Phill Gillespie’s Web Log at PhillG.com

Yep, I called it correct. Brendon Burns has won the second If.comedy Award for his show So I Suppose This Is Offensive Now. If only there was a Monday performance I could catch him at… He’ll reprise it for one night only next year though, as all previous winners do. Tom Basen is the Best Newcomer with his show Won’t Say Anything where he doesn’t say a word (although he plays music and uses Powerpoint presentations etc to communicate). Likewise Tom also doesn’t have a (new) show lined up for Bank Holiday Monday, the last day of the Fringe. What a lost opportunity…

Well, you’ve seen my predictions, now here is what a group of strangers has come up with - and their selections couldn’t be any stranger to me! The official 2007 if.comeddies Awards will be decided from the following people:
Nominations for the top Award: Andrew Lawrence (dark comedy insulting others); Andrew Maxwell (story telling); Brendon Burns (offensive comedy designed to shock but with a big finale); Ivan Brackenbury’s Hospital Radio Roadshow (character comedy as a Radio DJ playing a lot of music); Pappy’s Fun Club (sketch comedy which is apparently eerily similar to last year’s nominees We Are Klang).
I’m stunned! No space for Lawrence Leung or Rhod Gilbert let alone Michael McIntyre - it’s unexplainable. All nominees have received mixed reviews from the press and public alike whereas the previous three gentlemen have earned nothing but stunning write-ups. The best Newcomer Nominations seem a little bit more sensible although somehow Nina Conti doesn’t get a mention? The line up is Jon Richardson; Micky Flanagan; Tom Basden; Zoe Lyons. Saturday night at midnight is decision time, if you don’t want to wait until then there can only really be one sane outcome … Brendon Burns to follow in Phil Nichol’s footsteps as the latest winner of the top award in Edinburgh.

Two thirds of the festival gone and we are only a few days from the official nominations for the second If.com Eddies Awards. I’m delighted to reveal my informed choices for who should be in contention: Outsiders for the main award are two of last year’s nominees David O’Doherty and Paul Sinha - both worthy of another nomination. Russell Howard drops out of the running as his show wasn’t up to last year’s standard. Two former Best Newcomer Nominees come storming into contention, firstly Michael McIntyre and more-so Rhod Gilbert who has been a stronger contender for the top award since I saw him on the very first day of the festival. The only person who can possibly beat Rhod to the crown is Lawrence Leung for his hysterical show about trying to be cool. This race is too close to call right now… As for the Best Newcomer Award well still the only candidate is Nina Conti and I think she deserves it too. Finally onto the best of the Festival so far, the ‘must-see’ list consists of Will Adamsdale, Jerry Sadowitz, Phil Nichol, Frank Skinner and of course Rhod Gilbert and Lawrence Leung.

Lawrence is an Australian of Chinese decent with a dodgy tracksuit, an excessive beard and diminutive stature and all he want to be is as cool as his elder brother who is a bass guitarist in a band. Being a master at a Rubik’s cube and Sudoku he’s some way off that goal. He makes a bet that he can be cool and sets himself four tasks which we get to judge whether he is cool or not. These areas are fashion, girls, attitude and dancing. The set up is excellent and the result is excellent - each segment is distinct, perfectly delivery and very funny. This all builds into a massive crescendo with him entering a breakdancing competition with genuinely hysterical results. Lawrence is a wonderful hybrid of Dave Gorman’s presentation mixed with Demetri Martin’s self-analysis. A new star is born - Five arm supports out of five! See him over and over again and give him the If.com Eddie Award!

Paul delivered a stunning show last year talking about his life as a gay Asian doctor obsessed with football (and Liverpool). How could he possibly match that award-nominated show? Well he has and it’s great. Paul has a strange style where he technically rants about things that bother him and delivers other anecdotes without seemingly telling any jokes but what comes is intelligent and amusing stories delivered in such an amiable way that just grabs your attention and admiration. This year he describes the times he has felt like ‘King of the World’, as well as those when he felt he was ‘Twat of the World’. The stories flow so exquisitely and they pack so much entertainment, social comment and amusement in them it’s really quite different from any other comic on the circuit. He deserves to be nominated again for the top award - four quiz shows out of five and a proud part of my must-see list for this year and next!

