Thursday 4 August 2011

Free Festival Launch & Chortle Fast Fringe

As well as the four shows I have already review from day one, I also went along to Chortle's Fast Fringe and then the Free Festival Launch Party. All in all I saw over 20 acts do 4-6 minutes each, and I can't remember all the names so I'll just post the highlights!

Tim Fitzhigham and Tiff Stevenson were the two most memorable stand up acts. Tiff has presumably used up all her TV friendly stuff on Show Me The Funny and only has abortion gags left, but they worked well! Tim did what some of the other comedians should have done and squeezed as much as possible into 4 minutes and made me interested in his show.

A little tip to some of the other stand up's: If you've only got 4 minutes, don't walk on stage and say"Fucking hell, 4 minutes, it's not a lot is it, I'm trying to think what I can do in only 4 minutes". It doesn't make you look like a super duper comedian with lots of in depth material, who needs time to express himself, it makes you look like an unprepared amateur, sets up your slot to fail and virtually ensures that no-one will buy a ticket to see your full hour which is the whole point of you being there in the first place. More than one of them did it, I can't remember all of their names so I'm going to be kind and not mention any of them, but seriously, what a bunch of absolute wallopers.

Out with the stand up's there was a great performance by a chap who managed to spin five hula hoops simultaneously. Unfortunately I can't remember his name. Please comment if you know who I am talking about and I'll edit the post to give him credit.

After Chortle it was off to the Free Festival Launch at the Counting house where I met up with a few friends and met lots of great new people.

Stand out acts were Compere Mike Belgrave, Doug Segal and Bob Slayer.

Mike is a cheeky happy performer who looks a little like a tramp. I'd really like to see him doing a 20 minute set as he was only really introducing acts.

Doug Segal is a mind control expert, similar to Derren Brown but much more light hearted. I was also lucky enough to meet him off stage and he's a terrific bloke. I'll definitely get down to see his show. He only has a short run (until 13th I think).

Bob Slayer is just a grade a fucking nutcase! He dragged me on stage and forced me to perform We Will Rock You, complete with a Freddie Mercury moustache, then went crowd surfing.... Thankfully I was drunk enough by that point and I'm not shy sober anyway! He doesn't do jokes, he just downs pints on stage and goes crazy, doing whatever takes his fancy, which is incredibly entertaining.

I'll be going to see lots more Free Festival shows during the remainder of the Fringe.

The Free Festival launch Night was a one off. Details of Chortle's Fast Fringe are here:



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