Naked hula hoopers, acrobatic goths and vagina jokes, first day at Edinburgh Fringe
Everyone just wants to get their kit off
Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one of my favourite times of year. Edinburgh becomes a cultural hotspot for the arts, or the idea that you and your mate said would be a hit at the pub. Except, these people actually have the talent and funds to go through with it! and Edinburgh is way better for it.
I completely disregard the opinions of people from Edinburgh who say they hate the Fringe or hate how busy Edinburgh gets. Find happiness. There is no other place in the world right now that has such a diverse cast of people in it (the Olympics may disagree with that but I don’t see a Shrek burlesque event in the Seine??), with the oppurtunity to see shows you would never come across otherwise.
The Fringe is about having no clue whats on and going to whatever is closest to you in the next 15 minutes and thats exactly what I did. This is not going to be an in-depth review of each show I saw, its just going to be about the experience and if I think you should do the same, which obviously you should. Unless you don’t like nudity, if thats the case go play golf or something.
Clayton Smith: Guns for Jesus - Stand-up - Just the Tonic at the Caves
The first show I saw in the day, I honestly had no idea what to expect. Guns for Jesus is a provocative name but also suggested to me this was going to be a high-energy very American piece of stand-up. We arrived and there was about six other people so eight of us in total, a difficult crowd for anyone considering it was also 12 in the afternoon. It’s safe to say spirits aren’t high at this point.
Clayton runs on the stage and immediately brings some energy, laughing about how weird it is to do a show in a literal cave and honestly got the crowds support pretty quickly. He took some time to get warmed up but that was pretty reasonable considering this was his first show of the day and one of his first for the entire Fringe. He then won us over within 10 minutes, with a bit about yo-yo’s. He crouched into this character of a man selling yo-yo’s at a gas station and we lost it, he was hilarious. From then on it was smooth sailing and I thought he kept getting better.
Clayton’s show is loosely based on his life and growing up in Yuma, Arizona. I say loosely because his show is comprised of different 5-10 minute bits that are stories about his life or of people he has met, its not a show that has a beginning and end in a typical story-telling fashion. I saw that as a strength when watching it, he was free to delve further into stuff that stuck, or make up entirely new things because we were such a small crowd. One crowd member asked for his bit on the Mormon Mafia, which he in fairness, had nothing about. He did try and it was pretty good. At least as good as a Mormon Mafia bit can get on the spot.
That kind of interaction was pretty normal at his show because people felt comfortable and it felt as though we were having a conversation with the funniest guy in the room. I really thought that was the highlight. He told the anecdotes about his life like he was telling us directly, he really took what is usually a difficult situation with a small crowd and made it a strength. It also helped that he was ultimately really funny. The middle of his show was extremely strong, he found a groove and kept it pushing. His style was definitely on the more surreal side of comedy which I really enjoyed. I mentioned his character before of a gremlin who sold yo-yo’s, generally Clayton’s funniest bits were these weirder moments.
He generally took quite relatable experiences and subverted them with his own odd twist. I think this was at its best when he spoke about a New York subway announcement system essentially having a break down about their own loneliness. The way that began as a normal relatable situation about New York saying you aren’t shit to the system itself even having a break down was hilarious and really towed the line of too much. A lot of the time he is doing that balancing act. His stuff wants to get weird and he wants to shock you just a little bit, which might not be for everyone but I found it to be entertaining.
Overall, Clayton had a really solid 40 minutes which considering the crowd, was extremely impressive and I honestly loved it. He was hilarious and his different bits about his drug dealer mate Q and his old football coach were highlights, generally I think people should go see him just for the Q bits. It did get slower at the end, I was never bored but an hour is a long time to be funny for so I’m not too harsh on it really. Oh and the Guns for Jesus is about a raffle for guns to support the local church. Mental. Except the rest of the crowd just nodded their heads at that revelation? Everyone else was from Las Vegas so apparently thats pretty normal there.
I’m not gonna do an actual ranking or score for anyone because I’m not a professional critic and they are so arbitrary to begin with that it doesn’t really tell you whether you should go see them or not. So I am going to say you should definitely see Guns for Jesus by Clayton Smith at Just the Tonic if you get a chance. Its during the day mainly and early on, if you are going to a Fringe show you should make this a stop you will definitely have a good time.
Natasha Pearl Hanson: The Right Amount of Wrong - Stand-up - Just the Tonic at Cabaret Voltaire
We immediately followed up Claytons performance with another stand-up, Natasha pearl Hanson. This was based off a recommendation from a friend who met her when she was working and said she was lovely, which she was in fairness. We also knew Natasha was pretty popular in America, having her own Amazon Prime special (which she did almost immediately tell us during her set, however if I had an Amazon Prime special I would do the same).
Natasha’s experience and professionalism was pretty apparent from the beginning, you could just tell she has done this loads it all felt very well refined. A noticeable difference to Clayton’s more chaotic set, Natasha had a clear route she was going down with her set. She came out with a lot of energy immediately which was sadly not matched by the crowd.
Unlike with Clayton who had a lot of Americans who kind of joined in on the energetic parts, Natasha’s set was full of people from York and me, there was more people but the British sensibilities of being more reserved really showed.
Natasha wanted a lot of crowd participation, constantly asking questions throughout her set like “has anyone here smoked weed?” or “has anyone else been in handcuffs?”. I think stuff like this just does not get as much of a reaction from British crowds, we are generally a lot quieter and in my case I would have found it pretty embarrassing to shout back “hell yeah!” to either of those questions. I don’t think this was a bad thing about her set at all, its just different audiences.
The start of her set was pretty strong, this show is the follow up to her Amazon Prime special “I was supposed to get married today” where she does a show on her wedding date. The story behind that is really entertaining and honestly I would want to hear more about that. Instead we got a lot of stories about her life after leaving her husband-to-be. Stories about her new boyfriend and about her new or past sex life. There was a lot of sex jokes in general and I think they just didn’t land quite like they would with an American audience.
The jokes were more in the vein of acknowledging people have sex and they also have shit sex, which is true, but its not super ground breaking stuff. I think it maybe suffers because the one place where you have to make quite creative sex jokes is the Fringe. Sex is everywhere at the Fringe. Generally in a comedy set talking about how men don’t know how to go down on woman is funny but we have all heard it before there needs to be something more or a funnier image than just that statement.
I think a good comparison is another comedian George Zacharopoulos who made a similar joke but instead of just saying it he compared men’s thought process to that of connecting to WIFI. Saying you wouldn’t just guess the persons WIFI password you’d take instruction, and you definitely wouldn’t use your exes password. That was hilarious and the crowd loved it. I think it gives more depth and a funnier image with what is essentially the same joke.
However, I also think the comedy was just not for me, I don’t think any of it was bad its just not something I find funny. Her style was very American, think quite energetic, a lot of crowd participation and its all relatable to an American audience, especially a Mid-American audience I’d presume.
I also don’t want it to seem like I didn’t laugh the entire time or anything. I really loved her bits about her relationship with her granny, they weren’t just touching but they were really funny. Stories about their relationship or just how her granny acts on a day-to-day basis was hilarious to me.
I’d also like to add that the crowd generally seemed to really like it and I do think she would benefit from a more energetic crowd because she was getting nothing from us in the afternoon show. Like I said, she did a lot of crowd work asking us loads of questions that she really got no responses from. I do not regret not answering to if I have ever been arrested, but still a more energetic crowd probably gets really into that.
While this show was not for me I can really see people liking it, so if you are into a more energetic, relatable comedian who loves a dirty joke then this is for you. It just was not for me. If you do want to go I’d definitely recommend one of her later shows because I think she will probably thrive off the drunken energy.
George Zacharopoulos: 50/50 - Stand-up and Improv - PBH’s Free Fringe at Whistlebinkies
George was fantastic. I’d say easily the funniest of the comedians I’ve seen so far at the Fringe. He’s won the 2024 Greek Comedian of the Year award and has been touted as one of “Europe’s rising stars” in comedy (well he has called himself that but I do think it is backed up by his talent). He was hilarious even if his actual show seemed to go stale at points. “50/50” is an experimental show he is doing during the Free Fringe, where the first half an hour is his regular stand-up and the second half is written down suggestions for jokes by the audience.
This as an idea is extremely hit or miss, some of the suggestions are utterly terrible. Mine included. Which in fairness, he is not afraid to tell you when he picks it up. I made the mistake of trying to be funny and also thinking he would be acting stuff out not just making jokes about it, so I will admit it was a bad suggestion. Do not try and make him do a wet t-shirt contest.
He takes everything in his stride, if he sees one that is bad he just makes fun of it quickly with maybe a “not funny”, or a “they can’t all be hits” and he never loses momentum. I also think this makes it better when he does take what seemed like a boring suggestion and turns it into 5 solid minutes.
For example, someone wrote “birds aren’t real” which I honestly thought was pretty weak. He managed to take us down a conspiracy rabbit hole, making jokes about how your friends who get into conspiracies seem to always end up hating Jewish people. Then ending it with a comment about how this person might’ve meant that women aren’t real and then called them a misogynist. It was really impressive.
He is also prepared if there is not that many suggestions, he has new material ready for the end of the show which he gave us. Some jokes which were some of his best from the whole show. His stand-up at the beginning was the best part easily. I left feeling like I had done some sort of ab workout just from laughing so much throughout the show and everyone felt the same. It was like we were some sort of Friends laughing track the way everyone was in unison after each quip. I really loved it and I know he has an actual show on at the Fringe as well “Greek in the sheets” which I am definitely going to attend.
I would say you should go out of your way to see George if you can. I cannot recommend enough his free show ‘50/50’ which is insane value, but he is 100% worth watching his paid show as well. I haven’t even seen it but I’m convinced there is no way it could be bad.
La Clique - Circus and Variety - Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows
This was an unforgettable experience. Was there parts I wanted to forget? Yes. Did I still enjoy every second of it? 100%.
Variety is the key word here. La Clique is a circus act with a plethora of acts who’s different talents take you through a similar experience to those lazy rivers with the creepy singing robots. Some of its quite pretty and then suddenly your terrified of those things and how they move and you are unsure if they are going to get closer to you or if you are going to get wet and you maybe want to leave but you also can’t look away and are almost hypnotised. It was like that.
This feeling was mainly fuelled by the first act being an aerial acrobat using straps who did this beautiful performance using straps and a bathtub. It was amazing to look at and the tricks using the water from the bathtub to really get across how fast she was spinning was a really cool idea. It also set-up the idea that the rest of the show would be similar. Next was a charismatic tap dancer, who was pretty funny and obviously really talented. So, far so good everyone here is pretty impressive.
Then. Out came a woman throwing burgers (I think) to the crowd while dressed in just an apron and pants, and a machine on her head. Once she ran out of burgers she was given popcorn and proceeded to put that into the machine.
She was wearing a popcorn machine on her head.
Then suddenly her apron came off and she covered herself in cream. This was surreal, I was not sure what was going on anymore and I think I honestly went into a REM state. I had kind of assumed this was the act but she did then proceed to do this insane hula hooping while naked and covered in cream. She was great at hula hooping, at one point she had about 10 hula hoops on her at once and that was pretty cool. I assumed that was the reason for the cream.
She was also hilarious, she did a lot of pretending to fail at hula hooping but she also did hit a guy in the face and that was honestly a highlight. It was an insane act and it kept going, at one point she dropped the hoops and covered herself in more cream and popcorn fell everywhere. Then for the finale she dropped her pants and threw salt everywhere. It was magical.
After she was finished the tap dancer came back out and tap danced some drums, this felt like a cigarette after sex kind of thing.
