The League Against  Tedium

Edinburgh International Festival: Pleasance 

The Stage  20/08/1998 

PHIL GIBBY 

Simon Munnery's party piece from hell is not to everyone's taste, but it reaches its full comic potential this year, with the League (which is the name of Munnery's anti-comedy alter-ego) in coruscating form.

Shed of the Cluub Zarathustra trappings, Munnery's unsettling presence fills the stage from start to finish, always treading the line between humour and ritual abuse.

There is a whole debate to be had here about what constitutes comedy, because the League often manages to contrive laughter out of moments which seem to have no comic purpose. It is a complicated art, making people laugh at nothing, but that, I suspect, is just Munnery's aim.