Rich Hall:  Fifty-Cent Words 

I must confess to having enjoyed Rich Hall’s brand of humour in his various guises. Attending a book reading was a first, and a highly enjoyable first. He reads extracts from his book ‘Things Snowball’ and his forthcoming publication ‘Magnificent Bastards’. He writes flowing, expressive prose with a wonderful use of irony and an acute eye for detail.

He opened with a description of Aberdeen. It would be wrong of me to give any details since this would spoil the surprises and twists in his account. He then turned to his new book for his next reading. As a favour to a friend who ran an advertising agency and who needed a coach to instruct softball to staff members to instill team bonding, he obliged. It mattered little if he was any good at the game, but he is American which seemed the only necessary qualification required.  The description that followed was hilarious. Unbelievably, the coaching session resulted in an incident with international repercussions.

Between the main readings there were some shorter, punchy extracts and just a little bit of stand up comedy. His third main reading he chose after requesting the audience to select a style. This was a surreal description illustrating the generation gap between internet addicted teenagers and their parents.

Rich Hall is a master of comedy in so many ways. This show is ideal lunch time entertainment and I would advise booking early because he is playing to a packed house.

****

Ben

Fringe Programme Page No

p92

Company

Off The Kerb Productions / Rich Hall

Venue Name and Number

Assembly  Wildman  Room  V3   (c4)

Dates and Times

31st  July  to  25th  August  13:05  to  14:05

Comedy 2008

Music 2008

Others 2008

Theatre 2008

Musicals 2008

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