Saturday 25 August 2018

Christian Reilly : Gig Economy, Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh Free Fringe

Musical comedy can be a pretty hit and miss class of entertainment.  Fortunately Reilly falls strongly on the right side of that divide and proves immediately likeable.

In a straw cowboy hat and guitar in hand he launches into a series of mood chords, pastiches, mash ups and outright silliness.  It's fast paced, well thought out and shows him to be a more than competent guitarist with a decent singing voice.  He plays blues and country and pop and rock and pretty much anything, adapting his voice to the genre or the character being lampooned.  And saving us the trouble of paying to see superstars as he takes on the guises of Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Ed Sheeran, Donald Trump and more.

Above all it's consistently funny, be it the song lyrics, the jokes in between or the facial expressions that accompany his music.  There are good digs at the likes of Trump, Bono, "Tommy Robinson" and others, so his politics are sound too.  Towards the end he was joined by a fiddler who added a bit of class to some Irish and country sounds.

It's a bit different, often clever, it made me laugh - a lot - and an hour whizzed by.  One of the gems of the Free Fringe.

Christian Reilly is on in the Liquid Rooms at 17.20 until 26 August.

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