Jacqueline Thompson doesn’t like men being loud. And she doesn’t like them being all … you know… man-like. Time and again Thompson reacts with barely-concealed disgust to any whiff of volume or testosterone. Even so gentle a creature as Caimh McDonnell unnerves her: “His fast-paced, slightly shouty style can be witnessed on a number of […]
I feel slightly stupid reviewing Sarah Lewis, as everyone else in the Fringepig office is convinced she doesn’t exist. I should probably explain: SOMEONE at Mumble Comedy exists, and if he or she wishes to sometimes identify as Sarah Lewis, then that is fine. But we think this person identifies sometimes as Mark ‘Divine’ Calvert […]
Laura Gavin “has an MSc in creative writing from the University Of Edinburgh” apparently. Yet there is nothing whimsical or narrative about her reviews. She has the look of a district magistrate, and her reports on Fringe entertainment are like something a stenographer would type up. Her reviews always feel like a weighing-up of the evidence […]
Jenni Ajderian proofreads science journals, apparently, which would account for what, in this publication, is an uncharacteristic lack of typographical errors in her reviews. She also has a nice way of recreating the atmosphere of the gig. Of Dan Cook she writes: “The tiny venue makes it possible for the comic to stare down audience […]
Purely in the interest of dotting the i and crossing the t of this collection of reviewer reviews, I present, joylessly, my review of Eleanor Lang. I really shouldn’t have to bother, because Lang only reviewed one piece of comedy in 2013, preferring to review theatre and ‘physical’, whatever the hell ‘physical’ is. Also, she performed […]
Natasha Gartside says that she ‘hails’ from Hampshire and studies English literature at St Andrews. She only wrote three comedy reviews in 2013, probably because she was too busy eating roast swan. I don’t want to get all classist about her, I just question the use of phrases such as “nitty-gritty” and “somewhat loony” and […]