Fringe Comedy
Zoë Coombs Marr
Monkey Barrel Comedy.
Five stars
If there was a comedic equivalent of the Magic Circle then Zoe Coombs Marr would surely be drummed out of it. Her brilliant new show, Bossy Bottom deliciously and deliberately reveals all the tricks of the trade. For the first time in seven years the Australian absurdist has severed all ties with her alter-ego, Dave.
Gone are the ugly neckbeard and even uglier misogyny as she promises a gimmick-free, jokes-only show. If you believe that, then it's probably your first Coombs Marr gig and I'll let you off. This woman couldn't do an hour of straight stand-up if she tried. A bit like the lemon meringue pies on Masterchef, the comedy here is artfully deconstructed. Broken down into the individual elements that together make up a show. The art of crowd work is demonstrated with the clever concept that she believes she's playing to the same audience every night and views what happens between them as part of an ongoing relationship. There's a strut and a swagger as she comments, tongue very firmly in cheek, on the brilliance of her own one-liners. 'Took a day off after writing that one.' I reckon she deserved a full week. A master-class in meta humour.
Until August 25.
Sophie Duker
Pleasance Courtyard
Four stars
Sophie Duker is on the floor laughing her head off. Selecting two audience members to participate in a piece on archetypical privileged white men, it turns out that they're both called Simon. She's hit patriarchal pay-dirt and she knows it.
Venus is a wickedly funny and woke debut hour from the host of London's Wacky Racists club night. It's an unconventional and turbo-charged journey of self-discovery that begins with an in-your-face explanation of why she sees herself as a triple threat minority.
Personal stories of her Uber-complicated Daddy-issues and wise West African aunties are intertwined with perfectly-pitched polemics on the 'White Saviour' trope currently playing out on Tinder and the historical fetishisation of black women.
Pop culture targets include Meghan Markle, Ed Sheeran and Stacey Dooley whilst her search for a role model leads to one of the most surprising and unlikeliest reveals this Fringe.
Until August 25.
Gayle Anderson
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here