Dot Comedy's big plan was to flood a festival site with a variety of infiltrations: over the weekend of the Big in Falkirk festival it was very difficult to escape from their particular brand of inspired nonsense. Not that I'm complaining – in one brief stroll, I encountered the staff of their Mis-Information Tent who warned that an escaped vulture was still in the area; I watched an architectural dig unearth what may have looked like a kid's bicycle but was in fact Neolithic jewellery; and I met two vacuous TV newsdesk reporters who turned the slightest detail in the audience into 'breaking news just coming in'.
Best of all was a new infiltration: Why? This involved a team of ten boffins in white lab coats with biros and pads following the head scientist (performer Stompy who resembled a young Einstein on a bad hair day) like a gaggle of geese. The densely clumped group launched themselves into the festival area and went at a hell of a lick as Professor Stompy threw out formulae, theory and conjecture. At times the group would shudder to a halt and the professor would single out a member of the public and invite questioning: 'Why are children small?', 'Why has that man got a tattoo?' and so on. The answers given display Stompy's quick wit and ability to insult people and get away with it. When the questioning is exhausted the group quickly move on – in a busy festival site the sheer energy of the image demands attention.
Dot Comedy stand out in their ability to come up with fresh situations to showcase their improvisational, visual and verbal talents. I also like the eye for a bigger effect – so much walkabout gets lost in a crowd. I hope other promoters are adventurous enough to book them en masse.