Fringe comedy reviews: Abby Govindan | Jordan Brookes | Michael Shafar | Frankie Thompson + more

Abby Govindan: Pushing 30 | Salam & Holohan

Abby Govindan: Pushing 30 ★★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August

As creator of the hit Netflix show Emily In Paris and a recent inclusion in Forbes' 30 Under 30 List of people to watch, Abby Govindan appears far too established to be off-loading her generational angst in a converted shipping container. But all is not quite what it seems.

In this intricate and multifaceted but free-flowing and accessible Fringe debut, the sharp, girlish, Indian-American comic relates her anxiety about finding a romantic partner, the cultural and familial pressure she feels to settle down and her experiences dating across different races.

All the while, she reveals herself to be an inveterate prankster who'll dice with anyone in the full glare of social media. Oh, and what's more, Pushing 30 is a cri de coeur to destroy San Francisco and the big tech corporations' grip on everyone's lives.

So Govindan contains multitudes, an accomplished and committed storyteller who, even at her most flighty and frivolous, has managed to con huge organisations such as the BBC, New York Times and, er, the KKK. Such impish skulduggery befits her appearance on the Forbes' List, a parade of billionaire shysters and platinum rogues ruining the world and being exposed right up to this minute.

Inbetween her sly, waggish activism, the comic weaves the more personally pressing circumstances of her wider family's drip-drip insinuations and outright admonishments that she has to hurry up, get married and start a family. Full of knotty issues of tradition meeting progressive values, it's a compelling clash of worldviews that Govindan considers with empathy and grace, while stridently asserting her sex-positive freedom to be mistress of her own destiny, even if she sometimes rushes in with little heed for the consequences.

Stubborn but self-aware, satirical yet warm, she's a tremendous all-rounder of a comic with many strings to her bow. Jay Richardson

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Jordan Brookes: The Part of You That’s Always Screaming ★★★★

Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 30 August

How does being observed affect the way we behave? Who and what are we when nobody’s perceiving us? Do we need to be conscious of being seen if we are to behave in a way that doesn’t look unhinged? How do we actually look when we’re thinking? Gormless, probably.

Never one to shrink away from big themes, 2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Jordan Brookes uses a simple train journey as the scaffolding on which to hang his thesis. No “aisle worm”, he gets the window seat, eating a croissant while the guy beside him seems to be looking at him but might also be staring right past him, out of the window.

We can all relate to that feeling, but Brookes turns it is an extremely funny, at times deeply uncomfortable illustration of being hamstrung by the intensity of self-awareness. He mimes eating that croissant with such detailed accuracy that we practically experience the feeling of dry pastry being swallowed uneasily.

Some of this show is ostensibly more traditional than much of the high-concept work we’ve seen from Brookes in recent years, but an alienating interlude – involving loud industrial music and stark physicality – quickly reminds us who we’re dealing with.

The fact that it goes on for far longer than is comfortable is testimony to the boldness of Brookes’ approach. He’s entirely in control of the tension and release.

Some darkly funny jokes about mental illness, living in the moment and being anxious of, or even disturbed by, what lurks within his imagination also serve as reminders that Brookes is a unique talent operating in a league of his own. Ashley Davies

Michael Shafar : Inappropriate ★★★★

Beehive 1 (The Comedy Tent) at Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn (Venue 178) and Nic 2 (The Main Hall, Nicolson Square Venues) at Hoots @ Nicolson Square (Venue 63) until 31 August

Michael Shafar warms up with some so-so “where are you froms” and “what do you dos”, during which we discover there are pretty much no Scots in the house. The build is pretty slow, but he is Aussie, so maybe it is just relaxed – via World War III and testicular cancer, but things lift with the persuasive suggestion that everyone has a “number” that, if offered, would 'turn' them against their principles.

Young confirmed heterosexual Rory in the row in front of me put his at £1 million “maybe a bit less” to join the Friends of Dorothy for a chorus. His girlfriend looks less than chuffed. But now we get to the funny with (surprisingly) kids, and why white kids are the worst, racism, immigrants and their special skills, the upside of war, and pilates in mosques.

Shafar peppers his hour with a range of freshly minted comedy concepts : justification for the Princess Diana Driving School, the tit combover and anti vaxxers on Ozempic to name but three. There is, by this point in the hour, a rolling tide of laughs. Big laughs. There is nothing here that doesn't hit its mark.

Shafar offers some properly hardball material about Israel (don't panic, he is Jewish, apparently he is allowed) and the most fearless (and probably harshest) comedy take on autism you will hear this August. It is genuinely gasp / laugh out loud funny.

This is a good old-fashioned hour of comedy covering a proper mix of topics. There is no thread, no narrative, but there are a lot of laughs, and we really never know where they are coming from next. Which is great. Kate Copstick

READ MORE: Sons of Susan on their apocalyptic black comedy BIRDS: 'We're applying latex for hours every day'

Frankie Thompson: Horrible Things ★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August

Jacob Rees Mogg was a profoundly strange child, as anyone can tell when listening to archive interviews with the right-wing precocious nipper, aged nine. Clown Frankie Thompson uses an extended recording of the freakish Tory child as part of her collection of found objects, all of them horrible things.

Dressed in a polka dot flamenco outfit she lip-syncs to Baby Rees Mogg, as well as other historic recordings of strange old Tories, confessing the weird rituals and beliefs of their secret world. But it’s not all politics. There’s also Frank Sinatra, Shelley Duvall and a rocking chair haunted by the spirit of a dead Victorian governess.

Thompson drags members of the audience into her haunted nursery for various bits of interaction. Volunteers dance, blow bubbles, offer flowers and join an invisible orchestra. There’s also an extended Cliff Richards section, illustrated with calendar pin ups of Cliff at various ages.

I’m not sure that pretending to vomit at the end of each segment is the right way to switch scenes – but it does emphasise the point that Thompson thinks all these things are horrible. Licking the floor with her tongue and taking swigs of Pepto-Bismol on stage also seems a strange choice. Claire Smith

Hoani Hoani Hoani Must Be Funny In a Rich Man's World ★★

Hoots 5 at Hoots @ The Apex (Venue 108) until 31 August

I am a bit of a pushover for a clever title. Hoani Hotene is Maori, but also Ngati Haua, which means a pale skinned ginger Maori. He and his comedy are gentle and mild mannered.

This is a delightfully comfortable hour with two starts and special attractions for fans of cushion spinning and the letter 'o'. It is a disparate hour, but we know that because he has his setlist written on a big box on stage.

Anime, SpongeBob SquarePants and gambling on sheep shearing sit alongside funeral streaming and bullying. This is a sweet way to spend an hour. Kate Copstick

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