Rhys Darby, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★
Rhys Darby, the New Zealand actor and comic best known as Murray Hewitt in Flight of the Conchords, is back at the Fringe after nearly a decade away with The Legend Returns.
It’s an elaborate tale about the march of AI – “Fuck, that horse has bolted” – which, true to form, he tells with great warmth. There’s a mix of physical comedy, daft voices and impressions (from helicopters to electric cars) and silly storytelling, with a generous flow of gags – verbal, aural and physical – thrown in.
The hour takes us on a journey involving tech bros, domestic robots, Tesla Cybertrucks and a disapproving old lady. And a Roomba vacuum that calls Darby “Daddy”…
It’s a complex multi-strand story, and the audience has to be on board from the off (some people, on the night I saw it, were not and left the venue utterly bemused). But for those who were, it was a treat to see a master storyteller weave not just a fantastical narrative with some clever jokes but, more seriously, offer proof positive as to why AI could never - and should never - replace human creativity.
That said, the hour doesn’t quite take flight in the way Darby’s imaginary hoverboard does, but this is an intelligent and imaginative attempt to explain the supposedly brave new world we have entered without many of us even knowing it.
Alex Stringer, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★
The beauty of comedy is that it can open a window on to other people’s lives, and so it is with Alex Stringer’s Happy Hour. In her debut Fringe show, the comic tells us what it’s like to become sober, having given up the booze in 2017 when she was in her early twenties. She can’t talk about Alcoholics Anonymous though, as “It’s like Fight Club, with biscuits”.
The Liverpudlian opens with a cracking Yoko One story (“She’s my favourite Scouser”, Stringer deadpans) by way of starting her tale of recovery. She talks about her relationship with alcohol, some scary episodes of drinking (including a gloriously icky spewing in a taxi anecdote) and what finally prompted her to seek help.
As she recounts her tale, there’s some audience interaction as Stringer gently guys the front row. Along the way, there’s some lighter fare too as the comic describes things that annoy her – people who call radio phone-ins, cold water swimmers and those who post trite wellbeing messages on Facebook are among a long list.
The pace is uneven, and the hour sometimes has the air of a confessional about it. But Stringer has some very decent jokes, and this is a solid debut from a comic who easily commands the room.
