The Fringe offers a number of these sort of mini comedy variety shows.
They’re a great idea for the audience – naturally nervous about missing out on the best of the festival. And they’re a canny move for organisers – who only need to find a few comedians with 15 minutes of material to fill an hour long slot.
For a modest sum you get good value for money at this particular one – a feisty and friendly compere and a mini warm up/headline combo with some actual variation in style and content.
The stand out for me was Dave Green – the warm up in this scenario.
In the small venue some of his best bizarro deadpan jokes didn’t come off all the way, making him the rare case of a comedian who would do better with a bigger audience – so those bold enough to laugh at some of the more black humour give the rest of the audience the permission to do the same.
But something about the smaller audience made the dark jokes darker, and therefore funnier for those of us laughing. He’s already got a number of awards under his belt, so he’s hardly an unknown, but it’s definitely worth dropping by for a 15 minute jaunt into his addled mind.
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