Is Frank the greatest British stand-up ever? Quite possibly, he does have the quickest comic mind as amply demonstrated this evening. He comes out into the intimate atmosphere of the Cabaret Bar with almost 200 people ready to hang off his every word (and two eager beavers sitting attentively in the front row). Straight off his mike is dead which he gives us a couple of minutes of great material, everything from disgruntled Scottish technicians to disabled microphone stands. After a short warm up with some good local gag Frank goes into his main act, appointing KT as the moral adjudicator to say if he crossed the line at any point (he didn’t, even when he said she had scabby knees from falling over 4 times a week pissed up alcopops). He chooses the world’s most impossible material to make funny, and does it without offending anyone:- paedophilia, being an old man (including his urine) and granny porn has never been so funny and probably never will. In short he still has all of his magic and skill in writing, delivery and speed of thought and keeps to the same style that has brought him such success since he won the Perrier Award sixteen years ago. Five spare mics out of five – a must see for everyone with an interest in comedy.

For the 2007/8 season, Sky have redesigned their on-screen graphics and moved the info bar containing the score and time to the bottom left of the screen, from the top left where all other broadcasters have it. The new position in the bottom left of the screen means that part of the playing surface and players are being covered up during the game. The bottom left of the screen almost always shows active parts of the pitch, however the previous position in the top left only shows areas of the crowd for 90% of the game and thus can be covered with a non-transparent graphic quite comfortably.

This has annoyed me, and many other people, greatly. As we pay a large monthly subscription to watch Sky Sports we should not have areas of the game blocked out unnecessarily when the info bar can be positioned quite happily in the top left of the screen. To that extent I have created an online petition to insist Sky move the bar back to the top left where it belongs and where it will not disrupt the coverage. Please sign it if you feel the same.

Russell Howard put in a great high energy show last year with a killer joke about the Queen (on of the best of the festival) and deserved his nomination for the If.com Eddie Award. With such expectation he returns to Edinburgh playing in the Cabaret Bar right after Frank Skinner, talk about pressure! Russell took about 20 minutes to really get going, to move from giggles to belly laughing. He talked about suicide, teasing his little brother, his experiences and ultimately looking for those special moments in life that make it all worthwhile. It’s a good hour of entertainment, similar to last year but without an exceptional gag. His positive delivery and energy is very reminiscent of Adam Hills, only with better material. He also succeeds in taking you back to your childhood (if you are of the same generation as him) with well placed 1980s references. All in all a good show - You won’t walk out blown away and he doesn’t pack a killer ending (which Adam Hills does) but you will have really enjoyed your hour. Four photos out of five but lacking that special moment to make it a must-see or award worthy.

Phil Nichol stars in a new play, the only one this year since he put in two great performances last year as the madcap host of Talk Radio and the quiet brother in True West. Sadly his role is not the lead and not really of great significance, giving the spotlight over to Tony Law as Killer Joe and Ed Weeks as the son Chris who both put in good, but not brilliant, performances. Lizzie Roper is strong as Phil’s new wife, especially give the physical aspect to the role whilst Charlotte Jo Hanbury comes across as innocent enough as the pure Dottie. The story is quite dark: a plotted murder using a hit-man that goes slightly awry when they can’t afford to pay him. There are some twists later on but the end seems a little bit silly even for a black comedy. I fear this show will gain attention for the full frontal nudity, male and female, as well as some sexual violence against Lizzie Roper. It’s not as good as either of Phil’s plays last year but there are some tense moments and the underlying story is good, even with the ending. The set is also very detail (possibly re-using the kitchen from True West) and they make good use of it, dragging us into their depressing trailer park life in Dallas. It just lacks that special something to push it beyond watchable. Three chicken drumsticks out of five.

