Rick Shapiro: Wild Card, The GRV, Edinburgh Festival
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.As it was last year, Rick Shapiro's gig is a breath of fresh air, some randomness to balance the slickness of many other Fringe shows. The American comic is actually much more together than he has been in the past, though he maintains that rough-around-the-edges shtick.
He doesn't impress everyone: some women have previously expressed misgivings at his perceived misogyny. Tonight, the salaciousness is there in full measure. Shapiro loves women – he's just got a funny way (in both senses of the phrase) of showing it. His ideal woman could spout Nietzsche while wearing fishnet stockings. He doesn't like the word "whore"; he thinks prostitutes are goddesses for what they do, and describes the vagina as "full of rainbows and hope", comparing it to America's heartland as they are both places where "dreams are built and destroyed".
Shapiro constantly returns to this theme, his relationship with women; it leaves him with no real time to honour his prior assurance that the show "gets political". It doesn't matter: the few departures from the theme are merely punctuation marks, some of which include great, self-deprecating and highly illustrative lines such as: "Every night that punchline changes. I like the original but I can't remember it."
To 24 August, except 12 (0131-220 2987)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments