COMEDY
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The Thinking Drinker’s Guide to Alcohol
Pleasance Courtyard

As the audience is seated, a voice-over dutifully warns us of the dangers of alcohol. Moments later, a hard rock soundtrack blares as McFarland and Sandham catapult into the room, distributing ice cold cans of Deuchars to the audience.  Over the next hour, we are plyed with multiple shots of the finest vodka, tequila, tanqueray gin, kracken rum and absinthe as trays are continually passed round.  This is the backdrop to an educational narrative on each spirit, with information on how it was discovered and its sociological context.

The purpose of the show is not to get the audience pissed. By providing small amounts of the finest of spirits, McFarland and Sandham are aiming to educate the audience into ‘drinking less but drinking better’.  We’re given a comprehensive education on how alcohol has influenced society for the last 4000 years; from the first Scottish beer recipe of ‘hemlock, nightshade and cowdung’; to ‘the Ancient Greeks who shunned sober people’, and ‘why Allah banned alcohol for Muslims’.  McFarland and Sandham revel in their very own brand of ‘info-tainment’, complete with props a-plenty and an affinity for the stage that has the audience laughing throughout.  There’s the opportunity for audience interaction, which is rewarded with small gifts too.  McFarland and Sandham explore the positive effects of alcohol through cultural references like Van Gogh and Picasso, while looking at negative historical examples of how alcohol has been the downfall of whole civilizations.

I love the original concept of this show. In giving out gallons of free booze combined with the narrative, they educate without patronising. McFarland and Sandham are huge and loveable personalities, with their broad cockney accents and suited and booted exterior, the audience can’t help laugh as they tell us to ‘get your laughin’ gear round that!’  And we do! I’ll never look at a tequila shot in the same way again …!