday. Nothing wrong with a bit of Abba – I’ll balance it up with some AC/DC in the car afterwards 😎

There’s pockets of frenzied activity around the town and bright young things wearing lanyards are buzzing everywhere. Posters adorn walls, fences, railings, lampposts. It’s nearly here!! The Death Squad are on their way, apparently by boat according to Facebook. By this time next week I’ll have seen nineteen shows, yay!

I will be putting photos n stuff on Facebook, just look for Bruce T Moose (the T is for Theo, bet you thought it was The, didn’t you?)

Here’s to a great August, I hope you all wherever you may be have as good a month as I intend to have   💛

TTFN

Don’t worry madam, he’s a trained stunt dog.

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Another sweltering night in Auld Reekie, the cars go swooshing by outside, the occasional drunk screeches her boyfriend’s name, a nearby gate gratingly squeals open and clatters shut again. Ah, the Gotham effect! Love that show, sooo stylish.

And a duo who definitely have their own distinct style would be The Establishment, not unlike a couple of really creepy henchmen, who you may be fooled into thinking are just buffoons but they’re really creative geniuses in the art of psychological torture. Do go see them😆  This year they’re doing two shows, Fool Britannia which runs right through to the final Sunday and Le Bureau de Strange just two nights where they’ll have “very special guests”. I’ll fit in Fool Britannia but I have a number of late night shows to choose from and at my age beauty sleep is essential!

Another duo, possibly the most distinctively recognisable duo at the Fringe for more than ten years are Gamarjobat; a mohawk-sporting, shades-wearing mime comedy act from Japan. Yeah, I know, mime, a word that can inspire almost as much disdain as juggler, but these guys are seriously and uproariously brilliant at it! They should be, they’ve been doing it for yonks.

The first couple or so years I think they were just a street show, then in 2006 Bud and I saw their first proper Fringe show and the following two years. In 2008 was probably the first time the second half of the show was The Boxer not a million miles from Rocky in it’s storyline, this was mime on another level, to this day a standout Fringe moment for me (and probably Bud too, he was a big fan of Rocky and got bits that I missed). They still perform on the street when they’re here, so even if you don’t go to the show you can catch them, still mohawked!

Bruce loves candy

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Hurrah! Those lovely people at Assembly announced on Friday that they are once again doing their Locals discount, that’s all Assembly shows from the 1st to the 5th for a fiver (to a maximum of six shows) at their box office, evidence of an EH postcode required. Woohoo! A swift perusal of all my cutouts and the Venue guide section of the Fringe programme  (it lists all the shows at each venue), et voilà, five more shows picked out.

This is a particularly good deal as Assembly shows are not cheap, even the previews can be costly – I paid a tenner for Thrones! The Musical! preview show just in case the residents offer wasn’t on this year. I can now happily snaffle sweets from the Baby Wants Candy flyerers as I’m finally going to see them (I’ve always felt a teensy bit bad taking their sweets as I never saw them or intended to). Again, their previews cost £10, then up to £14-£15, yeah a fiver sounds good to me.

Sleeping Trees have uprooted themselves again and are now in one of Assembly’s Studios. Couldn’t miss these guys but again, Assembly prices, so though they should really be in the middle week (see  It’s the wrong order, Gromit!) I’ll be seeing them the first weekend for just the fiver and I can see another show with the change! Fingers crossed they do Sleeping Trees and The Chocolate Factory again, that’s oodles of fun. It’s not in the programme, never is, but watch out for posters around the Pleasance Courtyard.

Assembly already have their George Square Gardens set up and running as part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, so when I ambled up to get my tickets I was able to check this year’s layout. There’s a new bar at the bottom of the garden that has an upper level. Silly me, I didn’t check the drinks prices to see how much I won’t be drinking, but I did notice that whilst there’s no decent cider, they do have a couple of IPAs, so I may treat myself to a Deuchars before a show.

Toodle pip!

 

 

 

The Tuck returns.

