Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu Two, Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

In my review of this years Menu One, I commented that Bite-Size had "never let me down so far". So was it then inevitable that the next show, Menu Two, would be disappointing? While the quality of the acting remained as high as usual, that of the scripts did not, with all of the first three of this quintet failing to deliver the usual punch. Fortunately the final pair brought a return to the usual high standard.

HONK!

A cynical Detective Sergeant, an overly-enthusiastic new DC, and a suspect brought form the park wearing only a blanket. A flasher or streaker maybe? The DC's unusual approach to questioning reveals something a bit different, and explains why a mallard got hurt in the process. It's an interesting idea, but felt like a stretch of silliness too far.

OF THEIR OWN

An Austen-period ball, and two thirty-something sisters who have fallen far behind in the marriage market. If they don't meet their matches tonight maybe some more drastic course of action is required. Otherwise they could end up in Birmingham. This all felt a bit contrived, with a clumsily predictable ending.

THE NEW NORMAL

There's a new Big Boss heading up the company, and sweeping changes ensue. But is what is happening really normal? Just how different will the building, and the people in it, be as security tightens and new rules make life a lot less tolerable? Another script that takes a thin idea a bit too far, although it could be seen as a parody of the evils of billionaire crazies like Bezos and Musk.

THE IMPROV CLASS

This was more like it. A trainee improv artist struggles to cope with the curve balls her acting partner throws at her. But is her goal to improve her performance for an audience, or could there be something much more important behind her desire to learn? An interesting reminder that artistic skills can sometime be transferrable into more basic human situations.

CHARITY

Like The New Normal, the final offering brought all five members of the cast onto stage. We've all learned to be wary of chuggers on our streets, but are there some who really are best to avoid? Charity collections gone extreme as matters escalate for one woman caught in their trap.

Of course you still get the coffee, croissant and strawberries, so some things never change, and there were more than enough enjoyable moments for the audience not to feel short changed. But if you can only get along to one Bite-Size performance, this might not be the best one to choose. 

The Big Bite-Size Breakfast shows, with 3 alternating menus, are on at 10.20 in Pleasance Beyond until the 28th.

Aidan Goatley - 10 Films With My Dad, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (PBH Free Fringe)

 It's back! Goatley's most successful, and award winning, show has returned to the Fringe. All the qualities that made it a hit in the past are still there, but a few new jokes and anecdotes shoehorned in.

In the show he tells of how difficult his relationship with his father has often been, as they are very different personalities, and that when they did bond it was usually through going to see a movie. Goatley takes us through ten films that have marked seminal moments in the process. Moments of misunderstanding and embarrassment are related with a strong eye for visual descriptions and plenty of self deprecating humour. There's audience interaction too, but nothing that would be likely to cause discomfort. This a gentle kind of comedy, often looking at the kind of nuances of family life to which everyone can relate. And you may feel a tear creeping upon you in the emotional ending.

As I said above, this show has been on the go for more than a decade now, and remains as good as ever. If you haven't seen it yet - Why not??

Aidan Goatley, Ten Films With My Dad, is on at 19.40 in the Voodoo Rooms until the 27th. This is a Free Fringe show.

Ants, Space on the Mile, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Three junior employees, thrust into a room for the night with one vague brief - to come up with a presentation to show the big bosses how the company can maximise it's profits over the next year. All from different backgrounds, different departments, with only one thing in common - their jobs are so low-level that none of them has much of an idea about what the vast organisation actually does.

Junk Theatre's absurdist take on corporate evil, and damage it does to the lives of the people it swallows, hits a lot of familiar targets, often with great clarity and accuracy. There's some overacting early on, as two of them try to delineate their stereotypes (posh girl handed it all to her, working class boy made good), but it settles down into some tense and sometimes moving situations. Plenty of laughs too. The script gets a bit clunky in the last five minutes, as they try to resolve their impossible situation, but that's a minor quibble.

While Ants wouldn't be high on my recommendations list, you certainly wouldn't have wasted your time going to see it.

Ants was on in the Space on the Mile, but their run has now ended.

Bridget Christie - Who Am I?, New Town Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Christie is a 51 year old menopausal woman, a status that she feels brings both invisibility and freedom.  Because women over 50 are never portrayed as active, sentient beings in films and TV programmes, and she is no longer under the tyrrany of breeding expectations.  

This might sound like the starting point for a feminist polemic, and at times strays in that direction, but hacving some thinking and talking points strewn through the comedy is not bad thing.  Funny, but with some depth.

And she is very funny at times.  Nor do you need to be menopausal to appreciate it.  Indeed anyone of a certain age will no doubt recongise her opeing three minutes in themselves, and vage nameless and nounless conversations are a daily occurence in our household.  The observational aspects hold up well.  There's physical comedy too, in an unlikely sequence about flashing in the park, and some good one liners.

Yes, it can be a little lecturing at times, but the sharp takes on ageing and how male oriented out society is make up for it.  Worthwhile.

Bridget Christie, Who Am I?, was on in the New Town Theatre, but her run is now over.

Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu One, Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

This is one I look forward to every year, and it's never let me down so far. The format is as it's always been, with 3 'menus' each providing 5 or 6 mini-playlets. Minimalist sets, rapid costume changes, and a lot of laughs. Today's peformance was Menu One.

