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Dominic Frisby
Dominic Frisby's Financial Gameshow

Review: Dominic Frisby's financial game show at Gilded Balloon Teviot

by
22nd Aug 2018
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The Edinburgh Fringe is supposed to have something for everyone so it should not be a surprise to find a show directed towards we financial types.

The bearded, bespectacled Dominic Frisby combines life as a leading financial commentator with a career as a stand-up comedian. A couple of years ago, he brought a show about tax to the Fringe and now finance gets the treatment.

Rather than a straight comic routine, the adventurous presenter in a dazzling jacket has come up with a fresh, jazzy approach to what might otherwise be a dry subject.

Following the methods of innumerable TV shows, he decided to involve the audience by turning his hour into a game show “exploring the wonders of the moneyverse”.

After the first few of a large selection of arcane facts (do you know what percentage of the world's population has no access to electricity?) the punters begin to go through a weeding process.

This consists of answering a few questions. Those that are correct (in every case more by luck than judgement) progress to a more thorough and exposed series of games.

The first pitted two paying punters head-to-head. Unfortunately, they ended up with a 0-0 draw, necessitating a tie breaker.

Despite the finest efforts of Frisby's daughter's 15-year-old best friend, an indecisive lady who threw the presenter off track and a Dutch student, the stars were septuagenarian male southerners, perpetuating far too many stereotypes.

Anyone watching this show will learn a number of unlikely financial and numerical facts such as whether the Queen is richer than Lewis Hamilton and Dominic Frisby or the number of Americans in the armed forces.

The tension really ramps up for the final 90 seconds, as one lucky winner, aided by the increasingly manic audience and backstage crew, bids to find a four digit code from impossible clues. The reward is a pile of 10 £50 notes and, joy of joys, one of the septuagenarians at the performance reviewed took the stash and generously invited the whole audience to drink his health.

Perhaps of most interest in a town where 99.99% of shows (my statistic but Mr F is welcome to borrow it for next year) lose money, frequently almost 100%, he is getting rich.

That is because he has not one but three (at least) sponsors, none of which is AccountingWEB but maybe we will get the call at some future date. The result is that lucky winners can end up with some solid silver bars and a bitcoin wallet with enough notional cash to buy two ice creams (perhaps 2,000,000 ice creams at some future date). Even we losers got a free finance mag worth £3.95 if the cover is to be believed as a going home present.

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