Greenside at Infirmary Street

An elephant, a bear and a little philosophy

bruceonthefringe 2023, a rant, Comedy, Comic theatre, Edinburgh Fringe 2023, Reviews, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Is it just me or is this Fringe a tad quieter than last year? Oh, it is busy, but just nicely busy, transversing Royal Mile is actually quite easy! Okay, so there’s the usual blob of bodies standing watching a street performer, but apart from that it’s a doddle. Again there’s no craft stalls by St Giles, just a few sketch artists, shame, I liked them there; neither are there any on the Mound by the art galleries, nor on the recently reopened walkway to Playfair Steps (okay so that could be hard to negotiate at times, but it was fun and bustling).

In fact there’s not much at all going on by the galleries apart from a pop-up bar, like we needed another one! Why still no new Half Price Hut there? Really, no sponsors could be found, at all? Major publicity like that? This six o’clock closing at the Box Office is nonsense, and they’re charging booking fees too! Come on Edinburgh Fringe, as I said last year, it’s very little help to the later evening shows when folk can’t get to a box office in an evening to take up the deals on offer.

I did procure two HPH tickets yesterday, I’d had an eye out for them appearing on the list and yes, my Fringe-dar is in fine working order; two of my favourite venues too! Paradise in The Vault and Greenside @ Infirmary Street. First off Mark Twain’s The Stolen White Elephant was a joy, just one man telling a wonderfully funny absurd tale (supplanted from America to Salford and around the UK).

What a storyteller! He kept me captivated as he told us about Jumbo the white elephant from Siam, and Inspector Blunt’s attempts to catch the thieves. The language is so gloriously old-fashioned and hilarious, plenty harrumphing and tushing, and telegrams flying everywhere! Great incidental music too, it really added to the experience. Just one thing, a screen set up to show illustrations wasn’t working at the performance I saw, a shame but our storyteller was so eloquent my imagination easily filled in the blanks. A wonderful hour ☆☆☆☆☆

Luckily the rain had stopped when I stepped out of Paradise in The Vault, so I had a wander through up to Teviot Square to take in the fringeyness (again noting that it’s not so busy as I’ve known it), before heading to Infirmary Street. This venue is an old school, a proper old school building, go to a show there just to see it! I went to find out How to Eat a Bear or how not to, as two slackers Mark and Dave find out.

These two slackers have absolutely no redeeming features, they will never become better human beings, they are truly awful (think Bill & Ted but even worse). If you haven’t been put off by what I just wrote, if you like American slacker movies then this is the show for you, you will love it! It is very funny, sharp, dark in places (oh, the Bill Cosby joke!!) and it should be a good time in the evening for it’s intended audience (a shame there were as many working on the show as in the audience when I saw it). Yup, How to Eat a Bear is a lot of fun ☆☆☆☆

As I seem to be reviewing in threes, I’ll just throw the charming Alex Farrow in here. His new show Alex Farrow: Wisdom of the Crowd at Cabaret Voltaire is another hour of philosophical fun. This is the third year I’ve seen him, he just gets better and better; he’s engaging and interesting, I could quite happily listen to him for much longer! ☆☆☆☆☆

That’s your lot for now, I’m off out. Toodle pip!

A Fringe Flyerers Battle Royale

bruceonthefringe 2022, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Flyerers, Sooo fringe, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Afternoon all! I’ve just stuffed myself with a very tasty late lunch of lambs liver, onions, garlic, plenty oregano, a generous splash of red wine, a splot out of a tin of tomatoes with an egg fried on top and a base of basmati rice, totally yummy. Ah, I know what I forgot – the paprika! It happens a lot, that or I have no red wine to splash in it. Just having a quick very strong coffee before heading out to a show at Greenside at Infirmary Street, I had a quick chat with the ladies in Guilty! on the Royal Mile earlier on, I was up having a browse at flyers after I failed to get in to see The Delightful Sausage: Nowt But Sea at lunchtime. Ah, but it’s so popular, the Sausage is being Delightful again at 9:15pm tonight, I have my ticket bought ready.

