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shark_hatStarting with notes from the two-man Macbeth since I know someone who's actually interested; more shows under the cut. These are slightly-tidied "notes to self".
Macbeth: Tim Fitzhigham and Thom Tuck, with a different guest director every day. Ahh it was so fun! I wish I’d gone a couple of times to see different directors.
In the basement of a cafe, so Fitzhigham’s kid firmly shut the door on the audience until they’d finished converting the room from cafe to venue (someone in the queue behind me said appreciatively “He has a great future in front-of-house”.)
“Two actors and one hour is arguably not enough to do Macbeth”. Tech problems at the start- no sound or light- "we did have a tech, but he refused to work with us"; (I got leaned on as T. looked for a number on the lights).
Directed by Canadian Chris Betts, as a family sitcom. Most characters got a round of applause for coming on, audience provided canned laughter. Messenger was comic postman.
Fitzhigham as Macbeth-as-Fonzie (stealing Banquo's normal leather jacket and looking quite sexy). Ross as, well, Ross from Friends. Banquo (Tuck) as idiot.
Witches distinguished mainly by height, leading to F having to pick T up for quite a long speech. Also quick burst of "I look down on her... "
(One witch was suddenly turned to Texan partway through; F started singing Duelling Banjos. T: isn't that Louisiana? F: they're pretty close together. T: No they aren't! F: I'm a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society!) Lady M falsetto. Got as far as killing the king with only minimal skipping, then went pretty much straight to "my mum had a cesarean", stab.
(They did pause for Macbeth to kill Banquo, which F was very happy to do. T played both Banquo's ghost and Lady M's ghost largely by opening his mouth and bobbing a bit.) The "is this a dagger" speech was done as the leading man's bid to be a film actor, way too intense.
“It's your line” “- it's definitely your line.”
One small character of Tuck’s was given the note of "it's the producer's kid, he can't act". F: "Typecasting"
T hadn't learnt the letter from M to Lady M, making it a bit of a problem when he was plunged into darkness. (F: "Should have learnt it" T: *flips bird*)
https://www.comedy.co.uk/fringe/2019/features/thom_tuck_macbeth_interview/
Copstick review (which Thom disparaged) https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/edinburgh-festivals/comedy-review-tim-fitzhigham-and-thom-tuck-in-macbeth-heroes-black-medicine-edinburgh-1-4977829
A couple of amazing circus shows, both about trust and intimacy: Bromance and Backbone.
Questing Time on Thursday: "Hello, and welcome to the tenth show of the fringe! I can still feel feelings!"
Rescuing philosophers from werewolves. ("I'm wondering, is there any way we can destroy the moon?") Cast is given magical steeds, promptly eat one of them and make stilts from its bones. They save a halfling who had stolen an owlbear's egg, by giving the owlbear A) a self help book and B) its egg back. John-Luke Roberts as (agent of chaos) Rainbow Witch- sees a half-eaten horse: "I wonder if you put its bum in water, will its tail grow like a carrot?" They empty out a first aid kit to fill with water and find out. Paul: "If anything is happening, it's slow." They kill the werewolf by "putting two ideas together".
"Take 100 XP. You are now a level two audience member."
Questing Time on Sunday: "Hello and welcome to show... a billion..."
torturing a priest, forgetting what a bridge is ("Any other DMs in? Can we go for a drink?"), Marcus Brigstocke as an animal-hating character not killing himself for being a kitten, leaping off a balcony ("it's one D6 damage per ten feet..."), putting out a fire with sand ("my god, it's a workable idea"), a lobster on a tiny bike, Dracula dick shenanigans, threatening a priestess with mouth hand, killing a dragon with fire, casting jump on an unconscious man ("Is he ok?" *rolls* "Noooo. His legs have separated from his torso"), Bathorse ghost (the normal way of making horses is of course to pile up dogs under a blanket)
ACMS Monday
Lumps come in pairs. As the actress said to the bishop.
