Take a Co(me)dian Out

I'm up at the Edinburgh Fringe with Dave and Emma. Five shows in a day and it feels like we've arrived.

Inevitable. A play by the talented company The Age We Are started off the day. I'm a sucker for physical theatre where movement and action is conveyed by using actors as part of the scenery so this really worked for me. A charming play where music and art have been outlawed for so long that they have been forgotten and, now are being discovered again. It made me think about the importance of art in life.

Alexis Debus is a very talented raconteur. He tells the story of a few years of his life through the people he met, the girls he dated and the cars he drove. The story he weaves is full of throw-away lines being picked up later and repurposed to great effect; something that appeals to me in comedy. Oh, and he rhymes... not that I cared, I was laughing too hard.

Knightmare Live: Level 2 is a homage to the 80's TV show with original footage of the health-counter and somewhat more adult humour than the original. A great trip down memory lane and a good excuse for some talented comedians to camp things up. It feels like it's pantomime taken out of its context and given a new one. Fresh and inventive.

Axis of Awesome were awesome as always. Look them up on YouTube if you haven't heard of them.

Take A Comedian Out was a one-off show. If you're reading this with an eye to picking shows to watch... sorry to disappoint. This was a charity show in the format of the TV show Take Me Out, only replacing the competitors with drunk comedians. It could have been a car crash. It could have been awesome. Somehow it turned out to be both. Organising comedians seems to be rather like herding cats. Drunk comedians doubly so. The show was raising money for mind. It didn't even occur to me that this was organised in response to the death of Robin Williams. Robin... you are missed.