See, I reckoned I’d be able to pop along to Infirmary Street and get a ticket just before Guilty! started – they’ve only gone and got a full house on their first day! Good for them! Is this the Prima Facie effect or was a legal musical comedy always going to do well? Hmm. Like I said after seeing Prima Facie it’s a hard act to follow I wish them well. It’s a drizzly day so I’m happy to stay in and tap away; at least it’s a very light drizzle and its fairly warm out, the flyerers won’t have it too bad and the new bunch up this week are very eager so easily spotable.

Some flyerers like to position themselves at the pedestrian entry points on to the High Street part of the Royal Mile (for a number of years now the High Street has barriers in place across the road at either end for most of the day, pedestrians are corralled through four small archways at each end) where they can thrust a flyer at everyone passing through, Out Of The Blue are particularly notorious for this. There are a lot of Out Of The Blue flyerers about all day it seems, likewise The Improv Musical, loads of them, everywhere. Imagine a rumble going down outside St Giles between them?! It would be hilarious and so ineffectual (well, in my head, anyway).

Out Of The Blue v. The Improv Musical has a West Side Story vibe thing (being song based), let’s Anchorman that vibe up and have the Spontaneous Potter:The Unofficial Improvised Parody and Baby Wants Candy flyerers turn up. Let’s not forget the corporate whore flyerers who haven’t actually seen the shows they’re flyering but will tell you how great they are; will some of the solo show self-flyerers band together in small hit-and-run gangs? All the clowns, absurdists and surrealists will form an Ultra Fringe Resistance, oh wow, this is epic, a Fringe Battle Royale. Obviously John Hastings would be commentating from a high vantage point, and afterwards, everyone will need the barristers from Guilty! to get them off from public affray charges.

THE END.

In other real news, I read this morning that the nominees for The Amused Moose Awards have been announced – yes, another moose, there’s a number of us around. I’m delighted to see that Christian Brighty and Grubby Little Mitts are in there, yay. I bumped into Sullivan Brown (one of the Grubby Little Mitts) this morning and congratulated him , apparently there’s more than just one award to be won, so everything’s crossed for my favourites to win something.

It’s looking dry outside now, I’ll put a few bits n pieces on Instagram then pop out.

Toodle pip!

Adrift on the Mile…..

bruceonthefringe Comic theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe Venues, Theatre, Uncategorized Tags: , , Leave a comment

Ho, yes. I know a photo opportunity when I see one! Alas my photographer didn’t spot the sun glare off the flyer, tsk, it reads The People’s Boat on at Greenside at Infirmary Street at 9pm (I do quite like this venue, it’s an old school, a building with character, and a place I’ve never seen a duff show). If I’m looking a little pensive its because I was imagining us being swept away by one of the sudden monsoon deluges plaguing Edinburgh at the moment.

So did I see the show? Yes I did and it was bloody good! I was slightly concerned at the start that it may be a bit too political for my taste, but no, it’s more political commentary and an insightful look at human weaknesses. For example, when one of the actors isn’t happy at playing a racist character for fear of being personally tainted by it, the others rationalise it (with what I thought was a brilliant example of Anthony Hopkins and Hannibal Lechter) but also make snide jokes at the same time, and then they all use the flimsiest of excuses why they can’t play that part. I know that whole scenario so well; if it doesn’t resonate with you, its probably because you’re the one doing it to an unfortunate colleague.

They also brought up the now thorny issue of who’s allowed to act what parts, handling it very well I thought in a no-nonsense way. Personally, yes, I can see that disservices have been and are still being done, but also, it is acting! Acting is all about pretending to be something you’re not.

The whole play-within-a-play was very meta, with great lighting effects for the switches between the two. Before the first switch to the actors I could feel a slight uneasiness in the audience, the laugh when it came was from a sense of relief! We’d been let it on the joke and were now all in the same boat. It reminded me of Brendon Burns’ show back in 2007, but he just kept going and going, pushing it right til the end when he finally let us in on the gag, oh how we laughed (and slightly wanted to hurt him for putting us through all that).

But was it funny, Brucie? Yes, indeedily. It’s funny and witty as well as sharp and insightful. The four lads are great, slipping seamlessly between actors and characters, and they bounce off each other really well. Definitely a company to watch out for at future fringes!