12 Fringe Reviews 2

So I lied when I said I was only going to 3 shows this year.  I went to another one this evening, a sort of pick of the Fringe free show at the Meadows Bar.  One compere and about 7 short acts.  Imran Yusuf was an able compere, giving a taste of his own act, interacting with the audience – especially the unfortunate 18 year old Sophie, a Californian fitness instructor in the front row who took his fancy – and introducing the various stand ups on the bill.  He spun many racial stereotypes around, for example telling of the time he lived in America and was racially abused for being English rather than Asian, being called “teacup” and having “chin-chin” shouted after him.  Several of the stand ups were performing for the very first time or at least had not been performing long, and, despite some nerves, the occasional stumble and odd choice of subject matter (a Californian – again – lawyer doing a routine describing how to produce crystal meth for example) they did a good job and managed to keep the audience onside.  The pick of the newcomers was Rik Carranza who described himself as being half Scottish and half Thai and, therefore, according to racial stereotypes, a “tight arsed rent boy”.  Headliner Keira Murphy was more polished, delivering some snappy one liners about being a ”Weegie”and disparaging comments about her ex-boyfriend, Gordon Brown and various others.  The hour long show was a mixed but enjoyable bag. Imran Yusuf kept everything ticking over nicely, the audience responded sympathetically to the new comedians, the new comedians gained important experience in a supportive atmosphere and it was free,  Donations were asked for at the end.  I donated £5 and have seen much worse for three times that amount.  Apparently there is a different line up each night so what you get is what you get basically.  If I wasn’t going back to work tomorrow I’d probably try to go again.