I loved Punt and Dennis as a teenager, I thought their material was great and just the right level of satire. Needless to say I was happy to pay a large amount of money to see them live and in the flesh. After a good opening gag, Steven Punt walking out on stage by himself. He explains that Hugh has this superstition where he wants to come out on stage doing one of his legendary impersonations. With baited giggles we wait until a Hugh comes out doing an amazing Raptor impression. Painfully funny and it deserved to be reprised several times throughout the show! Their show is a collection of well linked observations about everything from politics and the Olympics (bad for Britain), to flat lazy teenagers and TV over the years (including a fleeting cameo of ‘Milky Milky’ to which half the audience erupted and the other half whispered to their laughing friends ‘what’s that?’). It was a hectic hour of continual satire and political comment delivered flawlessly by a perfectly balanced duo. An absolute treat to finally see them live – five clipboards out of five!

What more can be said about this institution of topical sketch comedy? Four stars for the past three years from me and oh, four stars again! As always an excellent blend of sketches, musical comedy and one liners. This year the team of four (plus pianist) take the mickey out of Brown, Bush, Britney, Beckhams, Terrorism, Life on Mars, the weather and so much more. All sketches get a minimum of three stars each and some even hit the highest five such as “row row row your boat through the streets of Hull”. If you haven’t seen Newsrevue go this year and you won’t be disappointed. And you know what? You be back to see them every year after just like me.

A parody of Scientology. That’s all I read before leaping to buy tickets for this show. Now I know it’s also a musical comedy set in the present day when Xenu is released from prison and comes to destroy Earth. It’s a quick moving production with some good set choices but it suffers from the age of the cast and comes across as a relatively high school production (the actors are early 20s but I’m nearly 30 and think of myself as mid 20s so that makes them late teens). Xenu has a really impressive costume and comes across as quite confident (even covering up a girl cracking up in laughter). That is a little bit of a theme as there were several mistakes: guitarist falling through the open door; right-click menu appeared on projector screen; stage directions came over mic (come back from the front because of feedback). Okay let’s cut to the chase: it was fun, the final confrontation was funny especially with the Tom Cruise reference and the show didn’t drag. Above all that it took a stab at Scientology and that’s worth me paying money for (unless of course Scientologists were doing it tongue-in-cheek). Three laser beams out of five.

This is an 80 minute satire on the West and its destruction of the world. There, I summed it up inside 10 seconds. Basically Fatboy has an insatiable appetite for food and money (and the occasional killing) and his wife is fuelling him (physically and mentally) and feeding off his actions. Unfortunately whilst Fatboy is very well performed it is also loud and overly littered with swearing that doesn’t seem to serve a dolphin, sorry I mean purpose (my gag, I just thought I’d lighten the mood). It is a good play with strong actors and well written script but it does feel quite an effort to get through it when you’ve long since got the message. I believe it’s going to be made into a film; I’d be very interested in seeing the final product especially regarding the length. Sadly it only gets three meals out of five but it has good intentions and a strong message.

I saw Tom Stade perform last year but not his stand up act, it was as the intimidating brother of Phil Nichol in True West. His comic personality is so markedly different from the brute he played then - it’s as if he is performing whilst high. Tom comes on stage with an A1 white board with his set list written up, albeit with a couple of re-arrangements in red. The concept is this is all the jokes he’s never performed combined into a new show. There are some good gags in there and Tom does his best to try to segue between them although tonight’s front row consists of four middle aged women who are at their first comedy show (I over heard them in the bar when they arrived loudly). Not the normal annoying hen party, quite the opposite in fact as Tom struggles to get anything from them. Within five minutes one of their phones goes off and they seemed to show no remorse for it. Sadly their presence causes Tom to skip over some of his more edgy material (minus a point) but he keeps coming back to them and finally cracks it and gets them to laugh at a few things (plus a point). Over all it wasn’t a great show but I think a different night might have been a different outcome. Three marker pens out of five and I think he’ll get another shot next year.

The belated winner of the inaugural If.com Eddy award (he should have won the final P*rrier Award for his show Nearly Gay) Phil Nichol returns with another hour of hectic story telling and guitar playing. This year his story is about idols and hero worship, so clearly demonstrated by his Japanese friend Hiro’s worship of the Rolling Stones. The story is about loving your friends and not becoming obsessed with idols and even stalking them. This year Phil is performing on a big stage (quite a contraction in terms actually) in the Stand comedy club (rather than the Stand II). Whilst he is now playing nightly to about 150% more people, his room for manoeuvre is a lot less; the stage is only about 2m². With his band either side of him he comes across as a rock and roll star although the huge stand mural of a guy in a Mexican hat and a gun to his head is a bit distracting at first (why they could have the black curtain from the Stand II covering it is beyond me). It’s okay though because it’s still the same Phil Nichol delivering belly laughs rather than the simple facial giggles that a lot of other comics distribute. What has been noticeable about his previous two shows is that he manages to take you with him on his journey and you share his feelings. In previous years this has included fear but you never feel that at any point in this story was he afraid (and there were some opportunities for that to come through). I can’t really say if the location and lack of real lighting contrast was to blame (although there is a better lighting rig). The content of this show was, intentionally or just because of the story, toned down a little bit. There were no crude sexual anecdotes that have previously caused so much shock and painful laughter. To be fair this story didn’t lend itself to those kind of tangents, I guess it’s just obvious having won the big prize last year. On that subject The Naked Racist and Nearly Gay are better shows (and I believe they’ve been recorded for DVD now) however this is still one of the best shows of 2007 and a deserved full five groupies out of five. Don’t delay - see Phil Nichol in the flesh soon (preferably at one of his shows as apposed to stalking him)!

There are all sorts of warnings and disclaimers about Jim Jeffries about the language he uses and him doing offensive comedy. I think these warnings may put people off seeing an observant, interesting and above all funny comedian. As Jim often closes a show with, ‘if you’ve been offended by anything I said today the grow up as it’s just a joke’ (paraphrased you understand). Jim starts with a really funny opener about infanticide after birth (by crushing a baby’s head in if you must ask) and it got a huge laugh. He then went on to talk briefly about his solution to teenage pregnancy, outed several famous paedophiles (such as Elvis having sex with a 14 year old Priscilla and Charlie Chaplin sleeping with a 13, 14 and 15 year old apparently) before moving on to longer stories including being diagnosed with ‘dick cancer’ and his childhood (including porn mags and a vibrator). He ended with him being assaulted last year by an Irishman who was abused as a child and didn’t like the material he heard. Rather than walk out he walked on stage and punched Jim several times. All in all his show was thoroughly engaging with some good material and times when you found yourself laughing at some outrageous jokes. What it boils down to is the jokes Jim tells, whether they offend anyone or no one, are funny. Four pints of beer out of five and I’ll seeing him again next year!

Okay, one week into the festival - who’s hot and more importantly who’s going to be up for the awards? I have to believe Nina Conti has to be a strong bet for the best Newcomer Award. Her show’s really funny and packed full of a wide range of segments showcasing her full range. As for the main award, Michael McIntyre is really getting a great buzz at the moment having put in several great shows. Last year’s nominees David O’Doherty, Russell Howard and Paul Sinha (the last two I’ve had to cheat and ask friends about) should all re-appear plus one surprise outsider. Finally, unable to be nominated for the awards, Will Adamsdale and Jerry Sadowitz are so far the two best other shows around at present, in fact Will’s is the best I’ve seen and the only five star show! Staking my reputation on one person I haven’t seen and don’t know anyone who has seen the show, I would say Phil Nichol also deserves to be in the ‘must see’ category. I’ll find out on Friday just how good this year’s show is compare to the excellent The Naked Racist and even better Nearly Gay.

Stop - it’s David O’Doherty time! Last year’s If.com Eddies Award Nominee returns with another good show with stronger dialogue but probably slightly weaker songs (although he did an encore of Slightly Super Human Powers). He couldn’t re-do last year’s gag in his intro song FAQ for the DOD about looking like Alf (it’s so accurate!) but it was still a strong start. The show has some educational and funny Fact Attacks separating out stories and trademark songs played out on his mini electronic keyboard and new rap-master. He’s no Demetri Martin but his very special in his own way. His best gag was a killer about his first understanding of Argos and there were a few good songs, the strongest being about catching up with a friend he hadn’t talked to in ten years and telling her all the things he had apparently done in the last decade. Overall I think it was at least as good as his nominated show from last year (better if you include his special encore) so I think he’s going to be pushing hard for the top comedy award this year too. Four white garments out of five!

Finally, she’s back in Edinburgh! Nina Conti and her exceptionally talented partner, Monk (the Monkey), to deliver more mischief. One of the key aspects to Nina’s performance is the cheekiness of Monk and her embarrassed and innocent reaction. In her first full length Edinburgh show Nina let’s the monkey take control and present a couple of TV shows. These include a Trisha take-off where Monk is hidden in the audience out of sight, a brief talent contest with some new puppets and documentary piece from a voodoo expert. These all come off quite strongly although the could be a little bit tighter and maybe benefit from a bit of direction (as the top comics have taken to utilising). Nina does two pieces where she believes she is her own grandfather and speaks as him talking to a puppet of his late wife. It’s quite impressive acting but it saddens the audience and takes away from the vibe she has got going with the audience. One other minor point, Monk doesn’t need to use the most extreme swear words to get a laugh, softer ones work better for him. Her crescendo (or climax if you will for those who have seen the show) is a really good extension of an idea she’s had before but brilliantly executed. I think she’s a strong contender to win the Best Newcomer Award! Four pint glasses out of five!

Pete Firman is a good stage magician employing slight of hand tricks and some good skills (card reading, forced selection) to deliver an entertaining hour of magic and humorous patter. He’s nowhere near the level of Jerry Sadowitz in either aspect but good entertainment for adults nonetheless. His tricks start off astounding but then build to get a bit more sinister, i.e. forcing needles through his arm and putting a live mouse in a blender. He does go to great pains to stress that he is an illusionist and this is not real. A nice change of pace from the endless stand-up and especially good for teenagers who have no chance of seeing Jerry Sadowitz. Three forced cards out of five.

Gamarjobat are a couple of Japanese visual comics that can entertain people of all ages all around the world with their physical comedy without words. I saw them two years ago putting on a good performance and I though this year it was probably worth going to see them again. The show is split in two, the first half being the new material about rock and roll penguins (them being two and a stuffed penguin being their drummer at the back) and the second half is mostly a reprise of their magic and gags from the first half of their previous show (the better stuff). Their visual humour is simple, clean fun for all ages, although you do find yourself regressing back to childhood when you fall under their spell. It’s a show that is delightfully straight-forward with juggling, tricks, slight of hand and universal humour. It does have a tiny sexual innuendo in as well as a tiny bit of ‘thrusting’ but nothing to prevent you taking even the youngest child (well, okay, maybe not a baby two or three days old). Three false hands out of five.

It is rare that I agree with Kate Copstick, lead arts critic for the tabloid newspaper The Scotsman. She has been right on Phil Nichol and Demtri Martin amongst others but she inevitably give big name comics, i.e. those on TV, good reviews no matter how they actually perform. This is one of those times. Host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks Simon Amstell comes out with a big reputation to justify. The audience is packed full of about 450 people and a large number of which are laughing at *everything* he says because he is on TV (believe me, what he is saying is not funny). So he gives some girl in the front row cancer and a man AIDS by his magic powers and goes on to try to get laughs out of the idea of clown rape (that’s rape by a clown) and surprise surprise he fails. When he finished talking about splitting up with his boyfriend,a section that came across as quite lazy, the moves into a brief middle section where he talks about boycotting things and trying to do the right thing. This all is supposedly linked to the idea that ’self’ is the same as ‘ego’, we are all in fact one living entity. Anyway his final third, supposedly his strongest material, is about trying to end with some laughs about half-being involved in the Tsunami. After that he prepares to wrap things up by switching to a brief talk about pictures taken during 9/11. He then calls back to a weak and obvious, if not cheap as well, joke he did at the beginning of the show and I swear on my life a few people let out a mild giggle and that was it. Everyone could see that weak callback coming but then out of nowhere he says that was his big finish and he expected a much bigger laugh!

