The Wrestling at Edinburgh festival review – must be seen to be believed

Pleasance Grand, Edinburgh
Twenty standups and wrestlers clamber into the ring and smack down in Max and Ivan’s spectacular sporting-panto free-for-all

“Comedians. Wrestlers. Blood.” It’s a potent recipe for entertainment, and tonight, on its third outing since its debut in 2011, this for-one-night-only sport-meets-pantomime spectacular doesn’t disappoint. It’s a format that must be seen to be believed: fringe comedians grapple with ripped pro wrestlers, and give as good as they get. But that’s just a part of what makes The Wrestling a spectacular night out. The production is also remarkable: fireworks fizz, music bombasts, subplots and screened inserts bolster the already preposterous events in the ring.

The format has changed since 2013, and there are gains and losses. This year, it’s a “battle royale”: no teams, no captains, just a 20-wrestler free-for-all with the last man or woman standing named champion. But first we get a bonus grudge bout between double act Max and Ivan, the originators of this event (Max “Max Voltage” Olesker is an ex-pro wrestler) whose spandex-clad antagonism has been brewing since 2011. Cast, as per wrestling convention, as a spat between good and evil, it ends with Ivan “El Guapo” Gonzalez bested after several extraordinary feats of light-touch ultraviolence. “I think everyone now knows why their Edinburgh show is so under-rehearsed,” quips nerdy ringside reporter Matthew Crosby.

The main event is just as much fun, if not as focused. The format means there’s often half a dozen wrestlers in the ring at once, lots happening ringside, and commentators Andrew Maxwell and Brendon Burns showboating shamelessly stage-left. It is, in short, organised chaos, which is sometimes fun and sometimes regrettable. Given the lengths to which these comics have gone to learn impressive acrobatic feats, the least they deserve is undivided attention.

When we give it, it’s amply rewarded: there are gobsmacking moments here. One finds un-athletic standup Mike Wozniak, kitted out like a first world war pilot, suddenly launch himself through the ropes, out of the ring, and into the greased torso of Marty “the Villain” Scurll, triggering a frantic scrap that continues through the rest of the show. James Acaster has a hilarious cameo (big entrance; instant, slapstick-vicious elimination), and Aisling “Revenge for the Famine” Bea enjoys a successful stint, until lobbed from the ring by a man who looks like a windsock pumped full of double cream.

The intensity sometimes dips. There’s a misfiring musical duet between announcer Nick Helm and the US clown Puddles. And Burns, playing bad cop to Maxwell’s good cop, supplies commentary that’s meant to be boorish and succeeds too well. But the sheer spectacle carries all before it, as these plucky fringe comics and beefcake stage-fighters sweat, smack canvas and soar through the air for our pleasure. It gets you in a three-quarter nelson choke, and seldom lets go.

• Edinburgh festival 2015
• Comedy (Stage)
• Edinburgh festival
• Festivals
• Wrestling
• Brendon Burns
• Comedy (Culture)
• reviews

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKuklrSme5FpaG5nkaq0cH2YaKuhnV2sv6a%2F06Wgp59dlsFuscOipZutopy1brLErKuirpGherOx1aKcsGWgobKiv8Cnmp5ll6eur7CMppixZZGjsW611Zql