[NOTTHEFRINGE] sir! that's irresponsible and we're not going to take it any longer!

I'll have to try and do this review as fast as possible because I'm about to crash, and if I do I probably won't remember much of the events of last night when I recover consciousness. So here goes. Yesterday I made my way to the Grace Emily to see Jason Webley (and Brillig). It was actually Jason's second gig in the same venue (he had one the previous night), and as he said "he rarely ever has two gigs in a row in the same city, let alone the same venue," so he decided that he would try and do numbers that he didn't do last night. Which resulted in a performance that was a lot less polished but probably a lot more fun. With lots of flubs, improv, and digressions. For example, his mispeaking of "Billy Jean" as "Billy Joel" resulted in an impromptu performance of Piano Man using the audience as the people in the song. As a former street busker, he definitely knew how to gather an audience and keep them in the palm of his hand. Audience participation was a must through most of show, with the audience providing choruses and backgrounds, often in competition with one or another (or Perth). The tickle-fight was lots of fun too, although apparently I am too scary to be tickled <sigh>. He actually managed to get a fair few people dancing at the Grace, which is a difficult thing to do. I really wanted a good dance floor with room to move and a female friend that can tango for a large number of his songs. [But that probably means I'll need a refresher course or three as well.] The piano-accordian just seems to be built for the tango. The music was great. The songs were fun ["Party! We're gonna party like it was 1999 bottles of beer on the Wall Street Journal" may have been one of the choruses], and everybody had a really good time. There were a large number of people who had seen him the day before and returned again. He's touring the rest of Australia (apart from Perth which he just did, so do yourself a favour and go see him). I believe he is performing in Melbourne on Friday and Saturday, so check your venue guide. He's really really good. So far the best shows this Fringe haven't actually been Fringe shows. Brillig were good too, although Matt's voice was a bit rough. Anyway they have a big gig coming up in a week and a half so I'll talk about them there. Crashing now. Goodbye.