Underbelly, Bristo Square
Aug 9-11, 13-25
Times Vary
Ali Woods has recently achieved the perfection of the epitomical Fringe comedy show. It has to be an hour long, it has to hold our attention in that hour, & of course it has to make us laugh – continuously throughout. The next day after attending his ‘In The Moment,’ after bumping into Ali quite randomly in the street, the first thing I said was, “mate, I really enjoy’d your show, it was really well crafted.” I mean, that’s a double ‘really’ as the show was, well, just pure real!
That was a tough time of my life – it was dry January
‘In The Moment,’ is an open-hearted revelation of Ali’s first ever, mutually bonded, ‘I love you’ relationship with an Irish laday, whose nativity injected a few pleasant enough stereotypical jokes into Ali’s generally wide & high level diaspora of material. Deliver’d with a mixture of calm quiet confidence & phrenetic stage-pacing energy, Ali’s excellent hour rivets us into our seats as the showtime simply whizzes by. Cleverly wrought stuff, I was quite taken by the way he made a list of things his lady liked, which appear’d as subtle tropes scatter’d throughout the show. There was also that sex after curry stuff, which was reyt funny, bruv!
The crowd loved him – predominantly 30 & under, I noticed. The lassie to my left, early 20s, had seen him in London, & noticing Ali was on in Edinburgh thought it was worthwhile enough to buy a ticket for his show. I’m sure she was left with the same feeling as I had, that ‘In The Moment,’ was a professional production, full of fun & humour, & genuinely, heartstring-twangingly, moving. Ali had got us all onside early on, with tales of his late pubescence, & had become something a little brother to us, now, who we’d be rooting on thro’ his early crushes & rejections, before moving into the more meaningful amorous adventures of our young lives – go on , Ali, you can do it!
I don’t think I’m that bad in bed, but I’ve only got one good one a week
Well, he did it, & he turn’d it all into a damn fine show. I am now curious to see his next production, he can’t rattle on about his girlfriend forever, however quality was the effort, & I think his next production will be a gamechanger for Ali, if he can develop even further his excellent style, universal amiability & just really funny material. Overall, my first experience of Ali was he’s like the guy you meet at a festival & just get on with immediately, the congress of the happy brothers, hugging & bantering like old pals! Yeah, massively entertaining stuff all round…
Damo
Photo Credit: Zlata Kontseva
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