:02:02. > :02:09.This programme contains some strong language. Hello and welcome to the
:02:09. > :02:14.final culture show from the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, where we're
:02:14. > :02:21.bringing the finest comics, writers and comedians. Budget cut, we've
:02:21. > :02:26.had to down grade the Autocue, what's my next line? Coming up the
:02:26. > :02:30.funniest and fabulous shows on the fringe, according to me. The
:02:30. > :02:38.brilliance of Howard Jacobson. Dieter Roth intriguing diaries, one
:02:38. > :02:43.of the hotest singers in town, and Russell Kane reveals his thoughts
:02:43. > :02:49.on books, blokes and broodiness. Edinburgh loves a good gong, we
:02:49. > :02:57.have the Foster's Comedy Awards, fringe first, herald angels, hark
:02:57. > :03:02.The Herald angels, Michael Gove prize, if you want the low down
:03:02. > :03:08.what is pertinent, you need to ask a master at the peek of the
:03:08. > :03:15.critical culture. We couldn't get that person, so I've done my top
:03:15. > :03:22.five. Once again the fringe is full of strange and wonderful things.
:03:22. > :03:27.Teas been hard to select my topics, but it's had to be done. One of my
:03:27. > :03:34.favourite comics did not disappoint at this year's festival. Asking
:03:34. > :03:42.questions like what is a Tory femist, why is this Edwin fat suit
:03:42. > :03:46.building, and why don't they do a Spielberg film about donkeys.
:03:46. > :03:56.Welcome to the world of Bridget Christie. The senged year I've seen
:03:56. > :03:57.
:03:57. > :04:04.you dressing up for a purpose, to use an mal met a for for the female
:04:04. > :04:07.struggle. The problem hasn't gone away, I did a donkey for a while.
:04:07. > :04:11.Even donkey journalists hate donkey comics. You do a bit about
:04:11. > :04:18.switching on to you which, and you happen to tune in to five minutes?
:04:18. > :04:23.I was flicking through, and these two girls, they were gorgeous and
:04:23. > :04:29.talking about a quiz night. But how they were getting to ready to go to
:04:29. > :04:35.a quiz night, by having botox done before they went there. Is this how
:04:35. > :04:41.we're getting ready, we have toxin, which can cause a life threatening
:04:41. > :04:46.illness, pumped into 18 years old faces to answer trivia. 20 Years
:04:46. > :04:49.ago, when I would go out a quiz night, I would read up on my
:04:49. > :04:54.general knowledge. Bridge jit is embarking on a Europe-wide tour
:04:54. > :05:01.next month. Next up, entire delegation from
:05:01. > :05:05.South Africa, has been among the big hitters in this festival. From
:05:05. > :05:11.traditional, to Eddie Izzard, Trevor Noah. It is the perfect
:05:11. > :05:18.South African drink, what's this supposed to mean, it is 90% black.
:05:18. > :05:24.The white is still on top. garnering five star reviews all-
:05:24. > :05:32.round has been Yael Farber Mies Julie, she transports the action to
:05:32. > :05:37.modern day South Africa. Because you're drunk tonight. Julie won the
:05:37. > :05:43.award, she's transfered to London in the year. Living up to
:05:43. > :05:50.reputation as one of the best venues, The Trav verse has offered
:05:50. > :05:56.a good line-up. Born to Run, the true story and Beats, rave culture
:05:56. > :05:59.and rebellion. However the biggest buzz has been Rob Drummond, sellout
:05:59. > :06:06.Bullet Catch, surrounded around the dangerous stunt which claimed the
:06:06. > :06:09.lives of 12 illusionists. The first idea to do the Bullet Catch or the
:06:09. > :06:13.great story of illusionist who was killed during the particular.
:06:13. > :06:18.first idea is I loved magic and need do a show. What's the most
:06:18. > :06:22.extreme show coy do, and one answer, and that's a Bullet Catch. Just
:06:22. > :06:27.before you do the Bullet Catch trick the audience become rattleed?
:06:27. > :06:31.I give them the opportunity to leave F they don't want to watch it.
:06:31. > :06:35.And people have been taking up that opportunity. And leaving the
:06:35. > :06:38.auditorium. You see audience members covering their faces and it
:06:38. > :06:43.is satisfying to see that, because it means the show is working.
:06:43. > :06:49.you get nervous? Yeah I do. No matter how many times do you that,
:06:49. > :06:53.facing a complete stranger with a gun, point directly at your surveys
:06:53. > :06:57.unnerveing, just before you pull the trigger. Do you think I would
:06:57. > :07:02.be a suitable candidate to demonstrate? Over the course of the
:07:02. > :07:12.interview, I have got to know you and trust you, I would like you to
:07:12. > :07:40.
:07:40. > :07:45.You're a genius, oh my days, well done for you. How are you feeling?
:07:45. > :07:52.Shaky. You can have that. Round of applause for sap Sue. I didn't kill
:07:52. > :08:02.anyone. You have no idea how many fringe performance toss get that
:08:02. > :08:11.
:08:11. > :08:17.right. My final pick is Tony Law. like the way your meat is held
:08:17. > :08:22.together with a skin sack. Well the lads fell about. It was brilliant
:08:22. > :08:26.banter. The thing you can critical about comedy, but in a positive and
:08:26. > :08:31.sweet way, and particularly effective thing is a catch phrase,
:08:31. > :08:37.which is you say a series of terrible trueisms or awful,
:08:37. > :08:42.offensive things, and you go, banter. Where did that come from?
:08:42. > :08:46.Oh, just hearing and being around banter, overhearing it on trains,
:08:47. > :08:52.and banter lads, banterings and then they do the most more risk
:08:52. > :08:58.thing about woim, but then it is just banter. The little things that
:08:58. > :09:05.bleed into bigger things, "Course that's what she's like the wife"s
:09:05. > :09:10.just banter. I just to sit with my notebook out, doing banner and
:09:10. > :09:15.steal it. The last few minutes of the show is magical funny moments.
:09:15. > :09:19.Just beautiful and lovely. Where did the idea come from? The last
:09:20. > :09:23.three years in a row, with the kids, I watch the way they light things
:09:23. > :09:27.and do things, and the way they connect to children. It is hard to
:09:27. > :09:31.connect with children, if do you, that's something special. I've been
:09:31. > :09:34.trying to learn and absorb from things like that. If you engage
:09:34. > :09:39.with children, engage with adults that way, that's why the lighting
:09:39. > :09:45.of the business went on. I loved it, thank you for sharing it with us.
:09:45. > :09:50.Thank you so much for having me. Tony will be playing the theatre in
:09:50. > :09:57.London in October. If you're at home playing beard cricket, I'm
:09:57. > :10:01.delighted to teld you, Tony Law and combination score a six. Next up,
:10:01. > :10:06.Booker Prize winner author, Howard Jacobson is in town talking about
:10:06. > :10:12.his new work, Zoo Time at the book festival. In is themes of zierks
:10:12. > :10:18.disappointment, death of a novel and mother in laws, Tim Samuels
:10:18. > :10:24.went to meet him. Howard Jacobson made a career of writing about very
:10:24. > :10:30.funny, literary, typically northern, Jewish man, and latest novel, Zoo
:10:30. > :10:37.Time is no exception. Howard, lovely to see you again. How are
:10:37. > :10:42.you. This time is anti-hero as comic writer whose career has seen
:10:42. > :10:49.better days. He's also a married man, wildly in love with fiery
:10:49. > :10:54.flame haired wife, Vanessa. By extension, her vivacious mother,
:10:54. > :10:59.Poppy. Normally I presented her a type script hot from my computer.
