Edinburgh Fringe 2012 picks: New Reliables

The Edinburgh Fringe brochure is, no matter how you slice it, a thumping information overload of a tome. It's hard to even know where to begin – so we've done the work for you, slicing August's bible up into 30 easy-to-consume guides. From the all-important first hours to Fringe favourites, and from the Free Fringe to the best flyers, these are intended as starting points to help you snaffle out the best shows. They're not exhaustive, instead picking out the shows that caught our eye in given categories, but when your brain can't process another flyer we're pretty sure this is the best way to work out what to see.

 

We're publishing them every working day until the Fringe as a sort of advent calendar of comedy, and today we're doing new reliables. It's a selection of acts who have been around the block a few times and are fast becoming festival mainstays. This sort of turned into an 'Alternative Comedy Memorial Society and friends' list, but it's none-the-worse for it.

 

 

 

 

Pleasance Dome, 1-27 August, 20:10

 

Last year's Straight to DVD show put Thom squarely on the solo, post-Penny Dreadfuls map (the show toured, had a Soho Theatre run and got a Christmas spot on Radio 4) so this second solo show will be met with high expectations. We haven't seen previews but the description suggests we're moving from high-ish concept to a regular hour of stand-up. Which is neither good nor bad, merely a 'thing'.

 

Side note: why do no two pictures of Thom Tuck ever look the same? We think it might be something to do with the hair.

 

Read our chat Thom about his 2011 show here. 

 

2011 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Thom Tuck returns to the Fringe with a show about animal instincts, gender... and gymnastics. 'Fruity, befuddled and increasingly melancholy' (Guardian). 'Shades of Stewart Lee' (Chortle.co.uk). 'A watchable, charming performer' (Independent).

 

Here is 15 seconds of Thom Tuck getting shot by a child:

 

 

 

 

 

Pleasance Dome, 16-21 August, 23:30

Ed Fringe | Tim Key

 

The Masterslut trilogy is completed, so here it is again.

 

The man who took the bare bones of poetry and did something funny with them, bringing together killer lines with what has to be the best timing in the business, returns for a one-week late-night slot.

 

Also keep an eye out for his show with Alex Horne. 

 

Key (Newswipe etc) is doing poetry and getting sodden in the same manner as he did last year. A fusion of Radox, talking, standing around and aquatic filmage. Winner, Best Show, Chortle Awards, 2012. ‘This is sublime, busy and evocative work from a man who keeps getting better and better,’ ***** (List). ‘In any other sphere apart from comedy, we’d probably class this way of looking at the world as certifiable. Here it feels like genius’ (Daily Telegraph). ‘At times it’s like a wind-up; elsewhere it’s so lovely you could bathe in it’ **** (Guardian).

 

Here is Key in Cowards (yes we're still banging on about that):

 

 

 

 

 

Pleasance Courtyard, 1-27 August, 18:00

Ed Fringe | Josie Long

 

An old hand by 30, Long still retains the charity shop vibe that helped her make her name – but time and politics do seem to have given her more bite in recent years.

 

Title alone suggests we're heading towards 'life' more than 'politics', bit either way, if you want to hear the intellectual hipster class made eloquent (and funny) it'll doubtlessly be a good show.

 

She's also doing a joint Free Fringe show with newcomer Sam Schafer, if you're feeling tight. 

 

Josie Long returns to the Pleasance following last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated show. The Guardian said 'strikes an adroit balance between fun, moral outrage and indignant mockery of our hideous powers-that be'. What will this year bring?

 

Here's Josie being introduced at a show in Hackney by Chris Moyles, improbably: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pleasance Courtyard, 1-27 August, 16:00

Ed Fringe | Matthew Crosby

 

With Pappy's show this year labelled as their last, their first among equals Matthew Crosby returns for his second year of solo stand-up.

 

Like a lot of sketch group artistes who go solo he's certainly got the charm and ability to hold a stage, and it's just a matter of time to work out how to do it by himself: last year was middling-to-warmly received, so this should be the year that hits the 'sweet spot'.

 

Matthew Crosby, from sketch favourites Pappy's, returns with a new show. He'd love you to join him. Last year was a sell-out success with a string of four and five star reviews. This year, who knows? What we do know is that Matthew has appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8/10 Cats and that he's written for Mock The Week, Stand Up for the Week, The Now Show and Ask Rhod Gilbert. 'Groucho Marx trapped in the body of Woody Allen' (Bruce Dessau). 'Clever, winsome and charming' (Independent).

 

Did you miss Pappy's Channel 4 pilot last year? Well here it is: 

 

 

 

 

 

The Stand, 1-26 August, times vary

Ed Fringe | Michael Legge

 

Filing Michael Legge into a category for our picks would have been difficult if it weren't for Gregg Jevin, the star of Twitter obits that Legge organised a memorial night for at the Soho Theatre. The Robin Ince collaborator returns for his second solo show.

 

Try to imagine being caught by your mum with your trousers down kissing a statue of Kim Jong Il made out of ladies’ underwear you stole from Poundland. And then come and see this show. Award-winning comedian Michael Legge returns to the Fringe to explain why there’s no shame in being embarrassed. No matter how much of an idiot you’ve made of yourself, Michael has done way worse and, disturbingly, he’s proud of it. It’s time to embrace your inner beetroot. Better red than dead! www.facebook.com/michael.legge.

 

Here's Legge and Ince singing for children: 

 

 

 

 

 

Pleasance Dome, 7-14 August, 23:10

 

One more week to see last year's best newcomer award-winning show, following the rooted-in-reality tale of Ker's grandfather heading to Romania to blow up an oil refinery in the war.

 

The history buff is charm personified; read our chat with Ker from earlier this year here.  

 

Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award winner 2011 (Best Newcomer). In 1943 Dymock Watson was parachuted into Romania on an extremely dangerous secret mission. In 2012 his grandson Humphrey Ker gives his story hilarious life. Following sell-out runs in Edinburgh, the West End and Los Angeles, Humphrey Ker (BBC2's Fast and Loose) returns to Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a triumphant final short run. Early booking recommended. ***** 'A gag-a-line show from a star-in-the-making'. (Telegraph).

 

Humph on history: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Assembly Rooms, 1-26 August, times vary

Ed Fringe |  Bridget Christie

 

This year's show description sounds like the housewife surrealist is engaging with reality, albeit her own intriguing version of it – and given the fierce intelligence that has clearly lurked beneath the gag-heavy performance of past, this can only be a good thing.

 

If we were doing a top five shows we're excited about this year, this would probably be on the list, I would think.. 

 

What are Tory feminists? How did Hitler choose soups in restaurants? Why isn’t there a Spielberg blockbuster about donkeys, and why did Colonel Gadaffi hate them? Bridget Christie knows. And will wear stilts. Baffling stand-up and grotesque manifestations from someone who’s been on Radio 4’s News Quiz, E4’s Cardinal Burns, Sarah Millican’s Support Group and Harry Hill’s Little Internet Show. ‘Avant-garde comedian of prodigious talent’ (Guardian). ‘True, beautiful insanity’ (Sunday Times). ‘Brilliant political bite’ (Arts Desk). ‘Insightful, intelligent, absurd … hits highs of genuine brilliance’ (Chortle.co.uk).

 

Here's Bridget as an ant:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gilded Balloon Teviot, 1-26 August, 17:00

Ed Fringe | Diane Spencer

 

Grab life by balls, and twist. Diane is a stare-you-out lady who will wallop you around the head with laughs. Read our chat with Diane about her 2011 show here. 

 

Award-winning comedian Diane Spencer returns with her hilarious new show about perspective. Part autobiographical, all stand-up from a rising star compared to Joan Rivers and Sarah Millican. This is Diane's third Edinburgh show after her wildly successful 2011 show All-pervading Madness. 'Spencer's way with words and her delivery are absolutely superb' (LondonIsFunny.com). 'A fierce core hides behind her cutesy stage persona' (Comedy.co.uk). 'Indiscreetly brilliant' (Scotsman). 'Raucously entertaining' (Chortle.co.uk). 'A staggering storyteller' (Sunday Express). Alcoholic ginger f*ck are other words that have been used to describe this former Wheel of Fortune contestant.

 

She's usefully popped all her last show on YouTube:

 

 

 

 

 

Assembly George Square, 1-27 August, 21:15

 

Incredibly it's only two years since Pascoe's debut Edinburgh solo show, but she's had her fingers in so many other comedy pies you wouldn't tell.

 

Utterly engaging in a distracted sort of way, the description of this year's show sounds like the best take on the 'here's my life' solo show. Should be a winner.

 

The uplifting and inspiring tale of Sara who lived from the 1980s to 2012. Sara was born as a baby, meaning she could neither talk nor walk, but she didn't let this hold her back, she faced adversity in the face and grew up to be the overachiever you're all jealous of today. The show includes catchy tunes, stand-up and many morals. Sara's life includes being on TV in Stand Up For the Week, Todd Margaret, Free Agents and Campus (C4), The Thick of It, Being Human and Twenty Twelve (BBC).

 

Here's one of those they-get-good-people Amnesty videos featuring Sara: