EVERYTHING MARKED WITH: 1/2 Star


Paul Whitelaw August 23rd, 2017 by

Nick Doody has a joke (and I won’t spoil it by doing the whole thing), that says you can’t write ‘swan’ on a pig and shove it out onto the lake. And yet over the past five years we’ve discovered that we have to accept things as they’re labelled, however little sense it makes. It […]


Sarah Lewis August 19th, 2014 by

I feel slightly stupid reviewing Sarah Lewis, as everyone else in the Fringepig office is convinced she doesn’t exist. I should probably explain: SOMEONE at Mumble Comedy exists, and if he or she wishes to sometimes identify as Sarah Lewis, then that is fine. But we think this person identifies sometimes as Mark ‘Divine’ Calvert […]


Vyvyan Almond August 17th, 2014 by

Vyvyan Almond’s sentences are quite over-constructed. They sometimes take so long to reach their point that reading his reviews puts you in mind of a Dickensian preamble. And Dickens, as we know, was paid by the word. That’s not to say that Almond writes with the wit or pathos of Dickens, of course. In fact […]


I don’t know why this reviewer has awarded himself divinity.  Perhaps he bears a passing resemblance to John Waters’ favourite drag queen. Perhaps – even more than all the other reviewers – this one believes himself appointed to pass God’s infallible judgment upon Fringe entertainment. Whatever the reason, it comes as a disappointment that his […]


Justin McCarthy July 17th, 2014 by

Justin McCarthy doesn’t so much write reviews as retch words from every orifice. Like someone with lexical norovirus the deluge flows from both ends of his points of view, creating a big mess all over the page. “Simply the most bizarre show you will ever have the unfortunate and detrimental privilege to watch” he writes […]


Sean Bell July 17th, 2014 by

Just how hard is it to please Sean Bell? Well, take his review for Jonny and the Baptists: “None [of the songs] fall flat, but the band’s strengths are also their weaknesses, since they demonstrate just how indebted they are to acts like Flight of the Concords and Tenacious D, two painfully obvious influences.” In […]


Neil Ballinger July 17th, 2014 by

“These lads are funny!” That’s what Neil Ballinger could have said about The Noise Next Door. Instead we get “All five of the boys are quick witted and as an audience member, you got the feeling that they could have and most certainly will inject comedy and hilarity into any situation they find themselves in.” […]


Kenza Marland July 17th, 2014 by

You only have to look at Kanza Marland’s photograph, staring at the reader from somewhere between contempt and constipation, to guess what this reviewer is all about. Once you see it backed up by Lauren Cooper-esque headlines like ‘Unbothered’ and ‘Hardly Over-Powelling’ (for Russ Powell you see), you realise that Marland has all the hallmarks […]


Andrea Valentino July 17th, 2014 by

It is difficult to sum up in mere words quite what a disgrace Andrea Valentino is to the already besmirched art of reviewing, nor what divine relief his being eaten by an ebola-like virus would be to all future Fringes. Normally we are content when a bad reviewer just stops reviewing; in Valentino’s case we […]


Fred Fletch July 17th, 2014 by

I doubt that anyone else out there has read as much Fred Fletch as I have, for the simple reason that Fred Fletch is the most irritating reviewer that has ever lived, or will ever live, in this universe or any other. I doubt anyone else has got past a single paragraph. “He makes the […]


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