FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 10 - Pat Cahill, Liam Mullone & Ian Crawford

Ten days in, there is a distinct pattern emerging to my daily festival routine. Namely: sleep in as late as possible; do my write-ups; do lots of coughing and nose-blowing; dose myself up with medication and load my pockets with tissues for the evening shows, which go by in blur of laughter, moderate amounts of alcohol, smoking and comedy-based chatter; then puff, pant and swear my way back uphill to my house and collapse in bed. Livin' the dream... And yesterday was no exception - even the lure of the mid-festival party at Just The Tonic's late bar was not enough to keep me out past half ten... I must be getting old.

Original thinker - Pat Cahill

Thankfully, though, I was treated to 3 very different sets of enjoyable stand-up along the way.
First was Pat Cahill at the Cookie Jar doing his debut hour 'Start'. I had seen Pat doing 15 to 20 minutes a couple of times before and thoroughly enjoyed them, so was excited to see if he's managed to keep the standard up over a full hour. Well, Pat managed to answer that question himself in song form, one of his musical numbers containing the lyric "Start strong, end strong, dip a bit in the middle" or words to that effect. All his most successful bits of material to date were in there, such as his warm-up exercises, the neck-mounted mic holder, his fantastic song Tumour Dog, his 'day in the life of a mayfly' routine, and an inspired closing song in which he actually re-enacts 19 nervous breakdowns to the song of the same name by the Rolling Stones. Also enjoyable was his take on the Music Hall number, his extended and very wordy routines on keeping busy and happy, and his 'bird within a bird' joke is an impressive feat of memory. Certain sections of this show had a distinct whiff of filler though, such as naming a succession of different cars from the sound of their alarms, the odd unnecessary song, or wondering over to a mannequin he'd placed in the front row to beat up every time every time a joke went down badly. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable hour spent with a unique and original thinker, and with a bit more refinement this could be a dazzling show to take to Edinburgh.

Triumph - Liam Mullone

Next up was Liam Mullone, who was performing a show that had already been to Edinburgh, upstairs at Kayal. Entitled 'A Land Fit for Fuckwits', this was an absolute triumph of intelligent, edgy stand-up that is accessible without trying to pander to a mass audience, is unapologetically cerebral and manages to be constantly funny without resorting to cliche or stereotype. The show is also proof that you can talk about contentious subjects such as racism, class divides, child abuse and fascism without going down the Gervais-Boyle-Carr route of simply trying to be as offensive as possible. Mullone manages to broach these topics in rational and well-researched way, without ever resorting to shock tactics for his laughs. He delivered a succession of smart and very funny routines on the portrayal of the working class in Eastenders, the minefield of dressing your child for an Africa-themed party without causing offence; his thoughts on the EDL and how craft shops could bring the movement to an end; whether the creatures in the film 'Aliens' could be judged as being racist; his unhealthy love of soft toys (even going as far as to have one as his best man), and a delightfully cynical section on why he dislikes weddings in general. It was a thoroughly engrossing hour which just seemed to get funnier as it went on, and is a strong contender for the best show I've seen at the festival so far. He's performing a totally different show tonight at Kayal, so I recommend going along if you're free at 8:40.

Delightfully daft - Ian Crawfod

My final show of the evening was an altogether different affair, with Birmingham character comic Jimmy Frinton performing his Ian Crawford's Annual Safety Briefing show at the Looking Glass. Crawford is an overly-earnest safety adviser for the steel and cutlery industry, and spends his hour doling out daft advice on the proper use of forks, how to avoid spoon-related injuries and the correct way to butter bread using a knife. It's a supremely silly show, that either you go along with and giggle all the way through as I did, or you sit looking nonplussed and groaning at the character's terribly-designed powerpoint presentations and awful cutlery puns. Particularly amusing for me was his attempt to make cutlery safety appeal to kids, which consisted of, you guessed it, donning a baseball cap and performing a cutlery rap alongside an audience member he'd dressed up as a fork. I got the distinct feeling that certain sections of the audience just weren't going for it, but I found the whole thing to be delightfully daft stuff.

That's all for today. We're over half way through the festival now, but there are still loads of great shows to come. This afternoon I'll be checking out Scott Bennett & Phil Pagett at Kayal and I'm tempted to pop in to check out the Tickled Pig line-up at the Cookie at half five, then later on I'm looking forward to the unpredictable John Kearns and my first taste of Comedy in the Dark at the Phoenix. Elsewhere former DLCF best show winner Chris Stokes performs, as does Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year winner Ben Target, top funnywomen Francesca Martinez and Angela Barnes, topical man Andy Zaltzman and chaotic sketch group The Noise Next Door, and much more besides! See y'all tomorrow...