Review by Steve Bennett

Justin Edwards’ dipsomaniac children’s entertainer is one of the most riotously funny comedy creations in recent years. As Jeremy Lion stumbles, slurs and belches his way through an hour of wholly inappropriate activities, the uncontrollable, visceral laughs come thick and fast.

It’s not clever or obtuse, just brilliantly silly.  It’s carried by Edwards’ emphatic, tour-de-force performance as an inept man on the brink of alcohol-fuelled collapse, finding opportunities for a drink at every turn.

After staging a birthday party and a Christmas party at the previous two Fringes (‘I might as well have put £8,000 in a bin,’ he grumbles bitterly), Lion  has now decided to change tack and stage a  full children’s play – an hour-by-hour journey through the day of school, teddy bears’ picnic and bedtime story. ‘Well that’s the plan,’ he says. I think we all know that won’t be what actually transpires.

The show actually follows pretty much the pattern of the previous one   – which is understandable, as it has proved an unfailing winning formula. As well as Lion’s increasing inebriation, the wonderfully chaotic show includes disturbingly gruesome, nightmare-inducing toys and shabby, though extravagant, costumes.

The scale of the ambition is huge, no low-budget show in the festival can surely have so many intricate props. After an hilariously shambolic hour, the stage is littered with them – not to mention a sea of crumpled Special Brew cans.

It’s remnants of a hour that introduces us to the birds and the bees, tells us where meat comes from, retells a confused story that mangles all fairy tales into one as he downs the contents of a minibar. There’s songs, dance, a bit of ventriloquism – although ingenuity is needed to cover the fact Lion hasn’t quite mastered the art, and shots of whisky for the audience. There is a lot packed in here

But the show’s joy does not all come from the inherent comedy of drunkenness or the visual humour of the big-scale set pieces that sear their ridiculous imprints on your brain. The script, too, is fizzing with great lines, with a wealth of throwaway asides that really nail the show as something special and show Edwards to be as  gifted a writer as he is a powerhouse of a comic performer.

It’s an unfathomable mystery  why this modern-day WC Fields is still playing such a relatively small room, but it does suit his character, as  Lion would never be successful enough to play a theatre. But this show will be a guaranteed highlight of the festival for everyone who sees it, whatever their comedy tastes.

Review date: 1 Jan 2005
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett