Thursday, August 14, 2003
More to S-hair
Well, we’re over half way through the Fringe now, and the leftmost sidebar has remained pretty much unchanged in terms of best and worst shows. I don’t expect this to change now to be honest, I’m loathe to remove Natalie from her top spot because she is just so fab, and I really, really, really hope that I don’t see a show as bad as Janet Street-Porter’s so with any luck I won’t need to change that.
That’s not to say that nothing has come close to pushing Miss Haynes from her top slot. Last night I saw Korean/American stand-up Tina Kim who was fantastic. Unfortunately, however, there was only 11 people in the venue to see just how fantastic she is, which made the atmosphere a little bit awkward at the start, which is a shame, as I imagine she would be even better with a fuller, more responsive and slightly less embarrassed audience. Telling tales of her upbringing, wanting to be white, wanting a man, her slightly mad parents, wanting to be black, wanting a man, etc, she’s a very open and easy to like performer and should be seen by everyone who wants to be reminded that pure, simple, straight stand-up is great and that you don’t need to have a complicated interactive slide-show to be worth seeing. So go and see her, she deserves a bigger audience, and besides, when she’s selling out the enorma-venues next year you’ll be kicking yourself at missing out on these more intimate shows.
Speaking of complicated interactive slide-shows, Live Ghost Hunt features such a thing, and is also a show worth seeing, thus totally negating my point in the above paragraph, but never mind. Featuring a Welsh paranormal expert, a psychic and a goth, this show aims to discover whether the Pleasance Cavern really is the most haunted venue in Edinburgh. Good interplay between the characters, some surprisingly effective special effects and a willingness to embrace sillyness overcome the slight obviousness of some of the jokes and the awareness that they very much want this to become a TV series.
That’s not to say that nothing has come close to pushing Miss Haynes from her top slot. Last night I saw Korean/American stand-up Tina Kim who was fantastic. Unfortunately, however, there was only 11 people in the venue to see just how fantastic she is, which made the atmosphere a little bit awkward at the start, which is a shame, as I imagine she would be even better with a fuller, more responsive and slightly less embarrassed audience. Telling tales of her upbringing, wanting to be white, wanting a man, her slightly mad parents, wanting to be black, wanting a man, etc, she’s a very open and easy to like performer and should be seen by everyone who wants to be reminded that pure, simple, straight stand-up is great and that you don’t need to have a complicated interactive slide-show to be worth seeing. So go and see her, she deserves a bigger audience, and besides, when she’s selling out the enorma-venues next year you’ll be kicking yourself at missing out on these more intimate shows.
Speaking of complicated interactive slide-shows, Live Ghost Hunt features such a thing, and is also a show worth seeing, thus totally negating my point in the above paragraph, but never mind. Featuring a Welsh paranormal expert, a psychic and a goth, this show aims to discover whether the Pleasance Cavern really is the most haunted venue in Edinburgh. Good interplay between the characters, some surprisingly effective special effects and a willingness to embrace sillyness overcome the slight obviousness of some of the jokes and the awareness that they very much want this to become a TV series.
