Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Have sympathy for any poor reviewer of a Foxdog Studios’ tech-heavy, comedy-gaming mashup. For you need both hands on your phone to participate, and that makes it impossible to take notes.

Robo Bingo 2.0 starts as a relatively conventional game of number-dabbing, even if IT whizzes Lloyd Henning and Peter Sutton have come up with some alternative, and very funny, new calls. ‘Mispronouncing grand prix, 66,’ is a gem.

Chaos ensures – for the first of many times – when the pair unlock the ‘bingo’ button used to declare a line, and the room erupts in a frenzy of desperate button-mashing to claim victories, genuine or not, despite running the risk of being condemned to a virtual prison for making too many false calls.

Meanwhile, a real-life mascot – a disconcerting blob on wheels called Mr Bing – and his yet-smaller mascot 2.0 maintain a watchful eye from a side table.

Our scores from this – as well as games of spot the difference and snap – are displayed on the big screen along with our Binglings, icons we personalised pre-show. And when those avatars start directly taking part in bonkers games, the madness ramps up more

Foxdog Studios are simultaneously high-tech and low-fi, having programmed the whole show – including augmented reality to get our Binglings to interact with the robotic Mr Bing – but not necessarily very well. But there is little funnier than the computer-generated slapstick of an out-of-control avatar drifting helplessly, face down, into the void off the edge of a TV-style dating show, ignoring the desperate pleas of its human controller to get back on track. That’s a pretty decent metaphor for the whole show.

Another scene requires audience members to collaborate to get a patient into an ambulance and on to hospital, flapping doors open and closed and causing the wheels to turn while facing ridiculous obstacles. And the show ends with a dance-off, that’s essentially a trimmed-down version of Guitar Hero.

There’s much fun to be had simply playing the games, which bring out the worst competitive side in people, while the bedlam of the overambitious tech not always working fully and the ridiculousness of the scenarios add to the comedy value. 

That Henning and Sutton remain implacably deadpan both grounds the insanity and makes it funnier for their droll commentary. At times proceedings get a little too out of control, the set-ups just a bit too convoluted – but it’s hard to get too hung up on that in a show built entirely on mucking about, and which so generously lets everyone get in on the playfulness.

Review date: 20 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly Cowgate