“groovy mother...”

A dumb idea, but one that's certainly in keeping with the traditions of the Fringe, The Phone Book Live is a daily fifteen-minute show which asks a different Fringe performer each day to prove that they are talented enough to achieve the old adage: To read a page from the phone book, and make it entertaining.

The night we went, it was Tony Robinson from off-of Blackadder, Maid Marian and Time Team. His historical experiences from Time Team paid off, as he spent the first five minutes excitedly telling the audience about this historical significance of the phone book -- That instead of one census every ten years, now there's a new phone book every year giving the names and addresses of people, so future historians will be better able to research us. After this excited ramble (which the host of the show was happy to let go on, since in his own words, "I only had some questions with bad puns based on Time Team and Blackadder"), Tony read names and addresses from the "P" section of the Plymouth phone book, asking audience members to imagine who these people were, and to describe the history, career and life of the phonebook members of Plymouth.

It was a great show for a fiver, but of course, varied greatly depending on who was performing. Other nights, I'm told, performers read the phone book in the voice of Mavis Riley (that'd be Les Dennis), or sang them (Mitch Benn).

A fun experience, for a great cause (the phone books are auctioned off each night in support of Childline), and a perfectly-Fringey way to start the night, ★★★★☆