Then out came a man dressed very dapper with a hoop and a goldfish who he proceeded to fling about in a glass inside the hoop. Very cool, any physics nerds will eat this up. I don’t have much to say about these acts not because they weren’t impressive I was just still recovering and I think that was the point.
Another highlight was the next aerial acrobat doing a dance routine that again was beautiful. It was actually quite a moving performance and really contrasted what we had seen previously. That was the best part, it really was a variety circus and you had no idea what was coming next. They really pushed that idea and it was a fun show.
They even played with the audiences pre-conceived notions of what kind of act each person was. People who had done weirder more comedic acts came out and also did a serious piece of art, and vice-versa. This kept us guessing and really had me excited for what was going to come next.
I don’t really want to say more about the kinds of acts that you see because half of the fun of the show is not knowing. But I had an amazing time and thought it was the best show I had seen all day. It was really fun and anyone can enjoy it, I just wouldn’t go with family maybe but I would go with friends because the shocks with others really make the show. That tied in with what is extremely talented individuals this show is absolutely worth planning a trip to. It also is part of the two-for-one tickets Monday to Wednesday so there really isn’t much of an excuse.
Sophie’s Surprise 29th - Circus and Variety - Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows
This was the last show I saw and undoubtedly the best show I had seen all day. Sophie’s surprise birthday is a mainstay at the Fringe festival and it is easy to see why. This show has everything going for it, there is a storyline throughout, its hilarious, and the acts are insanely impressive.
The concept is that we are all there to surprise ‘Sophie’ who is picked out by the cast before the show from the audience. Then the rest of the show is about this party with some different storylines going on throughout and expressed through crazy acrobatics, rollerblading and a unicycle. Before the show starts the cast are walking around in character and interacting with you, I was asked how to flirt with the drug dealer and It was great! You immediately get a feel for the different characters personalities and they are all so expressive that the show has really begun before you’ve sat down.
The story obviously is not that important but it is done very well to lead onto each act. We get the nerdy girl who at first is left alone and starts doing extremely impressive acrobatics from a rope, which leads to her meeting back with everyone and they then play pass the parcel. This stops at the gothic character who gets a bunny but then see’s his girlfriend run off with the jock which makes him do one of the best acrobatic acts I had seen all day. He does a strap routine holding himself perfectly horizontal in the air on one arm which doesn’t honestly look real, all to the sound of “Something in the way” by Nirvana which was an inspired choice.
These kind of performances were not unique either. It constantly felt like they were raising the bar in each act they did. The duo of their strongman and lighter gymnast was amazing to watch and I found myself with my mouth wide open at what they were doing. They had a rollerblading routine that might of changed my life, I still think about it all the time.
These acts were also balanced with what was genuinely funny material. I think a lot of the time when the main act is something like acrobatics you kind of get away with not being that funny because people are already impressed so its quite low effort a lot of the time. That wasn’t the case here I found myself laughing as often as I was sat in awe.
The acro-goth read out his own Twilight fan-fiction which had one of my favourite lines in modern writing: “The moon looked just like a painting of a moon in a picture frame”. That’s actually loosely quoted but I am still going to steal that just the same.
One of the funniest parts was the wheeler dealer. A unicycling drug dealer who at first brought a man on stage from the audience and made him jump up to get a biscuit. He then came back and had to put his clothes back on while on his unicycle.
There was also the stereotypical white woman with a massive phone and really strong hair. Hair so strong she hung from it. I have no clue what that technique is called but I was terrified in an impressive way.
The best part of the show is undoubtedly the final act which involves the goth, strongman and gymnast doing a routine together that involves throwing the gymnast about the place and her holding herself up on one hand on another guys hand and I can’t actually describe it all just go watch it.
This was my favourite show to watch, I loved every part of it and I would easily watch it again. They already have a great reputation but I really cannot recommend it enough, if you are in Edinburgh take a friend, get the two-for-one ticket and go. It is absolutely worth it and you probably won’t see anything better.