Review by Steve Bennett

Since Nick Helm is only making a flying visit to the Fringe this year, festival-goers wanting their fix of a sweaty, bearded, washed-up man shouting in pathetic desperation between belted-out pop numbers could do worse than sate their appetite with Quint Fontana.

He is the latest in a noble line of tragic entertainers, all trying to block out their failures and insecurities with the roar of the audience and industrial quantities of booze. Though in terms of what we now know about 1980s entertainers, Fontana’s behaviour looks almost saintly – although one of his alleged hits from the time definitely has a double entendre you might just be able to pick up on in the Yewtree age.

Andy Davies’s dipsomaniacal creation is pretty much what you would expect; overblown cheesiness delivered with bawdy energy and booze-fuelled self-confidence. The songs are cringe-inducingly bad:  Horse Boy complete with actions that make the galloping mime of Gangham Style look classy, for example, or his calling-card, Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls with all the lyrical variety the title suggests. But it’s largely the misguided conviction with which he sells them that delights. In his mind these are pop classics, even if unspeaking, uninterested pianist Tony Lakeside doesn’t seem all that convinced.

The hour is not all oversold confidence. There are some great gags about why he disguises his spirits in different receptacles, and he’s even thought of a joke to cover the embarrassing ‘bucket speech’ at the end – a rarity among comedians doing free shows, most of whom seem slightly ashamed to bring up the busking element.

Some of the back-story about his divorces is a single joke too thinly sketched, and his song wooing a girl from a council estate milks the cliches. But there’s a charm behind the bluster, and a conviction to the cause of entertainment that reduces some to uncontrollable laughter. Though to be honest, it also reduces some to make a beeline for the door, too.

Fontanta runs the risk of living in the shadow of similar creations, but he still brings plenty of fun – and booze – to the party.

Review date: 6 Aug 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: PBH's Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms