Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Studio 3 Assembly George Square – until 28 August
5*****
Hospital radio DJ, Ivan Brackenbury is celebrating 10 years at the Fringe festival – a year late because the 10 year point was last year and he’s not very good at maths.
He is helped by his good friends Father Kenny, Sunderland Psychic Ian D Montford and ventriloquist Tom Binns and his dad.
Father Kenny kicks off the show with a few jokes before introduced to psychic supremo Ian D Montford. Ian showed off his amazing powers with the help of his spirit mediums guessing the correct word out of a book (a laminated copy of Fifty Shades), surprising the audience and himself with his abilities. We then meet Tom Binns (the incredibly talented comedian who is playing all the parts) who wants to be a ventriloquist but has neither the time or the inclination to practice, but with his puppet “Dad” he tells a few jokes but its the ridiculously funny with an audience member being the Orville to his Keith wearing a beak mask and singing “I wish I could fly”. A moment of surreal genius.
And then it is time for the main man, Ivan Brackenbury – he’s bonkers. Hospital Radio DJ he plays songs on the breakfast show sponsored by KY Jelly along with the tune “Love Really Hurts” and that sets the tone for the whole radio show. A request for someone who has cataract surgery is “I can see clearly now”, for a suicidal patient we get “Jump”.
The songs and one liners come thick and fast and you can barely catch your breath from laughing -especially when you see the joke coming – The introduction to “Please Release Me” as he solemnly announced about a euthanasia meeting was a special case in point.
This is more than a 5* production its comedy at its finest, so funny it hurts. If you see no other show at the Fringe this year – you must see this one