Rich Fulcher: An Evening with Eleanor the Tour Whore, Udderbelly's Pasture, Bristo Square, Edinburgh

Julian Hall
Wednesday 25 August 2010 19:00 EDT
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At the end of Rich Fulcher's flawed show some members of the audience give him a standing ovation. They're probably the same people that started a Mexican wave before it even began. Such slavish behaviour is typical of fans of The Mighty Boosh, in which Fulcher famously stars.

A grotesque that lies somewhere between Ab Fab's Edina Monsoon and a Dick Emery character, Eleanor is a slut of the highest order. She's "put the young" into Neil Young and "taken the Mick" with Messrs Jagger and Hucknall, both portrayed in some so-so filmed character cameos from Tom Meeten and Richard Glover.

For such a giving character you'd expect a more confident persona from Fulcher. He makes up for this, in part, by peppering Eleanor's back story with some nice details. We learn that her father was a whaler who was afraid of boats and thus threw javelins at his prey from the shore.

Eleanor through the ages, from "gag hag" (a departure into the comedy world) to ever-present "gig hag", is depicted via a number of tried-and-tested ruses, including a reading from her autobiography, a pre-recorded Q&A and video footage that suggests she once partied with the metal band Poison.

A fixation with the idea that Susan Boyle was once a love rival is one of the flaws that undermines the show. For gag fans, there's more to get your teeth into here than in, say, a Boosh epic, but common to both are some flimsy premises and lazy detail.

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