:10:59. > :11:06.How do you give your wife a novel about a man whose in love with his
:11:06. > :11:10.wife's mother. I denied the similarity of course this, is a
:11:10. > :11:15.work of fiction, any resemblance between characters living or dead,
:11:15. > :11:20.but she never swallowed that. Which left me with two courses of action,
:11:20. > :11:25.either risk ending the marriage, or not write the book. I imagine this
:11:25. > :11:31.was good fun to write? More fun that I've ever had writing a book,
:11:31. > :11:37.the most fun, I had. The niceest thing you say is, it feels it was
:11:37. > :11:40.fun to write, because that means it is fun to read. I do like writing
:11:40. > :11:44.about mothers and daughters, there's always a fascination
:11:44. > :11:49.between the love between them, the ways in which they lookalike, how
:11:49. > :11:53.they walk and move together. The painful rivalries, not admitted
:11:54. > :11:58.between them. That itself is a great subject. The character, Guy
:11:58. > :12:04.Ableman, what kind of a guy? This is a guy who would love to be a
:12:04. > :12:08.wild man. He would be lawless. I understand this. He is a nice
:12:08. > :12:12.person, he's brought up to be a nice person, and would like to be a
:12:12. > :12:16.bad person. Affair with your mother-in-law, how much more
:12:16. > :12:22.shocking alass he could shock the world with it. Then you have the
:12:22. > :12:28.ridiculous industry as portrayed here, the bedeath of fiction, where
:12:28. > :12:32.fads, constantly changing. It is a toxic mix to have the industry and
:12:32. > :12:41.psyche together? What was the buzzword last year," Readable" a
:12:41. > :12:45.book had to be "readable", last year, it was "unput downable". Put
:12:45. > :12:53.it down, laugh, scream, cry, throw it across the room, take a note,
:12:53. > :12:58.open the windows, put it down! year, he wanted to have a thousand
:12:58. > :13:02.story apps ready to go for the mobile phone market, bus stop
:13:02. > :13:06.reading he called it, unbooks, that could be started and finished while
:13:06. > :13:11.phone users were waiting for someone to call them back, or the
:13:11. > :13:18.traffic lights to change or waiter to arrive with the bill. In short
:13:18. > :13:22.to plug those small, social hiatuses of life on the run.
:13:22. > :13:26.struck me as confident book, I wonder having won the booker you
:13:26. > :13:31.were in a position where you could put your head above the parapet.
:13:31. > :13:35.This novel was started six months before I won the Man Booker, at a
:13:35. > :13:40.time I had no belief, I thought my career was coming to an end, what
:13:40. > :13:46.will I do. I'll go down fighting and write a funny novel about the
:13:46. > :13:48.end of it all, like a suicide note. Half way through, I go and win the
:13:48. > :13:52.Man Booker Prize, which I thought probably would be the end of this
:13:52. > :13:58.book. And then I had a bleak thought, I thought what if the
:13:58. > :14:03.novel would be my best novel ever, my funniest best novel ever. And if
:14:03. > :14:07.the Man Booker Prize ruined it? Man Booker Prize ruins great novel.
:14:07. > :14:11.What if that snaps you had to be a writer to invite the trouble, you
:14:11. > :14:16.had to be a writer to be prepared to put your life into a sort of
:14:16. > :14:22.suss expense, while the story of what would happen, had its way with
:14:22. > :14:27.you. I didn't give a figure for happiness. I was after bigger,
:14:27. > :14:31.dirtier fish. The truth is this. I do not believe there is or has been
:14:31. > :14:37.a writer alive that doesn't somewhere in his soul wonder if he
:14:37. > :14:41.is any good or she is any good or not. It is like being Usain Bolt,
:14:41. > :14:45.it can't be measured or proved, you never know, so I think, anything
:14:45. > :14:48.that feels like a confirmation, of something that you hope might be
:14:48. > :14:52.the case, that you are all right, that you can do it, that you
:14:52. > :15:01.haven't been fooling yourself, comes as a huge relief. You were
:15:01. > :15:07.runing in the right race. And not just running, you were winning it.
:15:07. > :15:14.Well that's the most erotic use of lost property I've seen. Afternoon
:15:14. > :15:18.Mam. I think she lost a hip there.
