EVERYTHING MARKED WITH: Marigold Bumbellina-Froome


Louise Jones August 27th, 2015 by

Louise Jones could do with reading over her work and tightening things up a bit. She uses the word ‘conceit’ and the phrase ‘padded out’ a bit and there are quite a few typos to trip the reader up. But such things are only worthy of mention because they impede what could be very good […]


Dave House August 26th, 2014 by

Sometimes you just want to tell Dave House not to get so overexcited. Sophie Willian: Novice Detective is “about as good as you can reasonably expect”. And Jenan Younis will be glad to learn that “the short length of her show means it remains quite fun throughout and never drags”. This may, however, just be […]


Graeme Connelly August 25th, 2014 by

Graeme Connelly doesn’t really know what sentences are supposed to do. Every time he begins one he has no idea where it will end, or what he wants it to achieve. Most of the time he ends it prematurely, as if suddenly aborting its mission. Sometimes four or five sentences are sent out in succession, […]


Sharon Geoff August 13th, 2014 by

Sharon Geoff is not really called Sharon Geoff but, since we’ve long since given up trying to suss out the surnames of anyone at One4Review we’ve decided to denome everyone as an adoptive child of Geoff (just Geoff) the Editor. Come to think of it we should have called Geoff ‘Geoff Geoff’ for consistency, but […]


Peter Edwards July 26th, 2014 by

So few reviewers these days write reviews that are, consistently, just the right length. Peter Edwards is one of the select group that does. If this is damning him with faint praise, I would add that he is also very capable. His reviews are concise, descriptive and… frank. Very, very frank. He is very harsh […]


Heather McDaid July 17th, 2014 by

Heather McDaid writes reasonably well. This is faint praise of course, but I’m guessing she is very young – many of her sentences trip over themselves and the reader is often stumped by confusion, bad grammar and ambiguity. Not that these faults are confined to youth, of course. But McDaid’s prose seems to have a […]


Grace Brennan July 17th, 2014 by

One thing I’ll guarantee you: You won’t read a Grace Brennan review and then rush out to buy a ticket. This reviewer takes a somewhat low-powered perambulation through the thing she’s seeing that, such that – even within a Three Weeks one-paragraph writeup – there’s ample space to nod off. Now and then a sentence […]


Madeleine Ash July 17th, 2014 by

I must say I was a little annoyed by Madeleine Ash complaining about “the endless stream of stand-ups that swarm the Fringe”. Do you hear comedians complaining about the ceaseless pimpled plague of reviewers? Yes you do, and small wonder. However, Ash won me over – for the most part – by being quite capable […]


Kyung Oh July 17th, 2014 by

“It’s a confusing thing, when someone you want to like tells you he’s a serial adulterer” says Kyung of Will Mars, seeming to commit the cardinal sin of letting pre-held scruples usurp his judgment. It’s forgivable, though, as Kyung’s reviewing style is for the most part well-reasoned and very clear. He’s even willing to give […]


Melissa Lawford July 17th, 2014 by

Melissa Lawford uses the words ‘moreover’ and ultimately’ far too much in her reviews, so I’m going to overuse them in her reviewer review, just so that (if she should chance to read it) she can see how annoying it becomes. Ultimately, Lawford is not a bad reviewer. Her sentences are crisp, considered and easy […]


Alanta Colley July 17th, 2014 by

Alanta Colley is photographed for Broadway Baby pretending to shoot a pigeon that is hovering just above her head. Nothing – animal, vegetable or mineral – will prevent her from chucking her big bucket of stars over everything she sees. She really does seem to like almost everything. There are victims, however. Metaphors are abducted […]


Emma Banks July 17th, 2014 by

Emma Banks is a well-meaning reviewer, but her energy and nervousness sometimes get the better of her. Her problem is that, in trying to explain everything, she explains nothing at all. Of Ryan McDonnell she comments on his “ability to explore universal pitfalls of human experience through the lens of extremely unique and personal anecdotes”. […]


Christopher Spring writes clumsily, almost as if he’s trying to write his reviews on a postcard with a crayon the size of a pillarbox. He’s funny, too. ACMS is “filled with big names like Alfie Brown and Tony Law to name but a couple”, he states, wasting 5 per cent of a 100-word review. “[Dana] […]


Andy Leask July 17th, 2014 by

I wasn’t sure what to make of Andy Leask. I was aware that he was wont to be rather cruel. Last year he dismissed some poor beginner in a free show as “a socially awkward, comically inept little man, who has inexplicably chosen to pursue a career in comedy, despite having no skill in the […]


Elaine Reid July 17th, 2014 by

Elaine Reid is a very capable reviewer. Her one fault is an imagined conversation with the reader which can become a little cloying. It’s all “Yes, the show is this, but it’s also that”. And she’ll insert the caesura of “Did I mention this? Well I have now…” But if she puts herself in the […]


Clare Dolan July 17th, 2014 by

“Tears of laughter will merge with tears of fear,” says Clare Dolan about Dayne Rathbone. Tears of Fear? Has anyone ever cried such tears? It’s a shame, because this is the only silly thing Dolan says in her (admittedly not extensive) canon of five comedy reviews. In fact, her Rathbone review gave the best flavour […]


Good reviewers are harder to review. That’s because, in trying to get an angle on their body of work, you suddenly find that you’ve read everything they wrote at the 2013 Fringe as easily as if it was a pulp thriller, and you’ve reached the last one with barely a thought in your head. This […]


Samantha Strachan isn’t that fond of comedy. Of her 29 reviews – mostly cabaret and musicals – she deigned to see just four comedy shows in 2013, all of these with a theatrical or improv bent. This isn’t meant as criticism. More reviewers should stick to reviewing what they have a passion for;  we’d get […]


Simon Pattullo July 13th, 2014 by

Simon Pattullo is perhaps the most judgmental of the Skinny’s comedy reviewers. A sense of judgment is essential to a reviewer, of course, but Patullo consistently dismisses anything that doesn’t provide him with ‘belly laughs’, regardless of any other charms. Last year he made me scratch my head by saying of Laura Levites: “If anything, […]


Yasmin Ali July 13th, 2014 by

Yasmin Ali only reviewed four shows at the 2013 Fringe, which made me wonder whether she’s that committed. Her writing skills, while not terrible, are not on a par with most of her peers at The Skinny, so perhaps she’s merely dipping a toe. If she wants to improve, Ali would do well to avoid […]


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