MY KIND OF MICHAEL Comes to Edinburgh Fringe

This year's only Edinburgh Fringe show about fallen TV star Michael Barrymore runs at the Summerhall venue (venue 26) from 1- 26 August (no shows on 2, 13 and 20 August).

Ever since his Nanna Sylvie bought him 'Barrymore's best Bites' on VHS when he was seven, Nick Cassenbaum has loved Michael Barrymore. Now, in this heartfelt and playful tribute, the ever-affable raconteur par excellence invites you to examine the turbulent relationship between showman and spectator.

In a Barrymore style 'variety' performance, Nick and the audience play TV favourites like 'Strike It Lucky' and take part in 'This is Your Life'. Mixing his own delightfully amiable, charming and warm style of storytelling with Barrymore's iconic shticks, Nick intertwines his own personal stories with tales of Barrymore's rise to fame and ultimate downfall.

At his peak Michael Barrymore was one of the most popular and revered performers in the UK. A former Butlin's Red Coat, he won TV talent show New Faces in 1975, earning a six-month West End contract. In the early 1980s he became one of the best-known faces on TV, with shows such as Strike It Lucky and My Kind Of People attracting up to 13 million viewers. His career never recovered from a tragic incident at a party at his house, despite no charges being brought.

Join in with Nick to celebrate a light entertainment - and working class - icon, just as the unrepresentative proportion of working class people represented in the arts has become a major talking point. Featuring live music and gags-a-plenty My Kind of Michael promises to be, well, Alwight!

See the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skEp1LMkwO4&feature=share

My Kind of Michael is told with the same open-heartedness and warmth as Cassenbaum's 2016 Fringe show Bubble Schmeisis. The tale of self discovery in London's Jewish steam baths, charmed critics and audiences alike. The Stage described Bubble Schmeisis as big-hearted and appealing, Generous and poignant'

The List said Nick Cassenbaum is 'A disarmingly informal raconteur, talking to the audience as if we're old friends'. Or as Exeunt put it 'Cassenbaum is emphatically never dull, he's hilarious and charming' He is a storyteller, street performer and theatre maker and is co-artistic director of Slap Haddock and take stock exchange. His theatre work has always focused on the way we interact with places and spaces and what that can tell us about ourselves. 'I try to make stories as accessible as possible. I am interested in breaking the convention of theatre where the audience sit quietly, I get them up on stage and hopefully make them feel so comfortable that if they want to talk to me during the show.... they can.'

Bubble Schmeisis director Danny Braverman returns for My Kind of Michael. Braverman won critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival, with his own one-man-show Wot? No Fish!! 'a show about love that has been made with love' said Lyn Gardner in The Guardian

https://festival18.summerhall.co.uk/event/my-kind-of-michael/

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