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drinks Monday 2 June 08
DUBLIN ... Colman Higgins describes the scope and history of Dublin Gay Theatre Festival ... and reviews two of its shows ... Down Dangerous Passes Road ... Confessions of A Mormon Boy /// LONDON ... film on now ... La Question Humaine / Heartbeat Detector /// BRIGHTON ... It's on till 26 May and here's at least 20 Things you might want to know about Brighton Fringe /// PEOPLE ... Who was there at Fringe Report's First Monday 5 May - photographs & article /// CULTURE ... One Culture ... film screening 30 May booking now ... details
The Consultants
in
FINGER IN THE WIND
Verdict: skillfully-nuanced comic delight
Edinburgh - Gilded Balloon Cave 3 - August 02
The stage displays a Certificate of Marginal Excellence, and picture of 3 blokes. There's a board with inspirational words: Consult, Refresh, Learn, Experiment, Re-Learn, Endeavour, Persevere, Educate, Care, Sell, Succeed. It could be any seminar in management. A voice-over welcomes us to a 10-point plan although there are, er, 11 points. The Consultants appear, in suits.
Consult: In Meadow Management, they subject 'One Man Went to Mow, Went to Mow a Meadow' to rigorous statistical analysis, leading to an action plan. They're able to summon helicopters for an overview of the field, and talk directly to men at the mowing cutting-edge. What to do with all the grass? It's a nightmare. And the field? Another nursery rhyme comes to the rescue.
Refresh: Filthy Coffee highlights every bad experience in Starbucks. The customer's forced to use increasingly stupid words ('It's on the board, mate!') to order a coffee. Learn: A boy tries to sit his exam without paper. He gives the examiner money to buy some ... (see later) Experiment: South American bandit folk-singer José sings (excrutiatingly) some of his compositions, including the original Goldfinger.
Re-learn: ... The examiner returns with a can of Coke and sweets for himself, but no paper. He and the pupil work out an extreme method of exam completion. Endeavour: Alan and Roger have reached the summit of Everest. They can take off the rope, relax. But will the arrival of Dave - just passing - destroy the harmony? Persevere: Midland comedians Nice and Squeezy. Dave Squeezy keeps ruining Dave Nice's attempts to sing Angels by Robbie Williams: 'What's the matter now, Dave Squeezy?' / 'Sorry, Dave Nice it's my digital watch.'/ 'I don't dig-at-all what you're doing to my act'. Educate: Alcoholic Jeremy Lyon ('Uncle Lion') reveals the tricks of the trade in a hilarious parody of children's entertainers.
Care: Police officer guarding the victim torments scene-of-crime detective by tampering with the evidence every time he leaves the room. Sell: A tale of potatoes. Succeed: José returns - with his family - to sing a song of success.
The Consultants - Justin Edwards, James Rawlings, Neil Edmond - are intrinsically funny men. The material is well-scripted, but it's the idiosyncratic nature of their performance, and the way they work seamlessly together, that makes it especially funny. Finger In The Wind presents them in various combinations of two, as well as solo and ensemble, in a set of cleverly differing sketches. They take ordinary situations - a boy sitting an exam, ordering coffee - and pervert them beyond reality, while still convincing us that it's all perfectly normal. They've created their own original comic path.
A blissful evening of skillfully-nuanced - but above all gloriously funny - comic delight.
Written, performed and directed by Justin Edwards, James Rawlings, Neil Edmond. Technicals by Gilded Balloon staff.
END
John Park
reviewed Saturday 24 August 02 / Gilded Balloon Cave 3
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
