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BRIGHTON FRINGE: Brighton Fringe Comedy Showcase – Komedia Studio

Reviewer: James Walsh

A wonderfully surreal deep dive into the stranger side of alternative comedy.

Luke Rollason seems like a lovely chap. Now a proper telly star in his own right, courtesy of Disney+ show Extraordinary (he plays Jizzlord), he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

Via the Luke Rollason Memorial Bursary – not being dead, Rollason describes it as his “stupid vanity bursary” – new acts from working class backgrounds are supported into strange, wonky and glorious life. Today, he hosts a showcase of clowns, character comedians, terrifying double-acts, and musical and stand-up humans.

Rollason is a very, very funny man, one of the best physical comedians on the circuit for a number of years, whether as one third of Privates (insane clowns), one half of Stepdads (terrifying double act), or on his own, when he occasionally dresses as a sofa.

This is your correspondent’s first time seeing him host. The MC’s role is traditionally to warm up the audience, to reassure them that what they’re about to see is gonna be fun and that everything is under control, even if the headliner is stuck in traffic just outside Shoreham.

Rollason comes on in a cheap plastic crown and announces he is King Midas and that everything he touches turns to comedy gold.

As a bit, it’s exceptionally stupid. But such is the performer’s skill, he gets laughs from his very first boggled-eyed glance to the side of the stage. We’re in safe hands, it’s just that those hands are very stupid.

The showcase is interspersed with some slightly less new but still brilliant acts. There is, for example, Su Mi, dressed as an enormous hillbilly corn named Cornelius, gap toothed and crappy of beard, like if Colonel Sanders only sold vegetables.

In my row, by chance, is Su Mi’s costume designer, who notes that her corn suit has seen better days. If anything, this adds to the derangement of the character and the perfectly timed hints at more complicated stirrings below the cob.

We also see the wonderful physical comedy of Lil Wenker, the most dangerous man in Texas, and Kayleigh Jones, with beautiful and silly songs on that most unduly derided of instrument, the ukulele.

But tonight belongs to the bursary acts, so let’s run through them.

First up is Sue the Cleaner, aka Liam Harney. Initially, our audience doesn’t know what quite to make of him. But gradually, they get the joke – Sue is our guide to crafty consumption, a camp Martin Lewis, but with a surreal twist.

There have been a number of character comedians trying to satirise the inherent naffness of money saving experts, without every quite nailing it. Sue has the arch delivery and bizarre jingles to provide the right level of madness, and by the end, everyone is on board.

And completing the show is Rachel Baker, aka Gwen. Gwen is an Avon lady with assorted petty grudges, a sharp tongue, and a beguilingly accurate portrayal of a working class flibbertigibbet who may or may not be from Stoke-on-Trent.

She’s a failed Zumba instructor, a great dancer, and possibly a scam artist. As a character, she’s brilliant, though please be wary if you meet her selling DVDs in the pub car park. Baker’s mannerisms are expertly studied; there’s something about the way she holds her head that makes her look like a lemon-sucking also-ran in a Dinner Ladies audition video, and it doesn’t get any better than that.

The two Bursary runner-ups are also excellent value. Rebecca Harrison arrives on stage dressed as an even more disturbing Frank Sidebottom, and delights with clowning and poetry alike. And Alex Franklin is a very funny, very assured young trans comedian, who ends here bit with a hysterical defenestration of JK Rowling.

Weirdest, and best, of all, though, is Mr Cardboard, an act Rollason claims wasn’t even supposed to be on the bill. Freakish blue, nutella-smeared Australian idiot-savant, and a less than super Mario brother who is wider than he is tall making surreal cardboard animals – this pair of loons are performing to kids at the Brighton Toy And Model Museum.

Tip for the parents: invest in therapy early.

Reviewed on the 24th May.

The Reviews Hub Score

Wonderfully Surreal

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