:15:18. > :15:22.the Edinburgh Festival showcases the finest singers, we think the
:15:22. > :15:32.one to watch is Iestyn Davies. Clemency Burton-Hill went to talk
:15:32. > :15:36.
:15:36. > :15:42.The rock stars of the opera and classical world are the tenors, the
:15:42. > :15:49.lovers and heroes, famed and adored for the power of their top note,
:15:49. > :15:59.the sensational high C. But what about a beautiful male
:15:59. > :16:03.
:16:03. > :16:09.voice that can go even higher than the high C?
:16:09. > :16:13.Some think of it as surprising, unnerveing and confusing but often
:16:13. > :16:19.other worldly the distinctive voice of the countertenor. Resonateing as
:16:19. > :16:29.one of the world's young counter tenors is the Iestyn Davies and
:16:29. > :17:04.
:17:04. > :17:09.lucky me, I get to hang out with I know auf glamorous life as an
:17:09. > :17:13.opera singer, so I thought I would take you to the finest gastronomic
:17:13. > :17:18.experience. What are you having? Scam by and chips. Kech
:17:18. > :17:23.championship I loathe that. Do you ever find people are surprised and
:17:23. > :17:27.shocked when they hear you sing? Well there's been a couple of
:17:27. > :17:33.occurrences where there's people not expecting to hear a man sing in
:17:33. > :17:38.this way. They see the face, they see your
:17:38. > :17:42.beard or whatever, standing there, and then you have this other
:17:42. > :17:48.worldly sound coming out of you, so they're thrown by it. Give us the
:17:48. > :17:54.basics, what is a countertenor? is a name given to a male singer
:17:54. > :18:01.who uses their fall sella range, it is the sound you would hear, if you
:18:01. > :18:07.were listening to the Bee Gees. for example I took these chips and
:18:07. > :18:12.they say represented, the sorrowcal chords, very bad greasy chords,
:18:12. > :18:18.when a normal singing voice, active vaits and vibrate to a different
:18:18. > :18:21.fashion, and part of the vocal folds vibrate, I could give you the
:18:21. > :18:27.impression if I was talking now, and then I want to talk like that,
:18:27. > :18:33.that's fall seta. And it is much harder when you've eaten chips. So
:18:33. > :18:38.is that the same, we hear about the castrato? The castrati, were
:18:38. > :18:44.popular in the 18th century. The thing about them, was they had be
:18:44. > :18:49.castrated, so this had happened. The end of the puberty, they
:18:49. > :18:54.preserveed their treble voice and ended up having a power of a tenor,
:18:54. > :18:59.Pavarotti power, but with the straipg other worldly voice.
:18:59. > :19:04.castrati were the world's first superstars, and had a remarkable
:19:04. > :19:09.effect on the female audience as explored about the most famous bun,
:19:09. > :19:14.Yael Farber. You haven't had to go through?
:19:14. > :19:24.seta is a completely different skill, the repertoire they sang now
:19:24. > :19:31.
