[FRINGE] it's all Gavin's fault anyway

Randy is Sober is a short stand-up show by the eponymous character about having stopped drinking. It was wide-ranging, often digressing quite seriously, but always entertaining. This is a purple puppet who always has important things to say. Randy, as a purple puppet, is both curiously non-threatening, and, as animated by the brilliant puppeteer Heath McIvor, possessed of a lively and very human personality. The combination results is a surprisingly intimate show, where Randy can easily engage the audience in conversation, whilst still pondering the questions faced by many of us. The audience soon trusts Randy in a way that they wouldn’t trust a human stand-up comedian, but also strongly identify him as a person, not a thing. It’s also incredibly easy for Randy to portray different characters, since all Heath needs to do is alter his body language ever so slightly and Randy becomes different. This allows Randy to readily talk to himself as well. Or do a passable imitation of Stephen Hawking. The sad thing was this was a once-only show. Definitely worth seeing again, if only for the fact to experience it with a different audience and see where it goes. Randy’s solo shows are always worth seeing, even this one did not appear to include a Time Yeti. It was much less caustic and more open (and vulnerable) that Postcards From Purgatory. Well worth seeing.