'I once got a five-star review for a show I wasn't in' | The Big Ask: What's the oddest thing you've read in a Fringe review?

'I once got a five-star review for a show I wasn't in'

The Big Ask: What's the oddest thing you've read in a Fringe review?

I once got a five-star review which said ‘Richard Soames does a superb job.’ I was delighted. Especially as I wasn't in the show. Richard Soames, Let's Make a Movie, Underbelly Buttercup, 15:55

Reading a review that assumed Marcel Lucont was actually French was a bit surreal. John Pendal, John Pendal: We Are Family, Gilded Balloon Teviot, 17:30

Being mistaken for a white guest comedian who played guitar. Che Burnley, Elvis Was Racist?, Bar Basis, 21:30

One person said I reminded them of Bobcat Goldthwaite - which made me think he definitely did not remember which one I was. Eli Matthewson, The Year of Magical Fucking, Wee Coo, Underbelly, 21:20

A sketch show I was in once lost a star because the reviewer saw that David Mitchell was in to see it, and it made them remember that we weren't as funny as David Mitchell. Pierre Novellie, See Novellie, Hear Novellie, Speak Novellie, Pleasance Courtyard, 19:15

One star for Mark Silcox. Madness. Ashley Haden, We all Die C*nts, Harry's Southside, 20:45

A while ago I received a criticism that only made sense if the reviewer sincerely believed I wanted my grandmother to die of a treatable heart condition. Ahir Shah, Duffer, Cabaret Voltaire, 14:15

‘He'll soon be playing to more than eight people.’ The Skinny Alexander Bennett, Housewives' Favourite, Waverley Bar, 19:30

I remember reading a review of a well-known comic a few years back, whose show was described as ‘not as good as usual’ but still got five stars. David Ephgrave, David Ephgrave: My Part in His Downfall, Just the Tonic at The Caves, 12:00

I once read a review of a show I was in where the reviewer had said that a fire alarm went off midway through the show and the venue had to be evacuated. Which never happened. It's sad when the reviewers are more creative than the material. Bryony Twydle, Flamingo, Underbelly Med Quad, 20:30

I had a review in 2013 that said it was overly ambitious to attempt an hour long show at that stage of my career, which was odd as the show was 30 minutes long. Richard Wright, Virgin, Just The Tonic @ The Mash House, 12:50

'Barry Gibb, from Dorset, is a very funny man’ Barry Ferns, Barry Loves You, The Tron, 21:00

This is a direct quote from a review last year: ‘David McIver is a mermaid on a rock – with a beard – lulling south-side stragglers onto his reef where our vessels of normality will find themselves holed below the bottom by his spiky surreality and sink into the lagoon of his substantive comedy.’ I don't know what it's supposed to mean. David McIver, David McIver Is a Nice Little Man, Opium, 14:30

Someone once wrote about me: ‘Tom Lucy, who claims to have been on TV's Stand Up Central’ - that always made me laugh Tom Lucy, Reluctant Millennial, Pleasance Courtyard, 20:15

Published: 11 Aug 2018

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