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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Streetsmart: Russell Kane
Amiable: David O'Doherty
Melodrama: Kristen Schaal
The betting on this year's if.comedy award puts Welshman Rhod Gilbert out in front but comedy really is a funny old game.
In the history of this prize and its predecessor the Perrier, rank outsiders have often triumphed and the three other nominees would all make worthy winners when the result is announced tomorrow.
After last year's victorious chest-thumping set from Brendon Burns, what binds them together is niceness.
Russell Kane
Pleasance
****
Do not be fooled by Russell Kane's swaggering wide-boy entrance. This young Londoner is a streetsmart intellectual, taking the everyday and adding his literate, sideways spin.
There is a bit of russell Brand in the elaborate mockney wordsmithery, a bit of Russell Howard in the skinny indie kid pin-up stakes but Kane is his own man.
His set is about celebrating life's flaws, championing rather than bemoaning the fact that England is rubbish.
As the first member of the Kane gang to get a degree, he is particularly good at dissecting the strained relationship with his repressed dad, who, he says, has to retreat to his shed when he is happy: "What kind of emotional retard goes into a private chamber to express their pride?"
David O'Doherty
Stand
****
David O'Doherty regularly weaves his web of lo-fi whimsy but he has raised his game this year, dispensing with his toy keyboard more often and working the crowd into a lather with his offbeat ramblings.
Like Kane this amiable Dubliner draws on his family for laughs, sketching a gloriously absurd image of granny's funeral, a reminder that even in the midst of grief there can be levity.
Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler
Assembly
****
For out-and-out levity, no one tops Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler.
Schaal is best known as the dippy groupie in the sitcom Flight Of The Conchords and on stage with the uptight Braunohler the dippiness is magnified.
She is not just away with the fairies, she has moved in with them on a permanent basis.
The duo's show is a loose spoof melodrama but this is just a peg on which to hang their intensely silly interaction.
Sexual tension ripples through the performance like marbling through a joint of beef and proceedings climax with Schaal having an on-stage date with a fan.
Bookies have written it off, yet anything could happen tomorrow.
Kane until Monday/O'Doherty until Sunday/Schaal until tomorrow (0131 226 0000, www.edfringe.com).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
