As I watch more comedy and grow older I find myself more and
more drawn towards ‘alternative’ comedy, so ACMS is the perfect night for me.
What ads to the whole experience is the late night setting and the general vibe
of rambunctiousness.
The format for ACMS this year is a 2 hour 55 minute show
(with intervals); Thursday-Sunday night is 9+ acts doing 7 minute sets of
whatever the hell they want, Monday-Tuesday is comics trying out new material
for Edinburgh next year, and Wednesday is the comedy quiz (actually quite
hard). Alas due to working during the week I can only feasibly go on Friday or
Saturday, and so I went on the first Saturday of the festival.
That show was a mad mix of comics doing some brave stuff,
but it was incredible fun overall. Alison Spittle (Irish comic) talked about
the recent murder of her cousin (which prompted the rule, comics are permitted
to overrun, provided they are talking about the murder of a relative they
genuinely cared about; Rob Kemp attempted to turn The Thing into a Blind Date
style skit, though tech issues meant we couldn’t really hear the clips, but he
styled it out excellently, and a minor dig at the techs led to some delicious
get-your-own-back thwarting to Kemp; Australian duo Two Little Dickheads were
dressed in silver sequined sheets and did a totally bizarre but enthralling and
strangely hilarious dance to Rhianna’s ‘Diamonds’; one comic came dressed in a
hi-viz jacket and underwear only, and slowly made his way around deciding if
equipment was safe – imagine his surprise when someone handed him Product
Safety Testing stickers; another Scottish comic came as an aggressive Scottish caricature
doing Scottish-based one-liners. There were many many more (including an
Australian mime sliding down a water slide and getting stuck as more and more
audience members did the same and got stuck around her).
If you’re into off-beat, unconventional stand-up, ACMS is
the show for you. Just remember to shout “A noble failure!” and make sure you
have the up-to-date permitted heckles to hand.
Score: 9/10
Venue: Monkey Barrel Comedy Club
Dates: 10th-26th August
Time: 23:55
Price: £7 or pay what
you want
No comments:
Post a Comment