Deborah McArthur braves the heat and occasional embarrassment with her father to see three comedy shows on the Fringe.
Chris Corcoran and Elis James – The Committee Room (3 stars)
We were greeted by an informal Chris Corcoran as the committee chairman and explained the rules of how the show would work: we would be committee members and had an agenda to get through. We were told not to expect much from the set, which to begin with I thought was a cop-out, but then I realised it was the comics informal approach to the show. They broke character several times which was funny in itself. They forgot a prop for a specific gag and so stopped, whispered to one another, told the audience what had gone wrong then proceeded with the gag without the required prop. Everyone in the room felt involved in the show due to the intimate setting and how informal the comics were. The audience participation also kept us engaged even though some of the gags dragged a little. The show itself felt very ‘high school’ as though senior pupils had put it together; the majority of this was to do with the makeshift space we were rammed into, and the baking heat didn’t do their show justice, The two comics had an endearing style which made me feel like I was watching friends and so wanted them to succeed.
Hanks and Conran – Pigs in Blankets (3 stars)
This damp, dingy, terribly smelling cave was slightly off-putting while waiting on the set to start, but I quickly forgot about it when the two women took to the stage. It was a typical women’s comedy show: plenty of gags about weight gain/loss, sex, masturbating and 50 Shades of Grey. The two comics were completely different in style. Conran was very physical, bubbly and loud while Hanks was the serious, quiet, almost intimidating character, but they used this within their set and made reference to it several times.
During their set they acted out a script and needed two male audience members to help. My poor dad was pulled up, dressed as Bobby Ball and made to read embarrassing lines, while another man was brought up and told not to speak and eventually told to just stand and face the wall, where he remained until the show finished. Having the second man up onstage facing the wall felt pointless and wasn’t very funny.
The majority of the audience were women and they all seemed to love it, which was to be expected due to the content. But the feedback I heard from the male audience members was also positive, so even though it was very female focused in content the male species liked their rapport with each other.
This was a contrast to the next show I went to see.
Jimmy Carr (4 stars)
He was honest at the start to say he would be talking a lot about sex, and he certainly did just that—for most of the set. There were some words he used that I had never heard of before. He even had illustrations created to project while telling some of his gags, just in case we were unsure as to what he was speaking about.
I have always liked Jimmy Carr on TV and so wanted to see if he was a good live performer: he didn’t disappoint. He was heckled several times and came back quicker than I’ve ever seen a comedian do with a response that left the heckler with nothing else to say. He didn’t cross the line or become too crude or overly rude; he struck the right cord, keeping it funny. The 1200-strong audience participated as narrators for the sitcom he had written, and two audience members helped him act it out. He joked several times about his recent tabloid news regarding the taxman, and poking fun at himself made the audience warm to him even more. He was given a standing ovation by some audience members and came back for an encore. It was everything I had expected for a comedian of his calibre.
Chris Corcoran and Elis James—The Committee Room is at the Underbelly. Hanks and Conran—Pigs in Blankets is at Out of the Box—Just the Tonic. Check programme or website for details. Jimmy Carr was at the EICC but has ended.
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