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Hello peeps, today I am a rather poorly moose, though not half as ill as I felt yesterday, couldn’t hardly raise my head 😩. In my fevered condition my mind wandered (it does that a lot anyway, my little legs would be knackered if they had to actually go along too) to a name – Thom Tuck. Ah, where is he this Fringe? After being An August Institution last year I haven’t actually noticed him anywhere in this year’s programme. Hmmm. So having hauled myself from my sick bed and breakfasted on porridge with honey and raspberries I investigated……

Oh yayyy! Phew! The Tuck is back! He’s hosting the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society (ACMS) with John-Luke Roberts late night at the Monkey Barrel Comedy Club. I shall definitely popping along to that. Tuck and Roberts together? That’ll be bonkers enough, never mind the guests! So, if he’s doing that late night, what’s he doing the rest of the time? Oo, he’s in one of those all comedians plays Courtroom Play: A Courtroom Play at 12.25 in the afternoon, plenty recovery time from the late night. Ah, just looked again at ACMS it goes on til 2.30 in the morning, every morning of the Fringe (Wednesday nights are quiz night), Tuck’s going to be tuckered out by the end of August 😆

I’ve also discovered he’s putting in a couple of appearances at the Comedy Club 4 Kids. A lot of comedians do it now, why not? The fans of the future and a different perspective to more adult-honed shows. In fact I’m rather miffed as Thom’s first date also has Brendon Burns and Colt Cabana there and I’m busy that day, grrrr. Brendon Burns for kids, I have to see that sometime!

Burns and Cabana are back with their Comedy and Commentary to Bad Wrestling Matches late night at the Monkey Barrel, hmmm, just a five minute overlap with ACMS, interesting! I’ve never been but have it on good authority that it is worth seeing. Brendon himself has downsized again, not quite the free fringe but Pay What You Want (or £6.50 ticket in advance) at Heroes@Boteco, apparently his twentieth solo hour! I shall be there.

Time for my lemsip, toodle pip!

Anya Anastasia sings again

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It’s a tad late, I’ve been perusing the Fringe programme again and lost track of time but thought I might share with you some of the possibilities I found this evening and why they caught my eye. I’ve taken to marking up on each cutout a rough time of day, in case there’s enough earlier shows to warrant booking more annual leave off work.

First to catch my eye Accordion Fight Show, it’s late night in the final week, only a fiver and apparently has “the world’s loudest, nakedest accordion player”!! No it wasn’t “nakedest” that got my attention, I happen to enjoy accordion music!

Anya Anastasia I’ve seen before, oo, she’s moved venues again, this time to the Gilded Balloon; fun, a sharp wit, pretty good voice and wickedly dark songs, but still, it’s pricey,  marked up EVE and HPH (half price hut). Another from the Cabaret & Variety section is The Voice Behind the Stars the story of Marni Nixon, ghost singer on so many musicals I used to watch as a young calf; tempting but another HPH.

Adam Larter: Boogie Knights caught my attention ’cause of his starey eyes in the picture, that and “just a typical medieval story told through disco”!? So that’s an AFT and PWYW (pay what you want), how bad could it be?

And how bad will Ciaran Dowd be in his first solo show Don Rodolfo without his fellow Beasts? I ponder this as the first Beasts show I saw was outstanding with plenty of hysterically funny ideas but their follow-up show was disappointingly unoriginal; this one may need more checks, so REVIEWS and LATE.

To end this evening in the Comedy D’s, Douglas Walker Presents: Of Christmas Past, “the sinister, absurd true story of Christmas” with a picture of a chap in polar gear gazing into the distance, my fringe-dar is definitely beeping at this one!

You know, I think I may be starting to feel ever so slightly excited about this Fringe lark again  😊

Oh Cripes!!

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Where does the time keep going to? It suddenly dawned on me today that three weeks tomorrow I’ll be seeing my first preview shows! Yikes, that snuck up on me! I guess I should get Chez Bruce totally tidied and cleaned up – it is amazing how much mess one chap can create!

The windows could do with a wash but a very industrious spider seems to be creating her grand opus outside the lounge window, I’d hate to be the destroyer of such fine art. As long as she stays outside we’re fine, but we’re going to have a problem if she wants to do an indoor installation next.

It’s so hard to focus on cleaning when we’re having such great weather! I just want to trot down to the park and snooze in the sun with a good book for company. No! It has to be done, I’ll pray for rain, god knows the plants need it and maybe it would help clean the window without harming the web. I like to have everything in it’s place all slick and span at the start of August, after that it’s all a mad downhill slalom ’til the end of the last Monday of the month.

Back in the old days with Bud around we would have bought more tickets by now, our fringe diaries taking shape past the previews and 241 Monday with more shows and possibilities. Now I have a larger pile of Half Price Hut hopefuls, hey ho. Oo, I seem to have turned a bit maudlin, can’t be having that. I shall bid you goodnight and go make myself some chamomile tea to take off to bed, maybe tidy a few things away while the kettle boils.

