PRESS RELEASE: For immediate release June 22nd 2020
It takes more than a global pandemic to keep a good comedian down and this year’s Buxton Fringe (July 1-19) offers a host of online treats, many with a uniquely Buxton flavour, some involving audience participation and some with celebrity guests!
Andy Quirk’s Parodies From the Peak District features musical parodies capturing his experience of moving to the area and with subtitles so that people can sing along. Richard Pulsford hosts It Just So Happened, an alternative history panel show with stand-up sets based on Buxton’s local history and events that happened on the same date as the show (July 18). Sheridan Shacklethwaite’s Stalactites Secrets is a thoroughly researched, if entirely made up, virtual tour of Buxton’s Poole’s Cavern. Deluded poetry teacher Andy Gilbert meanwhile invites Fringe-goers to join in a quirky lockdown poetry lesson with references to his hometown of Tamworth as well as Buxton.
It is not always so clear where this year’s Fringe comedians are broadcasting from. Red Shed Readings presents Radio Free Kinsley, based in a bunker somewhere and presenting a high-pitched campaign for producing green-house vegetables with a guest appearance from Orville the Duck! DNA scientist Helen Wilkes invites you Inside the Labcoat to join her in self-isolation, possibly in Cambridge, where she has yet to be asked to become a spy, or so she says.
Some performers are in confessional mode. Australian comedian Stew Walker, who made his sold-out debut season at the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, shares his musical quest to treat his sleep apnoea and bungalow blues.
It is good to see the return of popular Fringe regulars. The acclaimed Lucky Dog Theatre Productions presents The Laurel and Hardy Cabaret while madcap Mike Raffone offers a rip-roaring, highly interactive session of Lockdown Bingo live-streamed via Facebook and multi-award-winning Three’s Company creates mayhem online via its Adventure Department featuring special guests including Les Dennis, Caroline Quentin, Rufus Hound and Youssef Kerkour (Channel 4's Home).
More entries are coming in by the day. For full details of all the performances at Buxton Fringe see www.buxtonfringe.org.uk or the free Buxton Fringe App. Fringe Marketing Officer Stephanie Billen adds: “We are so delighted that performers have rallied and are still wanting to raise a smile in this difficult year and we hope that people will support them by going online and sampling what’s on offer. They can also leave comments and recommendations via the website.”
The Fringe wishes to thank its sponsor The University of Derby as well as financial supporters The Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust and High Peak Borough Council, its Fringe Friends and the town’s many Fringe supporters and venues.
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