Edinburgh Fringe comedy reviews: Maria Fedulova: Russian. Mafia. Family. + more

Maria Fedulova: Russian. Mafia. Family. | Maria Fedulova

Maria Fedulova: Russian. Mafia. Family. ★★★★

Hootenannies @ The Apex (Hoot 4) (Venue 108) until 26 August

A late-night gem of a show this, tucked away on the Grassmarket, Maria Fedulova's Fringe debut expertly steers a path between truth and myth for a rich hour of storytelling.

In her fur coat and with her thick accent, the Russian stand-up appreciates that there's considerable tension attached to her homeland. But she initially establishes herself as a victim rather than oppressor, ominously warning the UK of the threat if we don't overthrow our government, her own nation's beleaguered fortunes serving as a warning from history.

The most immediate matter of her story is that she met an English comedian at the 2019 Fringe, began a relationship with him over lockdown, shuttling between Moscow and London, and the pair are now married.

Yet out of the nightmare of bureaucracy and deprivation that she's encountered as an asylum seeker unable to work, she elegantly crafts routines that take the dark, dehumanising realities of immigration, female domestic drudgery bordering on sex slavery, capitalism vs communism and the brutal dictatorship of Vladimir Putin and holds them up to the light for ridicule.

Scenarios are heightened for comic effect on occasion but generally, she's just relaying the grim madness of her situation with a wry humour that recasts her as an amused observer.

Moreover, the high-status, authoritative position she tends to adopt isn't entirely without foundation either, as it transpires that Fedulova's father is a Russian gangster, though she's only ever met him in prison.

With a life this distinctive, most of what she relates is enlightening if nothing else. But as a linguist by trade, Fedulova is also highly eloquent and has the comic nous to choose the most vivid details to illustrate her story.

Presumably less burdened by her circumstances now, freer to develop as a comic in the UK, it's exciting to think how far she might go.

Jay Richardson

Chris and Sean are Two Sailors Who Are Nuts ★★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24) until 26 August

I am not a fan of improv, and Edinburgh is up to its Reekie bits in it this August. But take away the games, take away the themes, and pure improv – creating laughter out of thin air and talent – is a comedy high wire skill like no other.

For much of their hour, that is what we get here from Chris Locke and Sean Cullen. It is extraordinary to watch. I expected a lot from a member of Corky and the Juice Pigs and I get it. Along with fellow Canadian Chris Lock they are Two Sailors Who Are Nuts.

Before we are more than ten minutes into the show we have had quite a lot of death, a sea shanty, and some anti-Shakespeare diatribe. Then we are just asked if there is anything we want to know, a woman in the front row asks how much semen - or how many seamen, it is never made clear - it would take to fill the Mariana Trench and we are off.

HP sauce, the dangers of sex with mermaids and horses in the navy, before we get back to stabbing and a a song about having too many limbs to be attractive. Nothing is too insignificant to be used as a hook for a routine for these guys – a question, a single word or someone's name.

The meandering chunks of 'take a laugh for a walk' improv are as funny as they are ridiculous. Latterly, we get the famous names in the Atlantis Comedy Club, complete with brilliant impressions by Cullen and some razor sharp material about the extent to which tragedy and 'syndromes' are the 'must haves' of comedy success now.

The rule for improv has always been “accept and build”. If the Fringe Society has asked these two I am sure they could have had their 'new home' built for less than £7m.

Kate Copstick

James Barr: Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex to My Mum) ★★★

Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 302) until 25 August

Hits Radio Breakfast Show host James Barr has something he want so share that isn’t suitable for morning listeners. It’s something he’s not sure he’s even ready to tell a live audience – or ‘Trauma Team’ as he dubs us. Like one-in-five adults in the UK (a figure that is dramatically higher for gay men, he reveals), he’s a survivor of domestic abuse.

Barr begins with some fairly light standup and good-natured audience banter, but the comedy soon melts away as he details the way he was treated by his former boyfriend.

There’s no punchline here (other than an eye-opening examination of the word itself), just the brutal truth of being unexpectedly trapped in a toxic relationship. He’s not afraid to leave extended pauses to let the audience digest what they’ve heard – it’s affecting and effective stuff. The message is clear: it’s important to share.

Of course this is in the comedy section of the programme, so there are gleeful routines about revenge and recovery; standouts being a televisual encounter with Piers Morgan and attending a particularly niche party in Germany.

It’s very much a routine of two halves then and, even if he doesn’t quite manage to consolidate them into an entirely satisfactory whole, you can’t help but applaud his honesty and bravery.

David Hepburn

Caitriona Dowden is Holier Than Thou ★★★

PBH''s Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth (Banquet Hall) (Venue 156) until 25 August

With her school swot, butter-wouldn't-melt demeanour, philosophy and religious studies graduate and medieval history enthusiast Caitriona Dowden is a unique voice in UK comedy. She also seems an unlikely cult leader, making a case for her canonisation as a saint, yet that's the premise of her enjoyably fun Fringe debut.

Using her learnedness to bamboozle, she picks apart and twists the founding precepts of religion for her own quiet but assured will to power, a winsomely smiling fanatic couching her ambition in established dogma and the unarguable rigour of her academic studies. With affected arrogance, she cheerfully dismisses Hemmingway's literary abilities and sets herself up as a dangerous radical, aiming to cause a schism.

Though culturally Irish Catholic, her sexuality means Dowden can't be a true believer. But inspired by the medieval polymath St Hildegard of Bingen and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga, she's still determined to shake up the Church and British government.

For all its impressive gag rate, Holier Than Thou feels excessively scripted and overtly structured, with Dowden constrained a little by the persona she's created. Nevertheless, she's a highly promising, distinct talent whom you might anticipate Radio 4 for one falling over themselves to showcase.

Jay Richardson

Alex Hines: Putting on a Show ★★★

Assembly Roxy (Outside) (Venue 139) until 25 August

Partly inspired by her bipolar and ADHD, diagnosed before it was fashionable, Alex Hines maintains, this is a manic Fringe debut from the Australian, a multimedia assault on the senses that bursts forth with a blazing energy.

Featuring personal stand-up, sketches, characters, songs and crowd work, she even promises a fart joke that might save or destroy the world.

Hines is a charismatic performer who gives Putting on a Show her absolute all. And the effect is, initially at least, absolutely, dizzyingly, compelling and consistently funny in its sheer intensity.

Gradually, deeper insights into her character emerge inbetween the more nightmarish and science fiction aspects - her father with a bizarre, slightly creepy background in showbusiness; the incident at her birth which she can't properly remember but which has coloured her life ever since. Not all of it makes sense or is easy to follow. Yet there's a pleasure in piecing together the disparate narrative elements.

And as a showcase for Hines' broad array of performing talents, it unquestionably hits the mark. Ultimately, it's the madness that leaves one exhausted but on the edge of your seat. And she pretty much sticks the landing to draw most of it together.

Jay Richardson