Festival review: An audience with Tomas Ford (Free); Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde

By FIONA SHEPHERD
Published on 14/08/2012 13:40

Here’s the thing about the Fringe: you can sometimes find yourself enjoying a show that you, the rest of the audience and occasionally even the performer knows is a bit crappy.

This is the unspoken contract which develops between unsuspecting punters and Tomás Ford, an Australian singer and attention-seeker currently howling at the moon in the basement – sorry, crypt – of a gothic theme pub.

Ford is not afraid to be thoroughly ridiculous, even shameless in performance and there emerges a fond sense of ownership among onlookers as he croons theatrically over a dystopian electronic soundtrack teased from his flight case of hi-tech hardware. So much so that we are momentarily bereft when he forsakes our company mid-song to go walkabout in the pub and freak out the drinkers.

But the incorrigible exhibitionist returns to those who are rapidly coming to love him – or at least go along with the absurd ride – and after some more valiant scaling of the fixtures and fittings, Ford’s rather random set ends with an almost cultish tactile huddle involving all his new converts.

Rating: * * *

Until 26 August. Today 11:50pm.