Yeti’s Demon Dive Bar at the Pleasance Courtyard

Offering shelter from the invariably chilly evening air, award-winning cabaret duo Jennifer Byrne and Victoria Falconer-Pritchard welcome you to Yeti’s Demon Dive Bar. It’s a sleazy, smutty, sensory overload of an establishment, in which a varied cast of strange characters appear on the menu alongside fantastical entrées (deep-fried Anglerfish anyone?) and a packed programme of musical and comedy skits.

With a mind-boggling array of beautifully crafted props and costumes (and a well-honed knack for swapping them in the blink of an eye), everything’s in place for a perfect slice of late-night entertainment. But, sadly, material nowhere near as strong as the aesthetic fails to incite enough laughs to support the glittery bulk.

Though well-executed, said aesthetic is itself on dicey ground from the start, due to immediately apparent similarities to a certain surreal comedy duo with a “Mighty” Fringe reputation. With skin constructed from an absorbent mass of mop strands, Yeti herself (Byrne) could have stepped straight out of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s acclaimed 1999 revue Arctic Boosh (the second of three stage shows that took Edinburgh by storm before TV stardom beckoned). The plot she leads the audience through – concerning planning for a performance by rock band “The Psychedelic Nuns” – also feels like one straight out of the Boosh playbook, and combined with the lack of genuine laughs, it makes for a rather boring ride.

Musical numbers spearheaded by Falconer-Pritchard’s piano and loop pedal know-how are the undoubted highlights, but elsewhere a tendency to rely on interaction with a generally unengaged audience, and for sketches to simply peter out after having overstayed their welcome, make this a difficult show to recommend.

Stuart Boyland

Yeti’s Demon Dive Bar is on at the Pleasance Courtyard from 11^th until 28^th August 2016, for further information or to book visit here.

Watch a teaser for Yeti’s Demon Dive Bar here: