2017 - shite

I don't think it would be unreasonable for me to describe 2017 as being shite.

I didn't think 2016, 2015, 2014 or 2013 could be topped. But they all were.

In the interests of being cheery on Hogmanay, here is my list of five things that made me happy in 2017 ...

5) Selling The House

Very double-edged sword this one but I was quite relieved when Bro and I closed on the sale of the family home. That relief collapsed very quickly into depression, for a number of reasons, but we closed it. Binning people's lives is hard, but we did it.

4) The Edinburgh Festival

My love for the Fringe is well documented and this year didn't disappoint. I was over-ambitious, injured myself on Day 1 and ultimately limped away half-way through it, but it was wonderful to be a tiny part of the largest arts festival in the world. I had hoped to take a show to the Festival this year ... maybe next.

3) My Niece

Hard to believe she turned 18 this year, left school, moved out and started Uni. But she did. I was never a part of the day-to-day minutiae of her life but I was proud and privileged to be standing on the sidelines, cheering her on.

2) Anya Anastasia, Alice Fraser and Bananarama

My love for young Ms. Fraser is well documented and I will get to that in the next section. However, in the absence of m'beloved Ms. Lili La Scala at this year's Fringe then I had an enormous cabaret-shaped hole in my heart, which was adequately filled by Ms. Anastasia. The last show of my 2017 Fringe, although I didn't know it at the time, and the best. She was simply wonderful.

The 'Nanas gig was just brilliant.

Joint 1) The Kincaid

M'beloved local has been something of a lifeline this year, moreso than previously. John and Morag (Mr. and Mrs. Owner) kept me grounded, Chef Robbie indulged me, and the regulars, many of whom are now firm friends, provided exactly the sort of banter I needed.

Joint 1) My Companion

In all the shite of the year, it would be hard to underestimate the impact of my Companion. She was always there, virtually or in reality, while forging her own career or raising her family.

I had a sudden and brutal attack of the shitters after seeing Alice Fraser (it wasn't causal). My Companion patiently waited outside the venue while I died in the loos at the Gilded Balloon. Young Ms. Fraser emerged, de-costumed after the show, and happily chatted away to her. My Companion told her how we had seen her earlier before the show, how she had wanted to take me and introduce me to her, and how I had said, "No, don't annoy her. She's preparing for her show ..." Alice said, "You should just have come over ..." I'll know next time.

Conclusions

It was a truly shite year. Frankly I'm amazed I'm still alive. 2018 has to be better. But there were moments in 2017 that made me smile so that's at least something ...

Happy New Year everyone.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" - Glasgow Cineworld, 20-Dec-17, 1240 Showing

"Not so much a movie, more an ongoing existential crisis in cinema form ..."

Regular readers, if there are such things, will know I have some history with the series of small arthouse movies under the collective moniker of Star Wars. See the angst for The Force Awakens and Rogue One ... and one day I may even blog about my experience in Santa Monica with the Phantom Menace.

However I had read good things about Last Jedi and was quite looking forward to going. Partly because I was going to a "Superscreen" in the Cineworld but mainly because, for once, I wasn't going on my own. Just as an FYI, there are three "Superscreens" in the Cineworld - they are premium screens with upgraded screen, sound, projection and seating. For once, the reality lived up to the promise - the presentation was stunning. It it worth a premium of five pounds per person or thereabouts? For you to decide, but for me it was well worth it.

Non-spoiler brief review

I liked it a lot, but ... there are quite a few big buts (and I like big buts) which I'll get into in the spoiler section. But suffice it to say it is pretty good. Most of the main characters have interesting story arcs and their narratives make sense - things happen logically out of their actions mostly - and as such the screenplay gets a thumbs up. There are some things which I didn't like but I'll get to those.

The summary is it well worth going to see. It is entertaining, emotional in places, and has moments of genuine tension and wonderful design and is a thoroughly enjoyable 150+ minutes of your time. If you can, see it on the biggest screen possible as the detail is impressive. Most impressive. It helps if you're already invested in the all the existing characters so far of course.

Spoiler-filled review

I'm going to assume you've already seen it so I won't regurgitate the plot.

There was a lot that worked. Rey, Ren and Luke's arcs were well thought out and developed pretty naturally - little seemed forced. Rey and Ren had the best sequence in the whole movie - after Ren kills Snoke he and Rey team up for the ultimate Galaxy Of Heroes style fight against Snoke's Praetorian Guard. This is a truly impressive sequence and is, to my mind, the best sabre fight yet in the Star Wars saga (trumping Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi's face-off against Darth Maul in the otherwise execrable Phantom Menace).

The visuals were, as you might expect, hugely impressive with levels of detail surpassing pretty much anything seen thus far. Sound design is stunning, with a wide dynamic range, lots of sudden cues and the most surprisingly effective sound effect in the whole film - sudden silence - deployed to quite superb effect. The music was a little understated but when needed the classic tracks were all deployed at the right time - John Williams' iconic score keeps getting better and better.

The screenplay is pretty funny in places, which I wasn't really expecting, with most of the humour coming fairly naturally rather than being clumsily forced. I was expecting to hate the Porgs but they turned out to be an excellent addition to the Star Wars canon - can Porg: The Movie be far away? Acting is a tad variable in places with Daisy Ridley appearing a little wooden at times - especially at the start of the film. Hamill, Driver, Boyega, Isaac and Serkis all do good work as Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Finn, Poe Dameron and Snoke respectively. Laura Dern is pretty good in the initially cold and unsympathetic character of Admiral Holdo and gets a spectacular send-off. Benecio Del Toro is largely wasted and bizarre. There are some cameos from older characters - one strange (Maz Kanata) and one rather touching (Yoda). And, of course, there is the luminous Carrie Fisher bringing the gravitas and poignancy to General Organa - but I'll speak of her a little later.

If you have daughters then this is a great film to show them as women are everywhere, fighting and working together with men, aliens and droids. Pilots, admirals, leaders, engineers - it's a truly diverse cast without seeming forced and, apart from one painful and out-of-character moment where Finn basically hepeats a plan to Poe after Rose has just explained it (a truly awful and misjudged sequence) it is a pretty good example of proper equality.

There is a lot wrong with the film however. The strand with Finn and Rose on Canto Bite is depressingly routine - a mcguffin is found (the First Order can track us through light speed!), a solution is quickly found (disable the tracker on the first ship but it's encrypted!), a plan is hatched (find the Codebreaker!) and a routine, by-the-numbers video game level plays out including an outrageously clumsy coincidence - hey, an expert codebreaker just happens to be in the same cell Finn and Rose are thrown into! - and a largely superfluous stampede action scene.

There is a also an extended clumsy sequence showing the First Order fleet in "hot pursuit" of what is left of the Resistance forces. Apparently the entire First Order can't catch up with three frigates at sub-light speeds and these frigates just manage to stay out of range of their cannons (why not just send hundreds of TIEs at them then?). Even General Hux points this out when he asks in exasperation, "What is the point of all this (waves hands at the First Order fleet) if we can't even shoot down three frigates?". From a narrative point of view it stalls for time to allow the other characters to get into position, but jeez does it feel clumsy. Having said that it does have an almighty pay off ...

There are three main issues I have though and these are: Rey's parentage; the identity of Snoke and the utter misuse of Captain Phasma (again).

With regards to Rey's parentage, the revelation that they were nobody junk dealers who traded Rey on Jakku was surprising and troubling given Rey's immediate and sudden mastery of the Force at the end of Force Awakens. It may well be Ren was messing with Rey and there is a payoff in Episode 9 but the revelation immediately got me thinking of midichlorians and that is not a good thing. For one of the biggest mysteries of the previous film this was a pretty weak reveal.

I suppose there was really no need to give Snoke a backstory - he was just the latest big bad Sith guy apparently - but with nothing at all revealed about who he was and where he came from I felt a little short-changed. Doubtless the expanded universe will create one for him if it hasn't already, but as with Rey's parents, this felt as if a big question from the previous film was not just ignored but outright dismissed and that did not sit right in my mind.

Captain Phasma, as played by the wonderful Gwendoline Christie, had possibly the worst and shortest arc in Force Awakens and here she fared little better. For a character setup to be one of the ultimate First Order warriors she is barely in the movie, turns up at the end, gets in a fight with Finn then plunges to her (presumably) fiery death. I'm hoping that she somehow survived and crops up again in Episode 9 but I'm not holding my breath.

