The Best Venue At The Fringe Is The Pleasance Upstairs

What a venue! It's on top of a busy kitchen and on warm days it is punnishingly hot. So why is it the Best Venue at the Edinburgh Fringe? Well it hosts both the Best Comedy Show winner Adam Riches *and* Best Newcomer winner Humphrey Ker (plus other Best Newcomer nominee Hannibal Buress). Usually this venue hosts a Best Show nominee, last year it was Greg Davies, but both winners in he same venue?! Maybe they could afford to put in some AC for next year...

Adam Riches Rightly Wins The Foster's Comedy Award 2011

The riot is cancelled, the injustice from last year's snub has been fixed (just like for Phil Nichol) as Adam Riches is the winner of the Best Comedy Show for Edinburgh 2011! All hail King Adam! FWIW he should have been the Runner Up in 2009 losing to The Pajama Men's Last Stand To Reason.

And The Best Newcomer Is... Humphrey Ker

For his show Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher! Thankfully I have tickets to see his now Award Winning show on Monday :)

Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominees & New Predictions

And so, three hours later than expected, five hours after the meeting started (drawn your own conclusions) the nominees for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award are out!  6 names are up for the Best Show, 8 are up for Best Newcomer (from a panel of 10 - did they more-a-less pick one each!?).  Here we go...

Best Comedy Show:
* Adam Riches - Bring Me The Head Of Adam Riches (has to be the hot favourite)
* Andrew Maxwell - The Lights Are On
* Chris Ramsey - Offermation
* Josie Long - The Future Is Another Place
* Nick Helm - Dare to Dream
* Sam Simmons - Meanwhile

According to Chortle, only Adam Riches received 5 stars, the others got 4 stars.  Now I know this is a panel decision and they will have to reach consensus, but seriously, after two years of being overlooked it just *has* to be Adam Riches, much like Phil Nichol *had* to win (a year later than he should) with The Naked Racist.

On to the Best Newcomer, where the highest rated shows are:
* Cariad Lloyd - Lady Cariad’s Characters
* Josh Widdicombe - If This Show Saves One Life
* Humphrey Ker - Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher!
* Hannibal Buress - My Name is Hannibal

After which we have good, solid 3 star shows (nominated newcomers frequently get 3 stars on Chortle, look back over the years):
* Holly Walsh - The Hollycopter
* Thom Tuck - Goes Straight to DVD
* Palmer & Stouton - Totally Tom
* O’Neill & Paul Valenti - The Chris and Paul Show (not yet reviewed to be fair)

So whose names can we expect to be read out on Saturday?  Like I said, it's a crime against the Arts if Adam Riches is not rewarded for a third consecutive perfect show.  For the Newcomer, you could see it as a straight fight between Josh Widdicombe and Humphrey Ker but given the split in the room (and far too many nominees) I'd hedge my bets on Cariad Lloyd instead.

The Fosters Comedy Awards Shortlist (Predictions)

So, the first panel meeting was yesterday and everyone is wondering who will make the final shortlist for the second Fosters Comedy Award in Edinburgh. Utilising my "reliable" predictive powers, and assuming the panel don't want to be responsible for another riot, they can't overlook Adam Riches for a third year. Likewise something is amiss if he isn't fighting it out with The Pajama Men - those two have been the pick of Edinburgh this year. Also likely to get a nod would be Glenn Wool and I wouldn't be surprised to see all-round nice guy Sammy J get a nomination too. These are certainly my top four shows.

As for the best newcomer, well this is much more of an open field. Possibly two shows that I only saw to review them, and so glad I did, could be in with a shout, namely Conor O'Toole and the team behind Armageddapocalypse. Also in with a shout are David Reed, Alistair Green and Henry Paker, the last two also only seen thanks to my very fortunate gig this year.

Could there be any surprise names? The Awards always seem to like that, plus Tim Fitzhigham has not yet been seen by yours truly but he will have been by this time tomorrow.

Conor O'Toole - Manual of Style

Conor O'Toole: Manual of Style - Delightful 8/10 show about fonts, typefaces and things that just shouldn't be funny but are!  It's up on Chortle.