Madame Chandeliers Guide to Opera, performer picked up by audience
Alistair Bennet-King, doing bits that don't work in his show; Churchill Queen medley, 150 most common words in King Lear
Andy Barr; puts on a costume, invites audience to say what the character is, tries to find a voice for them
A guy heckles with “57”, T yells at him because it's not prime
An act needs the screen, J-L, T & a tech wrestle with being tool-users to bring it down, a v tall audience member does it & is told "not a permitted heckle"; a singer of toilet graffiti, Tom Bell telling us that the news is all FINE, balloon hedgehog and mystery magazine, Alex Bennett promoting a charity gig while J-L leans against the wall and heckles him (“oh, charity? You want to do some good, or you want to raise your profile?” A: “both, same as you!” J-L: “I don't do any charity!!!"), why chips are the most boring form of potato.
T says something about overlapping Venn diagrams, J-L points out that that would be two pieces of paper.
T leans on J-L to say something. J-L: a man I don't know has just leaned on both my thighs. T: it was me. J-L: Sorry, by didn't know, I meant didn't authorise.
J-L does an impression of T ordering beer
Colt Cabana trying to work out what rhyming slang means
(Context? Someone who's funny in person but not on stage?) J-L: I'm horribly unfunny in person, but my shows are *chef kiss* T: You're mildly funny in person. J-L: but my shows are okay?
“What are you waggling about?” “Where flowers are.”
“Thom! it's twenty past one, don't conjugate. Do that in the privacy of your own home.” “(He, she or they fuck)”
Terrible Wonderful Adaptations: Sontag's Against Interpretation and Other essays.
Paddy from Jonny and the Baptists was providing music and was delightfully baffled about what was going on (“I didn’t go to university”- as if that would have helped); the onstage "expert" had read a bit of Sontag but not this one... J-L R as Sontag kept being reminded of things she had said to famous people/ they had said to her, my fave was "as I said to Annie Lichtenberg: Geez." She leant. Her accent slipped a bit… "The next essay, for which, I will remind the acts, they have four minutes…"
Against Interpretation: woman in a binbag.
The Artist as Exemplary Sufferer, Marcel Ducont with a mime (Gaullier-trained, natch) "Il va souffrir pour mon art" - D read individual words from the essay, the mine mimed them , "1938" was good.
The Anthropologist as Hero: Eleanor Morton as Claude Levi-Strauss; Alexis Dubus was indignant at her accent.
The Imagination of Disaster: God playing a "how to build a fallout shelter" govt film
Andrew O'Neill with a slam poem
On Camp: a drag queen putting up a tent.
https://www.studentnewspaper.org/john-luke-roberts-terrible-wonderful-adaptations/
Police Cops- Badass: vampires, Manchester, 1999; son's reunion with father; a bum as God; dancing, arm swords, foolishness, excellent.
https://theatreweekly.com/edinburgh-review-police-cops-badass-be-thy-name-at-assembly-george-square-studios/
Michael Brunstrom's World of Sport: talked about familiar sports, you know, ones that we're all familar with, like badminton (father-son), happiness, octopus, and playing chess against cream; had a scissors-paper-stone tournament; showed us Lenor Tom Selleck winning 5000 metres; finale, 100 M race, narrated all the way.
https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/edinburgh-festivals/comedy-review-michael-brunstrom-world-of-sport-dragonfly-edinburgh-1-4983528
Lizards and Grandmothers: a nice chat about swans,penguins, ostriches, directing cows. I won a haggis in a rigged quiz.
Andrew Sim: saw him at Project X being a slightly terrifying Russian; solo he was a slightly terrifying bisexual Scot. Lots of dancing, aggressively(?) fun.
Best Show… performers trapped underground with their audience for a year do a medley of greatest hits between interruptions from the committee to decide who gets eaten next. Good stuff.
Loved Delightful Sausage, thoroughly deserved award nomination. https://www.chortle.co.uk/review/2019/08/17/44033/the_delightful_sausage:_ginsters_paradise
Macbeth: Tim Fitzhigham and Thom Tuck, with a different guest director every day. Ahh it was so fun! I wish I’d gone a couple of times to see different directors.
In the basement of a cafe, so Fitzhigham’s kid firmly shut the door on the audience until they’d finished converting the room from cafe to venue (someone in the queue behind me said appreciatively “He has a great future in front-of-house”.)
“Two actors and one hour is arguably not enough to do Macbeth”. Tech problems at the start- no sound or light- "we did have a tech, but he refused to work with us"; (I got leaned on as T. looked for a number on the lights).
Directed by Canadian Chris Betts, as a family sitcom. Most characters got a round of applause for coming on, audience provided canned laughter. Messenger was comic postman.
Fitzhigham as Macbeth-as-Fonzie (stealing Banquo's normal leather jacket and looking quite sexy). Ross as, well, Ross from Friends. Banquo (Tuck) as idiot.
Witches distinguished mainly by height, leading to F having to pick T up for quite a long speech. Also quick burst of "I look down on her... "
(One witch was suddenly turned to Texan partway through; F started singing Duelling Banjos. T: isn't that Louisiana? F: they're pretty close together. T: No they aren't! F: I'm a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society!) Lady M falsetto. Got as far as killing the king with only minimal skipping, then went pretty much straight to "my mum had a cesarean", stab.
(They did pause for Macbeth to kill Banquo, which F was very happy to do. T played both Banquo's ghost and Lady M's ghost largely by opening his mouth and bobbing a bit.) The "is this a dagger" speech was done as the leading man's bid to be a film actor, way too intense.
“It's your line” “- it's definitely your line.”
One small character of Tuck’s was given the note of "it's the producer's kid, he can't act". F: "Typecasting"
T hadn't learnt the letter from M to Lady M, making it a bit of a problem when he was plunged into darkness. (F: "Should have learnt it" T: *flips bird*)
https://www.comedy.co.uk/fringe/2019/features/thom_tuck_macbeth_interview/
Copstick review (which Thom disparaged) https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/edinburgh-festivals/comedy-review-tim-fitzhigham-and-thom-tuck-in-macbeth-heroes-black-medicine-edinburgh-1-4977829
A couple of amazing circus shows, both about trust and intimacy: Bromance and Backbone.
Questing Time on Thursday: "Hello, and welcome to the tenth show of the fringe! I can still feel feelings!"
Rescuing philosophers from werewolves. ("I'm wondering, is there any way we can destroy the moon?") Cast is given magical steeds, promptly eat one of them and make stilts from its bones. They save a halfling who had stolen an owlbear's egg, by giving the owlbear A) a self help book and B) its egg back. John-Luke Roberts as (agent of chaos) Rainbow Witch- sees a half-eaten horse: "I wonder if you put its bum in water, will its tail grow like a carrot?" They empty out a first aid kit to fill with water and find out. Paul: "If anything is happening, it's slow." They kill the werewolf by "putting two ideas together".
"Take 100 XP. You are now a level two audience member."
Questing Time on Sunday: "Hello and welcome to show... a billion..."
torturing a priest, forgetting what a bridge is ("Any other DMs in? Can we go for a drink?"), Marcus Brigstocke as an animal-hating character not killing himself for being a kitten, leaping off a balcony ("it's one D6 damage per ten feet..."), putting out a fire with sand ("my god, it's a workable idea"), a lobster on a tiny bike, Dracula dick shenanigans, threatening a priestess with mouth hand, killing a dragon with fire, casting jump on an unconscious man ("Is he ok?" *rolls* "Noooo. His legs have separated from his torso"), Bathorse ghost (the normal way of making horses is of course to pile up dogs under a blanket)
ACMS Monday
Lumps come in pairs. As the actress said to the bishop.
Madame Chandeliers Guide to Opera, performer picked up by audience
Alistair Bennet-King, doing bits that don't work in his show; Churchill Queen medley, 150 most common words in King Lear
Andy Barr; puts on a costume, invites audience to say what the character is, tries to find a voice for them
A guy heckles with “57”, T yells at him because it's not prime
An act needs the screen, J-L, T & a tech wrestle with being tool-users to bring it down, a v tall audience member does it & is told "not a permitted heckle"; a singer of toilet graffiti, Tom Bell telling us that the news is all FINE, balloon hedgehog and mystery magazine, Alex Bennett promoting a charity gig while J-L leans against the wall and heckles him (“oh, charity? You want to do some good, or you want to raise your profile?” A: “both, same as you!” J-L: “I don't do any charity!!!"), why chips are the most boring form of potato.
T says something about overlapping Venn diagrams, J-L points out that that would be two pieces of paper.
T leans on J-L to say something. J-L: a man I don't know has just leaned on both my thighs. T: it was me. J-L: Sorry, by didn't know, I meant didn't authorise.
J-L does an impression of T ordering beer
Colt Cabana trying to work out what rhyming slang means
(Context? Someone who's funny in person but not on stage?) J-L: I'm horribly unfunny in person, but my shows are *chef kiss* T: You're mildly funny in person. J-L: but my shows are okay?
“What are you waggling about?” “Where flowers are.”
“Thom! it's twenty past one, don't conjugate. Do that in the privacy of your own home.” “(He, she or they fuck)”
Terrible Wonderful Adaptations: Sontag's Against Interpretation and Other essays.
Paddy from Jonny and the Baptists was providing music and was delightfully baffled about what was going on (“I didn’t go to university”- as if that would have helped); the onstage "expert" had read a bit of Sontag but not this one... J-L R as Sontag kept being reminded of things she had said to famous people/ they had said to her, my fave was "as I said to Annie Lichtenberg: Geez." She leant. Her accent slipped a bit… "The next essay, for which, I will remind the acts, they have four minutes…"
Against Interpretation: woman in a binbag.
The Artist as Exemplary Sufferer, Marcel Ducont with a mime (Gaullier-trained, natch) "Il va souffrir pour mon art" - D read individual words from the essay, the mine mimed them , "1938" was good.
The Anthropologist as Hero: Eleanor Morton as Claude Levi-Strauss; Alexis Dubus was indignant at her accent.
The Imagination of Disaster: God playing a "how to build a fallout shelter" govt film
Andrew O'Neill with a slam poem
On Camp: a drag queen putting up a tent.
https://www.studentnewspaper.org/john-luke-roberts-terrible-wonderful-adaptations/
Police Cops- Badass: vampires, Manchester, 1999; son's reunion with father; a bum as God; dancing, arm swords, foolishness, excellent.
https://theatreweekly.com/edinburgh-review-police-cops-badass-be-thy-name-at-assembly-george-square-studios/
Michael Brunstrom's World of Sport: talked about familiar sports, you know, ones that we're all familar with, like badminton (father-son), happiness, octopus, and playing chess against cream; had a scissors-paper-stone tournament; showed us Lenor Tom Selleck winning 5000 metres; finale, 100 M race, narrated all the way.
https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/edinburgh-festivals/comedy-review-michael-brunstrom-world-of-sport-dragonfly-edinburgh-1-4983528
Lizards and Grandmothers: a nice chat about swans,penguins, ostriches, directing cows. I won a haggis in a rigged quiz.
Andrew Sim: saw him at Project X being a slightly terrifying Russian; solo he was a slightly terrifying bisexual Scot. Lots of dancing, aggressively(?) fun.
Best Show… performers trapped underground with their audience for a year do a medley of greatest hits between interruptions from the committee to decide who gets eaten next. Good stuff.
Loved Delightful Sausage, thoroughly deserved award nomination. https://www.chortle.co.uk/review/2019/08/17/44033/the_delightful_sausage:_ginsters_paradise
