This Fringe I’ve been rediscovering my love of Green & Black’s Organic Intense Dark 70% cocoa chocolate. Oh, it’s a tad too intense to start, but then it oozes in and canoodles your senses; I don’t leave the moose cave now without a piece slowly melting in my mouth. A very pleasurable sensation!

And a pleasure it was to see those men of the cloth again and with a new show, Bishops: Farewell Bruce Porcelain. Another very funny show, this time sketches with a narrative running through (well, loosely skipping through). I was utterly delighted that they revisited one of my favourite bits from last year, but I can’t believe how long it took me to twig it was that again!! No, I won’t say which bit, to say anything would give it away, but boy, it killed me, twice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Staying in the Underbelly in the Cowgate, I went to see My Last Two Brain Cells in the Iron Belly, which reminds me, I was rushing to the show, tore up the stairwell unsure which floor it was on (note to Underbelly, it would help to put signs on the stairwell doors through to each floor), gasping I asked an Underbelly employee sat in the stairwell which floor Iron Belly was on – I got a vacant look and shrug back! Jeez, not a lot of brain activity there.

Anyhoo, My Last Two Brain Cells starts with Brain Cell 64,928,460,783 (with clipboard in hand) welcoming us to the first tour of Gary’s brain; then Brain Cell 12 turns up wanting to liven things up a little. Hmm, a brain cell buddy show?! Indeed, 64,928…. is the efficient but dull worker (useful but you wouldn’t go for drinks after work with him, and from here on in known as Clive), while 12 is fun, fun, fun (but you’re glad you don’t work in the same team as him). Oh, and of course these two have a history together…

MLTBC is very silly and surreal; Joe Pike and Tom Hazelden are such a talented pair, the energy of these two is full-on but oddly charming. They seem to pack a helluva lot into an hour, did all that happen in one hour? A crazy exhilarating hour ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Ah, I seem to have inadvertently stayed in the Underbelly in this post. I’ve also stayed with the theme of absurd silliness, it must be something in the air there. Dr Dolittle Kills a Man (and Reads Extracts From His New Book) was recommended to me, oh, such a sweet call! My god, another brilliantly bonkers show – what a great Fringe it’s been for me!

Dr Dolittle Kills a Man just ticked so many boxes: comedy that’s silly but sharp too, a ridiculous plot reminiscent of an 80’s movie or two, a pitch perfect performance, a great baddie, a surprise cameo, oh and great incidental music and visuals (loved all the maps). If this is what Aidan Pittman can do for a debut solo show, well, just, wow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Must fly, another show to see. Toodle pip!