The Black Sheep - The Joy Of Wine

Throughout the festival, people ask each other the same two questions – how many shows have you seen, and which one was the worst? People here do seem to enjoy dwelling on the darker and more negative aspects of the Fringe, enjoying each other’s disappointment or discomfort. And if disappointment and discomfort are the kind of things you’re looking for in a Fringe performance, then you should look no further than the Joy of Wine.

This is a one-joke performance stretched across an increasingly desperate and thinning hour. The premise is that this is a wine tasting evening being held in a church hall, run by the inevitably creepy and disturbing comedy vicar, with his side kick who is inevitably both stupid and a genius. They run through the various stages of wine tasting procedure – the spit or swallow joke doesn’t appear until quite close to the end of the show, even though you could feel it’s presence in the room from the moment you stepped inside – and even though you may well learn a few new terms, it is not worth enduring the hour of your life that will drag by so slowly you’ll wonder if you’ve become trapped in some kind of time warp.

The final nail in the coffin, and something that we didn’t take note of before attending the show, is that the final balloon, as shown in the poster advertisements, will also pop by the end. The glee with which this happens is matched only by the disgust on the audience’s face. Don’t go to see this show. Really, really don’t.