Hamell On Trial - The Terrorism (Of Everyday Life)
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Hammell on Trial isn't your run-of-the-mill comedy show, but then Ed Hammel isn't your conventional comedian. He's a punk-rocker, an anarchist, a proponent of recreational drug use and a savage critic of today's monolithic culture all rolled into one. He's also as funny a man as you'll see anywhere in Edinburgh this month. Already a cult hero in the US, Hammell was once just an angry musician, but his 2007 act has been transformed to include not only his trademark punk-folk ditties but stand-up and satire as well.
His humour ranges from the downright silly to the fiendishly dark, stopping at all bases in between. There are songs about pussy and stories about crack cocaine and cat litter, all unleashed at frantic pace upon an audience that doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.
If you're a shy, retiring type, do not go to see this show. Judging by their stunned, twisted faces, some of today's audience will probably never risk going to see a comedian again. Hammell's razor-sharp wit and brutal honesty will cut too close to the bone for some people. If however you're a more laid-back kind of character, and tales about kids in church choirs taking mescalin sounds like the sort of thing you might have a chuckle at, go see Hammell on Trial today. As the man himself would say, it's better than crack.
12 August 2007
