Fringe favourite Alex Horne is performing three shows in Edinburgh this year, but which to see? The gambling one, the jazzy one or the one with loads of ridiculous comedy tasks? To help you decide, Emma McAlpine gets the low-down from the horse's mouth...
Alex Horne doesn’t do things by halves. This year he has his newborn baby up in Edinburgh with him and is putting on a total of three shows. “This is the first year I’ll be going up with a baby, so the force of tiredness will take me to bed!” he tells me. “I think it’s a good way to prevent me from drinking. Everyone should go up with a baby... probably.”
After previous missions to teach his audiences Latin, see more species of bird than his dad in a year and get his own word in the dictionary, Horne’s main solo show this year will see him take on yet another challenge – to get a hole in one on a par 3 golf course before his 32nd birthday. Although predominantly about gambling, the show also encompasses maths, quantum mechanics and space, while involving the audience in a typical dose of Horne fun and games.
“Gambling gives me an excuse to talk about all sorts of things. I think we all have a tendency towards addiction but I only dabble. I look at the fun side of gambling rather than the depressing part! I talk about the 18th century a bit and how creative the upper classes were with their betting. There was one bet between two blokes where one said ‘I bet I can get to Dover and back before you can make a million dots on a piece of paper.’ I’m exploring those bets and recreating them with the audience. I’ll pit men against women so hopefully it should get quite nasty.”
Horne’s concept shows have become popular Fringe punts in recent years, combining silly challenges and PowerPoint presentations with an educational slant. If only we’d had more teachers like Horne at school, a lot more knowledge might have been absorbed. It turns out though, he has no desire to teach others; he simply can’t bear talking about himself for an hour:
“I think I’m quite insecure in that I prefer to talk about things other than myself. If people are paying money for a ticket then I should make sure they go away at the end of it having learnt something. I used to love watching Ross Noble, but I knew I could never do what he does. At the end of his shows you come away having laughed a lot but none the wiser. I wanted to do the opposite and fill people’s brains with stuff and hopefully get them to laugh along at the same time.”
As well as his solo show Odds, Horne is hosting The Horne Section, a late night, jazz-infused comedy show which combines the UK’s finest jazz musicians with Fringe comics including Mark Watson, Tim Key and Josie Long; improvising, performing and generally larking about to a jazz soundtrack. It sounds awesome: “The Horne Section is the most fun I’ve probably had on stage so far. It’s very light and not about anything which is a nice change for me. It’s at midnight, it’s raucous and I sing and play the French Horn!”
Then last, but by no means least, there’s his one-off gig Taskmaster, which sounds the most intriguing of all. Not content with setting himself ridiculous challenges, Horne has assigned lots of tasks to his comedy friends over the past year including ‘Who Can Gain the Most Weight in a Year?' and 'Find Me a Hedgehog'. Incredibly, all have complied.
“Over the past year I’ve been setting my colleagues some underhand tasks in order to win a cash prize. During the show, I’ll be telling the story, creating some tension and announcing one overall winner. It’s been loads of fun so I’m hoping it will become an annual thing. Comedians are so competitive. One of the first tasks was to send me as much money as they could. Whoever sent me the most money would win points for that task and I was quite amazed by how much people sent in! That money is now the prize money.”
So if you’re having trouble wading through the 2,453 events in your Edinburgh Fringe programme, Horne has given us three pretty attractive comedy options there. Deciding which one to see is the next hurdle. You can check out some of our reviews below, but if in doubt, book them alll!
Alex Horne: Odds will be at the Pleasance Courtyard at 8:30pm until 30th August. (Review)
The Horne Section will be at the Pleasance Dome at 12:20am until 26th August. (Review)
Alex Horne: The Taskmaster will be at the Pleasance Dome at 12:20am on the 27th August.
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