Am I Really About to Blog About the N Word???

The title will give you some clues as to the subject matter.... I'll just get straight in to it shall I?

I have a mate called Nik Coppin. He is a stand up comedian. He also happens to be mixed race (Mum from England, Dad from Barbados). I first saw him on stage at the pub my brother worked in a few years ago. He was actually one of the first reviews I did on this blog, before I knew him.

The following year my brother rented Nik a room in our flat and Nik and I became festival drinking buddies.

On one of our nights out, we were involved in what could be described as a bit of an incident in said pub that my brother worked in. The incident was quite interesting and since then, Nik has told the story on stage a few times. I have seen him tell the story on stage more than once. Unfortunately, people have taken offence to him telling the story, due to the subject matter.

So, firstly, here is my version of what happened on the night in question:

Nik and I were having a beer along with 1-2 other comics who had been performing in venues nearby. A girl walked in, crying, lost, with no shoes, and make up all smudged down her face. Nik recognised her as a girl he'd worked with in London, and got her to sit down with us. He gave her a hug, the barmaid brought over a pint of water and I grabbed her a few hankies. We then started trying to figure out where she was staying, where her mates were and where her phone was etc etc....

She was still very upset when a man started trying to get her attention, stroking her arm, speaking to her and touching her legs (she was wearing a miniskirt with no tights so her legs were totally bare). The chap had an African appearance and accent to match. She told him to go away several times, but he just got more and more determined.... until we all told him he was out of order and he had to leave her alone.

Nik, being the closest and the one who knew the girl involved was the most assertive, but he didn't even swear and went out of his way to be reasonable to someone who certainly didn't deserve it.

At that point the guy got up and said "I don't have to listen to you, you are just a half-cast, she doesn't want you, she wants to come home with a real man".

Nik gave him the opportunity to take what he said back, but the guy kept on at him, ranting and raving about how he was a worthless half-cast bastard.

At that point, Nik got a little upset and he said something along the lines of "We're the only two black people in the pub and you're coming out with that racist bullshit, well, F*** You N*****!"

The chap got more and more wound up, (more because the girl was still showing him no interest rather than because he'd been called names), I tried to get his cousin who was with him to calm him down, he was kicked out, the police were called, we all jumped in a cab and the last I heard the staff at the pub saw our friend being chucked into the back of a police van because he wouldn't calm down when they spoke to him.

So....

A year goes by and Nik appears back in Edinburgh again. I go and see his show and it turns out that the story has made it in to his act.

Apparently in England, us Scots have a bit of a reputation for being racist so Nik turns it round and tries to make it funny with the punchline at the end being "There we're 100 Scots sitting in the bar, watching the drama unfold thinking "F***ing hell... and we thought we were racist".

But if you want to get anywhere in comedy, you need to be more than just funny, you also need to be interesting and thought provoking.

As a mixed race kid growing up in London in the late 70's and early eighties, Nik obviously knows what it's like to be called the N word. Having watched him re-tell the story of what happened to us that night it was fairly obvious to me that he was trying to point to that event, including his own behaviour and show everyone how absurdly stupid it is to be racist. Only an idiot could listen to the story and think that racism was anything other than stupid.

In his effort to be thought provoking, he raises some interesting questions about language. He is by no means the first comic to talk about black people taking back the word, and if you look around twitter and the blogosphere you can see similar arguments raging from Ricky Gervais trying and failing to take back the word "mong" to gay comedians calling their friends F*****s and saying "well if the blacks are claiming their word back, then we're sure as hell having that one for ourselves..."

As language evolves so will the debates surrounding words. Nik subsequently regretted his choice of words on the night. He said his Dad would be ashamed of him, but on the other hand, he didn't think it was unjustified, and the guy deserved it.

So, to contribute to the discussion on language and to try and be thought provoking himself he told the story and directly asked the audience the question. "Was I justified to use the word? Does the fact that I am mixed race and have been called that word entitle me to use it?" (He doesn't ask it rhetorically, he actually waits for an answer - and the answers are not always the same).

