The second week of the fringe has passed and my goal of seeing 100 shows/exhibitions/happenings this month seems distant, as I have so far managed a mere 22. My goal of not being a drunk argumentative twat at 1 am in the morning is going well though.

Here are my top 6 shows so far…

Paul Currie – The Chorus of Ghosts Living in My Skull Keep Telling Me to Take a Shit in the Fruit Salad – Just The Tonic @ Caves – 9PM
A surrealist revivalist church meeting in which anything can happen. Brilliant clowning and unexpected hints of the personal. The sort of perfect fringe experience that grows and grows into something super-special over the month and then, all too regularly, evaporates on contact with the cruel reality beyond an Edinburgh August. I’ve been twice. Lots of the crowd are now clearly regulars, participating in a kind of ritual comic cleansing. Superbly tech’d too. My special place 2022.

Police Cops – Assembly Studios – 7pm
I am late to this party but I suspect this show is a step up. People with the skills to do proper comedy don’t usually have the skills or attitude to do music theatre too, but genuinely funny improvisations weave in and out of a tight cop-show parody script. The cast are fit and handsome, acrobatic and accomplished, and yet also ridiculous and grotesque and clownish in a classic comedy way. The jokes are smart and the musical milieu of ‘80s power rock is dead on. It takes brains to be this dumb! Who the hell are these people, and why haven’t they been ruined for ever by actual West End fame?

Thom Tuck & Tim FitzHigham – Macbeth – Udderbelly – 8.35pm
The drunken fen-lords of comedy recreate Macbeth from memory in a haze of hallucinogenic impro-fuzz, ravaging the text as is their Lordly prima nocte right. What really went on there? We only have this extract? What the fringe is made for.

Alasdair Beckett-King – Nevermore – Pleasance Dome 7PM
Great writerly material which has enough room to breathe to make it feel like it’s alive, and a well-judged and non-interventionist use of tech. Precise and very funny.

An Evening Without Kate Bush – Assembly George Sq Gardens 5.55PM
A Bush-consumed lady channels Bush fandom with persuasive charm, genuine warmth, and accurate choreography

Medea – Liz Locheed – Edinburgh International Festival – various times
A kind of fashion show promenade catwalk performance of the miserable tale in a spectacular space, with darkly comic lines performed in crispy Scottish vernacular by a brilliantly diverse cast offering finely nuanced interpretations of their roles.

AND I ALSO LOVED this next 6

Fascinating Aida – Assembly George Square – 6PM
Sophisticated satirical songs, performed by jazz-age cabaret muso-dames, with unexpected angry edges and fantastic internal rhyme schemes

Jonny & The Baptists – Dance Like It Never Happened – Assembly George Square 4PM
High energy satirical folk-pop sure to make you dance in your seat, hate the Tories, and question God.

Marvelus – All The Marvel Movies… Kind Of! – Just The Tonic Caves 6.10 PM
Two deeply humane nerds impro-comedy their way through the MCU, making massive and imaginative use of limited props. Great if you know your Marvel movies, and probably weirdly enjoyable if you don’t. Leave your stinky Marvel fan husband there and go for a prosecco.

Omid Djalili – New Town Theatre – 5.20pm
Omid sneaks social commentary and liberal satire into a show so unapologetically entertaining the audience don’t even realise they are being indoctrinated!

Jo Neary – Stand II – 12 mid-day
Superb surreal character comedy with a pin-sharp absurd vocabulary and a fluid sense of the physical from the deathless art weirdo. Unique and special.

Famous Puppet Deaths – Roxy – 6.30pm
Three talented Canadian women explore the beautiful futility of life in a succession of Edward Gorey-esque comic scenes of suffering using puppets and bits of themselves

ALSO

If you like jazz art the Dovecote Gallery has an unprecedently thorough retrospective on the overlooked free-jazz/abstractionist Alan Davie, whose work mainly lies overlooked and rotting in British provincial gallery collection cellars. Ace!

MY SPIES TELL ME

The Tragedy of Macbeth – Roxy – 12 midday
The full on classic fringe treatment w live music, puppets, physical theatre etc, apparently. It blew my kids’ minds!

Circus Abyssinia Tulu – Underbelly meadows 1.30 PM
The kids said this was utterly brilliant and unaffectedly honest. They want to join the circus now.

The Road To Ballina – Gilded Ballon @ The Museum – 2pm
Jakko Jakszyk – from King Crimson? – tells the story of tracing his family and uncovering some surprises with musical accompaniment. Again, a highlight for my family talent spotters.

20 down, 80 to go.
That’s 40 shows a week, or just over 5 a day, for the next 2 weeks. Will I make it?