![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootWe couldn't do a damn thing on Sunday. I turned into an old lady with a purring cat cuddled in my arms. We were all very tired. I still am. But friend was charmed enough with the Fringe to want to stay a day longer, so Monday was our last foray.
Shake It Up Shakespeare gave us an improv creation based on taking names, lines, and ideas from the audience and turning them into a Shakespearean play on the spot with iambic pentameter and all. The venue was a small and distinctly non soundproof stage with a bare raised platform and no wings. Six performers waited, three on each side, and just ploughed in to create and perform. This of necessity meant there were longeurs and fumblings now and then, but these were few. Mainly the results were fun precisely because they were raw. Comparisons to Murder She Didn't Write were inevitable. That production was bigger, much more controlled and therefore much more polished, different rather than better. It was possible to watch both without feeling one was treading old ground. Everything was fresh.
Then there was The Last Gun, a personal favourite of mine this year. The Last Gun is described as a 'Comedy Fest Award-nominated sketch-comedy mockumentary [...] Saddle up for a surreal ride through a definitely real film that no one seems to remember ...' But there's so much more to it. Five minutes in I wasn't sure. 10 minutes in I was captivated. The word 'surreal' gets used too often as code for stuff that gets laughed at in uncertainty. This is surreal but not trying to baffle us into approval. It's creative, clever, warm, engaged with the audience, and extremely funny. We loved it. I'll look out for more of Will BF's stuff if I can.
Milton Jones in Ha!Milton was interesting. We started this Fringe with a show about old style stand up comedians who focused on crafted jokes with punchlines and here he was delivering one-liners, a routine generally based on the stuff that's made him such a hit on Mock The Week, i.e clever puns and word work. He was OK, not laugh out loud but OK. Compared to the other shows he seemed a bit tired. I wondered if an hour of his particular style was just too much, but then right at the end he asked the audience to suggest a couple of subjects and they did. His responses to these were fast thinking and bright, much more so than his scripted material. Had he done an hour of these, he would have set the Fringe on fire.
Our guest has gone home this morning, and I am exhausted. We've had a great time, and theoretically there are a couple of shows I would like to go see, but...eh, no. How this can be when all I've done is wander the city with chums in search of entertainment? Time for a long bath and sleep.
Shake It Up Shakespeare gave us an improv creation based on taking names, lines, and ideas from the audience and turning them into a Shakespearean play on the spot with iambic pentameter and all. The venue was a small and distinctly non soundproof stage with a bare raised platform and no wings. Six performers waited, three on each side, and just ploughed in to create and perform. This of necessity meant there were longeurs and fumblings now and then, but these were few. Mainly the results were fun precisely because they were raw. Comparisons to Murder She Didn't Write were inevitable. That production was bigger, much more controlled and therefore much more polished, different rather than better. It was possible to watch both without feeling one was treading old ground. Everything was fresh.
Then there was The Last Gun, a personal favourite of mine this year. The Last Gun is described as a 'Comedy Fest Award-nominated sketch-comedy mockumentary [...] Saddle up for a surreal ride through a definitely real film that no one seems to remember ...' But there's so much more to it. Five minutes in I wasn't sure. 10 minutes in I was captivated. The word 'surreal' gets used too often as code for stuff that gets laughed at in uncertainty. This is surreal but not trying to baffle us into approval. It's creative, clever, warm, engaged with the audience, and extremely funny. We loved it. I'll look out for more of Will BF's stuff if I can.
Milton Jones in Ha!Milton was interesting. We started this Fringe with a show about old style stand up comedians who focused on crafted jokes with punchlines and here he was delivering one-liners, a routine generally based on the stuff that's made him such a hit on Mock The Week, i.e clever puns and word work. He was OK, not laugh out loud but OK. Compared to the other shows he seemed a bit tired. I wondered if an hour of his particular style was just too much, but then right at the end he asked the audience to suggest a couple of subjects and they did. His responses to these were fast thinking and bright, much more so than his scripted material. Had he done an hour of these, he would have set the Fringe on fire.
Our guest has gone home this morning, and I am exhausted. We've had a great time, and theoretically there are a couple of shows I would like to go see, but...eh, no. How this can be when all I've done is wander the city with chums in search of entertainment? Time for a long bath and sleep.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}