2010 Edinburgh Fringe
Tom Craine review
West-country lad Craine whistled through his Edinburgh debut at such a pace last year that he hardly paused for laughs, which was a shame, as there were a fair few nuggets nestling within. This year he's calmed down a bit, and has a proper story to tell. It's the tale of his own early-adulthood, and the comic has packed a lot in, some of it quite surprising.
Craine is a gangly, friendly sort of chap, and perhaps not the sort you'd imagine would be terribly good at football, for example. Actually it turns out he's a bit of a whiz, and even ended up at an FA academy for a while. The reasons for his eventual departure were more about his head than his feet, however, and he's charmingly honest about his humorously damning FA report, which must have been a cruel blow at the time. But then that's the good thing about being a stand-up: everything bad that happens to you is just material waiting to happen.
Craine was also one of the country's top choirboys in his youth, appearing on Songs of Praise and singing on what must be one of the most bizarre albums ever made. He reprises snatches of the latter performance here to emphasise the full majesty of a spectacularly tasteless song, and it's one of the more jaw-dropping moments of this year's Fringe. In fact, it's a shame Craine didn't sing a bit more and turn it into a full-blown set-piece. Perhaps he'd have lost a packet on royalties.
Peer pressure eventually put paid to Craine's singing, and he then fell into bad habits, hence this show's title, Choirboy to Addict and Back Again. It's a revealing story, well-told, although you do sense that some in this poky portakabin find Craine's slightly manic delivery a little shrill, early on, and some fine gags fall a bit flat.
Give it a year and no doubt he'll have developed a dash of extra gravitas. Or, if he fancies going the other way, he could always just play up the west-country accent. It's a bit of a cheat but, hey, they've all done it.
Tom Craine: Choirboy To Addict And Back Again listing
