Edinburgh Festivals

Fringe 2001

Uberarmy
Ubersausage

After acclaimed sell-out performances for the last two years, Ubersausage, the 'natural born grillers', return to the Fringe with Uberarmy, and they turn bad taste into a high art form.

The people who in 1999 brought you Princess Diana singing "Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?" this year give you on-stage ejaculation, necrophilia, and Anne Frank: the Musical - when Anne and Adolf finally got it together for the closing number, there wasn't a dry eye in the theatre.

Ubersausage's style of comedy is a madcap and fast-paced ride across the decency line: often shocking, sometimes dark, sometimes plain ridiculous. My one criticism is that, although highly original in content, in form the numerous short sketches are frequently too under-developed to be satisfying. It would be nice to see the team move beyond the Smith-and-Jones style of sketch-writing.

After finding fame last year with Ali G - playing an Armenian documentary maker, Ali asked the team to give him examples of Britain's world-famous pussy-gags, and the boys fell for it hook, line and sinker - the team have been workshopping with television comedy writers and producers, and though the results aren't yet to be seen, Ubersausage will doubtless become a household name before long. The Daily Mail will also have another object for its moral outrage - and well deserved it'll be too.