Camden Fringe gig #3 finds us upstairs at the Liberties Bar for our first stand-up comedy show: Paul Kerensa with "Genesis". This is his first night of 6 at the Camden Fringe before he's off up to that other place, up there.
No, not heaven. Edinburgh.
As you might expect this is a comedy take on the many ludicrous stories in the first book of the Old Testament whilst pulling together comedy strands that unite faiths as well as poking fun at all religion generally. Also, as you might expect, there's some Phil Collins and other cheesy musical links rather patchily cued up this evening but then, first nights are never easy, especially when you've a tiny stage with no place to stand that doesn't obscure your rather nicely prepared slide show. And you're ginger.
Kerensa pulls in guest turns to break up his own act. Tonight, a terrifying Glaswegian, Del Strain, digresses hilariously into pirate talk and gets filthy in Sodom and Gomorrah. Yazz Fetto, unfairly rushed perhaps, muses on Jacob and his cream crackers.
Kerensa is affably amusing and daft, mixing satire with silliness and rambling on gingers. The show climaxes predictably with Joseph and a good effort at an actual technicolour dreamcoat - predictable because it's the last story in Genesis but also due to camp musical relevance - and presents a fake live interview with one of the unfortunate losers from the the terrible TV show and Churchill the dog steals the show.
There's plenty of good stuff here and this is definitely a show that's going to get funnier as it goes so, go and see it and help make it something that won't get ripped to shreds in Edinburgh.
Paul Kerensa "Genesis" is at the Liberties Bar, Camden High Street 6,7 & 9-11 August at 19.30. Tickets £7.50 on the door. For more info see the Camden Fringe website. Follow Paul's fringe comedy experience on his blog
