Edinburgh Festival Fringe reviews 2013, part 1

Since we’ve been happily soaking up other people’s reviews and recommendations for Fringe shows, we thought it’d be nice to offer up our opinions as well (plus blogging about things is a great way to not forget them right after they happen). Here’s what we’ve seen so far, ordered (roughly) from favorite to least favorite.

Pajama Men **** I loved this show. It starts out with a series of seemingly random sketches that gradually reveal themselves to be part of one big story arc. Don’t have too many whiskies before going into this one or you’ll find it hard to follow.

Scotsman Best of the Fringe **** Loved this afternoon opportunity to see a handful of funny comedians (not as redundant as it should be) all in one show. I think the line-up might be different each week, but we saw these guys: 

• Shane Mauss **** A man after our own hearts as he prattled on about two-faucet sinks and other absurdities of life in Britain from an American POV. (His full show seems to be about insect sex; I wonder if he’ll be able to out-do Isabella Rossellini.)
• New Art Club – Feel About Your Body **** You know the hippie character on Family Guy with the high voice? It was like two of him up there on stage, in a good way. Apparently there’s a lot of nudity in their full show, but we saw them clothed.
• Luke Wright – Essex Lion****  Technically in the spoken word (rather than comedy) category, Luke kept us mighty entertained with funny stories and, of all things, poems.
• Brett Goldstein*** Jokes about internet porn and ex-girlfriends. I don’t feel like we got to see quite enough to predict which way his whole show will go, but it seemed promising enough.
• Damian Clark *** The Aussie host who worked the crowd with insightful questions such as “How old are you?” and “What time did you wake up?”
• Mat Ricardo ** As Scott pointed out, if you’re into magicians you’ll probably like this guy. I guess I’m just not that into magicians.

Henning Wehn *** A German comedian, such the oxymoron! Henning Wehn seems to be Britain’s (extremely willing) resident butt-of-German-jokes, dishing out a bit of mild poke-funnery to the Brits, as well. He kept reminding us that we were seeing a preview show, which I guess is code for “here is my excuse for not being entirely well-prepared.” I did find him to be likable in that cuddly German way, even though his content was a bit hit or miss. (Scott only gives it **. There were a few good moments, but he was mostly disappointed.)

John Gordillo *** The show was equal parts stand-up comedy and a commentary on modern commercialism. It was slow at points, but still managed to entertain and provoke reflection. This show had tickets available at the half price hut the night we went.

Blam! ** This one is getting such rave reviews, we were so excited to see it. But here’s the main problem: I was bored. It’s a bunch of stunt fighting set in a cubicle farm. Skilled stunt fighting, to be sure, but nothing particularly clever about it. When you bill yourself as “Die-Hard meets The Office,” I expect your similarity to the later to extend a wee bit beyond the mere fact that you are set in an office.