Newcomers- Doc Brown, John Luke Roberts, Bo Burnham

With a mere three days until the Edinburgh Comedy Awards panel, now under the auspices of Absolute Radio, announces its shortlists, I thought I'd take on three newcomers I saw this year who might threaten to make it.

From 40000 people in stadiums to radio 4, fatherhood and the Pleasance attic in the blink of an eye, Doc Brown certainly has a tale to tell. As a rapper touring with Mark Ronson, he shared stages with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, and substance abuse with many more. He enters to a pounding beat and raps with all the arrogant strutting of the genre only for the chorus to change in tone from demand to desperate plea, Look at me, Look at me, Look at me. Starting full of obnoxious self-importance, his voice changes to one of familiar vulnerability.As this opening shows, his mega star accessories might be painfully, plasticatedly fake, but his talent is very real. His transformation from attention seeking kid to british rap's next big thing,before  descending into nothingness and resentment and experiencing a moment of self-realisation on a bus provides a funny and interesting show.
                 He is unafraid to get right up close to his small audience in one of the Fringe's smallest venues, and brazenly challenges the entire audience to a rap battle. While Doc Brown deserves praise for mixing the rap comedy angle with a genuine finger on the pulse of a radio 4 middle class funny bone- a star turn is a rap about his beloved over-head projector- and simply for being a witty, likeable guy; this show is more than that. The laughter is not exactly overwhelming, or uproarious, but the backdrop is a disarmingly and endearingly honest story. You won't hear many clearer narratives, with anything like so pleasingly frank and personal conclusion. The story of hip-hop's peaks and troughs should be told by more guys like this.
                   More esoteric, and even slightly unfathomable, is John Luke-Roberts. Formerly of cult sketch troupe Behemoth, this young and very odd comic appears as a stand up and serial killer- who ineptly attempts do distract his audience from an increasingly brutal murder he's committing offstage- with several different formats, lots of jokes, and one very odd costume change. He has lost his double act partner, who nevertheless has a star turn recorded on video, and seems a little uncomfortable filling the time on his own. An original take on the "insult the audience" genre of rapport-building, where he reads an insult off a pre-prepared card to each member of the audience in turn, showcases his inventive and disconcerting joke-writing style. However the good idea, the undoubtedly sinister character he creates, and his expert gags are not pulled together well enough to form a proper show. Interludes where he reads anecdotes, often including a murder, while sitting in an armchair jar against the tone, and unnecessarily slow the tempo. The murder, one of  the better premises for a show i've heard, soon descends into undiluted gimmickry with clunky choreography. The "big finale" is almost  cringeworthily unfunny. However John Luke-Roberts has tried something genuinely new, much more than can be said for your average edinburgh debutant, and only just been found wanting. In the case of this next performer, I was found wanting only more. (Segue. Nice.)
                  Bo Burnham's disconceringly sexual songs earned him millions of hits on youtube, a judd apatow movie role and script commission, and a sold-out tour across the states. His show, Words Words Words, should earn him a lot more. From his tauntingly silent entrance, tearing newspaper behind the microphone, to his storming exit, he holds the audience's eye in a way that is almost eerie. He seeks constantly to trick, mislead and confuse the punters, creating the ideal impression of a comic who is trying his best to alienate you and failing miserably. His jokes are simply stunning (he has expressed frustration with reviewers being unable to contain their enthusiasm and quoting the whole show). I sympathise, since almost every joke in his show would be the soaring highlight of any other. Time and again he tells us not to clap his gags and songs, but by the end of the show he's given up because it's useless. He continually insists that what he's about to do isn't meant to be funny, and then of course it is, but when he really sings a song with power and poignancy about his need for attention, it is reinforced, rather than undermined, by the lies. His rapping sends punchline after punch line, some traditional and rythmrhyming, others discordant and disturbing- perfectly mistimed. During one song, "What's Funny" he slows the piano and shouts "TOURETTE'S" at the top of his voice before moving on.
              There is no mistaking that Bo Burnham is special, and perhaps even a genius by his 20th birthday. If he doesn't win the newcomer, most likely it's because he's won the top prize already, in a storm of bewildered applause. But the only strange note, particularly for the older members in his audience, is the comparitive lack of actual, audible laughter. It's still there, but he seems to get more admiration and worship than screeches and split sides. To an extent it's because you're dazed by his ferocious originality, but it has often been said that great performers need to work the tension, and provide"permission to laugh". This is surely the only thing Bo has left to do now.
Ratings
Doc Brown 4*
John Luke Roberts 3*
Bo Burnham 5*

