Marcel Lucont's Whine List

★★★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
33329 large
121329 original
Published 19 Aug 2016
33329 large
102793 original

It wouldn't be the Fringe without the sneering, self-obsessed Frenchman Lucont popping up to insult your choice of wine at some point. Flared of nostril, polo-necked, disdainful look – Lucont is a Gallic legend. But despite being a larger than life, cultural stereotype there's still plenty of mileage in the character. Creator Alexis Dubus finds something for him to feel superior about each year.

Dubus inhabits the character like a favourite comfortable smoking jacket and is able to make an off the cuff remark so convincing that the other year he seemed to have one reviewer thinking he was real.

Whine List takes his ability to improvise within the character a step further as he riffs on the audience's answers to a questionnaire – the worst thing that happened at work, the most amorous experience, etc. And off he goes pumping each person for further information on their often cryptic responses. In amongst the improvised insults there are sections of straight stand up where, as you'd expect, it centres around how La France is far superior to L'Angleterre. Our cuisine is still dismal and of course Brexit fuels extra jibes. In addition he treats us to a reading from his memoirs aptly titled Moi, a little chanson and we even let him get away with poking fun at our beloved British seaside. Très bon.