Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, Comedy Review. The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh. Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It’s more than likely anyone coming across the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre whilst at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival will have never had so much fun in their entire lives with something that covers up the least attractive aspect of a person’s appearance, their feet. For socks, whether dirty, clean, innocuous, outlandish or all together mystifying, socks are great things, especially when they come in pairs and deliver unbelievably great satire and beautifully delivered cringe worthy puns.

For an act that is a great favourite at the Edinburgh Festival, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre really knows how to take the laughter to a more surreal level than might be first thought of when new fans and visitors make their way to the now traditional haunt of the Gilded Balloon.

It is that dichotomy of spirit that makes than endearing prospect once you have tasted the refusal to bend to anyone’s whims but also in which has wrongly kept them from the biggest audiences of all. It has the feel of the greatest underground show that will have ever been devised and enjoyed by the faithful immensely and to one the whole point is to really get beneath the skin of the British psyche.

Not even deference to the great British Detective is immune and in their new show Minging Detectives the whole reason for loving such idols is given a new captivating and outrageous course of action. From Hetty Wainthrop to Morse, from Starsky and Hutch to the Nordic Noir, nobody is above the law laid down by a pair of socks and some of the finest satire around.  

The Gilded Balloon is a natural home for comedy and in the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, comedy is of the highest possible order. A truly gifted performer, a pair of socks that have the best satirical bite and guile, this isn’t murder in gentile Scotland, this is watching the detectives pull the wool over everyone’s eyes with honour.

Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre is a treat of the highest order, one in which needs to be seen to be enjoyed and one that once having ensnared you never lets go again.

Ian D. Hall