Tom Walker @ MICF 2018 – by Julian Callinan
TOM WALKER – Honk Honk Honk Honk Honk Unfortunately this show had a few technical difficulties on the night, but Tom Walker barrelled through them with his manic energy, convincingly working it into the show. The nature of the show and his delivery makes such difficulties fit in nicely, even, as his ramshackle charm and […]
Claire Hooper @ MICF 2018 – by Julian Callinan
CLAIRE HOOPER – All the Rage Claire Hooper’s deceptively casual style conceals that her show this year is like one of those paper fortune tellers, as she keeps unfolding and rearranging her material, showing different perspectives and resolutions. She expertly takes the audience through a show about her inappropriate anger and makes it hilarious, grounding […]
DeAnne Smith @ MICF 2018 – by Julian Callinan
DEANNE SMITH – Worth It First of all, DeAnne Smith would like it to be known that, despite what the blurb might say, the show ‘Worth It’ isn’t about money, or financial systems, or the economy. Secondly, that the show isn’t ‘weird’ but did ‘make the audience so overjoyed they demanded an encore’. Really, the […]
Guy Montgomery @ MICF 2018 – by Julian Callinan
GUY MONTGOMERY – Guy Montgomery Doesn’t Check His Phone for an Hour Starting with some strong observational humour that worked well with his intro music, the affable Montgomery slips into a narrative so subtly you don’t realise it’s happening until halfway through. With a strong grasp of the room and a frequently charming turn of phrase, […]
Joel Creasey @ MICF 2018 – by Julian Callinan
JOEL CREASEY – Blonde Bombshell Joel Creasey’s show was so well put-together that even the outro music enhanced the jokes. Speaking rapidly and dropping frequent references as asides, Creasey performed his show to a crossover audience with aplomb and a few deserved pauses for applause. It’s a style that would be trying if he didn’t […]
Goonies, Grunge and the Lost Generation – by Rebecca Pickett
To me 1979 will always be two very important things – a song by the Smashing Pumpkins, and the year I was born. This also means I was born on the verge of an important cultural shift; a generational cusp. The 80’s brought us Madonna, personal computers, new wave music and the fall of the […]
T2 and Choosing Nostalgia – by Lucy Watson
As I walked out of Westgarth cinema two weekends ago, having just seen T2 Trainspotting for the first time, I felt that great rush; when you see something that gets under your skin, and makes you feel that odd, longing sensation somewhere between your heart and your stomach. The one that only certain cinema gives […]
Public Grief and the People Who Hate You For It – by Nick Caddaye
So far, 2016 has been a funny old year for public grief. With the deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman this week there has been an outpouring of emotion, matched quickly by an outpouring of sniffy commentary about how such public displays of mourning for celebrities are, if not self-serving, then at the very […]
Cheerleaders, Groupies and the Female as Spectator – by Lucy Watson
Back in 2005, I was at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it was one of those mornings where we were hanging with a gang of comedians outside the Gilded Balloon as the sun was coming up, deciding where we would kick onto. I was chatting to a comedian mate of mine (a really nice guy, who […]
The Unbearable Numbness of Being – by Lucy Watson
Today my heart hurts. It aches for Paris. For Beirut. For the world. A lot has been written in the days since the Paris attacks that the world only cares about white lives. That there is only an outpouring of love and support for Paris, but not for Beirut. Or for countless other conflicts. This […]