Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Rory McGrath & Philip Pope ****.5

Rory McGrath & Philip Pope: ‘Bridge over Troubled Lager’
Assembly 2, George Square various dates 4 – 26 August

Rory McGrath & Philip Pope serve-up one of the cleverest comedy shows at the Fringe in years. The audience was in raptures with the ingenious craft of ‘wordsmith’ing’ whilst paying homage to a range of musical styles, (including some the crowd didn’t vote for!).

Simon Cowell, Jeremy Kyle, Ant ‘n’ Dec, Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, Justin Bieber, Piers Morgan and a host of other A, B & C list celebs are lampooned at various points during the performance; all of which was widely appreciated by the audience who were in a constant fit of laughter.

The inter-play between Rory & Philip has an edge that you never allow you to know quite where things are going. The odd missed line or wrong note just adds to the spectator’s fun of the evening, as both make the most of each other’s minor mistakes.

Be in no misunderstanding, this show demonstrates some of the best use of the English language since Ronnie Barker was at his peak. I’m not sure if Rory really would “sell his soul for £25k” in order to ‘Get him to the Jungle’ but the parody of this ‘reality’ show and several others in one song alone make the entrance money worthwhile.

In one number The Bible is exploited for it’s potential to be used as an excellent location for storing ‘weed’, again the audience was in hysterics throughout.

Musical genres from Country (nice shirt Rory!) to classical, the Blues to Cornish Folk are utilised to the full. Eurovision, the ‘Tweet-eratti’, Mexicans and Irishness all come under comical scrutiny in a thorough examination of modern madness.

Simply put, this is a must see show for anyone wanting a bloody good belly laugh at this years festival.

4.5 out of 5

Submitted by James Stevenson