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*
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