Sam Eley's cantankerous alter ego Basil Crumbwick, a big-headed old git with bloodshot eyes and carpet-like hair, is this year's cult-in-waiting at the Edinburgh festival. The character, performed at Monkey Barrel, brings laugh after laugh thanks to Eley's fantastic joke-writing.
A familiar yet fresh comedy creation
Crumbwick resembles Joe Kent-Walters' Frankie Monroe, and brings to mind Vic and Bob or Frank Sidebottom. The show is conventionally assembled as Basil rants about his "rat" of a neighbour Beverly, muses on the merits of sex with or eating a pig, and reads from a self-help guide he's written, offering visits to the Playboy mansion as a cure for mental health ills.
Richer and stranger than a dyspeptic worldview
While the off-colour pontificating offers an illicit thrill, Eley clarifies that Basil's opinions are those of a lonely, embittered old man trying to befriend his bin man. The character is richer and stranger, including a Treason for Beginners class he teaches at his local church.
A guaranteed late-night cult hit
The experience is redeemed by Eley's fantastic joke-writing, ensuring unexpected laughs as Basil misses his departing nemesis Beverly and Eley sweats under his prosthetic head. An arresting new comedy alter ego is born, another late-night cult hit assured. The show runs at Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, until 30 August.
