James Gardener : Jockney Rebel, Le Monde, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Gardener is a weegie, living in London, and very much a Scot while he's there.  But a Scot with some Indian heritage as well.  So can he do an Indian accent and not be racist?

Through incidents from his upbringing and life Gardener questions identity, relationships and what it means to be a man.  There's some moving family material, about his brother who has severe cerebral palsy, but this is all about the laughs.  He has some good punchines, smart observations, and makes the point that it isn't imkjigrants who are the problem, it's the rich.  An endearingly socialist rant gets strong support from the audience.

There's no killer humour, but it's always enjoyable.  Good without being great.

Mark Thomas Comedy Counterattack, Stand 3, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Not stand-up from Thomas, but a talk about his career, both in comedy and as a political activist, and how the two form a common thread.  Beginning with three early experinces that shaped his attitude to life.  Realising the power of getting a laugh, seeing how a stage drama had the power to change views, and becoming aware of the power of collective action in forcing change.  

So this talk is often politic, but often funny too.  He takes us through some of the highlights of his activist activites, and the prolific use of absurdism to bith confuse and defy those in authority.  How he learned to adjust tactics to suit the tagets identified, to have purpose in protest.  That effective action is communal, cooperative, based on solidarity with those being affected by the injustices being fought.  And that the despicable criminalisation of Palestine Action, a legitimate protestt grouo against genocide, is going to be fought and fought.

Hilarious, inspiring, smart and informative.  With one final message - fuck 'em.

Ordinary Decent Criminal, Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Frankie (Mark Thomas) is in prison.  Maybe not your typical con, as he's botha writer and a political activist.  But also a drug user, and, the thing that got him inside, drug dealer.  He's in a new prison, a much nicer one than the old Victorian institutions, with one prisoner to a cell and decent sanitation.  Frankie looks to survive as best he can, make firneds weho might protect him, make himself useful.  A writer is often in demand. 

There's a wide range of characters he interacts with, some violent, some needy and vulnerable, and a female prison officer with her own agenda.  Thomas plays them all, all carefully crafted and well delineated.  He also goes off script, true to his stand-up roots, and interacts with the audience to provide extra laughs.  It's a high energy performance (in a very hot room) that never falters and keeps the aiudience constantly engaged.  There's prison politics and the poutside world.  Reminders of revolution, of British political violence in Northern Ireland (one of the characters may, or may not, be a previous member of the IRA), the excesses of the Thatcher period, a prisoner who is in touch with the realites and hardships of the real world.

Funny. scary, thought provoking and never dull, this is an impressive perfromance of a wide ranging and well considered script.  Great stuff.

Spirit of the Favela, Spiegeltent, Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 A different location, way out at the Gyle, a different Spiegeltent (plain outside, fancy inside, with a central stage), and a different show for us, outsiode our usual comfort zone.  I am not, historically, a fan of cabaret, but this one sounded intriguing.

And I came out very happy that I took the risk.  It was certainly different, but it was great fun.  Music, dance, some spectaciular acrobatics, a thread of a story about the poor of the favelas stadning up to the rich property developers.  Colour, spectacle, audience interaction, and some breathtaking stunts (the woman spinning from the ceiling by her hair was a highlight).  Very enjoyable.

Jo Caulfield : Bad Mood Rising, Stand 3, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

She's been told to be grateful for life - but there are too many fucking irritating people in the world.  The arch bitch is back with a nother doe of stories about friends, family and the people she meets.  And what's wrong wiyth them all...

Sharp observations on relationships, a sharp tongue against the world, despiser of fascists and brexshit, and hilarious audience interaction.  One of the funniest shows you'll see, and one of the bitchiest.  Always recommended

From Hilde, With Love

Low key, but all the more powerful for it, this is the mostly true story of Hilde Coppi, a young woman in Nazi Germany who finds herself falling into a small resistance group.  Their resistance isn't dramatic, more the kind of amateurish effort that concerned citizens feel obliged to take part in when face with the horror of a dictatorship.  Sticking up slogans, making radio calls to Moscow, listening in to banned radio stations.  Low level bravery, doing the best they can rather than passive acceptance.  They might not achieve much, but they take up the regime's resources, and every small sting counts.

The film begins with the arrest of Hilde and boyfriend Hans, and follows the by-then-pregnant young woman through her questioning, imprisonment, giving birth, and the end that we know from the start will be inevitable.Flashbacks show her falling in love with Hans, falling into the group he was a part of, not as an ideologue, but as someone persauded to do her bit to fight back.  The group are ordinary young people, aware that their government is evil.

Yet the functionaries they encounter in the system are not, by and large, the monsters we like to imagine, but ordinary people, trying to go about their jons.  Showing an human side at times.  Not fanatics, but full of the gullibility that comes with the urge to fit in with the system.

The acting is excellent, especially Live Lisa Fries as the scared but stoic heroine.  It's an impressive film, a hard watch at times, but for all the right reasons.  And a reminder that we must not be won over by fascism, but resist in whatever way we can.  Reform must not win here.

Luke Wright : Pub Grub, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Pub Grub as the opening poem, the sometimes-need to slum it a bit, to ignore the fine dining and go for the comfort food.  And if there's a theme then maybe that's it, but this show ranges far and wide, covering family and friends and the past and telling stories.  All done with sparkling verses and bucket loads of humour.

There's also fun ways for Wright to show off his technical mastery of the language and form.  A poem using no vowels but 'O'.  Another where every noun, vern, adjective and adverb staerts with 'D'.  And then there's the pub joke - an old fashioned one, mildly amusing at first telling.  But as the show goes on further versions emerge, five in total, so that the joy of wordplay becomes far funnier than the joke itself.

It's a joyful hour, witty, clever, and sometime sthought provoking.  With the ocaasional groan at the lunguistic tortuosity he indulges in to make hsi monovowel verses work out!

I've loved Luke's work since first seeing him over a decade ago, and this show is one of his best.  Not to be missed.