Holden and Revill - Edinburgh Festival Fringe

This was a free comedy show as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I don't often attend stand-up comedy gigs, but I did go to this one as Jon Holden and I are cousins. So it's perhaps worth commenting from the outset that this is not a totally un-biased review but there is a degree of family loyalty here.

First of all, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is huge. The International Festival is impressive in its own right, but when the fringe is in full flow, it's easy to forget that there is an International Festival on at all. (ok, so the first week of the fringe takes place before the International Festival starts, but that's a minor detail for the purpose of this blog, as when I was there they were running concurrently)

The venue was a pub on the corner of Hanover Street and Queen Street, the pleasant, Georgian part of the city and I arrived there with about 20 mins to spare. Jon And Paul were greeting people as they came in and handed out flyers, but when I arrived, Jon was stopped in his tracks. He didn't know I was in Scotland and was not expecting a member of his family to see the show, certainly not a member of his family who's a Methodist Minister! He said that he might have to tone some of the act down, but later said that he had not done so. I hope he didn't. I had gone to see his show, not a modified version of the show. Fortunately for him, he was on 3rd in the 2-man show (just go with that one !) and so had some time to gather his thoughts before doing his stuff.

After Paul Revill and someone else visiting from the Comedy Club in which Jon and Paul perform, it was Jon's turn. It was nice to be greeted as a special guest. His slot was basically comments about the North-South divide taking a questionnaire and asking questions to first 2 guys to find whether it was the north or the south who had the most manly men, and then later a similar sort of thing to find which area had the most feminine women. The sort of quiz where you choose an answer A, B or C and is quite good fun if you don't take it too seriously.

Jon also does a good line in shadow puppets, even if the chicken did look suspiciously like the rabbit! There's another one he hid which I'd perhaps best not mention on here - suffice to say, I don't think he modified that part of the show !!

So yes, although stand-up comedy is not really my preferred choice of entertainment, this show did entertain. It was good to meet up with my cousin and to see his talent in this area. What will come of it remains to be seen, but as far as the Edinburgh Free Fringe Festival is concerned, I'll remember that I saw him here first!