In 2012, Mark Watson's
Watson has toned it down a little – this year, three guest comedians will instead throw satsumas at an audience volunteer. And the volunteer will be wearing a bike helmet, so that's health and safety dealt with.
The Comedywealth Games celebrates not only the strange and obscure sports that no one pays attention to, but also the great variety of entertainers who come to the Fringe every year. Tonight, Australia, England and Mauritius were represented in a series of four events designed to test speed, agility, physical strength and ability to throw fruit from a distance. For the evening, Irish comic David O'Doherty adopted the Mauritian flag as his own, before taking up a satsuma and accidentally hitting our heroic audience volunteer square in the face. There was blood. There were tears. Australian comedian Sam Simmons was in a full-body lycra onesie, so you can imagine there was sweat.
Though the special guests change night by night, Mark Watson stays on as a bumbling and hilarious host. This Bristolian presents a show which celebrates the mediocre and laughs in the face of organization, offering the kind of brainless, madcap humour which we all need a few days into the Fringe. Sometimes you just want to see English comedian Angela Barnes wearing twenty-four articles of the audience's clothing, winning gold medal number four in the world's most ridiculous sports day. And this is truly a sports day to remember – for one thing, if someone falls over you can laugh, if your country wins and another doesn't, you can stomp your feet, whoop, cheer and applaud the woman who just told a one-liner about blowjob margaritas while opening cans of vegetables. A wonderfully silly, juicy, hectic late-night treat which demands to be seen.
