Fringe Comedy
Gayle Anderson
Michelle Wolf
Pleasance
Four stars
Russ Peers
Gilded Balloon -The Counting House
Three stars
Jake Yapp
Underbelly - Bristo Square
Two stars
LIKE a good wine, Michelle Wolf travels well. These may be the New Yorker's first gigs outside North America but the material is slick, sharp and mainly spot on. In So Brave, she provides a caustic commentary on a whole range of subjects and stereotypes. Fasten your seatbelts, this is going to be a bumpy night!. Unsurprisingly, the first subject to fall under The Daily Show correspondent'ssteely gaze is the US election. It's a tongue lashing triumph. Mr Trump is given short shrift whilst her at times rather reluctant endorsement of Hillary Clinton and thoughts on the consequences of a first female president are intelligent and well -observed. It's difficult to find anything new to say in this current presidential campaign but she manages to pull it off with acerbic aplomb. Gender inequality, weddings, action heroes, Caitlyn Jenner - she shares her offbeat opinions on a whole smorgasbord of subjects. Sharp, shrill and at times, shocking, you may not always agree with what she says but the quality and quantity of her material will leave you suitably impressed. This was an extremely impressive, polished debut but one that would have benefitted at times from a little added warmth alongside the undoubted wit.
Runs until August 28
NEWS flash. Not all gay men are as stylish as Tom Ford and waspishly witty as Oscar Wilde. In Bad Gay? fortysomething, Russ Peers takes a close up and personal look at these popular misconceptions. In doing so, he attempts to figure out where he, a big, beardy lad from Barrow-in-Furness fits in. It's only a decade since he himself came out ago and feels he knows more about pies than partying. At times, Russ is a bit of a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a Jack Wills shirt. Someone who, "likes a West End musical but knows his way round an industrial sander." It's a clever concept for a show and he soon has the audience well onside with deliciously dry observations and witty one-liners. There are a few dips, though. Reading texts full of his mum's malapropisms feels a little tired and dare I say it, stereotyped. It's a shame too that on the night I'm reviewing, a couple of his best punchlines are pirated by an over-zealous friend at the back who's come along to show their support. Good stuff, though. The odds of a promising career in comedy are, like his dishwasher, well stacked and definitely in his favour.
Runs until August 29
JAKE Yapp has an impressively good memory. It may have been seven years since he's performed here but he opens his show, One In a Million, with an accurately observed skit on the different forms of Fringe flyerers you're likely to have to gird your loins and run the gauntlet of this festival. Warming to his theme, he throws in some razor sharp impersonations of the pick 'n' mix of performers currently crowding these cobbled streets and sweatbox venues. So far, so funny. Sadly, things get a little strange and disjointed from this point onwards. A show of hands reveals only four vegans yet he chooses to talk at length about tempeh - a fungal foodstuff that the vast majority of us feel very happy to remain ignorant of. He follows up with more obscure and niche market material. Hippocrates, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis and even fixed gear bikes. It leaves the audience undoubtedly better informed but sadly, none the wiser. Bemused rather than amused. A patently intelligent comic with some impressive characterisations, Jake just needs some tighter, more focused material to match those killer first fifteen minutes..
Runs until August 28
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here