Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Into a laid-back, melancholic version of the Wild West ride the Crizards, a couple of cowboys with a story to tell.

Will Rowland’s at a low. His wife has left him and a railroad’s been driven through his land. On a revenge mission to sabotage the engineering work, he encounters Eddy Hare, who has access to some dynamite, so, while cautious about each other’s motives, they tentatively team up. 

As they mosey across the desert landscape, their uneasy alliance slow develops into friendship as they tackle cowboy-style hazards – like quicksand – and more contemporary ones, like the mental health impact of loneliness that could lead a fella to talk to the moon.

It’s performed with a gentle energy, cicadas buzzing in the evening heat and the sound of their horses’ hooves on the dusty trail beating out the slow rhythm of frontier life, but a bit too languid for me – I was imagining tumbleweed into this scenario at times. But the confident aesthetic certainly sets an absorbing atmosphere for their gently absurd adventure, which is realised with the usual zero-budget effects of a Fringe production.

The knowing amateurism – which also extends to the storyline – is a standard running joke for this sort of show, and the pair are reasonable amusing with it. The meta commentary also includes highlighting their shortcomings up top, via a probably fictional review that complained of their low energy and the fact that they are too similar to make an effective double act. 

The first point is definitely valid, the second less so, for even though they are united in deadpan, Rowland is the slightly more playful one, not taking their story quite so seriously.

A cowboy without a guitar is like a ‘Yee’ without a ‘hah’, and the pair ‘skippy-aye-ay’ their way through several authentic country-tinged numbers. Technically strong, they are the bedrock for this show (which was directed by Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Jordan Brookes) and again feed into the languid Mid-West ambience. But they don’t really have the hook or the strong gags to be memorable outside their well-realised world, even though they are wryly amusing within it.

• Crizards: Cowboys is on at Assembly George Square at 10.15pm

Review date: 14 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett