Video: Most bizarre shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Edinburgh Fringe is renowned for attracting the bizarre and whacky.

Boris and Sergey’s One Man Extravaganza

“The show is impressive on many levels. Even before we get to the humour, the plot twists, the unexpected ‘racist interlude’, the special effects, the tense fight scenes with little swords and tiny fists flying, to say nothing of the final, wither-wringing tragedy, you have to marvel at the incredible technical choreography that allows a team of six to manipulate two tiny leather puppets, at breakneck speed through this gripping drama of brothers torn apart by theatrical ambition.”

Read the full review

At Assembly Square Theatre, 9.25pm

Break Up (We Need to Talk)

“With a level of skill deliberately undermined by the heightened (banana) costumes, the cast’s incredible focus provides an unusually insightful analysis of how difficult it is to get the balance right between partners, family, friends and personal space.

Theatre review: Break Up (We Need to Talk)

“You have got to feel free to choose to be in a relationship, the play concludes; the minute you don’t, or someone tries to change who you are, the whole thing dies.”

At Summerhall (Venue 26). 6pm (August 21 only)

Brendon Burns and Colt Cabana Do Comedy and Commentary to Bad Wrestling Matches

This show doesn’t mess about and does exactly what it says on the tin.

Aussie comedian Burns and former wrestler Colt Cabana have taken this show to Edinburgh for five years now, and it consists of them providing hilarious commentary on ‘botched’ or otherwise bad wrestling matches.

At Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 10.20pm

Found Footage Festival @ Underbelly

So many Fringe shows now feature visual aids that it has actually becoming slightly over worn - even former First Minister Alex Salmond is known to break out a few slides during his ‘unleashed’ show.

This performance, however, isn’t using anything new, or any grainy upright ‘viral footage’ taken on a mobile phone.

Two American satirists have won plaudits around the globe with their show, that involves trawling through charity shops and libraries for old VHS videos, which they provide commentary over.

At Underbelly, 10.40pm

Goldilock, Stock and three Smoking Bears

On seeing this title, you might be forgiven for thinking: “Surely this can’t be a mashup of Guy Ritchie film ‘Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels’ and the Goldilocks fairytale.”

But, that’s exactly what it is. The parody play features a cockney Goldilocks, and has been hailed as ‘hilarious’.

It’s the type of show you would only see at the Fringe. But that could be what makes it so watchable.

At Zoo, 6.10pm

Sarah Benetto: All of My Mistakes

Sarah Bennetto’s show is about cataloguing the minor and major mistakes that she reckons she has made in her life so far.

In a way, its a traditional confessional comedy show, however, one of those mistakes is about transport, and that is what makes it stand out.

Bennetto’s most recent big mistake was trying to carry a few dozen pinatas all the way to the Fringe, and at the end of her show, they are put to good use.

Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 7.30pm

Sasquatch: The Opera

“It’s no great revelation that a bonkers punk-rock opera about Bigfoot composed by Roddy Bottum, the indie film composer and keyboard player in US rock gods Faith No More, won’t be for everyone. But Sasquatch: The Opera has the makings of a Fringe cult hit.

“As an extra draw, Bottum is in town to play his part in the live soundtrack, delivered by a beefy band with drums, brass and ominously pulsing keyboards.”

Seagulls

This is a bold take on a classic play by Chekhov.

The biggest draw is the fact it takes place in a partially flooded, abandoned church in Leith.

Billed as ‘ludicrously inventive’ the show involves some of the most ambitious physical theatre ever brought to the Fringe.

At the Leith Volcano, 6pm.

Spencer Jones: The Audition

“He is, however, “easily bored”, and took five months off live work to get reacquainted with his comedy mojo. He uses countless props, cues and set-pieces, not to mention daft audience interaction, and something always goes wrong in his shows. So he’s developed “five different ways to perform each skit, based on when they laugh. And when they don’t.”

Read the full interview

At Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 6.20pm

The Marriage of Kim K (Kim Kardashian via The Marriage of Figaro)

On a similar theme to Seagulls is Leoe and Hyde’s mash up of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with some of the early career of pop culture icon Kim Kardashian.

The ‘vaultingly ambitious’ show involves music clashes that shouldn’t work but almost do, their discordance matching a performance that shows Ms Kardashian, and other couples, dealing with the fallout of failed marriages.

Before rap, there was opera, and before Kanye West, there was NBA star Kris Humphries. This show is another example of stranger-than-fiction theatre that makes the Fringe what it is.

At C Venues, 9.50pm