It would be churlish not to mention the obvious parallels with The Empire Strikes Back. From Rey's Jedi training and vision in a place "strong in the Dark Side" to pretty much a remake of the walker battle on Hoth to a low-key and downbeat ending with the Empire/First Order in the ascendancy it's clear where the inspiration came from. But it's nowhere near as obvious as Force Awakens was with A New Hope and doesn't distract too much.

Finally we come to the late, great Carrie Fisher. There is little more to be said about what a loss she is to the world after her sudden death this time last year. At the end of the movie as she is flying away in the Falcon with what is left of the Resistance she gives a little monologue to Rey and, well, if your heart isn't melting then you're a stronger person than me. Then at the end credits a message is displayed, "Dedicated to our Princess, Carrie Fisher" ... what a loss but what a good swansong she made of what turned out to be her final film.

Summary

I know it sounds like I'm a bit negative with the Last Jedi - I'm really not. It has a lot of very good points and even the negatives you can probably overlook if you want. I liked it, just didn't love it. My Companion and I were chatting for hours afterwards about what it all meant so it must have been okay. However it has set up Episode 9 rather well - effectively JJ Abrams and team have been given a pretty clean blank slate so where they take the story there is anyone's guess. Last Jedi made me want to see the next one, so in that respect job done.

Top 10 Fringe Binge 2017

*cue Phil Lynott and Yellow Pearl*

A countdown of my Top Ten shows of the 54 I saw at this year's Binge (excluding Best Ofs)

10) Heather Litteer
9) Rachel Parris
8) The Lady Boys Of Bangkok
7) Fern Brady
6) Sophie Willan
5) Bec Hill
4) Lauren Pattinson
3) Alice Fraser
2) Jan Ravens

*drum-roll*

1) Anya Anastasia

Saved the best 'til last.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #54 - Anya Anastasia - Rogue Romantic; Assembly Checkpoint, 1930, 17-Aug-17

Anya Anastasia is an Adelaide-born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, comic, satirist, chanteuse and burlesque performer, and those are just some of her many talents. I was unaware of her work previously but had seen the posters, knew it was listed as "cabaret" (catnip to me) so went along.

And what a performance it was. First off, this was a proper cabaret atmosphere with tables set up around the stage, some smoke and haze, a grand piano in the centre of the stage and multiple instruments setup around the stage. As we walked in Ms. Anastasia was slumped "asleep" at the piano (similar to what Alice Fraser had done at the start of Empire, where she was sitting with her impressive back to the audience as the crowd was settling in). As the show started she woke up and played and sang a sleepy wistful balled, dreaming about love and noting those really aren't tears on her cheeks but glitter. At the end of this touching song she realised an audience was in, the three members of the band came in - a keyboard player, a bassist and a drummer/percussionist - and the show kicked off.

It was a great show. Ms. Anastasia was a startling, tall, stunning figure who played the piano beautifully (clearly classically trained given her wrist position and fingering), sung wonderfully, also accompanied herself during a song on the ukulele and was generally awesome. The songs (all self-penned) were witty, occasionally mucky and both touching and enormous fun. There was quite a bit of audience interaction which was fun (at one point a number of us were pulled up on-stage and ordered to play away at the piano - between Ms. A's legs - I nearly accidentally head-butted her which would not been a great ending to the set) and Ms. A was not backward in coming forward. All raunchy good-natured fun. The accompanying band was tight and efficient and all got a brief solo spot and a couple of contributions to the show in addition to their excellent playing. The show ended with a hugely energetic and dripping-with-double-entendre number about how she really didn't need anyone else to have a good time (basically it was about masturbation without ever mentioning the word) and then a touching final coda bringing the show full-circle by admitting no, it wasn't glitter on her cheeks ... but tears.

Really enjoyable show, and Ms. Anastasia was a tremendous, charismatic presence with a great voice and enormous musical talent, not to mention a stunning tall figure. She immediately joined the ranks of phenomenal cabaret performers and singers I've seen - joining the likes of Lili La Scala, Lady Rizo and Christina Branco. I shall certainly keep an eye out for more shows from her and if you like this sort of thing then you should seek her out. Highly recommended.

My enjoyment of the show was slightly hampered at about the three-quarter mark when a dark, lurking thought that I'd been suppressing all Fringe leaped unbidden (and had nothing to do with Ms. A - perhaps something had been said on stage which might have triggered it) into the frontal lobe, which really put me off my stride. Afterwards I had one further show to go to at the Grassmarket so hobbled down to there. However with more than an hour to go, the pubs all heaving and my feet, knees and back all shouting their discomfort I decided to skip it. Which was a shame - three execellent shows and a fairly good one is a pretty decent strike rate.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #53 - The 5.30 Cabaret; New Town Theatre, 1730, 17-Aug-17

This was a showcase cabaret-style show with a compère and four guest acts. The line-up changes each day, and as I keep saying such shows are excellent for seeing new talent and performers you might not have seen before so any Fringe schedule should include at least one of such shows I think ...

The compère was a Scottish chap called Bruce Devlin. I was aware of some of his stuff as he's quite a popular stand-up and broadcaster. He's also gay - a fact I only mention because he kept mentioning it so must be important to him - and quite camp. He worked the crowd pretty well at the start, chatting away to the audience and generating a lot of laughter. All pleasant enough but he left me a little cold - I wasn't a big fan of his schtick before the show and wasn't much of one after ... decent enough but not for me.

The first act was the excellent Tom Crosbie. I had seen a snippet of his act last year at one of Lili's shows (here) and this was just as slick and impressive - I really must catch up with his full set, You Can't Polish A Nerd, before I leave this year. As this is just a short snippet of his full set he started with some banter with the audience, then launched into a number of immensely impressive tricks with a Rubik's Cube. He had done these tricks at Lili's show but I was still blown away - I had learned way back how to solve the Cube (and it got me tons and tons of ladies *cough*) so had some particular interest. Very good start to the bill.

The second act was some burlesque! Yay! And it was my old Glasgow pal Gypsy Charms (who I'd seen earlier this Fringe run in Tits, Tease And Ten Pound Notes (here) and another past show of Lili's (here). She danced to two numbers and she was just as impressive as previously. All very pleasant. Just as a note though - the audience was significantly older than you might expect and I suspect many of them were unfamiliar with burlesque and strip-show etiquette. It had been explained to me several times, by artists, that the performers WANT cheers, applause and general enthusiasm, similar to comics who want you to laugh and clap as they can't hear a smile. So I did, which seemed to annoy the couple sitting folded-arms next to me. Fortunately I wasn't the only one who understood expected cabaret audience behaviour but it did feel a little odd. Anyway ...

The third act was a comedian called Christopher McArthur-Boyd, a young comic from the East End of Glasgow (yay!). A new act to me, I was initially a little unimpressed but as his set progressed he grew on me. Funny and engaging I ended up enjoying it (helps there were plenty of gratuitous Glasgow references) although probably not enough to seek out his solo show. But pretty good.

The final act was a chap called Dusty Limits. He was introduced as the heart and soul of cabaret, and the Fringe doesn't really start until Dusty arrives. Ahem. A rather camp chap his first number was a variation of the song Whatever Lola Wants (appropriately enough retitled Whatever Dusty Wants) and it was impressive. He stepped off the stage and roamed around the audience, sitting on folk's knees, touching people up ... all quite fun. So far so good. However after this he then launched into a charity appeal about a concern he was a trustee of and was collecting for after the show - a very worthy cause but such a lengthy appeal has no place in the middle of a cabaret set. His final song, which he said was different from the prepared one, was a variation of Twelve Days Of Christmas but retitled Twelve Days Of The Fringe. Initially amusing it went on and on and it was quite a relief when it stopped. I suspect he could and does do far better but I ended up unimpressed.

A real shame about that last act as otherwise it was a pretty solid, enjoyable show.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #52 - Andy Zaltzman - Satirist For Hire; The Stand Comedy Club, 1500, 17-Aug-17

I had seen Mr. Zaltzman on television, was vaguely aware he was a big cricket fan and he was part of the popular podcast The Bugle (memo to self - listen to more podcasts). He's been around for quite a while and I was looking forward to seeing him.

The theme of the show is, literally, "satirist for hire" - he had solicited ideas via email and on his blog for suggestions of topics to satirise. As the audience was gathering he also wandered up to the gathering folks asking for topics - the first few folks he asked offered fairly predictable responses, Donald Trump, Brexit, and he then asked me; my mind went blank as I had been trying to think up something different and so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "The portrayal of female characters in video games". To his credit he laughed and replied, "Not my field of expertise but I'll give it a go."

The trick I'm beginning to see repeated in these improvised shows is to have plenty of prepared material, styles, props or whatever, then work the audience suggestions into the pre-prepared and rehearsed structures - hugely difficult of course and requires immense talent, skill, quick-thinking, sharpness, quick wits (all traits that I totally lack) and rehearsal. I suspect the old adage of practice, practice and more practice is highly relevant to all comedy but especially improv.

I'll cut to the summary - Mr. Z was brilliant. He was highly entertaining, very funny and immensely engaging. His Trump and Brexit material was excellent - using a diary he read to us extracts of what he had thought at the time of the Brexit vote and the election of Trump; needless to say he was unimpressed and communicated so in a very funny way. He did pick up my video-game suggestion and managed to come up with a Grand Theft Auto joke. He also worked cricket (it was the first day of the England/West Indies Test match and he explained that missing it was a very special torture - I sympathised) into a very tortuous metaphor for life, which I greatly appreciated. Plenty of other stuff.

His show only started this week so many people might not know he's playing. His show is definitely worth your time, and as it starts at 1500 it's pretty easy to fit into a schedule (note to programme schedulers - please stop scheduling every second show to start between 1800 and 2000).

On leaving the Stand I was feeling quite buoyant. Two good shows to start the day with three more to go - perhaps my mid-Fringe blues were passing.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #51 - Eleanor Morton - Angry Young Woman; The Stand Comedy Club, 1205, 17-Aug-17

Eleanor Morton is a young Scottish comedian, based in London, who has been writing and performing for 4 or 5 years. She was a new name to me and I was unaware of her previous work or stand-up so I was quite keen to hear what she had to say.

The theme of the show was how she is getting increasingly angry at the world, but admitted up-front she generally struggles with maintaining anger, it usually expressing itself through frustration and tears. From that expectation-reset there then followed an excellent hour of stand-up with a very positive feminist slant. She talked about how on any comedy line-up, festival, TV panel show or showcase there is one woman but no room for any others - as if there is a quota system (it's getting better but still a long way to go). She talked about the inherent everyday sexism she encounters, from older, male producers and agents giving her advice while leaning in and touching inappropriately to being told "Hey, you shouldn't talk about sexual assault so much, it's a bit of a downer". To be fair, she had just beaten the chap who gave her this advice twice at Laserquest so he was probably feeling touchy and vulnerable.

She covered a number of other areas - she had an emotional breakdown at St. Andrews University (her condition improved considerably when she transferred to Glasgow, of course) which meant she couldn't really watch emotionally engaging movies as it would make her too anxious - she's over it now and this formed an ongoing theme in her set where she asked for titles of movies and she would rework them with female leads (the Taxi Driver one was inspired - "A woman in the 70s is working as a taxi driver ... nah, sorry, that could never happen ..."). She told excellent and thoughtful stories about some of the forgotten female figures in history who have just been airbrushed largely out of history such as Margaret Hamilton (not the actress) who led the software team at NASA that developed the navigation software for the Apollo programme, and Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who founded and ran the British Hotel (a hospital and care home behind the lines in the Crimean War). She told a fabulous story about Marilyn Monroe, which may or may not have been true but I really liked her interpretation. Lots of other good tales, including an etiquette question about smear tests and a baffling paper published by an American doctor about women and how anger in women is picked up and reinforced by vibrations in the Earth - seemed legit to me.

Her set ended with an impassioned plea for tolerance, understanding and celebration of equality, which was amusingly and deliberately cut short by a man, allowing her to flirt and apologise and "be the nice girl".

A great set from a very charismatic and distinctive performer, and a good start to the day.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #50 - Aditi Mittal - Global Village Idiot; Underbelly Med Quad, 1835, 16-Aug-17

I had heard of Ms. Mittal before - she has a Netflix special which I've not watched yet - but hadn't heard much of her stand-up. Being a female Indian comic I was looking forward to what she might bring and any perspectives she might share.

It was quite a small venue with a smallish audience so the atmosphere wasn't great. Ms. M proved herself a very pleasant host happily chatting about how thrilled she was to be at the Fringe - her first. She then told a brief anecdote about how incredibly lucky and statistically unlikely it is for her to be standing in front of us - out of a population of 1.3Bn, there are about 1000 comedians of whom 200 perform their comedy in English; 12 of those 200 are women. So you can't quite count the number of English-speaking Indian female comics on your fingers - need to press-gang a toe or two into the tally - but there aren't many.

Her comedy was generally quite genial and good-natured. She cheerfully satirised a number of Indian customs and traditions - from the panic of her Mother as Ms. M is in her thirties, single and childless (a big no-no in a traditional conservative country such as India) to the number of religions and Gods which means about 1 in 3 days is some kind of holiday. She railed against the Western method of going to the toilet - being initially shocked at the concept of toilet paper instead of washing - and how she had been utterly confused in Italy at the very concept of a bidet (apparently her hosts had been waiting for her to ask them about it - Ms. M had just used it to wash her clothes). She lamented that of all the stereotypes one could have picked to satirise Indians why did it have to be Apu from The Simpsons. She touched, but didn't dwell too much, on the British influence in India, how it still informs much of Indian life and emphasising that India had a much longer and richer history than  just Empire.

Overall I found her interesting and funny, but not terribly engaging. She was humorous, amusing and had a decent presence - just, for me, didn't really engage in the way others have this Fringe. Will still check out her Netflix special though.

Filing out I had two more shows to go to. I even walked up to the next venue and had a pint next door in the Hard Rock Cafe. But my feet and knee were in agony, the two shows so far had been a tad indifferent and I just couldn't be bothered so went back to the flat. Definite case of hitting the half-way wall. Hopefully the next day would be better.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #49 - Next Best Thing - How To Be Good At Everything; Pleasance Courtyard, 1645, 16-Aug-17

I hadn't booked many shows this day - my first wasn't until 1835 - which allowed me to catch up on reviews but did leave me at something of a loose end about 1430. A quick look online for something that might fit into the time slot and locale revealed a new (to me) comedy duo called Next Best Thing.

Next Best Thing are London-based duo Katie Davison and Jay Bennett, with the former playing the role of the earnest, serious one and the latter playing the role of the kooky, eccentric one. The theme of the show was they were going to teach us everything about everything, which was a nice hook but was a springboard into a series of surreal mimed sketches, audience interactions, bizarre scenarios and improvisation.

For a good while I thought I was experiencing my first genuine bust of the Festival. The duo bounced in and ran around the audience high-fiving, whooping and cheering, then launched into quite a bizarre set of scenarios. They asked for topics from the audience, each selected a male "victim" who they would shamelessly flirt with throughout the show (including an extended masturbation mime Ms. B carried out on her choice) and the topics covered included how to house a pet salmon, miming hats and first-date scenes, needing a wee and poo in one's pants, choosing a new housemate, explosive nose bleeds and all manner of other nonsense. It was initially very grating (to me) and was not working for me at all. Fortunately the girls won me over and by the end, while I wouldn't say I was fully onboard, I was at least starting to have some fun. I will admit that they were both young (terrifyingly young - surely they were some kind of A-Level drama-studies group), pretty and enthusiastic and that goes a long way in my shallow book.

They concluded the show by admitting they had failed to teach us everything about everything, but they went around the audience, including me, to see if anyone had learned anything. Guess what? We all had ... so it ended on a cheery upbeat note. As we filed out the girls were handing out "Good At Everything" stickers but I declined to put one on my jacket (boo, spoilsport).

They were good performers, and you couldn't deny the energy and imagination they brought. But I just couldn't escape the nagging feeling that, despite the duo rescuing it, I had just seen my least favourite show of the Fringe so far.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #48 - Sophie Willan - Branded; Pleasance Courtyard, 2000, 15-Aug-17

I had seen Ms. Willan at last year's Fringe (see here) - being dragged up onstage to learn to dance (the twerk, the tit-shimmy and the hip square) traumatised me for some time. That show was excellent but also quite harrowing given the subject matter so I hadn't actually bought any tickets for this year's show. However I had read a number of good reviews and decided to see this one.

I'm glad I did. Ms. Willan is quite the bundle of energy and bounded in (sadly the setup of the small theatre wasn't conducive to her clambering through us this time), dancing around the stage, shimmying at various folks and generally getting the atmosphere going. The introduction to the show was her chatting to various audience members (she lives in Manchester, and there was quite the contingent of Mancunians in).

