The Shuffle Show

★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
Published 12 Aug 2015
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You might want to get your ears checked if you're not in awe of the vocal talents of Elena Gabrielle. This woman can sing. She seems to have mastered every style and genre, which is the greatest strength of this rollercoaster through our collective music libraries. Together with Grant Busé she shuffles a thousand songs into an energising potpourri that jumps from Céline Dion to Nirvana, from Simon & Garfunkel to LMFAO. The mashups are clever and the transitions between songs are flawless. Busé and Gabrielle are true geniuses in finding often surprising links between the lyrics, music or dance routines.

They play "geniuses" too: their audience is inside an Apple Store, where those who try to explain how stuff works share that immodest title. Talking us through the playlist and shuffle functions on iPods and iPhones, it's here where the show lacks depth. Jokes about Apple founder Steve Jobs as an almighty god are a bit too easy compared to the elegant and witty way they have compiled their shuffle-medleys. Indeed, even though we all know that the weather in Scotland is not the same as the Mediterranean, their playlist inspired by the sky above Edinburgh is outright funny.

That's really the story here: the tunes are great. It is just a shame that all their musical talent is sometimes overshadowed by predictable and sometimes sexist jokes.