Edinburgh Fringe

I’ve seen two now. Both have been generally enjoyable, which gives me a good batting average for the fringe so far.

The first was called Jewish Chronicles. It’s a one-man show, in which the one man in question plays the piano and sings. He has written a number of songs about his family and his experience of growing up Jewish in the UK.

The tunes are very catchy (one of them is currently lodged in my head) and span a range from touching to hilarious. There’s one about his great-grandfather, who came out to the UK from the old country only to be cheated out of his genius idea. Another about his Aunt Naomi who married some kind of Christian evangelist and ran off to be a preacher’s wife. And a hilarious (if deeply wrong) ditty about a Rabbi who was caught dealing cocaine and hiring prostitutes.

There was one song at the end, in which he aired his family’s dirty laundry, where knowing that it was a true story made the whole thing a little awkward in a ‘too much information’ kind of way. On the whole, though, it was a fun show.

The other show I saw was called Legless a ‘n’ Harmless (pronounced in the British way, without the ‘h’). Its description reads as follows: “Two men live together. One has no arms. The other has no legs. They depend on each other until betrayal ensues.” It sounds like your average pretentious fringe crap, but is in fact a comedy about two men trying to put on said play.

They have good material. And it was funny. And had it been on a little later in the evening, had everyone been a little drunk, and had there been a good crowd in there, it would have been absolutely hilarious. But with only six of us in the audience, it was all just a little awkward. Funny… but awkward. I want to see it again on a night with a better crowd.