James Acaster - Amongst Other Things

James Acaster: Amongst Other Things - 7/10 for a holding together a very weird gig, review currently up on Chortle

Henry Paker - Cabin Fever

Henry Paker: Cabin Fever - As Henry Paker finds his comic voice there is an elephant in the room that needs addressing. Watching him, you may notice his stance of occasionally leaning backwards with one leg well in front of him, or the way he glides across the small stage, how he draws us into his surreal imagination and even delivers a few gags in French. Fortunately there is a seriousness to Paker that separates his style from that of the iconic Eddie Izzard. But that doesn't mean Paker isn't slightly mad.


In a small tin hut, Paker has aptly themed his show around Cabin Fever, stuck up Kilimanjaro for three months waiting to be rescued. Before we venture up the mountain, Paker opens strongly by sharing his bizarre issues with certain keys on the keyboard. A strange choice to start with, but smartly put-together and physically well acted.

Paker is an appealing and instantly likeable performer, such that his crowd may have felt overly comfortable with him and happily joined in (not really heckling). He managed to deal with these situations very well, in his own words ‘he created an effortless ease with the audience by telling them what to do’. Later he cut someone off in an endearing way by describing how he is going to cannibalise them, yet it manages to come across kindly as it gives him back control. Once or twice Paker seems to get lost in a conversation with himself, but these are the occupational hazards of his chosen style.

On his main theme, Paker creates an engaging and interesting show, with an intensity that meshes well with his slight surrealism. Some of the other ideas he uses have been covered before, such as The Game's trick of paying compliments that are slightly insulting (‘I love one of your eyes’). Paker brings a suave and creative twist to the material, much like his big finale which is well crafted and enjoyable, however fans of Red Dwarf will quickly see where the idea is going and it may lose some of its punch.

Despite familiarities with parts of his set, Paker comes across as creative act. In addition to his unusual imagination he's able to have fun with linguistics, which works well with the audience he has attracted. There is a sensibleness to his madness and coupled with a very enjoyable delivery it's clear that Paker has qualities that can take him far.


7/10 for an entertaining hour but with slightly familiar material - although the Eddie Izzard-esque style is not a negative!

Armageddapocalypse - The Explosioning

Armageddapocalypse: The Explosioning - James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer have two things in common: their initials and the fact their flaws have been combined to create the lead in the ‘Hollywood on a shoestring’ comic play, Armageddapocalyspe.


After a bold video title sequence we open to a scene introducing our ‘hero’ Jack Lang as the most renegade agent in the world, trying to stop the bad guys regardless of the consequences. Despite the smallish stage the cast make excellent use of the space and give us a flavour of what to expect for the next hour: some action sequences, silly jokes and asute parody, all with an overriding sense of fun. Then comes the twist; this is actually the screening of the Special-Edition Extended-DVD Blu-Ray Director's Cut version of the film, with the action switching between the stage and the side-stage director’s coke-fuelled commentary.

The story itself needs minimal explaining, or spoiling – bad guy tries to blow up the world, good guy tries to stop him – all inside an hour of fun, laughter, cheesy lines and subtle references. The humour comes from just about all areas of the production: over-the-top performances, prop choices, plot decisions and subverting audiences expectations. A lot of direct gags are from the absurd nature of action films, although the smart writing has added a realistic element to the silliness that pays off so well. Some lines delivered as throw-away after-thoughts are funny enough by themselves to make the cut in other shows.

James Moran and Lucien Young, as hero Jack Lang and villain Dr. Apocalypse respectively, work very well together, both as the lead roles and creators of a perfectly balanced script. They are well-complemented by Tamara Astor as Jennica Wildfire, Lang's apparent love interest, along with Joe Bannister as Falcon, head of the intelligence agency who tries to get Lang to play by the rules, and Johan Munir as director Zach Jack. There is a reasonably long list of supporting characters played by these three, including my personal favourite Dena, the plain computer technician who Lang always calls when he goes rogue. None of the characters are superfluous and all add at least humour to the already highly enjoyable show.

Not since Dutch Elm Conservatoire graced the Fringe has a comic play managed to capture both smartness and silliness at the same time. The audience were thoroughly entertained and can be heard raving about the show before they'd left the building. Don't wait for the DVD version, see this show for yourself.


8/10 for a great comic play, something I picked out based on a poster in Cappadocia one evening and as it wasn't earmarked for review went to see it for Chortle.  Steve was keen to expand to see things other than well-known names and I bet the team behind it are thrilled with the final copy!

Caroline Mabey: One Minute Silence

Caroline Mabey: One Minute Silence - 7/10 for a bold and different show from Caroline, currently up on Chortle