It's an interesting question. It's like saying if someone hits you can you hit them back?

I'm not going to offer my own opinion on the subject but instead, I am going to offer my opinions on the people who have chosen to go on to his Chortle profile and anonymously brand him a racist.

Anyone who listens to the story as I have heard it, hears Nik ask the question and concludes that Nik's show is racist is quite clearly an idiot. You are not capable of thinking beyond one word that has triggered your inner PC voice to tell you to act like a moron.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and if you don't think he's funny then that's fine, but to go on to chortle, an important resource for stand up's trying to make a living and brand him a racist without even leaving your own name is pretty cowardly.

Some people would prefer to sit and watch banal Live at the Apollo wannabes making hack jokes about their sat nav's, moaning about their wives or trying to outdo Frankie Boyle on the offensive front. I'd prefer to hear a comic address some of the big issues and whether you personally find him funny or not, Nik at least has a bash at it and tries to make people question their preconceptions about race, racism and language.

If people like him are discouraged from trying to be a little more thought provoking because people without any forethought or intelligence are ringing his bookers to complain or bashing him on the internet, then the traditional stand up comedy club will become a much less interesting place to be.

Summing Up

So.. My fringe blog dried up around half way through as usual... It tends to do that.

I always take a week off work at the start of the fringe to see as much as possible, but having to work a full time job catches up with you and inevitably I have less opportunities to get out and see stuff as the festival draws to a close. My inability to budget doesn't help either!!!

One thing I do want to add is that I was delighted to see Adam Riches get his Comedy Award. As is evidenced below, I've been following his career for a couple of years now and tipping him for bigger things!

I'll still send out the odd tweet so follow @fringeguide for my comments throughout the year!

I have however returned to the blog to have my say on an issue that happened during the fringe....

More People to See

So, I've seem a few more acts, mainly at Shaggers (which I won't be reviewing because I have already done so twice and also because it's my mate who runs it) and I've also remembered a few more people that I didn't mention in my list.

Ashley Frieze closed Shaggers last night and he really is getting better and better every time I see him. He was joined on stage by Kate Lucas who more than held her own with some cracking smutty songs. But my favourite act of the night was Christophe Davidson who managed to keep the drunken late night crowd thoroughly entertained with stories about drunken sex and near misses!

Bob Slayer was not the best I've ever seen him as his crowd was a little sparse (and he needs a crown for his show to really work) but have seen him do much better so I can still confidently recommend him (perhaps make sure you go on the weekend).

I've heard great things about Hitler The Musical and also about Casual Violence: Choose Death although I've not had the chance to see them yet.

Another young Scottish act worth seeing is Sarah May-Philo who is doing a compilation show with Julia Sutherland.

Amateur Transplants: Adam Kay's Smutty Songs 2 1/2*

Whilst I am a whore for free tickets and a big fan of the Free Festival, I'm also not against splashing out for a decent show to see a top comic if I think it will be worth it.

It was with this in mind, and with my girlfriend and I finally agreeing on a show we'd both liked to see that I booked tickets for Adam Kay.

If you don't recognise the name there is still a good chance you will have heard one of his songs, with The London Underground song having had well over 6 millions hits on youtube. It was this song that brought him to my attention and I also looked at a few of his other tunes, which were all funny and close enough to the bone to satisfy my sense of humour.

When you get into a particular comedy niche you are going to be compared to other comics doing the same sort of thing as you and one of the top comedians in the UK at the moment, Tim Minchin also sings funny songs at the piano and has lots of his songs on youtube.

There are however quite a few key differences, between Tim Minchin and Adam Kay, firstly Tim Minchin writes his own music whereas Adam Kay borrows popular tunes. That doesn't necessarily make you a bad comedian.

The key thing I didn't like about Adam Kay's style, was that many of his songs were not full songs, there were just a verse here a chorus there and while one or two were very funny and didn't need elaborated on, many of them could have been taken much further. Instead he simply stopped after the first laugh and moved on somewhere else.

