The movie that reveals the realities of the Edinburgh Fringe | New comedy on demand

The movie that reveals the realities of the Edinburgh Fringe

New comedy on demand

The week's comedy on demand.

Peacock Season

What can you get for £58 these days? In 2008 it could fund an entire feature film. At least if you rope in all your comedy mates and don't worry too much about cleaning up the film.

Shot at the Edinburgh Fringe it stars stars James Wren as an advertising executive who decides to become a stand-up after being sacked. Anyone who knows the circuit will recognise the satire of 'gag hags', shallow TV producers, grasping venue owners and insecure embittered comedians. But where they got the idea of a comedy review website called chuckle.com, we'll never know.

The cast includes – deep breath – Dan Antopolski, Brendon Burns, Scott Capurro, Nina Conti, Rhys Darby, Justin Edwards, Felicity Wren, Pete Firman, Paul Foot, Richard Glover, Richard Herring, Adam Hills, Sammy J, Fergus March, Phil Nichol, Sarah Pascoe, Lucy Porter, Reece Shearsmith, Isy Suttie, Glenn Wool and more.

It's previously been released as an indie DVD, but now it was yesterday been put up for gratis on YouTube – ideal preparatory viewing for anyone heading to the Scottish capital this August:

Coconut

Humza Arshad is best known for his online series Diary Of A Bad Man, one of YouTube's biggest hits of a few years ago. But in his new BBC Three series, he is little more than a Pakistani David Brent, an over-matey boss cracking bad jokes.

To push the comparisons further, this copycat mockumentary even includes an awkward office flirtation and even a cringe-inducing dancing.

Arshad's character, Ahmed, an ultra-local TV reporter, has an extra cultural element - the Coconut of the title referring to someone brown on the outside but white inside, and he acts very stereotypically British.

But this isn't enough to can't disguise how derivative of The Office Coconut is, and how inferior… in place of believable character-driven lines are cheap sexual references.

Live From The BBC

Series three of the half-hour comedy specials continues with Josie Long with a show about optimism and hopefulness, both commodities that are often in short supply at the moment. Watch on iPlayer here

Winning Here

Most people, from Theresa May down, might want to forget the General Election, But musical comic James Sherwood has just released an album of songs from the campaign, should you think there's any longevity in tracks with titles like Strong And Stable Leadership… and frankly there's not much to these songs beyond their now-expired topicality.

Still you can listen for yourself here, or download if for a fiver at the same place.

Published: 8 Jul 2017

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