Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Fringe audiences can be asked to take on all manner of roles in the name of clowning – but this is the first time I’ve been asked to form part of an active terror cell.

Ethan (Lindhout) and Gigi (del Rosario) kick off their hour by planting explosives to blow up the George IV Bridge above their Underbelly venue to achieve world peace, or something, recruiting us as co-conspirators while taking the notion of theatre as a revolutionary act to extremes.

But while they might be mocking that idea – and there is plenty of satire at the expense of po-faced performers— a powerful closing-credits montage of violent protests that have brought change suggests they do have a genuine seditious streak.

In truth, the only thing likely to be brought down by The Movement is Ethan and Gigi’s dignity, as they prance around naked save for some strategically-placed comedy and tragedy masks. Come the glorious revolution we will be without clothes just as we will be without rules.

Before we get there, we get an adeptly rapped replaying of 9/11 as if it were the Hamilton musical – bad taste, for sure, though it could have been even worse – among other loose skits tapping into the language of insurrection. 

The New York-based duo, who met at an Upright Citizens Brigade improv class, have a great chemistry, with an unresolved sexual tension amplified when Gigi starts flirting with one audience member. Performances have the passion of revolutionary leaders, yet are sloppy by design (their inability to find the light a running joke, for example) but in the way that’s only successful if you have a tight underlying plan.

Ultimately the show does teeter under the weight of its own self-indulgence, the sin they were so keen to parody in others, but their commitment to the cause is unshakeable. The cause of being stupid, that is. 

Review date: 30 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly Cowgate