So much to see, so little time. The Fringe is exhausting us with its entertainment possibilities. What will life be like when there aren’t hundreds of live shows to choose from each day? Here’s what we’ve seen in the past week:
Tig Notaro ***** Tig was probably the performer we were looking forward to the most, and she did not disappoint. Tears of laughter.
Janeane Garofalo **** Somehow I managed to not even notice her on the Fringe schedule until last week, but luckily tickets were still available. Well worth it.
Rich Hall **** Until recently, the name Rich Hall reminded me only of Sniglets. Apparently he’s done other things since the 1980s, many of them in Great Britain, where he still pops up on TV with semi-regularity. Might have earned an extra star for singing a song to Scott.
Hal Cruttenden **** A big, cuddly, middle-class Englishman whose daughters think (incorrectly, although understandably) that he’s gay.
The Boss of it All **** One of the few plays we’ve taken in this year. Well-acted, well-paced, well-staged, well-written. A little funny and a little dark. (Thanks to Fringe Fan for the recommendation.)
Chastity Butterworth & the Spanish Hamster *** Gemma Whelan (best known for “Game of Thrones”) does an entire show in the character of Chastity, a posh Victorian who likes to tell short, crude jokes.
Hannah Gadsby – Nakedy Nudes *** We went to the version of her show which took place in the National Gallery, billed as a comedy art tour (so how could I resist?). An enjoyable time, for sure, but I found myself wishing she would go further with her irreverence; religious art is so very ripe for ridicule, after all.
Big Value Comedy Show – Early *** Major downside was the damp, musty cave of a room where this show was held. Possibly a good part of the reason why I liked each successive comedian a little less than the previous one. (We saw Matt Holmes, Scott Bennett, Dane Baptiste, and Evelyn Mok.)
Gyles Brandreth ** We try not to do too much research before we see a comic; we like to be at least a little surprised by the contents of the show (then when we get home afterwards we binge on YouTube videos of their other work). Which is why we didn’t know what to expect from Gyles Brandreth, a former conservative MP. Now I do: I expect my grandparents would have loved him.
We still plan to see a few more shows (including David Sedaris!) before the Fringe Festival wraps up on Monday. You can check out part 1 and part 2 of our 2013 Fringe reviews, too.