Goldie's Fab Four #28

My highlights, recommendations, observations

This week’s selections are all from the Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s biggest and, surely, best arts festival. The Scottish capital is large enough to absorb the thousands of performers who flock there every August, whilst its hilly streets are small enough to allow audiences to flit from venue to venue on foot. Whether your taste runs to stand-up comedy, musical theatre, improv or storytelling there’s just so much going on, mostly at reasonable prices. If you’ve never been, you really should try it.

Eric Rushton

Eric Rushton is the anti-type of the kind of shiny, smiley comic who get to host TV quiz shows. Born in Stoke, raised in Leicester, now domiciled in Birmingham, he exudes a peculiar Midlands diffidence that belies a sharp intellect. Think Ted Chippington meets Stewart Lee. His comparison of the journey of life with the experience of going on holiday is genius.

He’as already been named first winner of The Channel 4 Sean Lock Comedy Award. Plenty more accolades await.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/eric-rushton-not-that-deep

Alison Spittle

I caught Alison on a tidy bill of Irish comics at The Stand, and loved her droll delivery. She’s also performing her own show ‘Soup’. If you got to see her, expect full on gynaecological detail - and plenty of laughs.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/alison-spittle-soup

David Quirk - Astonishing Obscurity

David tells us he quit stand up in 2017 in a rage after losing a lipsync contest. He’s only returned now because a journalist wrote a sneery, dismissive article about his brother, an Aussie Rules footballer who never quite made it. This is a gripping, sometimes sinister piece of storytelling, outing Quirk as the funniest stalker you could ever wish to meet - though preferably not in the dark corner of a bookstore if you’re the bloke who dissed his bro.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/david-quirk-astonishing-obscurity

Frank Skinner

I really didn’t want Skinner to be my Edinburgh highlight because I was went to the Fringe hoping to catch the fresh stuff, the rising stars, the up n comers. But after a day of underwhelming newbies, it was a relief to watch a master at work. Skinner is still as brilliant at jousting with the front row as when I first saw him in Kings Heath in the 80’s and his gags acknowledge the passing of time without retreating into nostalgia or whimsey. He’s still the Don.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/frank-skinner-30-years-of-dirt

Honourable mentions, too, for the excellent James Cook who tackles social media morons in his Anonymously Viral show; After This Plane Has Landed, a moving new musical about UK hostage John McCarthy and his campaigner girlfriend Jill Morrell; Jarred Christmas, classic bawdy stand-up; and Dave Chawner who grapples wittily with the history of western philosophy.

Avoid at all costs - Simon Amstell. A sloppy ‘work in progress’ show at the Pleasance Courtyard.