The full spectrum of Fringe shows

I went diving yesterday, but I forgot my camera :o( You can see me diving here.

So today we had a great big massive sleep then we went to see three Fringe shows.

Fringe Show 18: Flesh Eating Tiger (3*)
This was a play in a random venue I'd never been to before, in the middle of nowhere, which was fun. The set was pretty cool with all ladders and tables and torn up paper. The audience consisted of six people, which was the smallest audience I'd seen so far. The play was about a couple dealing with alcoholism and made some potentially interesting points, however it was a bit up its own arse in its format with a 'play within a play' effect (or maybe it was a 'play within a play within a play' I was a little unclear). It felt a bit disjointed which may have been an intentional part of the postmodernism but for me it wasn't quite clever enough to pull it off. Even so I thought the actors were good and it was at times compelling.

Fringe Show 19: Oyster Eyes - Keeping the Captain Warm (1*)
Oh my god. Where to start. This was the worst Fringe show I have ever seen. Yes ever. And I've seen like a hundred. In terms of contenders for this crown I do not even count all the pretentious crap I have seen but I can recall one show that was just *weird* (a priest giving birth to a horse) and another two that were actually offensive (taking the piss out of people with Downs Syndrome etc) but this was worse. It did not have any redeeming features. The sketches were not even a bit funny. I don't believe I laughed at all. And they may have been a teeny bit racist. I have been brought up to clap politely if someone bothers doing something. I could not bring myself to clap at all. Eurgh.

Fringe Show 20: Paul Sinha - Looking at the stars (4.5*)
Thank god for Paul Sinha (pictured), that's all I can say. He made up for the hideous Oyster Eyes. What a lovely lovely funny man. We've seen him before, like back in the day (and not even during the festival) so we made an effort to go and see him cos we've kept missing him the last few years. Paul Sinha is under a bit of pressure to comment on social issues, being as he is a gay British Asian public school educated ex-GP turned comedian. He's an interesting and very likeable guy, and he's not scared of being intelligent in his comedy. Liked it a lot. Here be a spoiler of my favourite joke of the Fringe so far this year, about Paul Sinha meeting Jim Davidson: "I don't have a lot in common with Jim Davidson. I am Asian and he is an alleged racist. I am gay and he is an alleged homophobe. I like snooker and quizzes, but I'd never dream of putting them together."