Edinburgh Fringe Reviews: Comedy from Tragedy
It turns out misery loves company, as dark humour has wound its way into several series-of-unfortunate-events gigs at the Fringe
Njambi McGrath has 99 problems; laughing about them, however, isn’t one. One Last Dance With My Father [★★] is her tell-all, personal show where she speaks boldly about an abusive childhood, growing up with a wifebeating father and the unfair standards she was held to as a young girl in Africa.
The gig incorporates some clever writing but falls short, as the stilted delivery results in several punchlines being lost in the premature beginning of the next joke. McGrath does better with more generic parts of her material – stories of post-colonial Kenya, its corrupt government and biting poverty – and her digs at Brit support programmes are met with enthusiasm. The comic has an incredible and enthralling story to share, but her show in its current avatar might be better told through another format rather than as a stand-up show.
Sophie Willan, photo: Steve Ullathorne
Finding a way to laugh at real tragedy is never easy, but Sophie Willan resorts to levity so effortlessly, its almost as if she’s had plenty of practice. Which she has, it turns out, as is revealed in her performance of On Record [★★★★].
It's a cerebral take on a lifetime spent in and out of foster care, summed up succinctly via her analysis of the pile of personal records she received from the state on turning 23. She introduces us to her family, a whole cast of mad hatter characters whose active and passive roles in her life seem to have resulted in her reliance on herbal supplements that quash suicidal and/or homicidal thoughts. Willan sandwiches one hell of a life story into a delightfully scripted performance that leaves audiences marvelling at her upbeat, largely blameless version of what has evidently been a far more arduous childhood than she lets on.
Stuart Mitchell, photo: Steve Ullathorne
You’re not quite done on the tragedy circuit till you catch Stuart Mitchell who only ups the schadenfreude quotient with Dealt a Bad Hand [★★★★] – which he was, literally and figuratively, as he tells of a childhood that left him sans the tips of two fingers and most of the hair on his head.
Circumstance stole a great deal from the Scottish comedian, and the audience titter uncomfortably as he leaps from jokes about his difficulty in picking his nose to how he discovered his mother’s body after she committed suicide when he was only seven, with practically no segue. But take the risk and follow him straight into the deep end, and you’ll leave the show completely sold.
Njambi McGrath: One Last Dance with my Father, Laughing Horse @ Espionage (Kasbar), 3-27 Aug (not 8, 15 & 22), 2.30pm, Free
Sophie Willan: On Record, Pleasance Courtyard (Cellar), 3-28 Aug (not 15), 4.45pm, £6-12
Stuart Mitchell: Dealt a Bad Hand, Pleasance Courtyard (This), 3-28 Aug (not 15), 7.15pm, £6-12