First night at the Pleasance

First night of the Fringe. Yay. My favourite. Headed down to the Pleasance Courtyard with a plan to pretty much settle there until Sunday. I’d got a few preview tickets in advance based on what I’d liked last year and I planned to pick up some random things. I generally avoid seeing anyone famous, preferring to ‘discover’ something new. And I’m not fussy about the genre, I’ll try most things. In preview week at least.

Had a nice evening, saw a couple of shows and loads of friends.

Fringe show 1: Birthday Girls 2053 (3.5*)
The Birthday Girls (previously part of Lady Garden) live in 2053 in a time when comedy has been banned. They perform underground comedy, standing up to the man. I enjoyed the sketches enough, they were reasonably funny and well delivered. The nun sketch was hilarious. I thought I’d probably give this a solid three, but as an overall piece it was very well crafted. The story was coherent and consistent, and the callbacks were quietly interwoven throughout and nicely done. I imagine it will get better as they settle into the run too.

Fringe show 2: Richard Herring - We're all going to die (4*)
The subject for Richard Herring’s 2013 show is death, and he wants to see if there is a funny side. Richard is a prolific podcaster and I’ve been working my way through this year. Given I listen to him on my ipod most days it was pretty exciting to see him again in person. As always I enjoyed his delivery, he has a nice engaging manner and I’m always impressed by the volume of material that he packs in. It feels concurrently scripted, spontaneous and emotionally varied, like a dramatic monologue. I was familiar with quite a lot of the material already either from his podcasts or his Metro column, but that was OK it feels nice to have been exposed to the creative process. I liked it. It was good, it was funny. I love the sly mix of childish humour and complicated concepts. But in my opinion not quite as focused as some of his other work.