Omar Lyefook

From August 2010

I'm on my way up the stairs to the Pleasance Ace Dome when this American geezer stops me and asks if I'm part of the show. Do I look like I'm part of the fucking show? I say. Well, no, he says but ...

Anyway we get talking and the American bloke says that he's seen 60 - six zero - show on this year's Edinburgh Fringe and it's only been going a week. Fuck me, I'm thinking, is this man on drugs? Because I am, I'm out of my head on weed & coke, me, and there's no danger I could sit through that much culture even with artificial stimulation.

By this time we're in the theatre so I goes & gets me a large brandy, sits down at the old Joanna and starts singing about love. Well, love & prostitutes & seagulls. But the lighting engineer makes an arse of things and the audience can't hardly see me half the time.

And in this vein Lovesong performed by nu-soul singer Omar Lyefook continues for another 45 minutes. It's not that it's bad, I just expected greater things from the star of last year's Been So Long. The plot is a mélange of About A Boy, Casablanca & Trainspotting and it doesn't take too long to understand why no one else has attempted this.

No doubt about it though: Omar has a beautiful voice. Perhaps next year he should just stick to the songs.

Lovesong, Pleasance Ace Dome, until 21st August