PROMOTION

Two women, colleagues, rivals, one a company veteran, one a newcomer, both up for the same promotion. A surprising challenge arrange to decide who comes out on top. Can rivals work together and what is really going here? A quick fire opener with some good one liners.

DATING WITH DOSTOYEVSKY

A woman and man in a bar. She sits at one table reading Crime and Punishment, he at another looking a bit lost. Could Dostoyevsky bring them together, or with that really odd guy get in the way? There's a hint of Truly, Madly, Deeply in this little romcom, and a challenge for the actors to keep it all making sense. Clever and funny.

BASIC

Two sisters getting for a night out. And is younger sis looking for the impossible? Buy why are they drinking out of baked bean tins? A sharp comment on the stresses of trying to live up to social media and the latest 'thing'.

INEVITABLE

My personal favourite of the quintet pitches a self confessed nerd into the perils of dating. If he works out all the possible outcomes then surely he can make the right choices? Or do they all end in misery? The dangers of overthinking writ large in the search for love.

JUST STOP

We see a lot about environmentalists protesting, but what happens when they stage one of their stunts in the wrong place? And why is that cat prancing about? Hypocrisy on show as two cultures collide.

All 5 are enjoyable, all funny, and most provide something to think about. Plus you get coffee, croissant and strawberries. Not to be missed.

The Big Bite-Size Breakfast shows, with 3 alternating menus, are on at 10.20 in Pleasance Beyond until the 28th.

Frankie Boyle : Lap of Shame, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Boyle has mellowed over the years.  But, thank goodness, not too much.  Any set that touches on cancer, paedophilia, necrophilia and a nazi is going to have some shock factor.  But Frankie's smart enough not to use these moments to offend, but to make his points more sharply.  There are a lot of  people in the world doing bad things to other people, and the rimsinder doesn't go amiss.

This is no polemic though.  Boyle is hilarious.  Time after time the punchlines hit home with the rapidity of Tim Vine or Gary Delaney, but far more depth.  This is a man who, from his own oblique viewpoint, cares about our society.  And just how fucked up it's become.  Few targets get spared.  While tories and other right wingers  (deservedly) form the bulk of his targets, Starmer, Sturgeon and Biden all feature too.  

What impresses most is the visual imagery.  In a few words Frankie paints his subject as a grotesque caricature, and constantly hits the bulls eye.  Who could be the person who looks like they masturbate to pictures of new builds?  It has to be Truss...  It's these surreal, imaginative syntheses that hit home hardest, riducule by word fusion, and remid you how original a mind is lurking behind the couldn'tgiveatoss stage persona.

Wonderful stuff.

Frankie Boyle, Lap of Shame, is on in the Assembly Rooms until the 18th (but is already sold out!).

Blues Afternoon (Conor Selby Band, Troublemakers with Maggie Bell), Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

 CONOR SELBY BAND

Selby is a young singer/songwriter from England, with his (mostly) youngish band in support. Drums, bass, rhythm guitar and keys back up the leader who sings and plays lead guitar. Despite their age, and playing mostly Selby's own material, it soon becomes apparent that what we're listening to is a classic 60s R&B band. And a good one at that.

Much of the 60s feel comes from the organ of Stevie Watts, who shares the solos with Selby's strings, and is a strong presence within the lineup. The 60s vibe is enhanced by the rhythm guitarist, with his floral short and Lennon shades.

There was a '64 Ray Charles song, and a Selby composition relating to his own lifelong love for the blues and what it meant to him. But much of the time the band went straight from one song to another, with no introduction. Which was a shame, as Selby speaks well when the mood takes him. His singing voice is competent, albeit unremarkable, but oh why do UK singers so often adopt US intonations? Be yourselves guys.

A good opening set that got the audience in the mood for what was to follow.

TIM ELLIOTT AND THE TROUBLEMAKERS

It was Scotland all the way from now on. From deepest Livingston came Tim Elliott, veteran front man of Blues 'n Trouble, now well into his seventies. But still a blues man to his core. Accompanied by one one the country's finest guitarists, Sandy Tweedale, and Chris Agnew of the Rezillos on upright bass. With such a strong and experienced line up the quality was no surprise.

They mixed classic 20s and 30s blues with R&B from the 60s (a Yardbirds number stood out), plus some of the Elliott's own songs from his band, into a melange that gave variety and a strong urge to move the body. Tim's voice remains passionate and colourful, while his harmonica playing has real feeling for the genre. Agnew is as solid as they come, while much of Tweedale's playing is mesmerising. Fifty minutes flew by.

MAGGIE BELL

A short break and Tweedale and Agnew returned, this time with another septuagenarian of even greater legend. Maggie Bell has been belting out the blues since the sixties and has a huge variety of material on call. And any set that begins with Free's Wishing Well promises much. Bell delivers. And how.

Rough as a badger's arse, and all the better for it, her vocals remain powerfully distinctive, with constant improvisation and such a strong musical sensibility. An instrument of power and subtlety, best described, as she said herself, as pure gallus.

The voice is backed up by a great stage presence, enhanced by an audience that wasn't shy in showing exactly where their loyalties lay. Bell is a fan favourite, and not just for her voice. An entertainer supreme, she can be hilariously funny, has a deep river of anecdotes, and knows how to get a crowd involved. Even if it meant signing along to a Kylie song!

Long my the Legend of Maryhill keep on rocking.