Dannyfest

Replete with interactive gimmickry, Danny Robbins pitches up at this year’s Fringe with Dannyfest, the one-man version of that quintessential British summertime phenomenon: the music festival. Inviting the crowd to join with him in such Glastonburic capers as getting legally high on crisps and toothpaste, crowdsurfing, and lobbing mud, Robbins’ show is characteristically directed towards audience participation. And participate they do, with varying degrees of reluctance.

Robbins’ comedic exploits for the BBC have been invariably successful: he has his own Radio 1 series, Oneclick/Comedy, but also co-writes and performs Radio 4's The Museum of Everything, and presents the Mischief documentaries on BBC 3 and BBC 2’s The Culture Show amongst others.

But this time Robbins apparently struggles to stretch the mildly amusing premise of Dannyfest into a full hour of comedy. After an initial few minutes spent passing around various festival-themed paraphernalia, followed by a somewhat redundant tour of the items comprising the set, you start to wish that this undoubtedly funny man would just get on with it and tell some jokes.

And though Robbins’ own exuberance and a remarkable ability to persuade even the most reluctant audience members to get involved keep the show going, his frequent use of PowerPoint only serves to disrupt the flow of the performance. A sense of mounting awkwardness is temporarily breached with the surprise appearance of British hip-hop artist, Doc Brown, who engages the onlookers in a briefly entertaining rap-a-long. But with such highlights few and far between, Dannyfest is, disappointingly, a washout.