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drinks Monday 4 August 08
The Establishment
Verdict: Cheery eclectic gig for dedicated sleep-o-phobes
Edinburgh - C-Venues - August 02
It has to be said that Rohan Acharya is one hell of a cool dude.
The booker of the legendary Absolute Comedy nights at Madame JoJo's, Soho, cuts an imposing
figure. With leather trench-coat and shaved head, his tinted glasses offer the slightest flavour of a young Donald Pleasance at his most dangerous, playing Hermann Goering ('When I hear the
word 'culture', I reach for my revolver). Ice-cool? The man invented the word.
C Venues (like most of the Edinburgh venues) runs a late-night sampling of acts, and Acharya's the
man with an open heart, if not an open chequebook, to book the best for C. That's the theory. How
does it measure up?
Not bad. Tonight the compere's Matt Blaize, (one half of Ebony and Irony at the The Underbelly). Blaize interracts playfully with the audience (which Americans may wish to avoid), and delivers fast topical humour on a range of subjects from Edinburgh tramps (exit for August) and the Queen Mother's funeral (frankly, my dear, he doesn't give a damn), to the breast-count in the front row of the stalls (three).
C's gig runs from 1-3 am in a theatre auditorium with a small bar. Drinks can also be taken from the bar upstairs. Each night there are up to half-a-dozen acts, from stand-up to sketch, from music to comedy theatre.
Gareth Tunley and Phil Brown introduce their magnificent characters Inspector Savage and Sergeant Mild, currently starring in The Legendary Polowski Murders at Pleasance Dome. Meet the Metropolitan Police's finest weapons in the war against a crime-free society.
Steve Oram, Tom Meeten, and Simon Farnaby (Ding Dong at the Pleasance Attic appear in two separate slots:
Derek (Farnaby) and Dave (Meeten) are the best of builders and the worst of builders.
Slogan 'Why be derelict when you can be Derek and Dave?' they demonstrate the
builder's art in a caring though careless way. Derek shows us how to hammer and
overcome the sadness of divorce, and prevent Dave from telling all the best jokes.
Their cabinet-making may not be perfect (on tonight's showing) but they make a great cup of tea.
Steve Oram reprises his excellent Alan Pike's School of Darts (from (Ding Dong). To Alan, life's a game of darts, though tonight he's throwing biros.
Donal Coonan and Michael O'Kelly aren't appearing at the Fringe, but they're gigging round Oxford in 03 and travelling by unconventional methods from John O'Groats to Lands End in August 02 to raise money for the Cystic Fybrosis Trust (donations tel Hazel Briner at the CFT tel 020 8464 7211).
Coonan and O'Kelly drop in to The Establishment to deliver a brilliant and very funny word-play
act - 'The Syllable Sketch' - in which they try and outdo each other about their intentions towards
the woman they both love, using well known, er, couplings: 'I'll nuclear her power' / 'I'll met her physical' / 'I'll inspect her gadget' - you get the kind of thing - delivered at breakneck speed and dripping with innuendo.
The headline act's an Edinburgh band, Diwan. 3 guitars including the singer, plus trumpet and hand percussion. Lead singer Samba Sene writes the songs in English, French, and his native Senegalese language Wolof. They play at venues like El Bar 10, West Port; Elephant House, George IV Bridge, Bongo Club, New Street; Liquid Room, Victoria Street, and should be at the Edinburgh Mela Festival, Pilrig Park (off Leith Walk) on Sunday 1 September 02. Sene depicts their music as 'Afro Beats', a gelling of rock, reggae and salza which he also describes as 'Mbalaax Fusion'.
Lights and sound technical managers - various, including - C Venues staff, Nic Watson, Jake Wiltshire.
END
John Park
reviewed Saturday 3 August 02 / C Venues
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