She explained that after the previous year's show she had received quite a bit of media interest. She ticked a number of boxes - a woman, northern, working-class (proper working-class, not some Southern dandy pretending to be, while hiding his First in PPE from Oxbridge). This made her "grittily authentic". And so the theme of the bulk of the show was set - she was branded and labelled by the media, dominated as it is by white, respectable, middle-class, earnest professionals (similar to themes developed earlier by Twayna Mayne) and this stereotyping provoked expectations about behaviour, background and attitude. As you might imagine Ms. Willan did not fit into any of the neat little silos she was being forced into ...

She talked about her own background - drug-addict mother, coming into possession of her complete social-work file (the theme of last year's show), living with her grandmother, being convinced Richard Ashcroft of the Verve was her Dad (SPOILER - he isn't, but the story is a good one). Lots of family tales. Good punchlines, energetically and enthusiastically told.

The final part of the show really demonstrated her point about labelling and how people react to the label, rather than the person. She revealed something about herself and her past. I won't spoil it but I certainly didn't see it coming. And, of course, she was absolutely correct. The revelation brought with it lots of respectable middle-class cliched mental reactions - reacting to the label - which she totally refuted given her own experiences. I'm being deliberately vague here as if you get the chance to see her perform this show the less you know the better.

It was a great show, with an enthusiastic, honest and open performance from Ms. Willan and genuinely affecting and thought-provoking ideas. It's a shame her show is in such a relatively small space as more people need to go and see her - one of the best shows of my Fringe trip thus far.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #47 - Katy Brand - I Could've Been An Astronaut; Pleasance Courtyard, 1820, 15-Aug-17

I actually have a ticket for this show towards the end of the Festival, but as I had a two-hour or so gap and didn't want to just sit in a bar on my own I picked up a ticket for this performance. And it was ... all right.

Ms. Brand is an engaging and personable individual. The show was themed around her love for space and astronomy, despite having attended a strange Catholic school where maths was all but ignored. Yet from an early age she was obsessed with space - the first part of the show was largely based around the future predictions contained in a couple of books she had rediscovered in a box when moving house. Published in the mid-70s these books made all sorts of gee-whizz hopelessly-optimistic predictions about where we would be and how much of the solar system we'd be buzzing around in by, errr, now (I have a couple of such books too from when we cleared out my parents' house). The set then moved on to various other topics, including roping in a video appearance from the ubiquitous Brian Cox, talking about a fragment of a meteorite she had been given (I'm convinced it's just a pebble but what do I know?), her love for the old London Planetarium (which I visited back in '83 or '84 but is sadly long gone), the possibility of parallel universes (where she could actually be an astronaut) and ultimately how she's enrolled in a two-year on-line A-level maths and is aiming to tweet progress, and hear from others about their dreams and aspirations, using the hashtag #katydoesmaths.

All very entertaining and interesting but for some reason it just didn't work for me. Ms. Brand is a good performer and storyteller but it just didn't gel. Yes, I laughed in places but for some reason I wasn't really engaged - it might have been Fringe fatigue or my mind was already thinking about the next shows and whether I could squeeze in dinner sometime so I probably wasn't really concentrating. Which is a shame. Don't know why, I just wasn't that excited about what she had to say. Very much a case of "it's not you, it's me" I suspect.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #46 - Twayna Mayne - Black Girl; Pleasance Courtyard, 1645, 15-Aug-17

This was a late addition to the schedule, but a very good one. I wasn't aware of Ms. Mayne's previous work and I was initially unsure about this one given the title and presumed content but gave it a go (it's the Fringe after all) and I was pleased I did.

She introduced her set thanking us for all coming to see "... the only solo show from a black woman at the Edinburgh Fringe" which surprised me (plenty of folks of Subcontinent or Far East heritage but none of African heritage). Her theme, which came up again in a later show, was stereotypes and expectations. She started with a hilarious yet troubling tale of how she had been put off Africa for ever by having an awful holiday with a friend in Morocco. I can't quite remember all the details but she received considerable racial abuse from the locals and highlighted she had been offered more drugs in one day than she ever had in her whole time in London. The tale concluded with her and her friend breathing a sigh of relief on leaving with the line, "On the plus side we didn't get abducted or raped".

She followed with a video compilation of how black women are routinely portrayed in media - all sassy dance moves, backside-shaking, attitude and carefully-managed, sanitised and packaged-for-white-audiences Beyoncé - then proceeded to highlight how different people are, using her own history and background as the main example. Her history was interesting - she and her brothers were fostered and ultimately adopted by a white couple living, as she said, not in an urban inner-city environment but in a leafy suburb in a nice house with a conservatory. Holidaying in Devon, listening to the Archers ... not the typical upbringing according to the media for someone with her background.

As she became a teen she wanted to head to America as her cultural touch points were Salt 'N' Pepa and the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, but after spending some time in New York where people just could not seem to understand she was black and British, including a line from someone, "You mean there are black people outside America? Where else?" To which she replied, "Ummm .... Africa? There's a whole continent of them ..." Later she spoke of embracing her heritage, including going with a political hairstyle - she illustrated this with a picture of Michelle Obama, noting how black hair does not naturally look like that then photoshopping various "ethnic" hairstyles to show how clearly she had been sanitised for white consumption.

The set concluded with quite an impassioned plea, very similar to the one Shazia Mirza had made the previous night, for the feminist movement to recognise that not every woman is a white, middle-class Guardian-reader and should represent far more experiences and cultures than just what is deemed acceptable to this self-selecting privileged group.

I've probably made the show sound more "worthy" than it actually was. Ms. Mayne was funny, witty and engaging and there are plenty of genuinely funny moments. But plenty of thoughtful moments too. It was a good show from an interesting new talent.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #45 - Pippa Evans - Joy Provision; Pleasance Courtyard, 1440, 15-Aug-17

I hadn't heard of Ms. Evans before the Fringe. She's been performing award-winning comedy since around 2008 and has appeared on numerous BBC radio and television programmes as well being a key member of the Showstopper! The Improvised Musical troupe. I didn't know this prior to the show so filed into the theatre assuming this would be stand-up. Happily it was largely musical, which was a very pleasant and welcome change of pace.

Ms. Evans has a great voice, and was superbly backed up by a percussionist and a fabulous keyboard player. The show's theme was, with so much seriousness, so many issues and so much hopelessness in the world, it's time to bring some fun, nay, joy back. And so this show comprised some stand-up but mainly happy and positive songs, including a brilliantly improvised one based on an audience member's dreams of what he had wanted to be as opposed to what he became (wanted to be a marine biologist, ended up a banker - cue good-natured boos).

Ms. Evans was a great performer. Highly charismatic and energetic she bounded into the audience several times and happily sang her lungs out with expert accompaniment. She was a hugely funny and appealing act and, yes, she did bring the joy and banished for a short while at least the realities of life outside the door.

Thoroughly recommended, and made me want to seek out more work from her.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #44 - Funny Women Fest; Gilded Balloon, 1200, 15-Aug-17

The Funny Women group is a kinda collective collaboration among various women comics to provide advice and assistance to new and existing female acts. In addition they support various charities, with this show being in aid of Period Poverty. It was a showcase and comprised a compère and three comics, each of whom would do a turn then be interviewed by the compère to discuss their Fringe show and other topics.

The compère here was the excellent Lynn Ruth Miller. First thing to note is she's 83, and took comedy up shortly after turning 70. So already pretty impressive. She was also very funny. As you might imagine much of her chat was about aging, how things slow down, dating at her age and so on. She isn't doing a solo show this year which is a shame.

The first comic she introduced was Caroline Mabey, and very funny she was too. Her brief routine involved being highly competitive at online Scrabble (which is apparently a much more reliable way of meeting men than dating apps or websites) and how this competitiveness translates into other areas of her life such as seeing eye-tests as a challenge where the object is to beat the optician and win a pair of glasses (she delivers it much better than me, and the Guardian has already declared it one of the best line at the Fringe so far). During the interview section they amiably chatted about being a woman in comedy, how the scene has changed over the last decade or so and about her show this year called "Quetzals" (the national bird of Guatemala, apparently).