:19:31. > :19:38.The international festival careies on throughout the weekend and end
:19:38. > :19:44.with a spectacular concert on Sunday. Octopus, limbed becameer
:19:44. > :19:48.head, Russell Kane is doing the double. He is at the book festival,
:19:48. > :19:53.discussion the humanist, I waited with a large net outside a book
:19:53. > :19:59.store with him and I caught him. few of my men are having to have
:19:59. > :20:05.sprogs, it scares me the level of love, that some of you men feel,
:20:05. > :20:13.there's a violence I don't understand. When I look at my buoy,
:20:13. > :20:18.I never fucking felt anything like it in my life, if anyone looked at
:20:18. > :20:26.him I would fucking, if the nurse looked at him, I stabbed her in the
:20:26. > :20:31.fucking face, I weren't having it. Rustle, your CV has got august, not
:20:31. > :20:37.amazing comedy, but you're author, with a capital A, tell bus the
:20:37. > :20:44.book? It is about Benjamin White, he has humour, he can perceive it,
:20:44. > :20:50.but he is not butt it emotional. He discovers humour so pure it can
:20:50. > :20:55.kill. The main character is devoid of empathy, and he happens to be a
:20:55. > :21:02.critic. He actually, started from, when I started comedy, to me, I was
:21:02. > :21:07.going, leaving work and thinking, I have to do comedy, I'm so lucky,
:21:07. > :21:11.there was miserable people with note boot, which weirdly had a
:21:11. > :21:15.person nationality transplant when think got on stage, so critic,
:21:15. > :21:22.clinically outside the very thing which is the connoisseur, that's
:21:22. > :21:26.how it started. I'm not cold just locked in "like jokes that misfire,
:21:26. > :21:32.even though their construction is perfect. Thiss puzzle, even me for
:21:32. > :21:39.a moment at least. The circus gag, flawless in the make-up, tonely
:21:39. > :21:43.hond, with a rightful inflection to a room full of people, yet it falls
:21:43. > :21:47.flat, they cannot ethe knots and strands around the idea, how it
:21:47. > :21:52.looks on to the mood and matter on the room, its shape and light, no
:21:52. > :21:56.joke is perfect you see, environment shapes even plaitium
:21:56. > :22:01.material." What's your experience of critical? I've never really got
:22:01. > :22:08.like a panic. There's a couple of guys, that don't get what do I, and
:22:08. > :22:18.I get swipey, three star stuff, but I've been lucky. That's not fair,
:22:18. > :22:20.
:22:20. > :22:26.some children just refuse to eat, bollocks. If he saw spin yach, he
:22:26. > :22:31.would fall. Funny how this diet is not a Somalia. Talk about the
:22:31. > :22:36.festival this year, your show, you always like themes, this is I love
:22:36. > :22:40.the theme this, is about fatherhood, you coming of age. At least in your
:22:40. > :22:45.imagination? Absolutely. That is the one playful thing do I with
:22:45. > :22:49.critics, you have to spot where they come from, but the show title
:22:49. > :22:55.is come from a negative mark within a review. This year, I wanted to
:22:55. > :23:01.talk about having kids, but someone said he has nice material but a lot
:23:01. > :23:05.is a posturing delivery. Brilliant, it's a pun on posturing, as
:23:05. > :23:10.positying, hypothetical delivery, all the words were packed in
:23:10. > :23:14.posturing delivery, and we were off. You want to experience everything,
:23:14. > :23:19.when you fantasies everything, I would love one, I want to
:23:19. > :23:24.experience everything, emotionally that a father would experience, I
:23:24. > :23:31.want a boy, girl and bay... I would be one of the few fathers, I want
:23:31. > :23:41.to tell you, papya, come in, oh I'm so excited...
:23:41. > :23:44.
:23:44. > :23:49.Glitter canyons going off. I know, You can check out rustle on tour
:23:49. > :23:53.from October, and on BBC Three tomorrow night. A most striking
:23:53. > :23:58.displace of the Edinburgh fest rational is diaries of Dieter Roth.
:23:58. > :24:04.Roth was one. First artist toss really explores the idea of life in
:24:04. > :24:10.his art and suck suck suck went to devil in his world. That's Michael
:24:10. > :24:20.Anglo, it is for kitty, who simply won't wear a cardigan, likes to
:24:20. > :24:31.
:24:31. > :24:38.You know how people don't like contemporary art, complain it is a
:24:38. > :24:48.pile of rubbish, today I'm to see a man who helped embed that idea, by
:24:48. > :24:57.