The next talking point which can't go unmentioned is his capacity for drinking wine. After quaffing 1/2 a glass and a full bottle of white wine in the first 40 minutes, he managed to get half way through a bottle of red before he dropped his glass, smashing it on the stage and then simply moving on to the the next song because he didn't have anything else to say.

This was after he'd made his 4th or 5th reference to his parents not loving him, (because he's gay/not a practising doctor any more) which was funny the first time when he was sober but got more and more awkward as he got more and more drunk and it really did make the audience feel uncomfortable.

As far as I can tell from other reviews, the drinking thing is something he does during every show and whilst I think it's admirable that he can still play piano in the state he's in it really doesn't add to the performance and you end up feeling sorry for him by the end of the show.

Whilst he still has enough good material to fill an hour long show (and you can't criticise him for finishing off with the song that made him famous and effectively filled the room for him) , it seems that his old material is mainly full songs and his new stuff is mainly shorter and less complete stuff. When you add this to the fact that he can't even stay sober long enough to hold a glass until the end of the show, and then add in the fact that he has next to no straight stand up material between songs, you do end up walking away feeling a little disappointed.

He has the advantage of his crowd being friendly and forgiving because having seen his stuff on line they have an idea of what is coming and are prepared to wait for it. Sadly it doesn't come.

It was nice to hear the London Underground song live and there were plenty of laughs in the show, but I can't get over the fact that he's been performing live for six years and has been doing it professionally for a while now, yet his strongest material is the stuff he wrote whilst still a full time doctor or in the very early stages of his professional career, since then he gives the impression that he's been getting pissed, disappointing his parents and living off the fact that his one big hit can draw enough of a crowd to presumably give him a decent living. He promises so much more and still has the capacity to deliver, but seemingly not the will.

Show details:

http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/amateur-transplants-adam-kay-s-smutty-songs

The List

So, a week or so into the Fringe, I'm posting a list of shows that I think you should see. Some I have seen and reviewed, some I have seen in previous years, some I have seen people involved in the show but not seen the whole show....

Big Names:

Reg Hunter is always worth a look. As are Richard Herring and Stewart Lee.

Becoming Big Names:

Adam Riches (see my review) has a growing reputation. His two sidekicks are also part of other shows "Late Night Gimp Fight" and "Idiots of Ants"respectively, shows I would very much like to see.

Doug Segal is now sold out so you probably won't get to see him but if you can go then do. A similar act who is almost as good is Chris Cox. He's doing a full run I believe.

I've seen Jessica Ransom twice as part of a double act and supporting Adam Riches and she was excellent.

I saw Cabaret Whore in 2009 and 2010, brilliant both times.

I'm off to see Adam Kay of Amateur Transplants on Saturday. (Check out the London Underground Song on youtube if you haven't heard of him).

Smaller names destined for bigger things:

Diane Spencer is getting some great reviews. Some great filthy sex stories and included in her show by the sounds of things! I've seen her at Shaggers and she stole she show.

Marcel Lucont is another Shaggers regular. He's doing a chat show this year which is definitely worth a look.

Max and Ivan were my first 5* show this year and are sure to be an even bigger success next year.

Now two shows with some great young up and coming Scottish comedians, most of whom I've seen at local comedy competitions. "Gangsters of Laugh" features Rik Caranza, Gareth Waugh and Paulie Cronin all of whom did well. One of my favourite up and coming Scottish lads is Richard Gadd who stars with James Kirk and Matt Winning in "Gadd Kirk and Winning: Well This is Awkward".

Compilation Shows:

My favourite show at the Fringe bar none is Shaggers. 4-6 comedians late at night talking about sex, with my buddy Nik Coppin as compere, who is also very good in his solo show "Award Winning Comedian".

Also I mentioned this in my last post, but Laughing Horse Free Festival run three "Pick of the Fringe" Shows at Espionage every day. Aside from the shape of the room, there is no difference between that and show and any of the compilation 3 comics and a compere type shows that you have to pay for.

That should keep you busy for a day or two at least!