Second up was Rosie Wilby, who was hugely funny. She only had time to do a small portion of her set but it led up to a great punchline with a graph showing the difference between the male and female orgasms (PROTIP - the "plateau" section between arousal and happy finish is much, much longer for one sex. I won't spoil it be saying which...) She had originally been a rock musician but had been encouraged to explore comedy (which, she said, told her what people thought of her musical ability). An excellent snippet of her routine. During the interview she happily announced the availability of her first book - Is Monogamy Dead - and chatted about her current show "The Conscious Uncoupling" which is a follow-on to a show she had done earlier in the Fringe.

The final act was Scottish comic Jay Lafferty, who was the only one I was at least vaguely familiar with. A former producer and writer she had only moved into performing a few years ago. Her brief routine was similarly funny as all the comics on the bill were. However I can't really remember too much about it, other than I did laugh quite a lot during it (that's the thing about seeing so many shows - they all collide and merge into each other). The subsequent chat covered similar ground as the previous ones and her current show "Besom" went onto the must-watch list.

At that the show concluded. As ever, these Best-Ofs and showcases are excellent for introducing you to new talent you might not have considered previously. The interview sections were also interesting - a theme that came up several times but was never really explored was why so many women entered comedy in the mid-2000s after decades of being very much the minority on the circuit. It would have been interesting to have explored that a little further. As the show starts at midday this show is an excellent way to start a Fringe day.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #43 - Shazia Mirza - With Love From St. Tropez; Gilded Balloon, 1930, 14-Aug-17

Shazia Mirza is a fairly well-know comic, writer and television/radio contributor while not quite breaking through into the mainstream. I had seen some of her material before but was slightly reticent about going to see her for an hour - there's only so much of being told how wrong, as a white heterosexual male, I am about everything and responsible for all the problems in the world.

Nonetheless it was a good show and a good performance. Born in Birmingham to Pakistani Muslim immigrant parents you can imagine what a number of her themes are. Fortunately it wasn't trowelled on too thickly.

The title of her show comes from a holiday she had recently in the south of France, and is a springboard into a routine about the burkini, nude beaches, transparent bikini bottoms and how police in France are now fining women on beaches for covering up. She ranged over a number of other topics too, including a battle she had with officialdom about her ethnic status. She had ticked in a form "British" but they had come back with "Yes, but where from originally?". "Birmingham". "No, originally?". "Originally, from Birmingham." And so on and so forth. Interesting and funny stuff

She concluded her routine with quite the impassioned plea - starting off with the controversial statement (to a predominantly white, middle-class Guardian-reading weekday audience) that Donald Trump's "pussy-grabbing" wasn't that bad. Using that hook she proceeded to lay into the priorities of the Feminist movement, specifically that while they could put together huge marches to object to a sexist pig in the White House, the movement was curiously reticent about putting together marches to protest about the 100s of millions of Muslim women worldwide kept in abject slavery, sold into marriages, abused, treated worse than livestock and honour-killed by family members for the vaguest "dishonour". Powerful, affecting stuff.

I wasn't really sure whether I enjoyed the set or not. She is a thoroughly professional, well-practiced stand-up and clearly passionate. But I left her show feeling more and more that I was not just part of the problem, I WAS the problem. What can I do about it?  I had one last show to go this evening but was sore and a little deflated so wandered back to the flat, pondering my white male privilege and general ennui ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #42 - Bec Hill - Out Of Order; Gilded Balloon, 1715, 14-Aug-17

I was initially put off young Ms. Hill because of the rather scary photo she uses in her Fringe magazine advertising and flyers (which is the one attached to this article). I'm very glad I changed my mind because she was brilliant.

Adelaide-born Ms. Hill is a pretty decent definition of the word "kooky", although that's not to suggest she isn't a serious talent. Her USP is something she calls paper-puppetry - using very well drawn flipcharts complete with moving parts to talk through a particular routine or set of gags. There are examples of her doing this on YouTube. Combined with a very engaging and energetic stand-up style makes her a very attractive proposition.

The show started with us filing in and Ms. H greeting us all at the door and handing us a little plastic ball - its purpose would become apparent later on. Onstage she presented a board with a matrix of Post-It notes stuck to it, each with a topic written on it. She explained she wanted us to shout out whatever topic we wanted and that way each performance would be unique and different. Hopefully the order in which we shouted out topics would also provide some interesting segues and links.

There then followed 50 minutes so of hugely engaging, slightly eccentric stand-up. Topics ranged from flying (people cheering when a plane successfully lands), to how not to make a DVD (a charming tale about how badly her one and only recorded gig went - she cheerfully showed us a copy and said it's still available on Amazon) to Elon Musk (she's quite a fan) to ultimately winding up the show (with an encore). Many funny and touching tales, including one about how her boyfriend had proposed to her during a show (at this same venue, the Gilded Balloon), how they had got married (at the Gilded Balloon) and how the following day was the couple's first anniversary (cue lots of 'awwws' from the audience, and me mentally ticking off yet another comic I will never be able to get with).

The balls? One of the topics was Wear A Silly Hat. She put on a hat with a net on top, knelt in front of the audience, held out her hands and we all pelted her with them. It very much worked in context.

She was great fun. A genuinely charismatic and engaging comic with huge amounts of energy and charm. the flip chart and paper work were excellent and I would have happily listened to her for hours more. Thoroughly recommended.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #41 - Sean Kelly - Chat Show; Underbelly Med Quad, 1535, 14-Aug-17

Sean Kelly is a new name to me. He's apparently quite famous via the Storage Hunters television show where his contributions include being an auctioneer type. He's doing this chat show and a stand-up show too. I hadn't really heard of him, but a few days ago Tiff Stevenson had tweeted that she was appearing on it so, as I had some time this day, decided to pop in and see who was on.

The format of the show is he had a couple of guests on, then did a charity auction for Help For Heroes, allowing him to both raise some money for a very worthy cause (he is a former veteran who served in Iraq and was injured) and for him to perform, what I presume is, his auctioneering schtick.

First off, he made for quite a pleasant host. Initially I was slightly put off - another loud American - but warmed to him as he seemed genuinely interested in his guests and the audience.

His first guests were a magician duo called Morgan And West, who had two headline shows this year - a kids' magic show and their proper show which was on in the same venue immediately after this gig. Usually magicians leave me pretty cold but this pair seemed quite engaging. They carried out a card trick - one they had said had been pared back to the bone to show the "essence" of a card trick and pretty impressive it was too. I doubt I'll go and see their show but they were engaging and interesting guests.

The second guests were a couple of members of the Murder She Didn't Write troupe and they were interesting too. Their show is an improvised version of Cluedo. At the start of the show an audience member is selected at random and tells the troupe the murder victim, the implement, the murderer and the whole audience selects a theme - the troupe then improvise around that. All seems good fun. The two were engaging and interesting (I didn't catch their names but the red-haired lady was both an actress and director of the show).

The show concluded with an auction, which I had been dreading but turned out to be good fun with Mr. Kelly bringing the celebrity showmanship. Several of the audience were into it and a decent amount of cash - not far off £100 by my reckoning - was raised.

It was a decent enough show and whiled away another hour, but hardly essential. Probably helps if you're familiar with Mr. Kelly and/or his guests are interesting.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #40 - Best Of Edinburgh Showcase; Pleasance Courtyard, 1320, 14-Aug-17

My first compilation showcase of the Fringe (by no means the last). These showcases are really good platforms to see snippets of performers you might not be considering. There are usually a number of them kicking off around lunchtime throughout the Fringe so it's a good way of starting the day and also becoming aware of new acts who are doing full shows - certainly a recommended way to do things if you're new to the Fringe.

There were five comics on the bill today - the first and compère was Gordon Southern. A genial comic with good banter and a good rapport with the audience. I think I'd heard the name before but couldn't be sure - looking up Wikipedia he seems to have been around for a while. He was good enough to make me want to check out his full show, which I guess is the point.

Mark Simmons was next, a very droll one-liner style comic. I found him pretty funny with some laugh-out-loud gags - silly stuff mostly but done very well with excellent timing. He assured us that these jokes were all from the previous year's show and none would be repeated in his current show - a line that most of the comics in this line-up were assuring us with.

Stephen Carlin followed - he was pretty good. His solo show is called "Rise Of The Autistic" which is enough to make me almost want to go and see him. He did a number of good jokes, including a routine about coming-out to his Scottish parents as a non-drinker - it would have been easier to come out as gay. I did think his abbreviated routine faltered a little, as if he just lost the place slightly, but he pulled it back. A good set.