EDIT: Since I wrote this post, the nominees have been announced. Bo got the nod for best comedy show, but doc brown was unjustly left off the newcomers( he was comfortably better than Late Night Gimp Fight, the only other act on the shortlist I saw in full). I tip Bo or Greg Davies to take the top accolade, and The Boy with Tape on his Face for the newcomer

Kvetch a Sketch- Penny Dreadfuls, Pappy's

Sketch Comedy at the fringe has had a checkered history. It has always garnered a wealth of award nominations, and provided a springboard for an astonishing number of great comics, mainly from the footlights, but let's not forget Beyond the Fringe and (more recently) Cowards. But as the fringe has grown, the largest arts festival in the world by god, the sketch scene has become inundated with smug student revues and crude amateurs. There remains a super-league of top sketch troupes pushing for greater recognition and becoming fringe favourites, of whom the most obvious two are The Penny Dreadfuls and the "self-styled penny brilliants", Pappy's. These two have established themselves as firm festival favourites over the past few years, and deadly rivals. The Penny Dreadfuls have shed the elaborate comedy play format, and the victorian melodrama that made them famous, in favour of snazzy blackyellow outfits and a sleek, traditional sketch medley boasting a modern feel. Happily they have lost none of the sharp writing and tremendous comic acting which characterised Aeneas Faversham and The Never Man, and the laughs fly thick and fast. A big entrance is not over-long and a brilliant parody of driving movies swiftly follows, and a cascade of parody, pop culture and manic originality continues to the end. Their ability to create characters convincingly and instantaneously is what earned them the place in the pleasance one in the first place, and they merit it yet. If they are to be criticised, it must be said that the shows polished edges have curbed the spontaneity of the former Improv team. But if you are looking for off the cuff additions, look no further than the revamped Pappy's. Having picked up a host of five star reviews and all the plaudits last year, Pappy's Fun Club had earned themselves an E4 pilot and looked to be flying high. But their brand of comedy was never right for that sort of telly, and the pilot was dire. After weighty re-examination, Brendan Dodds left the group, taking two words of their name as a divorce settlement, and now Pappy's claim to be All Business in their new show. Fans will be relieved to know that their shambolic, maniacal brilliance has only intensified, and that their show is more spontaneous and changing than ever. Tom, Ben and Matthew sing, riff and joke without cease for the whole hour, bringing joy to the children's faces- or at least to mine. They are unafraid to mock each other's mistakes and failings on stage, and have some razor sharp comic writing to back them up. Sketches about winning an olympic medal, being crucified, turning up in the same shirt to a party and dealing with abrasive technology are the best examples of how they can tackle everything with peerless comic invention. If you see one sketch show this year, see this.

Penny's 4*
 Pappy's 5*

The Award Winners- Laura Solon, David O'Doherty, Tim Key

Returning for the second time after winning a surprise perrier with "Kopfraper's Syndrome",character comedienne Laura Solon is a fascinating and unique performer. The Owl of Stephen will undoubtedly suffer from comparison to both her first show and last year's "Rabbit Faced Story Soup" but retains her characteristic charm and wit. An instantly likeable storyteller with a very sharp eye for gags and middle class senisibilities, Laura first suggests that the audience choose the storylines, only to withdraw the offer when the thrawn audience choose a falsified chartered accountant over her as the narrator. An occasionally over-manic storyline about an ex-playboy model searching for a reclusive owl on a made-up channel island is neatly wrapped up at the end. Having seen her last year's show I was dissapointed by the characters, who by and large seem rushed and often are given almost no time to develop. A brilliant exception is Miriam, an Iron Lady with a useless spendthrift husband, running a bed and breakfast. Nevertheless it's jam-packed with good jokes, and Laura's characters and stories remain as endearing as ever. It is difficult to think of another comedian with as relaxed a manner as David O'Doherty, who also returns for the second time since winning the if.com award with "Let's Comedy". Somewhere Over the David O'Doherty is a simple hour of stand up, giving an insight into the oddly normal life, and mad mind, of the Irish Keyboard aficionado. Promising "Lolz and Lulls", which are filled with hysterical made-up facts about pandas- "A blindfolded panda will always walk north, because the build up of iron in a panda's liver mean they are slightly magnetic", he delivers more on one count than the other. David himself has confidently said that he feels he is improving every year( he would say that though innit), and while this show won't achieve what "Let's Comedy" achieved, he remains one of the most reliably funny, and unflinchingly loveable comedians on the fringe. Tim Key returns this year with his award winning show The Slutcracker, for a limited run in the Queendome. This is a show quite unlike any other I've ever seen. From the first moment when he emerges from the back banging a golf club against a stage littered with random detritus, to putting on his suit, cracking open a can of red stripe and starting his poems, you are laughing, confused and bewildered, but laughing. He is as consumately comfortable joining the punters and joking off the cuff as he is standing backstage while bizarre videos of him in various dress up in Russian fields play projected. In a way that requires no shock, no contrived controversy, Tim Key pushes every boundary he can think of. He exerts an almost eerie control over his audience, who happily hold his drink and all join to help him make it across the stage without touching the floor in a self-set challenge. Rich Hall once asked his audience to leave his show silent, shirtless and holding their tickets with an expression of utterly bereft bafflement. For the Slutcracker,  once of course you've given him the highest award available, this seems the most appropriate reaction.

Ratings
The Owl of Stephen 3*
Somewhere Over the David O'Doherty 4*
The Slutcracker 5*

Adam Hills, Henning Wehn, Hans Teeuwen

Three foreigners, three utterly different stand up shows, all laugh like a maniac brilliant. Mess Around, Adam Hills' new show where material is only an unnecessary backup to hoofcuff audience interaction, offers convincing proof that he is one of the most assured comics at the fringe. Never too concerned about where the next laugh is coming from Adam works the room like an expert, joking with his sign language interpreter and a talented ten year old called Lenny, who may find himself behind a microphone in the lights before too long. With padding from excellent anecdotes about appearing with Gaga and Prince Philip at the royal variety and a heroic pizza salesman the lulls never last long. While there is not necessarily a wider point to this show, no overarching message, Adam's feelgood brand leaves a nice glow on the brain. This is a good guy, doing good comedy. Many fans of more disconcerting joke prejudice irony have been enjoying the excellent german humour series with Otto Kuhnle for several years, but this year Henning Wehn returns without his help to do his first solo fringe show, My Struggle. Ostensibly about how tough it is to make it on the circuit as a german, this show suffers in many ways from the perennial fringe sin of cobbling together the year's material to make a show without a coherent narrative. Nevertheless bits about sectarianism and heroes in uniform betray the sharp and controversial jokewriter who lurks not too far beneath the stereotypical exterior. All in all, newcomers will find something well worth watching, but to his long-term fans( among whom I include myself), this assured sort-of-debut comes more as a relief than an exhilarating masterpiece.(I should also mention that you might, in a bizarre touch, win a trip to munich courtesy of the german tourist board). Hans Teeuwen is many things to many- a radical genius to most reviewers, a hero of free speech to followers in holland and to the audience at latitude, a talentless misogynist. This year's show, Smooth and Painful, is a reworking of last years, split roughly evenly between old and new material. As such, he conveys a not entirely endearing indifference to the opinion of his audience, who as usual either piss themselves or walk out. For me there is no doubt that Hans Teeuwen is a visionary, who makes you laugh in ways no other comedian has quite grasped, but this show is nevertheless a dissappointment, a lacklustre effort from one of our finest living comedians. Disturbing, discordant, offbeat sets about religion or the fairytale forest are still brilliant, but repeated, and those who have seen him before will know that he can do so, oh so much better than the new material in this hour. Still a must see for anyone who has never seen him before, and although no Hans Teeuwen fan will lose the faith after this there is something inadequate, something wrong.

Ratings
Mess Around 4*
My Struggle 3*
Smooth and Painful 4*

Links
 http://www.adamhills.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YTbONFlQi4  - Henning Wehn on the Comedy Vehicle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvOS9vsccJs - Hans Teeuwen(in dutch) making a speech for Theo Van gogh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrGSbGhKYBs - Getting booed off at Latitude