Bratchy: Beer and Loathing and Lost Wages ***

When your show is free then getting the crowd in can be only half the battle, entertaining them in non-prefect conditions can be a whole different matter. Often at the Free Festival you'll see a show every bit as good as a paid show. The Free Festival "Pick of the Fringe" shows are every bit as good as "Best of Scottish/Irish Comedy" or The Big Value Comedy show.

The downside however is that some of the rooms can be too uncomfortable, too hot, music can seep in from other venues and sometimes people wander in to shows not knowing what to expect and end up seeing something that is not to their taste.

Bratchy didn't have al the above challenges but it was a very bright room, not designed for comedy and there was a fair bit of music seeping in. I've never seen anyone do a 4-5 star review in these conditions so he has to be highly commended for putting on a 3* show under the circumstances.

Although somewhat disjointed in places, Bratchy is a very capable stand up. His style (delivery and material) is perhaps more suited to late night compering so it could ave been a challenge for him to hold the room but he managed fine (even when he went off at tangents that lead to not that strong material).

In the final part of the show the comedy went hardcore with the addition of a second comedian (disguised as a ventriloquists dummy) who managed to get away with some seriously offensive stuff because he was dressed as a dummy.

This is not a show to see if you are easily offended, but for a free show it is certainly ticks a lot of the boxes and I reckon that you'll be far more likely than not to pop a few pounds in the bucket at the end of the show!

Show details:

http://laughinghorsecomedy.co.uk/dynamic/show.asp?ShowID=394

Doug Segal - I know What You're Thinking *****

I have two things to say about Doug Segal.

Number one is that he has an incredible show. Number two, he is the perfect example of how good marketing can bring you success at the Fringe.

I first encountered Doug when he started following me on Twitter not long after I'd joined, when I only had around 20 followers and hadn't said much. Presumably lured by my official looking username, he read my blog, saw what I was about and messaged me inviting me to come along and see the show. I was by no means the only one. @FringeGuru, @EdinburghSpotlight, @PublicReviews and many others had also been charmed into reviewing his show (or manipulated by the power of his mind depending on which way you look at it) and the reviews were all resoundingly positive.

I got the chance to meet him in person at the Free Festival Launch Party and I was pleased to find out that he was as nice in person as he appeared on Twitter. We chatted about his marketing strategy and he told me that once he had prepared a good show, he knew his work was still less than half done as he still had to get a crowd in to watch it, and he saw his job as show promoter every bit as much as a performer.

As someone who works in marketing who has watched so many better than average comedians get nowhere because they were to hungover to flyer or because they don't even have a facebook page, I can't tell you how refreshing this attitude is to see. Any aspiring comics or theatre acts need to look back at his Twitter timeline over the last three months, read his masterclass in self promotion and follow his lead.

Anyway, enough of my appreciation of him as a marketing guru and on to the show.....

Doug describes himself as a mentalist "like Derren Brown" but funnier. When you compare yourself to someone as successful as that you need to have the skills to match and thankfully Doug's show doesn't disappoint. I have read Derren Brown's book as well as others by the likes of James Randi, so I have a fair idea of how acts like Doug's work (I regularly annoy my girlfriend by beating Penn and Teller to the punch when they dissect the performance of another contestant on "Fool Us").

I tried doing the same at Doug's show, but by trick number four I was really struggling and although I got back on track mid-show, the last 4-5 tricks , leading up to the grand finale had me not even knowing where to start.

From the beginning he is charming and friendly, his show requires audience participation which (unlike Adam Riches) is done very sensitively without embarrassment and with the volunteers constantly at ease with their role.

His tricks all worked perfectly and he finished with a standing ovation (albeit prompted) and the buzz continued all the was down the stairs as people were leaving, desperate to discuss how he could have possibly pulled it all off.

He is now on course to sell out every show (many had to be turned away on the night I was there - and that was a Monday) so book your ticket while you still can.

Bigger and better things now await! He'll be doing a full run next year and the 5 star reviews keep rolling in.

I'm delighted to add mine to the list!

Show information:

http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/cabaret/doug-segal-i-know-what-you-re-thinking-free