Eshaan Akbar was the next comic on. I hadn't heard of him but he immediately won me over with an early line, "Yeah, I was a Muslim but them I discovered bacon and alcohol ..." His background is interesting, he came across very well, was on the tubby side (which he mentioned) so I felt connected to him - yeah, good comic. Will try and check out his show.

Last man up was probably the best of the bunch - Irish comic Neil Delamere. He launched into a very  funny and energetic set, starting with "Hello everyone! I've just flown in from Europe ... Dublin" and going from there. Very good little set - there was a chap from Northern Ireland sitting next to me in the front so he spent a little time going through the difference between a Northern and a Southern Irish accent (the latter being good for soothing, reassuring speech, the former being good for ordering evacuations of planes). He was very funny.

With a final wind-up from the host the show concluded. A decent selection of comics, all pretty unknown to me. Shame it was an all-male line-up but I guess that can happen. I will certainly look out for at least one or two of these guys. As I said at the start, a best-of showcase is a good way to start a long Fringe day ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #39 - Stephen K Amos - Talk Show; Gilded Balloon, 1600, 13-Aug-17

Stephen K Amos has been running these Talk Shows at the Fringe for many years now. He does a bit of stand-up and banter with the audience, invites a number of his comedy chums for a chat on-stage, sometimes they do a snippet from their show, and it's all very pleasant. I'd been meaning to go to one for a while - the line-up is announced on the day via various Twitter feeds but you can't follow everything so I had no idea who was going to be on. This particular one was also being recorded for a podcast.

There were four comics in the show (in addition to the very congenial Mr. Amos) - one I tolerate, one I loathe and two I worship the ground they walk on. See if you can guess which is which ...

First up was Mark Thomas. A veteran of the 80s anti-Thatcher alternative-comedy movement and still, apparently, fighting those same battles thirty-plus years on. He was interesting but oh so virtue-signalling ... "Yeah, when I got involved in the Miner's strike ...", "When I walked the wall between Israel and Palestine" and other tedious tales. I'm sure he's earnest and means well, but I already found him annoying back in the mid-80s and my opinion has not changed ...

Second up was the magnificent Tiff Stevenson. Regular readers will be well-aware she is something of a comedy goddess to me and she was good value here. Having already seen her show, Bombshell, last week some of what she was saying was familiar but there was plenty of wide-ranging chat too and she was immense value. She was heading off to do her own show at 1730 so she didn't get as much time as Thomas, which was a real shame. Please go and see her.

I had noticed Tiff in the sidelines as the show had started so I knew she was coming on. I had also seen the fourth. So the third guest was something of a surprise - only bloody Alice Fraser! Like Tiff, I think Ms. Fraser is one of the good 'uns - rather than have a chat she did an all-too-brief little bit of stand-up then sang a song accompanying herself on the banjo. She is wonderful. Still tickets available for Empire in this run so do yourself a favour and go and see her.

The final guest was Tom Stade. I had seen performances from him before on television and he was exactly the same here - appearing as a perpetually stoned loud Canadian. He had a good rapport with Mr. Amos and the chat was good fun, but after the double-whammy of Tiff and Alice I found him something of a let-down. Still might go and see his show though not sure I could stick an hour of him.

With that the show concluded. I was very pleased to have seen Tiff and Alice again - if I try to do a greatest-hits day before my time here is up then their shows will be very much on the agenda if tickets are available. Mr. Amos was a fine and charismatic host - he's doing a solo show too so I might try and schedule it in. The Talk Show runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the Fringe and, as it starts at 1600 and runs 'till about 1715 is a pretty convenient time to either kick-start an evening at the Fringe or transition you from day-mode to night-mode. You do need to take a chance on the line-up as it usually sells out each day, but it's worth a punt.

I had another show to go to after this - Phil Wang at the Pleasance Courtyard - but my heart just wasn't in it - neither were my feet, knees or back. That Fringe Wall very definitely staring me in the face. I hobbled back to the flat a little dejected. I had no tickets bought for anything until the following Friday - I was meant to be spontaneous now - but just wanted to sit down in a dark room for a while ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #38 - Dr. Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman; Pleasance Courtyard, 1400, 13-Aug-17

Not quite sure why I booked this - probably because it looked interesting and I was going to be in the area anyway. If I recall correctly I glanced at the synopsis and thought "Could be fun. A jolly romp through the history of menstruation - cheery post-lunch stuff. I'm in ..."

I was quite wrong. Much more of a performance art piece than cabaret or comedy. Starts with an interesting lecture, then gets weirder and stranger ...

Dr. Marisa Carnesky (she is a real PHD graduate) has been around the performance art scene for quite a while. She was handing out information sheets at the start detailing her previous works, brief bios of the members of the troupe and credits for the show. The show started with Dr Carnesky giving a lecture, talking about the history of menstruation in art and mythology - genuinely fascinating stuff. After watching a brief video in the dark the spotlight picked out Dr. C, except the side of her face was now smeared in blood. "Oh, this is going in a strange direction" I thought ... and indeed it did.

The Guardian actually wrote up this show earlier in the year and they do it far better than I'm capable of, so take a look here.

The general theme seems to be the cultural appropropriation by men (men again) and the taming and isolation of menstruation, robbing it of its magic and spiritual and mental monthly rebirth. Or something. I'm all for celebrating the monthly cycle but I've been lucky enough to know a couple of women in my time and there wasn't much spiritual about the monthly visit from Auntie Flo. I certainly agree we need to be more open and honest about such things, and I'm happy that people such as the good Doctor and her troupe of Menstronauts are out there doing avant-garde art in celebration of a fundamental part of life for half the population and I'm glad I saw the performance.

It was a fascinating, challenging show. Certainly something I hadn't seen before.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #37 - Meow Meow's The Little Mermaid; The Hub, 2230, 12-Aug-17

This show was not actually part of the Fringe but part of the big grown-up serious Festival, which is usually far too highbrow and intellectual for me but I was needing a cabaret fix and this fitted the bill. I was glad the venue was literally next door to my flat as if it involved another long walk I think I'd have bailed out as the feet, knees and back were all beginning to give up.

Meow Meow is Australian performer Melissa Madden Gray and this cabaret show was based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (not, as her character in the show said several times, the Disney film). The show was loosely themed around the quest for love, whether it really exists (SPOILERS - it does, apparently) with some dialogue and comedy between songs. The staging and lighting was quite impressive (a round stage with various trapdoors and cable lifts) but sadly I was stuck in the Gods and didn't have the best of views.

I'll cut to the summary - it was okay but hardly essential. Ms. Gray was a charming presence with a good voice. At one point she organised the audience in front of her and performed a stage dive - always a risky manoeuvre I've always thought for a lady, especially one in a tight corset - being handed around the audience from one end of the stage to the other, so good on her for that. The songs were decent and well performed but not very memorable - the only ones I recognised were two covers which bookended the show, Wonderful Life by Black and Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead - and the whole thing lacked a little joie de vivre and swagger which I've always associated with cabaret. It was well done, well staged ... just made me miss AFVS (Another Fucking Variety Show) more. Ms. Gray is good, but she's no Lili.

The show ended and we filed out. Fortunately I was only walking across the road to the flat. But I couldn't help but feel I had hit a wall somewhere - Day 10 at the Fringe concluded with me starting to think of chucking it in and going home ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #36 - Laura Davis - Cake In The Rain; Underbelly Med Quad, 2010, 12-Aug-17

Ms. Davis was another new name to me. She had been recommended by Alice Fraser who had told all her Twitter and podcast followers to go and see her - I do what I'm told.

After the previous show - Lauren Pattison - I was a little shaken and still mulling over what I'd just seen so perhaps wasn't in the best frame of mind to see another show. We filed in and Ms. D was standing on the stage greeting us. As she later said, the venue had provided a little cubby for her to hide away in before and after the show but she had paid 10,000 Aussie dollars to be here so was going to be visible as much as possible. Once we were all seated she kicked off the set ...

I can't remember that much about it unfortunately, not because it wasn't good (it was - very good) or Ms. Davis wasn't memorable (she was) just at this point in the Fringe unless I write down notes quickly then the shows all tend to merge into one. I do remember laughing a lot, and one tale in particular involving a guy stalking her who eventually approaches her and asks her to come with him into the parking lot to help fix his car had a killer punchline ("See how far we've come as feminists? A generation ago no man would have asked me to fix his car ...") but just made me think "Why can't scummy men leave women alone?" Much of her set had a certain melancholy air about it - she had been diagnosed with both depression and CSI (not the TV programme but Communication of Suicidal Intent - where you're just sitting around doing something and suddenly the brain will suggest, "Hey! Why don't you ram that knife into your eyeball?") but assured us she was all right now. A little like Fern Brady however I wasn't so sure ...

