one4review | On 21, Aug 2026

Another year and another mind-bending and dumbfounding trip into the world of Fringe institution Twonkey, once described as the Fringe’s very own comedy David Lynch* – an auteur genius whose works speak volumes, but only in a language I’m not sure I comprehend.

*It was me. I said this. And I was right.

Mr Twonkey, the comic alter ego of Paul Vickers, has been well and truly killed off by his creator and Vickers returns this year as the sort-of grieving widow Twonketta, who runs a fairground built on the ancestral lands of a group of vengeful fairies, who seek to remove the invaders by any means necessary. But plot in a Twonkey show is rarely more than set dressing to loosely hold together the series of a songs, spoken word monologues, weird (and often distressing) puppets such as Chris Hutchinson (used to have the eyes of Lenny Henry) and slightly mangled cat Timothy Horsepiss.

The songs and surrealism come hard and fast in the show, with diversions from staples of the show such as a Transelvanian Finger Fantasy (acted out by tiny finger puppets right into an audience member’s face) or reflections on music producer turned murderer Joe Meek. Some of the songs are overtly comic, some more thoughtful but all with the same word-salad of imagery that heightens the feeling that you’re slowly falling into a rabbit hole into a wonderland. At the end of almost every song Twonketta flatly says “and that’s that” and sits back down as if the whole thing hadn’t happened and it’s always hilarious. And Vickers himself seems to barely be able to resist a giggle any time the audience laughs as if he himself is surprised to hear what he comes up with.

Twonkey’s Soft December Night in Tallahassee is, by the standards of its creator, a more thoughtful show, with reflections on a few things including why Vickers decided to kill off Twonkey in favour of Twonketta and the conclusion seems to be that she’s just more fun. As he sings at one point “girls toys are better than boy’s toys.”

I’ve read reviews of Twonkey shows saying that Vicker’s work is just enjoyable nonsense and that’s certainly a reading of it, but only a surface level one. I have spent years trying to find a show as inexplicable as a Twonkey show and yet every year I am again reminded that this is a futile endeavour. There are perhaps shows that are weirder, but they are few. There are perhaps shows that dip even further into the surreal and absurd, though I’d be surprised. But the mark of genius – the mark of the Lynchian – is not the weirdness, it’s the sense that while all of this seems inexplicable to me, I feel that it makes perfect sense to Paul. And that maybe when he has a little giggle it’s not at himself for being silly and strange, but at all of us for not getting it.

It perhaps goes without saying that his style is an acquired taste and that for the standard Fringe goer looking for the next comedian in a t-shirt talking about his list of poor relationship choices, they’ll not maybe understand the nuances. But for those who want to experience pure, unadulterated Fringe at its very Fringest, there’s nowhere better to turn.

*****
Reviewed by Tom

20:15

6th-30th

Other Room at Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly