The Start of the Festival

With the Edinburgh Festival having kicked off, Jo and I wasted no time in heading through. The first thing we went to see yesterday was The Reduced Shakespeare Company, who this year were doing the abridged version of the big Hollywood movies. With only three in the cast, playing a variety of roles, there was a lot of energy and plenty crammed in, from silent movies to Ewan McGregor. Although there were a few laughs in the show, it struck me that if it were trimmed to a tight 60 minutes it would have been more entertaining. It didn’t really get going until about the last half hour.

We were then joined by Iain and after lunch we were offered two sets of free tickets, one for a play about squatters and ‘their landlord David Bowie’, which put me off immediately. The second batch of freebies was what we plumped for, Cowards, a sketch show. I had wanted to see at least one sketch show this festival, if only to come out of it going ‘pish, we’re better than that.’ However this was really good. The four guys were very tight, had no costumes and minimal props. There were no characters or potential catchphrases most of the situations were a bit surreal but the conversations between the characters were real. They all felt natural and sometimes captured perfectly the awkwardness of speaking to people you don’t really know that well. Their sketches included preparing for the arrival of the Queen, being stuck up a tree, extreme views on Sir Steven Redgrave and tackling a raging fire all on your own. I heartily recommend going to see them.

Where they differed from YOMG were, I felt they were tighter, that the material struck me as being devised from improv and they weren’t reliant on costumes. I could always tell what era or what situation they were supposed to be in from straight off, without any visual aids. They probably also benefit from working with a director. The best YOMG have as a director is me.

After Iain left to partake of his latest hobby - lawn green bowls (?!) we went to see Richard Herring – Someone Likes Yoghurt. I went to see him last year in his themed show, this time he was doing a more straightforward stand-up set. I probably laughed more throughout this show, but I think I enjoyed last year’s show more. His set covered topics like Rudyard Kipling, the absurdity of the Magpie song, the hypocrisy of the Catholic church and his perceived love of yoghurts. My favourite line was probably his suggestion that “Jesus was much cooler than the folk he hung around with...kind of like The Fonz.” If you have a look at the above link you'll see that he feels as an audience we were 'reserved.' The guy he talks about was sitting in front of me, and nah he didn't seem to enjoy it that much.

We then walked up to The Gilded Balloon to see David O’Doherty who was brilliant. He has a very chatty style. His show revolved around his family and his battles with his namesake the mathematician David O’Doherty. It all centered around which one of them was number one on Google. The mathematician, disgruntled that the comedian had purchased thedavidodoherty.com domain name, proclaimed himself ‘the official David O’ Doherty.’ The comedian then got people at his gigs to e-mail the mathematician. The mathematician then phoned the comedian and replied to his fans with his phone number and address. Have a look at the ‘official’ David O’Doherty’s take on the crazy situation.

The only thing after that I have to recommend is supper at Favorit. We both had chicken salads and excellent they were too. We have more shows booked for Wednesday.