Imagine that Tim Burton, or some other great modern-day storyteller of your choice, knocks at your door and asks if he can come into your living room for an hour to tell some fantastical stories. You would get some beers in and friends around pronto, right? Well, the Lounge Room Confabulators, a duo from Australia who tell stories in the Burton style of weird and dark, do just that – turn up on your doorstep and then perform in your front room, your garden or your office, wherever you have space for 10 or more people.
It starts with a rug called Keith, who is due respect, for he provides the stage for Stuart Bowden and Will Greenway, a pair of Australian troubadours who enter with an old-fashioned suitcase full of tales and funny little props, including tiny figurines and miniature gardens and houses.
The duo tell us they are two brothers of a dead mother, and with the aid of said props, guitar and ukulele, tell tales, tall and short - about two brothers trapped down a well, a woman seeking a cure for her husband's illness, a farting possum and a man-eating mouse. They are by turns funny, touching, macabre and ridiculous, and if you loved being read to as a child or storytelling hour at school, this is for you. Until 29 August
Like Margaret Cho, Andi Osho is a woman at one with her sexual self and unafraid to make gynaecological and scatological jokes. She likes men, she likes sex, and she can talk dirty, but she also is rather demanding of them – which perhaps explains why she hasn't dated for three years. Or so she says.
Her show, All the Single Ladies, is ostensibly about her attempt at this festival to date as many men as possible and at the end of this show she has arranged to meet one lucky fellow in the audience for a drink. Although the fact that she wasn't reporting back from the previous night's conquest suggests that the plan isn't going according to, er, plan.
The show covers the male-female divide, the perils of internet dating and what men and women really think about each other, but Osho, a thoroughly likeable and engaging stage performer, brings some original and spiky observations to what could be some very predictable material. Until 29 August
Matthew Crosby is part of the Pappy's sketch group and therefore knows how to hold a crowd with enjoyable nonsense. He's also a geek and proud of it, although at pains to point out that he's not a nerd – and the fact that the difference is more than semantic to him is crucial to this show.
Adventure Party – which is, of course, neither an adventure nor a party – is an enjoyable run-through of how a geek/nerd got to this point – a 31-year-old former teacher from Bromley with uncool glasses and beard who has - strangely, you may think - a girlfriend. He gives a PowerPoint presentation about how nerds/geeks operate in the world, and it's a funny and at times oddly touching show.
Among the useful tips: if ever you find yourself wanting to correct others' minor factual inaccuracies in conversation but worry about looking a know-all prat, Crosby says, "Don't. Correct it only in your head and feel smug for the rest of the day." Clearly that's why he has a girlfriend and so many nerds/geeks don't. Until 29 August
Book tickets for all shows at the Edinburgh Fringe
Add comment