WHO IS BOBBY LOPEZ
C Cubed, Edinburgh
August, 2002

**** Bonkers multimedia monologue of the school of Ken Campbell

Jud Charlton has a raffish wide-boy charm as he rambles about everything from ouija boards to his desire to be a renegade Time Lord.

Charlton made a number of appearances in Campbell and associates' 1997-2000 productions of the 24-hour play The Warp, and he brings the same freewheeling energy and ad-lib flair to bear on his own equivalent of Campbell's other main strain of work: a sprawling variety of bizarre and often paranormal anecdotes which somehow all get tied together. He hasn't quite mastered the tying-together bit yet, but the journey is great fun.

Psychic experiments involving bunny-slaughter, campaigning Victorian journalist and spiritualist W.T. Stead, the sinking of the Titanic, the arcana of Dr Who, a spot of ventriloquism (another Campbell obsession, shared by Nina Conti in The Comedy Clone show elsewhere on this year's Fringe) and much more are packed into an hour and a bit. The multimedia set-up is at once ambitious and a tad ramshackle, and quite endearing for it. Charlton's exuberant joy in this stream of high-speed, outré patter is infectious. A refreshing change from the usual late-night Edinburgh fare of stand-up observational comedy.

Written for divento.com

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

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