Breaking the law

Tony Law is a controversial stand up, not because of his politics, but because his Fringe show 'Revenge of the Dog of Time' has polarized opinion throughout the festival. "Random and half baked," said Chortle, "surreal and special" said The Evening News and "baffling and confusing" said most other sources, before awarding a mediocre three star rating. Tony Law, however, is anything but average, as he proved whilst parading his deadly, time travelling sausage dogs before the Fringe audience's apparently fragile minds. People tend to find Law's performance either hilarious or insipidly stupid depending on their expectations of comedy. Looking and sounding like he stepped out of a 50s cola commercial, Law will ask a member of the audience "how are ya fella? Swell?" before launching into some bear on a skateboard shtick. Yet there is cleverness to the zany-ness because Law understands the comedy conventions and rules: what he enjoys is subverting them. He plays with preconceptions, twisting them spectacularly into different times and dimensions like his claim that "Germans only speak German when you're around". It's a ridiculous but entertaining world created by a man with an over active imagination who is bored by familiar comedy routines. Despite, or maybe because of the reviews, this is a comic worth working out for yourself.