David Alnwick

A little splash of cabaret

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Time to look through the cut-outs I’ve gathered from Cabaret and Variety before the behemoth that is Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe. There’s only a few, and three of them are for the same chap! Yes, he’s back, the busiest magician on the Fringe.

David Alnwick is performing three shows everyday from Saturday 2nd until Sunday 24th August, no rest days! The first is at the Liquid Room Studio, I love the title Objectively the Best Magician, haha, well he is rather excellent. From there it’s along to the Banshee Labyrinth for Occult Illusionist; he does like a sense of theatre, I suspect there’ll be plenty in this one. From the supernatural to horror (with plenty of dark humour, no doubt), The Dare Witch Project in the Voodoo Rooms. All three are under the PBH’S Free Fringe banner but be warned, there will be queues.

Another magician now, oh, there’s plenty of them at the Fringe, The Great Mysterio has piqued my curiosity. Another with PBH’s Free Fringe down at Uno Mas on Picardy Place (I’ve been in during a previous incarnation of the place). I do like a spot of magic, you know, preferably with humour rather than shiny pizzazz; with a natural lustre rather than a polished gleam.

Of course, shiny pizzazz does have it’s place, especially in cabaret; sparkles and sequins and accordions, darling. Well, one accordion, yes, he’s here again after wow-ing audiences in Australia, New Zealand and Glastonbury, Accordion Ryan is back with his Pop Bangers, yay! This time he’s bringing the joy to Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower. I wonder what this year’s selection of bangers will be, and he was asking for suggestions of Scottish and gaelic songs on Instagram, he does love a challenge (Ryan makes a point of finding songs from the local culture wherever he travels, quite the musical linguist!)

More music of a very different texture in The Ballroom at The Voodoo Rooms. The gloriously charismatic Aidan Sadler presents Moonage Rhapsody, a love letter to Freddie Mercury and David Bowie; Aidan certainly has the pipes for it, I expect nothing short of fabulous. Dammit, how am I meant to shorten my list of possibilities with all these treats before me?! How can I make a decision against going to An Evening with Dame Granny Smith? Yes, I saw her last year, should I pass her up for something new? But it was such a wonderful hour spent with her.

Ho hum, I’d be absolutely crap at choosing my Desert Island Discs. Time is marching on, only ten days to go. Honestly, after tea I’ll get on my Comedy cut-outs. Y’know, it does actually help, talking through my options with you. Thanks for listening. Toodle pip!

Shakespeare, Gummy Bears and a Gang Bang?!

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This is going be short and sweet, like myself! It’s very late but let’s do a quick trawl through more cuttings, tomorrow is going to be busy so that could be another non-blog day. Crikey, this time next week this year’s Edinburgh Fringe will be properly underway. Aargh.

I did have my cuttings neatly sorted, yeah, that was doomed; so what’s at the top of the heap? Aha, first a slight correction, David Alnwick has a third show, it’s listed under Theatre that’s why I missed it earlier, The Mystery of Dracula. I saw it last year and enjoyed it, he knows how to tell a story!

The coffee and croissant crew are back, yay, Shakespeare For Breakfast and I am still without a ticket! That ten o’clock start is hard work, but on average it’s been well worth getting up for. The talented Hughie Shepherd-Cross is bringing another play up, that’s three in three years! I enjoyed the previous two, Out to Lunch and Ringer so I definitely intend to see Gang Bang.

Great poster applauds for Plotters and Corpse Flower, the blurbs are quite enticing too; and looking closely second time round The Gummy Bears’ Great War has me intrigued. I suspect its a show worth queuing early for to get a front row seat – those dudes are really small!

And last for tonight two possibles, largely helped by being at one of my favourite venues Paradise In The Vault. Now I must away to my bed.

Toodle pip!

Fancy some Variety with your Cabaret?

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I’ve probably asked this before, Cabaret & Variety and Comedy – what’s the deciding factor which category a show is marketed in when there’s elements of both? And is a music show with traces of humour and pazzazz automatically in Cabaret & Variety? Then there’s magic, and boy, there’s a lot of magic at the Edinburgh Fringe these days! Magic shows are mainly in Cabaret & Variety even the really funny ones, which to my mind could be in Comedy. It wouldn’t surprise me if magic got it’s own category one year.

Yes, I’ve had time to have a look through the first category in the Fringe programme, well, it’s only seventeen pages. So what caught my eye? Which shows have already been snipped from my cut-outs programme?

Top of the second page there’s Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers back again at the slightly earlier time of 10pm; I’ll definitely be popping in there at some point. Also back again, a few pages along is David Alnwick with two shows this year, oh yeah, magic shows, he’s rather good at it! Both with PBH’s Free Fringe but one is comedic, the other horror; Alnwick is a skilled storyteller weaving his magic into his tales, Necromancer may not be for those with a nervous disposition.

Over the page and An Evening with Dame Granny Smith made me laugh out loud. Ah, ventriloquism, so not a magic talking apple, then? Have to say, the picture has managed to hook me, possibly a preview ticket. From the E’s I perused right throught to the S’s til another picture winked at me, that of Surreal: The Mind-Reading Show From Berlin! Intriguing blurb, but it does say, interactive, hmmm, and it’s pricey; maybe if there’s Half Price Hut tickets?

