Tom Parry Yellow T-Shirt ««« VENUE: TIME:
TICKETS:
Just the Tonic at The Tron 6:20pm – 7:20pm 6–30 Aug, not 18 £5
Tom Parry is having a lot of fun tonight. And why wouldn’t he be? Essentially, he’s playing a game with himself – namely, to set as many obstacles in his path towards a successful comedy show as he can muster, and then one by one knock them down. And, holy moly, he’s winning. An elaborate opening
involving a relatively vanilla rock star? Nailed. A theme based, openly, around five jokes and six thoughts (“a thought is just a joke without the punchline”)? Apparently, entirely workable. A laborious pre-rehearsed climax? As it happens, it’s unfeasibly climactic. Parry may never escape being referred to in the same breath as Pappy’s – the Fringe sketch gift that keeps giving. And he may be entirely happy with that. But there’s a lot he’s left behind since the early days of the then-named Fun Club at Kent Uni. Here is an assured, commanding performer, who can stand proud on his own two feet. Rarely content with a single laugh,
Ben Target Imagine There’s No Ben Target (It’s Easy if You Try) ««« VENUE: TIME:
TICKETS:
Heroes @ The Hive 3:00pm – 3:50pm 11–30 Aug, not 18 £5
Are you bored of sitting down at comedy gigs? Tired of comedians standing on stage insisting on being funny? Do you dream of engaging with your fellow audience-members in a team-based sports competition? Need something energetic to wake you up mid-afternoon following a morning
of fomulaic Fringe fare? Ben Target might be the thing for you. It’s best to know as little as possible before the show about what you’ll be doing and who you’ll be doing it with, but suffice to say that the fact that I have size 10 feet put me in the frame for a particular duty until it turned out
he stomps over punchlines to get to the next. Audience participation is effortless. Trumpet playing is perfectly, hilariously awful. But, and here’s the rub, there’s also a fair bit of the student union left in Tom. He gives the game away frequently: “guys, here’s a question...”. “Guys, hear me out...”. If you were being generous, you’d dismiss it as an unspecific turn of phrase. Except it isn’t. In a set about the joys of fancy dress, and university parties, Parry is still chatting to the lads over a tin of beer and a game of Goldeneye. He’s pretty good at it – a high-flying student. But he’s got to graduate at some point. ✏︎ Evan Beswick
someone else had size 11s. Being the tallest, or having large hands, might get you tapped on the shoulder too. But none of these tasks are embarrassing or onerous, and the activities undertaken by all serve to bond everyone rather than pick on a victim. Certainly I felt at the end of the show that I knew quite a bit more about the person I happened to be sitting next to. But what is Target doing in all of this? His ringmaster activities belie considerable activity around geeing everyone along, and the ramshackle nature of the whole is cleary more thought through than appears at first glance. Still, it is an odd feeling to look around you and realise it is the audience that seems to be doing most of the work. The promo material for the show advises you wear sensible shoes. You have been warned. ✏︎ Brett Mills
Comedy
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