If I lived in London I could easily have seen thirty previews by now (a mini-Fringe) but as I like up in the North East I've had access to significantly less. However, I could've seen ten or more. Things are improving! In the end due to a variety of factors (time, taste, money, wanting to see the amazing Jon Ronson!) I saw only three. They were all great shows (to say the least) and I saw them all in one of my favourite comedy venues, the Live Theatre which is on the Quayside in Newcastle. It's a very intimate venue; there is an area of caberet tables near the front, three rows of theatre seats behind and then two rows of balcony seats up above. There is not a bad seat or view there.
Isy Suttie: Pearl and Dave
I'd seen Isy Suttie do a couple of ten-fifteen minute bits before but this was the first full show of hers I'd seen. I wish now I'd seen more! She was wonderful. She began with an amazing Lady Gaga/Dido in a well bit which just served to show off her incredible voice trick (which she apparently taught herself playing a church graveyard while her mum was bellringing) which imitated the electronic effect on "Papparazzi" and Dido's peculiar vocal style on "Thank You". It was mightily impressive.
From there she moved on to talking about her childhood (alone in graveyards) and her and her sister finding an unusual penfriend, Dave from two doors down. While Isy wonders now "what was in it for him?", the relationship was sweet, innocent and continues to this day.
The letters she read out were funny, charming and sweet - the everyday life of a guy in his mid-twenties intertwined with the lives of two interesting and strange little girls.
And then we learned about Pearl - a girl Dave met at Butlins and their relationship that is at once very modern (conducted on facebook, email and Skype) and very romantically old-fashioned. Pearl is married; Dave is still living with him mum.
Isy's songs are lovely - documenting Pearl and Dave's relationship's progress and also showing us a glimpse of her own relationships over the years. The show was moving and beautiful; there was a point where I cried and I doubt I was the only one.
This is the stand up I love - heartfelt, passionate and meaningful.
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| Isy Suttie - delightful in every way! |
Norman Lovett: LoL@NoLo
Norman Lovett was on after Isy - it was one of those two previews for a tenner shows and we probably wouldn't have seen him if we'd not been seeing the lovely Ms Suttie - and I had no idea what to expect. Like most people, I knew him as Holly from Red Dwarf, a TV show we'd all grown up with but that R and N had always adored and watched obsessively and I had seen less frequently (though N and I watched loads of them in college) but I was clueless about what his stand up (which he was doing long before the RD days and long after too) would entail.
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| Norman Lovett as millions remember him - as Holly. |
He was brilliantly bizarre. I could only really compare him to Simon Munnery and Paul Foot for being absolutely nuts! His show had no story or throughline or theme - it was just an odd collection of bits and pieces (including some madness with plastic gloves and plastic bin bags). He talked about his love of Lady Gaga and other female artists. He mocked a (very annoying!) girl in the audience, he dressed as Hit Girl, he had competitions, pictures of celebrities as jumping-off points. A lot of it was not so much jokes as him saying "oh they're really good, see them...wait, that's not funny. It's not all jokes. Some of it is recommendations" which was then somehow hilarious.
Well, there are many people to see and I wouldn't recommend NL in the same way I would IS, however, I'm very glad I saw him. He's free at the Fringe and he's a great deal of fun!!
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| NoLo...as he calls himself! |
Richard Herring: What Is Love Anyway?
This was the third year in a row I'd seen Mr.Herring on the exact same date in the exact same place. I guess that July 31st is a good day for a preview in Newcastle as he can just keep going up to Edinburgh without turning back!
It's always amazing to see RH live. He feels like such a star and I get much more nervous talking to him than a lot of people! Who knows why.
I feel like talking about this show I'll repeat a lot of what I said about Isy's; it was certainly beautiful. I told Richard H that when I met him. I didn't quite cry but I almost did. I'm not sure how Mr Herring made it through without crying (I think he doesn't always).
The premise of the show was that when he did his last show Christ on a Bike, he said that we shouldn't really have too much of a go at religious people as everyone believed in something to help them get through their lives. But the atheists didn't like it, he said, when he suggested that the magical thing they believed in (love) may not exist.
The ideas he discussed - love and its longevity, love and its reciprocity, parental love, familial love - were all fascinating to consider. He, like Suttie, put his entire self into the show, reading out old poetry and showing us family artefacts.
The finale of the show was absoutely outstanding. Richard may give the impression of being infantile (especially with the persona we see in his podcasts) and silly but year on year he delivers shows that prove he is intelligent, thoughtful and very, very kind.
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| Richard Herring and me. |
They've now performed the last of their previews. I've seen the last of mine. Edinburgh beckons us all.