I’m thinking that fifty minutes of Tarting About with Blues and Burlesque one afternoon could be quite fun! Part of PBH’s Free Fringe in Uno Mas, a bar I’ve never visited. Even shorter, there’s a forty-five minute show by The Unluckiest Magician, who happens to be antipodean (I have a strange weakness for anything from down under). Umm, tempted!

The final entry in Cabaret & Variety is the wonderfully titled A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves… 15. Yes, this is the fifteenth time it’s been performed!! I say performed, erm, I’ve never actually seen it. It’s obviously very popular as it’s in the Liquid Room Annexe/Warehouse, that’s a big venue. This year may be the year!

And, saving the best ’til last? Well, certainly amongst the best for this moose, the star that is Aidan Sadler is bringing their self-penned show Melody back again, this time to the Ballroom at The Voodoo Rooms (a better venue than last year). Flamboyant, funny, sharp, mouthy, self-deprecating, I knew all that from bumping into them regularly the last three Fringes, then I went to see the show, and wow, what a voice! There’s a distinct possibility of me seeing Aidan Sadler: Melody a second time.

So there’s some that have grabbed my eyeballs so far; oh, the importance of that tiny pic and show title! Next time, a skip through Musicals and opera and Music. Not that I’m sure whether I’ll be here all August or partly down in Yorkshireland, the matriarch is still stuck in the woods and will need a lot of tlc when she gets out. But I’ll deal with that when it happens.

Toodle pip!

A few faces to watch out for

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Just time to fit in another quick flit to the home country, then it’s back up to Auld Reekie and no sleep ’til September! I’ve noticed that The Blueswater are playing the Jazz Bar on Saturday night in advance of their Fringe shows, I may well make it back up in time for that. A couple of days to get my moose cave in order, it’s all coming together.

Yay, Accordion Ryan will be back with more Pop Bangers, this time he’s in 32 Below, next door to where he was last year, again part of the Free Festival eleven o’clock every night except Wednesdays, really, make time, go see!!

Alex Farrow is back, once again hosting Stand-up Philosophy and Stand-up Science besides his new solo show Wisdom of the Crowd, all at Laughing Horse venues. His solo show is PWYC, the other two are free, they’re more or less entertaining depending on the line-ups each day.

David Alnwick has a new show The Mystery of Dracula, expect good theatre and great magic (if you’re thinking, umm, a magic show, it will be way more than that!) in the Speakeasy at the Voodoo Rooms. It is part of PBH’s Free Fringe but be warned, Mr Alnwick is very popular, best be there in plenty of time!

Those two absurdly funny men, Neil Frost and Dan Lees are back with solo shows. I could be wrong but Neil Frost: The Door sounds very similar to his show last year, no matter, it was a wonderfully funny show. That other absurd clown Luke Rollason is back with Cheep Cheep, of course I have a ticket! Oh, it’s not mentioned in the printed version of the Fringe programme.

Anyhoo, must go, I’m being taken out for lunch! Apparently it’s by a place we used to go many, many years ago – I have no recollection of it. ……. and I’m back, I was whisked away! Even driving past Waters Meet (where we used to have picnics on Sunday afternoons I’m told) I only had the faintest of memories. It’s at Walshaw Dean, a bleak moorland area above Heptonstall (above Hebden Bridge), further on and bleaker still, you come to Pack Horse Inn; it’s stood there as a welcome shelter from the elements for just over 400 years (ok, no doubt with a few changes over time). They serve fine ales, a very good Ox Cheek Bourguignon and scrummy desserts.

More about tasty Fringe morsels next time. Toodle pip!

There’s nothing else here but bracken, more bracken and hills

I just noticed the date…..

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Whoa! Friday the 13th, that snuck up quietly! I wonder if today’s topic at Stand-Up Philosophy will be something about being superstitious? I’m not particularly superstitious myself, I’ll happily walk under a ladder, on the other hand I always salute the first magpie I see any day, even if I have to do it surreptitiously. Will there be any Fringe performers being extra exact in any little rituals they may have, to overt any bad luck floating around looking for victims today?

There’s a young chap, David Alnwick, who’s got three different magic shows in three venues every day for the full run of PBH’s Free Fringe – Friday the 13th could be just the day to see his show Nightmare Magic! That’s his last show every day at 8.20pm in Banshee Labyrinth (did he want specifically want that venue for that show? The names do fit so well). Oo, he’ll have started his first show of the day Super Chill Magic in the back lounge at Pilgrim Bar. After a chilled beginning, he’s ready to show off some Exceptional Magic in the Canon’s Gait cellar bar at 5.20pm.

How long before he does the wrong act in the wrong bar? Starts one magic trick that somehow morphs into a different one halfway? Smashes a bunny with a hammer? Sorry about that last one but it popped into my head as soon as I started thinking about mishaps of an overworked magician. I’m sure there’ll be no rabbits in any of his shows and he’ll be young, eager and bright enough to sail through a Fringe doing sixty plus shows! Yeah, I have to give at least one of them a go. I wonder if anyone’s been to see all three shows in the one day? Hmmm.

Toodle oo, mes amis.

○ □ ~ + ☆

I have now seen David Alnwick’s Exceptional Magic and indeed it is! I definitely intend to see his evening show now, and have been warned to get the Banshee Labyrinth an hour early to grab a “ticket” to get in, apparently they can disappear very quickly (like magic!). He does like to get folk up to help out in Exceptional Magic but no worries, he’s a lovely chap. The seating in the Canon Gait’s cellar bar is different from previous years and better for it, I reckon. You’ll get why I used those symbols above if you go to see the show!