This is where Kate Copstick comes in. Rather than giving Simon a poor review for weak material and an ending that bombed spectacularly (when he left the stage he ran off to about four seconds of applause and then the clapping stopped dead), Kate somehow thinks he is some form of visionary and has giving him four stars! The mind boggles! To add further salt to the wound, Kate closes her review with “This goes against all my beliefs about comedy, but I think he doesn’t need a better ending, he needs a better audience. I hope I haven’t alienated anyone”. You must be joking! Your review came out today meaning you either saw him on Saturday or on Sunday with me. The first third of the show was carried by the people who have paid to see him because they recognise him off TV and laughed at everything he said, even joking about give a poor guy in the front row AIDS for real! The middle part was passable at best and his final third was weak limping along to arguably the single *worst* ending to any comedy show I have ever seen! Even Brendon Burns asking a woman to kick him in the nuts in Jongleurs was better than this! Yes you have alienated nearly 500 people by saying they don’t know comedy and you have some form of mystic power of judging comics, somehow related to their mainstream TV appearances. The only thing worse than Simon Amstell’s two star (and very best) show is the disgraceful way Kate Copstick ended her review insulting every audience member except herself. Avoid them both at all costs! [BTW the current rating on edfringe.com is 2.75 out of 5 with 31 votes in and it seems during the preview shows he has admitted to the audience his performance have been rubbish!]

Two years ago Will Adamsdale appeared in Edinburgh with a short-run show called Jackson’s Way. It got noticed and with a bit of help from Stewart Lee the show got extended and out of nowhere Will landed the main comedy award the then Perrier Award. Will’s new show is spilt into three sections. He talks about computers as the technophobe that he is and shares his observations. He then builds a fully interactive ‘human computer’ that we help interact with and he follows our instructions. Unfortunately something happens and Will is trapped inside this computer and spends the final third trying to escape. The whole piece is delightfully put together with a perfect mix of observation, audience interaction and story telling. His performance is strong and his set is divinely inspired. The audience erupted with a huge round of deafening applause when he finished and my hands still hurt the next day. I now regret even more that I didn’t get to see Jackson’s Way when I had the chance. Will has now joined my list of elite comics that I rush to book before even looking at who else is playing (they are Demetri Martin, Phil Nichol and now Will Adamsdale, plus Mark Thomas and Robert Newman but they are for different reasons). My first full FIVE pointer stars out of five! Sheer brilliance!

There was a lot of talk about Josie Long last year when she scooped the inaugural If.com Eddies Best Newcomer award. The Evening Standard describe her as “the most distinctive comic of her generation and too delightfully indiosyncratic to be mainstream”. Once you learn that the Evening Standard is a stable mate of the Daily Mail maybe then you won’t be surprised to learn that quote is quite overblown. Josie is good and is certainly quirky with a lot of hyperactive energy. Despite what the Evening Standard says she just follows the normal path of the standard stand-up comic: make a statement/joke, act out a situation which that last line just described and maybe one more. Nothing special her although her personality and *some* subject areas make it slightly different. She is not however, anywhere near the brilliance and uniqueness of either Demetri Martin, Daniel Kitson or Phil Nichol. Think of her if you will as a quirkier modern Victoria Wood, even bearing a slight physical resemblance to her too. It’s the type of show you would send someone’s mother to go and see - and there were a lot of middle aged women in the audience. As for me, she was good and entertaining but she sits on top of a pile of well performing comics with a solid hour show but not enough laugh-out-loud material (such as Russell Kane and Andrew Lawrence). Three paintings out of five.

When Paul Merton walked out a few metres on stage in front of me I was in heaven! I was a big fan of his stand-up and really enjoyed his show although I’m less keen on his improvisation work but that’s just because of the strength of his surreal stand-up. He then takes my breath away further by introducing Richard Vranch, the pianist from Whose Line Is It Anyway? The rest of the cast are Jim Sweeney (now performing in a wheelchair due to the effects of MS), Andy Smart and (soon to shock herself with some really risque words) Suki Webster. Tonight’s performance included a variation on the erm game, Freeze & Switch, Audience Suggestions, 3 man interview (one person played by three men) and finally Lost Shakespeare. The show was quite funny as you never really expected what was going to come next. The only downside is that the comedy was a bit shallow and all about speed rather than substance. [I thought my audience suggestion was quite good although it wasn’t picked. They said suggest something like ‘two sumo wrestlers’ or ‘a man at a peep swho’ and so I suggested the situation of ’someone without a spell checker’] As glad as I am that I’ve finally seen them live, I can only give them three audience-suggested stars out of five but I would recommend everyone to go them see them once (although they are already sold out for this year).