Toodle pip!

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EIFF 2018 done and dusted

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The Edinburgh International Film Festival for 2018 is over and done with, but did Supa Modo stay at No1 or did another film nudge it to No2? Nah! Supa Modo is a thing of rare beauty; there’s so many friends that I think would love it, I do hope it gets a decent release, not just a few arthouse cinemas.

A close second place was homegrown Anna And The Apocalypse, a fun zombie-filled musical set at Christmas (so a December release in cinemas would be great!) Typical teenager, she heads out to school, music blasting in her ears, singing and dancing down the street totally oblivious to everything around her – including that half the neighbours are now zombies attacking the still human half! This film has great songs, teenage angst, lots of laughs, plenty gore and fun ways to kill zombies; and whilst the young’uns were all generally excellent, it was great to see Mark Benton as Anna’s father and Paul Kaye is in blisteringly good form as a tyrannical Headmaster!

Joint third place to Unicorn Store and Humor Me. Unicorn Store, well, it has unicorn in it’s title (automatic points for that alone 😊) and Brie Larson not only stars in it but it’s her directorial debut, directoring no less than Samuel L. Jackson as the Salesman at said Unicorn Store. This is an oddball of a film with just the right amount of quirkiness and some beautifully played surreal and absurd moments. My only niggle was some of Kit’s (Larson) millennial traits, hey, I’m an older generation, they bugged me, ok!

Humor Me (clearly American from the misspelling of humour)  was a very different kettle of fish with the excellent casting of Elliott Gould and Jemaine Clement as father and son, along with great support from the likes of Bebe Neuwirth and Annie Potts (she’s wonderful as Meemaw in Young Sheldon). This is a slow charming film about families, aging and Jewish jokes; it has a well-balanced bittersweetness.

Also seen was Flammable Children by director Stephan Elliott (He did Priscilla Queen of the Desert). I did really enjoy it, just not as much as the above films but probably 4th equal with Blood Fest. It did have Guy Pierce and Kylie Minogue looking like you’ve never seen them before!! It’s an autobiographical look on Stephan’s early film-making career – think The Goldbergs in 1970’s Australia. Ah yes, this had a great Q&A afterwards, we found out he has upset family and friends with it and his sister says the queue outside her bedroom was not that long!

So that’s the Film Festival wrapped up, tomorrow the CAMRA Scottish Real Ale Festival begins at the Corn Exchange here in Edinburgh. Besides an awful lot of beer there’ll be 30+ ciders and perries, heaven 😊

Well, that’s my Film of the Fest found!

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Three days since my last post and three more films from around the globe: Mug from Poland, The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond Of Matches a French Canadian film and Supa Modo from Kenya. Sometimes my ‘not getting’ a film is possibly as much to do with a different cultural way of looking at the world, as a film being ‘too arty’ for my tastes (or being just crap). Mug was ok, a very slow and deliberate film, not sure about the ending. The Little Girl …. was ok to odd, at least the ending made sense in it’s bittersweetness.

Sunday afternoon when the sun was blazing outside I hid myself away in the underground warren of the Odeon to see Supa Modo, jackpot!!! This will be, without doubt, my Film of the Fest this year. It had humour, pathos, grief, family issues, hope, defiance and just how amazing people can be when they come together. Jo, her sister Mwix and mother were brilliantly written and portrayed. We could see how the mother only wanted to protect her terminally ill daughter but she couldn’t see it was too much, Mwix’s love and positivity for her little sister was heartwarming and Jo herself just wanted to be a superhero. Just a perfectly formed film, and we even got a Q&A afterwards, despite it being the second showing! Usually there’s only a Q&A with the first screening (if there is one at all) so I wasn’t expecting there to be one.

Some films you hurry out of to avoid the Q&A, some films you wish you’d avoided the Q&A, but 5☆ to this one, Likarion Wainaina the director came across so well, he was interesting, informative and pretty cool. It was the sort of Q&A that makes you want to watch the movie again to appreciate the insights you’ve picked up; hearing about the children’s ward he visited that made him rethink the storyline and how he went back afterwards to show the film to the children; how the filming affected the lives of the people in the community. Yep, besides Best Film I’ll give it Best Q&A too!

There’s more musings on Q&As on last year’s Bruce goes to the movies

Toodle pip!