EDINBURGH 2013- BWW Reviews: HOWARD READ: HIDE AND SPEAK, Gilded Balloon Teviot, August 2 2013

A brilliant concept for a show, Howard Read uses interactive animations to perform stand up comedy. A series of different characters take to the stage to perform and connect with the audience.

In the opening song there is a line that mentions something about how Howard hides behind his characters to divert from some poor content. I'm reluctant to say that I found myself agreeing with this at some points in the show. Overall a funny show and Howard is a hugely likeable man, but several of the jokes fell flat. A couple were met with silence and others some groan laughs which he actually apologised afterwards, or on a couple of occasions had to explain the joke.

The characters used in the animation seemed to be a bit hit or miss with the audience. As Howard observed "maybe this crowd isn't really into 1970's pigeon humour".

A few cringeworthy jokes does not take away from a very creative piece of stand up comedy. The actual animations are very well done and the facial expressions and reactions that he is able to produce from them is pretty special.

Howard Read: Hide & Speak is on at the Gilded Balloon until August 26th. Timings and tickets info here.

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