That makes it sound a little depressing but it wasn't. Ms. Davis was an excellent comic and a charismatic and charming presence on stage. Well worth going to see.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #35 - Lauren Pattison - Lady Muck; Pleasance Courtyard, 1745, 12-Aug-17

Ms. Pattison was a new name to me. She's a young (23) Geordie from Newcastle (we had quite the contingent from the North-East in the relatively small performance space so she was well supported). She introduced the show by initially apologising - she felt she had food poisoning and warned us if she suddenly uncontrollably vomited it was to be considered part of the show. Fair enough. She later tweeted how ill she was feeling so it was great she was able to get through the show as well as she did.

Far smarter people than me have tried to dissect comedy, but one of the common themes people witter on about is subverting expectations - setup an anecdote, the audience instinctively think it's going a certain way, subvert their expectation ... hardly a shocking conclusion, but it's pertinent here. Ms. P setup her routine with a fairly standard tale - she wanted to be a full-time professional comic but opportunities to pursue such a career path in Newcastle were limited so she decided to move to London, leaving her boyfriend of 4 years (and live-in partner for 2) back in Newcastle. She and her boyfriend talked about this and agreed to work a long-distance relationship. As she then said, "You can imagine how that worked out ..."

Now, so far, so good. Ms. P was great company, very funny, the setup is in place, the expectation is set ... however the set gradually changed in tone and content. While still very funny the path the tale took gradually got a little darker. She was "ghosted" by her boyfriend (who she later found out had been carrying on while she was away) and found herself in London with no friends, no money and working in Boots to try and eat (a job she would be fired from as her way of trying to make customers feel at ease was to make jokes which didn't always go down to well). She was stood up twice, heartbreakingly, by the boyfriend when he finally got back in touch, performed comedy but was constantly patronised by other comics and some audience members, she became reclusive, was eventually persuaded to go on a date by her flat mates (three other comics, male and older), ended up being nearly drugged and having her confidence and self-belief, which she admitted were already low, generally beaten down. However she had agreed to write and perform a Fringe show - her first solo spot - and decided her quest to improve her confidence and self-belief would be the theme.

I've gone in to quite a bit of detail there for a reason. The subversion of expectation. The initial setup had seemed quite conventional but she had taken it into troubling places - always with an eye on the next joke of course. I was uncomfortable at this point in the set - why did such an intelligent, witty, articulate and attractive young woman feel this way about herself? But the set concluded in an unexpected and incredibly affecting way. I won't spoil it but she does something physically, then talks about how this thing had affected her all the way through school and in another date she went on - as someone who could relate to this thing I was quite stunned and the revelation shed a lot of new light on much that had gone before. The set concluded with a final encounter with the boyfriend who actually turned up this time. Again, I won't go into spoilers, but I was sitting literally five feet from her as she told this concluding tale and the emotion was perfectly clear on her face and in her voice - this was not easy for her to say. The final conclusion, and the ultimate punchline and point of the whole set, was a life-affirming and positive message - she took back control from all those who had put her down and treated her like muck.

And ... relax.

Quite the emotional and impressive show, by a talented young performer. This was her first solo show - hopefully there's a lot more to come from her.

As we filed out however a conclusion that has been nagging me for some time came back in a depressing rush ... I have seen and heard a lot of female comics over the years (I much prefer female comics to male) and a significant theme for many, though by no means all, is how awful men can be. After a while there's little point in pathetically mewling, "We're not all like that ..." Women are not without their own hang-ups and issues generally too, but men are the problem. Glad I'm not one ...

Anyway, she was very good and you should get to see her now before she becomes massive.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #34 - Janey Godley's Podcast - Live At The Fringe; New Town Theatre, 1350, 12-Aug-17

Janey Godley is something of a Scottish comedy legend. She seems to have been around for years (which she has) but never quite broken through into the mainstream, and by that I mean the BBC. If you listen to, watch or read any of her stuff you can start to admiringly understand why she might not fit into the cosy consensus of the mainstream media.

This was episode #358 of her podcast and was a double-header with her daughter Ashley Storrie (also a stand-up comedian, performer and writer). Ms. Godley has been doing this podcast every week for over seven years (not sure if they've all been with her daughter but you can find the links at her website here) and this was, effectively, a live natter. She stated early on that as so many folks were hearing this for the first time they would tone down some (though by no means all) of the political content. The big orange manatee from across the Pond did get some abuse, although I thought that was dreadfully unfair on those large marine mammals.

Anyway, as we filed in both Ms. G and Ms. S were already on stage and cheerfully chatted away to us as the hall (the Freemasons' Hall no less - this got quite a few mentions needless to say) filled up, including christening many people who walked in with fictional names and biographies - very funny. Eventually it hit 1350 and we kicked off ...

Both comics stated up front that they hadn't prepared anything, but I'm sure they had a couple of standby topics they could fall back on. The loose structure was an opening chat then heading to the podcast Facebook page where people had been posting questions. The general tone of the show/podcast was a very genial mother/daughter mucky-mouthed chat. Topics ranged all over the place, from Ashley's reluctance and revulsion at physical contact though Janey's realisation years ago that after reaching a certain age she could no longer filter herself and decided she just didn'\t give a f*ck to lots of family anecdotes, leg-shaving, trying to find Ashley a man and a variety of other topics. It was very funny and the interplay between mother and daughter cheerfully foul-mouthed and, at one point towards the end, very touching.

I had never listened to Ms. Godley's podcast before but will start to - look out for Episode 358 as I might make the final edit (they had asked for Fringe show recommendations and I suggested one). Both have solo shows at the Fringe this year (see here and here) and Ms. Godley is also in a play - busy folks.

Ms. Godley and Ms. Storrie were hugely good company and I look forward to seeing more from both. Sadly this was the only show of this format they were doing this Festival so please check out their solo shows if you can.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #33 - Tom Allen - Absolutely; Pleasance Courtyard, 2130, 11-Aug-17

I'd seen Tom Allen on the usual programmes - Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, etc. I liked him a lot so was keen to see him during the Fringe. We were late getting into the venue (Beyond at Pleasance Courtyard), queuing was a nightmare as the Pleasance Courtyard was packed (Friday night at the Fringe - the exact opposite of "quiet"), but we finally shuffled in. Mr. Allen met us when we were pouring in, saying hello, helping to usher us to seats, chatting, keeping up a running commentary as the large venue filled up - very pleasant and a nice change (I'd seen Katherine Ryan do something similar a couple of years ago).

After Ed Gamble had finished previously, I had an hour and a quarter or so to wait. As it was cold and mobbed I had seriously thought of just bailing out. I'm glad I didn't, he was hilarious. Openly gay ("But who has the time?"), camper than a row of tents and very dapper, he launched into a hugely funny and energetic set ranging over many topics. Main routines involved recently passing his driving test and taking his family on an outing to Bluewater (markedly showing up the differences in attitude between him and his Dad); the nightmare he'd experienced when a child at going to another child's birthday party and the activities involved (including cramming 15 children into a car - different days), and being invited as the token gay on a hen weekend, then finding out there was ANOTHER token gay invited.

It was all huge fun. Mr. Allen is a very engaging character, his style and delivery is refreshingly different and he has immense charisma. There are tickets available for his shows and I would suggest this is a must see. A great end to a long day.

Well, it shouldn't have been the end. I had one more show to go to but that didn't start until 11.45PM and I was tired, sore all over and decided to trudge back to the flat, where I got caught up in the Military Tattoo crowd yet again. By the end of the Festival I might finally figure out my timings ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #32 - Ed Gamble - Mammoth; Pleasance Courtyard, 1915, 11-Aug-17

Ed Gamble has been something of a fixture on shows like Mock The Week over the last few years so I was looking forward to seeing him live for the first time. This show was in Upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard - quite a small intimate venue and I was sat at the front (where I like to be - mainly because if I'm in the front I'm negatively impacting the fewest people around me). On Mr. G bounded and I noted two things immediately - he's quite a tall, well-built chap and he's both loud and full of energy. No laid back interludes here - full-on impact right from the start.