:24:57. > :25:02.transforming one of the stuff our This is a work called Flat Waste,
:25:02. > :25:06.and by the Swiss-German artist, Dieter Roth. It looks like an
:25:07. > :25:10.important archive, but these hundreds of folders aren't filled
:25:10. > :25:17.with precious document, instead they contain personal waste collect
:25:17. > :25:22.of a course of a year in the mid-7 0s, by the artist, some of the
:25:22. > :25:29.trash is disgusting. My first impression, flicking through this,
:25:29. > :25:37.is a madness at work here. Because, Roth collected all manner of
:25:37. > :25:42.pointless things, stubed out fag butts, coffee cup lids, old
:25:42. > :25:47.crumbleed beer mats and razor blade which has stuff in the mettle Then
:25:47. > :25:52.you have things like, what is that, it is like a piece of an envelope,
:25:52. > :25:57.which is a tiny scrap of paper. There's no reason why this should
:25:57. > :26:02.be preserveed, you'd think. When these are confronted with scraps of
:26:02. > :26:07.life, makes you piece together. I feel like I'm in a episode of CSI,
:26:08. > :26:12.you have to piece the story, of Dieter Roth's life. Dieter Roth was
:26:12. > :26:17.born in 1930. He trained as a commercial artist, but when he came
:26:17. > :26:22.into contact with modernism and constructiveism, the idea of art
:26:22. > :26:27.that could bring about social change transformed his outlook. He
:26:27. > :26:31.is mostly famous for the avant- garde work, when he created work
:26:31. > :26:35.using organic material, such as cheese, chocolate and rabbit
:26:35. > :26:41.dropings, and Flat Waste, constain some strange materials as well.
:26:41. > :26:48.Well, here, look at this, by the looks of things it is a scrum
:26:48. > :26:51.pelled up tissue, which spots of blood, or a bit like ear wax.
:26:51. > :26:57.Initially it would be easy to dismiss this, and say, well, here
:26:57. > :27:01.we have the outpowerings of detraipged hoarder, but actually, I
:27:01. > :27:06.think there's a deep thinking artistic intelligence, motivating
:27:06. > :27:13.his work, because Flat Waste belongs to a long tradition within
:27:13. > :27:22.the tradition of art, which is self-portrait. A portrait of the
:27:22. > :27:24.artist created by the rubbish and waste that he's left behind. The
:27:24. > :27:28.show here at the fruit market is called Dieter Roth: Diaries and
:27:28. > :27:31.appropriately enough we have a table load of the things. But the
:27:31. > :27:41.ultimate example of him recording his day to day activities isn't
:27:41. > :27:47.
:27:47. > :27:52.This is a quite extraordinary work, when you think about its context,
:27:52. > :27:58.it is called Solo Scenes and consists of 128 screens, set across
:27:58. > :28:02.three banks, and in each one, we see the artist, in his various
:28:02. > :28:07.studios around the world, going about his day to day business, in
:28:07. > :28:11.the final year of his life. He knew he had a heart condition. His
:28:11. > :28:15.doctors had told him he need to have an operation, he refused to
:28:15. > :28:25.have the operation. He didn't want to have it. So you see here, a man,
:28:25. > :28:27.
:28:27. > :28:30.an old man, infirmed man, a weak man, confronting his own mortality.
:28:31. > :28:37.His son and long time collaboratetor, is now the
:28:37. > :28:44.custodian of his falter's work. always found it interesting, and
:28:44. > :28:48.typical for him, this discipline to do that. Because, he had, he didn't
:28:48. > :28:54.like his figure, he didn't like how he looked, how sick he looked and
:28:54. > :29:01.fat and old and all that. But somehow he had the courage to just
:29:01. > :29:07.do that. There, he has his head in his hands, here he's having trouble
:29:07. > :29:11.breathing. And he is waiting for the pain to pass. Often we see him
:29:11. > :29:17.in very unflattering situations, well there, he's sitting on the
:29:17. > :29:20.toilet. Yeah, but that's a visual, real diary, his daily life, and it
:29:20. > :29:26.is what it is. When you see this work realised in the gallery, how
:29:26. > :29:31.do you feel? He's so close? years after he died, he died, I
:29:31. > :29:37.installed it three or four times in different place, I never could look
:29:37. > :29:47.at t but slowly I'm able to look at it. When you feel, what do you feel
:29:47. > :29:48.