Comedy at the Leith Festival

Before the overwhelming kaleidoscopic festival of art, music and everything else hits Edinburgh in August there is the Leith Festival - a smaller, better groomed, more Scottish wee festival

Article by Edward Whelan | 24 May 2010

All located within a one mile radius, you can reasonably expect to be able to be able to wander around the Leith Festival with a programme in your hand, dropping in and out of venues as the mood takes you. The programme is somewhat eclectic, somewhat predictable and the comedy on offer is a mixed bag, but with many great shows around you should browse the line up with care.

All the shows take place on a boat! A real floating, in the water boat, that sways on blowy nights. Cruz, a moored 1919 steamer at The Shore, has a roomy bar upstairs whilst downstairs the venue itself is a decent size.

Amongst our pick of highlights is Seven Different Shades of Wrong on 19 June, an improv show being podcasted live. I’m not entirely sure how this is all going to work, but if the idea of ‘live’ and ‘interactive’ and ‘radio’ all fit together well for you, then get along early to find a seat where you can catch their eye. With both Rick Molland and Billy Kirkwood onboard, be sure to expect a comedy show with a dirty underbelly. Molland is one of the ranting atheists behind The Heresy Project, which has received mixed reviews, but certainly caught them a lot of attention as they systematically offended everyone, with much guffawing along the way.

On 20 June is the wonderful Phil Buckley. Buckley has been around the world and back with his stories of unexpected truthfulness and returns to the Leith festival with his show Jokes Not Included; a premise so simple but so inspired. Buckley himself has admitted in earlier shows that his ability to make up jokes is pretty poor, but with fantastic comic delivery he regales the audience with stories from his life; elevating the silly and ridiculous to brilliant comic art. It works well for him and he has been keeping busy touring in the UK, Australia and America and appearing all over the place on the radio along the way.

And of course we couldn’t help but mention Vladimir McTavish, also a regular Leith Festival-er, who is bringing his new show Whiskey: An Eejits Guide along this time. He’ll be taking a look at the history of Scotland’s favourite drink and how it came to take such a meaningful place within what it is to be Scottish. McTavish has been roaming the comedy circuit for long enough now to have his art finessed and well deserves his place as one of Scotland’s best loved comedians.

Fit O'The Giggles: Finest brings a cluster of comedians together in the same room for five quick comedy sets. If you worry about putting all your money down for an hour with the same comedian, maybe someone you’ve never heard of, its likely that Fit O' The Giggles is going to have someone in their line up that’s your cup of tea. And probably at least one who isn't, but that's variety for you.

Tickets are fairly cheap even, at five or six quid each, so you can branch into more unfamiliar comedy territory, the mysterious misty bog lands of the unknown, unsure if you will find comedy gold or a stinky empty basement. Comedians will be experimenting with new material a little so you have the chance to catch what could be 2010’s big Edinburgh Festival highlight before the tickets triple in price.

 

Leith Festival runs from 11-20 Jun

http://www.leithfestival.com