He was excellent. Very funny with loads of laugh-out loud moments. He explained how the title Mammoth had come about as he had originally envisioned the show being packed with big, punchy, contemporary, satirical truth-bombs; his girlfriend had suggested it was because he was big and cuddly, liked to lie down a lot and without company would likely become quickly extinct. He felt this was a fair point.

A great and energetic hour of comedy. Many good routines: he was passionate about heavy metal but looked and sounded like a public school boy; getting a crap tattoo; being thrown out of his first band Tethered Priest; running the marathon (he's a type-1 diabetic so was raising money for a diabetic charity); private school experiences; his problems with the 69 position (hey, it was an eclectic set); experiences in a spin class and a rather unfortunate choice of username; how Jesus had great abs; many other asides. It all concluded with a nice little routine playing bassoon (it made sense in the context of the show).

A great hour of comedy and he's well worth catching up with ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #31 - Lucy Porter - Choose Your Battles; Pleasance Courtyard, 1730, 11-Aug-17

I had seen Ms. Porter last year (here) so was very much looking forward to seeing her again. And she most certainly did not disappoint.

This was her 11th Edinburgh Fringe and the theme this year was how she goes out of her way to avoid conflict of any kind, especially with her husband and family. There then followed a wonderful and charismatic hour or so of fairly gentle but sharply-observed comedy. The general thrust of the anecdotes was around her family - the good-natured butt of many of the jokes being her husband Justin Edwards and their desperate attempts to avoid any arguments - but the routine started with how she had finally consulted a parenting manual after five or six years of being fairly free and easy (yes, she admitted she is one of those Mums who lets her spawn wander free in coffee shops) as her two children just wouldn't stop fighting. This was the springboard into a whole host of other anecdotes including a great routine about passive-aggressive behaviour and comments, among which was one she received in a yoga-class changing room that was both gasp-inducing and very funny.

Poignant and touching was a tale about her parents and how they would religiously watch Coronation Street three times a week at 7.30PM. Ms. P had lost her Dad a few years ago and had recently asked her Mum to move in with her and her family. I won't spoil the ultimate punchline as it was a belter, but the punchline only became apparent when Ms. Porter relayed the sad news that her Mum had died earlier this year. As I'm somewhat sensitive about dead parent anecdotes, having lost both recently myself, I found this one particularly poignant. The conclusion of the set was Ms. P proudly announcing that she had finally had a row with her husband - yay! - over quite a personal thing. Again, I won't spoil it but it was both funny and emotional.

Her microphone stand was surround with dozens and dozens of packets of crisps. The reason why became apparent through part of the passive-aggressive routine. Basically, many folks on Twitter were having a go at Gary Lineker for expressing political views so Ms. Porter buying a load of Walkers products was her passive-aggressive way of responding without getting dragged into a pointless Twitter exchange.

The whole show was great. Ms. Porter is the consummate professional and a skilled raconteur (raconteuse?) - if you get the opportunity to go and see her you will enjoy the most splendid and pleasant hour or so.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #30 - Notflix; Gilded Balloon Teviot, 1500, 11-Aug-17

This was another punt as I had a schedule gap and the geography worked out. It wasn't a totally random one as I'd heard and read many good things - given the show seems to sell out every day I figured it would be a safe random choice. It was way more than that - a hugely enjoyable romp by an energetic and enthusiastic group.

It's an improvised musical around a movie suggested by the audience. We were given little slips of paper in the queue and asked to name the last movie we saw with a brief synopsis. Mine, "Beauty And The Beast (2017). Synopsis - a young woman is unjustly imprisoned, suffers Stockholm Syndrome and ends up fighting the villagers coming to her rescue", was not chosen. They picked out two and asked the audience to choose: the first was Scooby Doo And The Cyber Chase; the second was Dunkirk. The all-female troupe (the keyboard player was the only male) was noticeably more enthusiastic about the former. So was the audience, so Scooby Doo it was. After a little interaction with the audience member who suggested it, the theme was set - the Scooby gang had been sucked into a video game set on the moon, and the theme of teamwork would enable them to battle through the levels and defeat the baddy. On the way they would encounter Gru from Despicable Me, his gay lover Joseph and a bunch of Minions terrified of The Shredder. Or something - the detail didn't really matter, it's the execution ...

And the execution was brilliant. Excellently accompanied on the keyboard and percussion, they launched into a convoluted off-the-cuff story and a number of incredibly catchy and brilliantly performed songs. Like Austentatious the previous day, the skill and talent to be able to improvise so effortlessly is admirable - I know it takes a LOT of hard work and rehearsal to get this slick but it's incredible to see it up close and in real life. It usually takes me about a week to come up with a decent line - these performers did a whole musical off the cuff. Now, I guess they likely have some standard structures and song templates but how they manage to do this day after day with very few slip ups baffles me. That's one of the many reasons I'm merely in front of the stage and not on it.

A great show, with palapable energy and enthusiasm from the young company. Throughly recommended.

On, and I really really want a "Notflix And Chill" t-shirt that they were all wearing.

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #29 - Marni - The Secret Voice Of Hollywood; Greendside Infirmary Street, 1235, 11-Aug-17

Many years ago I actually won a game of Trivial Pursuit by correctly answering the question, "Who provided the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady?" The answer is Marni Nixon - I knew this because My Fair Lady was, and remains, one of my favourite films ever - who famously dubbed for Deborah Kerr in The King And I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Day 9 kicked off with this very agreeable show about Ms. Nixon, following her family and origins, early days in Hollywood and as a performer, becoming a ghost singer for a number of famous actresses and culminating with My Fair Lady. It's a double-header with Samantha Nixon playing the eponymous Marni, and Alasdair Carson-Shepard playing George, a long-term Hollywood publicist and the general comic relief in the show.

But it's Samantha Nixon's show and the songs and mimicry are hugely impressive. The songs in the show were: Show Me, Just You Wait Henry Higgins and I Could've Danced All Night from My Fair Lady; I Feel Pretty, One Hand One Heart and Somewhere from West Side Story; two from the King And I whose titles I can't place right now as they were less famous ones and I'm not overly familiar with the movie.

It's a touching tale, nicely acted by both actors but the spotlight is seldom off Samantha Nixon. The actual Marni Nixon only died last year and her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, is a book I really have to buy very soon.

Overall it was a great start to the day. I would have preferred a little less dialogue and maybe another song or two but that's being churlish. Sadly today (12th August) is the show's last day at the Festival so if you haven't already seen it then you're unlikely to in this run. But certainly worth looking out for if it tours again.

As an aside, there was a chap sitting a couple of rows behind me who had the most annoying laugh I think I've ever heard - a genuine pig-like snort/oink. Fortunately there weren't too many belly-laughs in this but if it had been a comedy show I could have seen myself killing him within about 10 minutes ...

Fringe Binge 2017 Show #28 - Angela Barnes - Fortitude; Pleasance Courtyard, 1915, 10-Aug-17

I had seen Ms. Barnes a couple of years ago (here) in a truncated set as part of a Best Of and had subsequently seen her on various programmes, so was very curious to see what a full set from her would be like.

And it was pretty good. The general theme was about her turning 40 last year, being with a partner she loved and choosing not to have children (thematically similar to the previous show, Ellie Taylor). Which sounds a little heavy but fortunately she introduced a number of other topics. The main one is that Ms. Barnes is a fan of brutalist concrete architecture (as she said, when she was brought up she was surrounded by it, along with concrete playgrounds which were basically building sites with less Health & Safety) and for her 40th birthday her partner took her for a romantic couple of nights in a disused nuclear bunker in Wales. This then segued into a routine about When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs and - internally I squealed with excitement at this bit - she produced an original Protect And Survive booklet which she had bought on eBay for £60 (yes, I am about to look for one). Of course, given this advice has never been officially superseded then if it all kicks off soon we may yet hear the ominous and terrifying warnings on television and radio ...

I digress. She covered plenty of other topics (including a new one to me - perimenopause - which she had recently been "diagnosed" with) but all circling back to the same general theme.

She was good, charismatic and very witty and engaging. I enjoyed it.

I had a show afterwards at 2200 but for some reason my energy, already low, had dropped, so yet another show was missed. Fortunately the show I had planned was part of the Free Festival (note - there ain't no such thing) so I didn't lose any money (well, any more than I was already haemorrhaging) but bought myself some doughnuts and wine and went back to the flat. I'm now on first name terms with the Tattoo stewards and security cordon so they let me through no bother ...