Fringe comedy reviews: Freddie Meredith: Need a Light? | Emmeline Downie: Gail | Rachel Fairburn: Vexy Beasts | Crybabies: The Scaring | Metroland Live: As Seen On TV | Burger and a Pint: Treats for the Soul | Britney: Holy Mackerel!
Ashley Davies has been at large around the Fringe and found four-star comedy gems galore – from beautifully drawn and performed character acts by Freddie Meredith and Rachel Fairburn, to Crybabies' gob-smackingly ambitious sketches and Britney's near telepathically in-sync double act.
Freddie Meredith: Need a Light? ★★★★
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August
Emmeline Downie: Gail ★★★
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August
Rachel Fairburn: Vexy Beasts ★★★★
The Tron at Monkey Barrel (Venue 51) until 30 August
Crybabies: The Scaring ★★★★
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August
Metroland Live: As Seen On TV ★★
Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 30 August
Burger and a Pint: Treats for the Soul ★★★
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August
Britney: Holy Mackerel! ★★★★
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August
Right from the get-go in Need a Light?, Freddie Meredith shows us who we’re dealing with and the world he’s trying to conquer. His character is a beta guy in the nightclub smoking area, and he’s trying to make friends.
A nerd in a leather jacket, he’s determined to seem cool and influential. What he lacks in charisma and style, though, he makes up for with effort: he’s clearly been practicing conversational openers, which often start with the old classic of offering a stranger a light.
Occasionally he’ll pretend to check on his friends, who – surprise, surprise – still haven’t arrived, and we get to see what’s really going on in his phone. Glimpses range from try-hard/no-engagement social media content to outfits he thinks will make him look like a legend.
It’s refreshing that there’s nothing creepy about this character; it’s far more interesting than that. Little moments pointing towards his apparent loneliness only serve to make his efforts to connect feel more vivid and involving.
Freddie Meredith, who won the Royal Television Society Awards best male comedy performance for playing the unwanted husband in Such Brave Girls, has nailed his debut Fringe hour with one of my favourite shows of the month. I desperately want to see more of this beautifully drawn and performed character.
Mumsily perky in her sparkly top, feather boa Karen wig, perky fiftysomething Gail addresses us, her “peers”. We’ve had six months of workshops and are about to become qualified life coaches, and she wants us to see her Gail Summerfield Approach presentation.
Twentysomething Emmeline Downie has created a fun character who is instantly recognisable: a fan of AI slop art emblazoned with trite inspirational slogans, she’s a small business owner who “works hard and plays hard”. Her presentation has some real comedy gold in it, particularly when she has to fast forward and we get glimpses of her daft ideas.
Downie, who’s a splendid performer, presents Gail as a mildly annoying but well-intentioned woman whose occasionally spicy takes have contributed to the lack of contact between her and her son. In the best traditions of character comedy, it’s all underpinned with pathos.
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Rachel Fairburn: Vexy Beasts invites us into a hairdressing salon in a down-at-heel Harper Vale, whose mayor – a long-time nemesis of the salon owner, Leanne – is determined to gentrify at all costs.
Fairburn, best known for her stand-up and as one half of the cult podcast All Killa No Filla, is a natural at character comedy, easily switching accents and inhabiting the believable, often outrageous, characters in the salon’s orbit.
Entitled poshos get an entertaining skewering, as do observations of a particular type of protein-obsessed man, but the most successful character studies, in the tradition of Alan Bennett, could easily all be people you know: see-it-as-they-see-it women who get away with caustic remarks by being incredibly funny.
Vexy Beasts trots along nicely with a simple good versus evil plot, but it’s the sharpness of Fairburn’s writing that makes it so much fun. You’ll never look at Monty Don the same way again.
Sketch trio Crybabies return with a gob-smackingly ambitious production called The Scaring, which follows the spooky adventures of a couple of priests and ends up in a haunted hotel.
Jam-packed with jokes, special effects, a sizeable, dynamic set and multiple costume and character changes that serve a ridiculously entertaining plot, it’s a riot of an hour. Fast, fun and sometimes frightening, it’s the product of a great deal of talent and a lot of work.
Michael Clarke, James Gault and social media sensation Ed Jones excel at playing to their individual and collective strengths, whether that’s focused, deceptively serious acting or simply looking funny in children’s clothes.
Five-strong sketch group Metroland Live: As Seen On TV starts brilliantly, with a wildlife presenter observing a nervous Geordie arriving in London. Another highlight is an increasingly spaced-out man whose Mastermind subject is recreational drugs.
These guys are committed performers who clearly have good chemistry and a lot of potential, but other sketches, among them a children’s TV character, office politics involving Marmite and a doctors’ convention, feel underdeveloped and self-indulgent.
Burger and a Pint (James Trickey and Ted Milligan) present some shining gems in Treats for the Soul. They clearly have no shortage of fresh sketch ideas in this fast-paced hour, so if the odd bit doesn’t quite work, no matter: there’s lots of quality ahead.
Among the highlights are a puppeteer with questionable instincts, an interview in which a paintballing guy compares his experiences to those of a war veteran, and the most surprising use of Imagine Dragons music you’ll encounter this month. I look forward to more from them.
It’s wonderful having sketch duo Britney back at the Fringe with their latest offering, Holy Mackerel. Best friends for 20 years, Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson are so much on the same wavelength you can imagine them reading each other’s minds – or at least being able to communicate subtle messages with a glance.
What to do in that space between one sketch and another can be tricky for even the funniest practitioners of the form, but this duo’s sympatico lends those transitions an ease that enhances the whole experience.
In one stand-out sketch we witness a dialogue between a judge and a defence lawyer that’s rich with the sort of relatable detail that’ll make every woman in the room feel seen. And another scenario, involving a couple of over-privileged young women erroneously claiming minority statuses, is pretty much perfect. A surprising call-back at the end provides a satisfying “aaah” moment we don’t normally get in sketch.
At times understated, and with a healthy degree of self-awareness about perceptions of sketch, they also find a special balance between the physical and verbal. Lovely stuff.
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