Edinburgh Fringe review: Brendon Burns And Colt Cabana
During the show, amidst one of the many moments of hilarious, sidetracked banter between the hosts, Brendon Burns notes to the audience, “This mess is unreviewable.”
“Mess” may be a fairly good description of the show, but seeing as I enjoyed it so much, I’ll give reviewing it a go.
If you’ve read the full title of this show – Brendon Burns And Colt Cabana Sit In A 150 Seater At 10pm And Provide The Commentary To Bad Wrestling Matches – you already know what it is; it doesn’t pretend to be anymore clever or deep than that.
Hosted by the wonderfully odd couple of Aussie loudmouth Brendon Burns and pro wrestler Colt Cabana, the show enjoyed a blissful wave of cult success in its 50 seater venue last year.
This year, in a 150 seater, the stakes are higher, the show time is better, and the laughs are even bigger. Brendon Burns will be well known to stand-up fans; he is in no way a consummate professional as a host. He gets sidetracked, he rants, he chants and he’s brilliant. No one in the entire room seems to be having as much fun as Brendon – it’s infectious.
Colt Cabana is a wrestler who had a brief stint in the WWE as his much-maligned alter ego, Scotty Goldman. Despite not being a huge name of mainstream TV wrestling, his star power is undeniable. A brilliant showman and a learning comic, he and Brendon bounce off each other constantly.
There is no scripted material in this show, so the hosts really are the driving force behind its success. Instead of a devised routine, the guys watch old wrestling videos that offer up plenty to be made fun of, highlighted and replayed, inviting along consistently excellent guests to join in.
Another unique element of the show is the encouragement of audience members to shout out, chant and essentially have fun. It’s a surreal environment and one which wrestling fans will thrive in. I grew up on wrestling but have experienced a declining interest as I’ve got older.
This show reminded me why I loved it so much and why I should never have stopped watching it. It’s pure entertainment, and, coupled with the accompaniments of the two hosts, this show is nirvana for wrestling fans, casual and hardcore.
The big question, of course, is whether the show has a potential audience outside of Turnbuckle Terrys and Suplex Sandras. The answer is a difficult one. Without the wrestling interest, this may very well just be two silly men shouting at YouTube videos of other silly men – but maybe that’s okay.
So, should you check out this show? In the words of WWE superstar Daniel Bryan, YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
Date of live review: 5 August 2014 @ Stand In The Square
