I am the spirit of the mountains, elf of the sea air, a basket maker. The Award winning fringe royalty returns with a mysterious melodic new adventure.

"clowning at its very best" ***** Scotsman.

Kate Copstick in her 5 star review in Scotsman wrote last year "If you have missed the many magical years of Twonkey at the Fringe then get yourself along and experience the most creative crazy in show business."

Twonkey is starting to think a simple life in Peru might be the way forward. Follow him with his donkey, puppets and songs to spiritual enlightenment or death.

Mr Twonkey (AKA Paul Vickers) is a surreal act of twisted songs, adult fairy tales and elaborate props. His goal is to mix funny anecdotes and heartfelt moments creating an enjoyable, uniquely Twonkey vision of a better world.

Twonkey is a musical comic with an operatic imagination.

**** Beyond the Joke

Being in his presence for an hour is delightful.

**** The Times

Winner of the 2016 Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.

August 15, 2024    Entertainment Now

In the beer spattered back room of the Dragonfly stands one Twonkey with his myriad of knick knacks that have no rhyme or reason to be next to each other. The absolutely barmy Twonkey leads the audience on his journey to Peru with the help of his collection of puppets and dolls.

As Twonkey is stood at the front of the room, he resembles a candidate from the Monster Raving Loony Party after losing a local election. He’s clad in a wig with a predisposed bald spot, a captains jacket, and an unsettling necklace of bones with a disgruntled look about him.

For the first five minutes, I thought I potentially stepped into an alternate dimension where words like “pouching” make sense in the context of sex. Alas, it’s just Twonkey’s unbeatable vocabulary that put a smile on your face, even when you don’t know what’s happening anymore.

A highlight of this cracking one man show includes an appearance from Steve Martin, I mean a papier mâché version, but still. Twonkey also performs original songs about death and even a misunderstanding about an unborn spider. The eclectic mind of Twonkey is indescribable and confusing, but his charisma and showmanship is second to none. Click Here For Review

August 14, 2024    Broadway Baby

Twonkey has been bringing his surreal shenanigans to the Fringe for over a decade, and now he’s decided it’s time to up sticks and move to Peru. So, after some introduction from concierge, Lucky Arthur, who appears to be a small doll nailed to a snooker cue, Twonkey sets off to South America, and we get to follow him on his journey like a Road To... movie where Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are a frazzled surrealist and a sad lion puppet with Lenny Henry’s eyes.

The following hour encompasses song requests from elderly fans, erroneous facts about alpacas, incomplete thoughts which hint at future shows, the now legendary ship's wheel of knickers (which raises a cheer from the audience when it appears), tunes on a shruti box, and a sudden segue into a separate narrative in the form of a Transylvanian Finger Fantasy – think polystyrene finger puppets and a sinister voiceover. Indeed, there are a lot of puppets in the show including the aforementioned sad lion Chris Hutchinson, a tiny vampire, and a strangely accurate Steve Martin formed out of sanitary pads and a leftover piece of wood decking.

If, like me, you’re a Twonkey fan and have previously experienced his particular brand of unique storytelling, then this is another wonderfully weird hour to enjoy. If you’re new to this type of clowning, then imagine an episode of Jamie and the Magic Torch where everyone is a little mouldy and Jamie is a middle-aged man. At one point, he can’t locate the pan pipes he needs and crawls around the stage looking for them before heading backstage and opening a huge suitcase to locate them. It’s indicative of how bizarre this show is that we’re not sure if this is part of the show or a genuine mistake. Either way, it’s very funny. Click Here For Review

August 14, 2024   Entertainment Now

Twonkey’s Basket Weaving in Peru – A Strange Exhilarating Dream

Paul Vickers, aka Mr Twonkey takes his audience on a hilarious, wildly imaginative trip in his Fringe shows – which are always unpredictable, frequently shambolic and reliably very funny indeed. The former lead singer and song writer of indie band Dawn of the Replicants, Vickers creates original songs for his marvellous creations – as well as bringing back old favourites so the audience can sing along.

Tell us about your show. Why should we go and see it?

The show is called Twonkey’s Basket Weaving in Peru this year is about a trip to Peru with my usual characters but something terrible happens when we arrive there and we have to decide if we want to make money out of various pursuits or suffer financial ruin and perhaps be forced to return home, crushed.

It’s one of my personal favourites. I think it’s up there with Twonkey’s Night Train to Lichtenstein, which I was particularly pleased with. I feel it’s always important to enjoy performing your own show and I have certainly been enjoying performing this one so far. The audience reaction has been good people seem relaxed and sync themselves into the absurdity of the situation, there’s some good tunes this year that are both thought-provoking and catchy.

What makes you laugh?

Mistakes normally make me laugh whether it’s a mistake in language or a mistake in performing an activity, but I would say the main thing that makes me laugh Is something going slightly askew.

What three words best describe your performance style – and why?

silly saucy fuckwit.

Do you have nerves about going on stage and how do you cope with them.

Yes, I get nervous every day. In fact, I’m very nervous now as I’m writing this, I’m falling apart but in a nice way, I find it difficult to avoid nerves, but they can help you as sometimes have a cup of coffee and try to clear my mind, but it doesn’t always work. It’s hard not to think about the fact that you’re going to be throwing yourself around a small function room with some puppets and wearing a large painful headpiece.

What’s your idea of a perfect Fringe feast and where will you eat it?

I like taste of Italy because the milkshakes are absolutely delightful. Really enjoy malts but they’re very difficult to get hold of in Scotland, there to be a place at the ocean terminal. They did excellent malts, but sadly, the whole building has been made semi redundant by a development by a large company who wished to build luxury apartments, so a lot of the original businesses, including the one that supplied excellent malts have now disappeared entirely.

How will your audience think/feel differently after an hour in your company?

They often appear slightly starstruck, but also joyful as if a woken from a playful but exhilarating dream which has made them think slightly differently about reality and our purpose in the universe as a whole.

When did you first realise you were born to be on stage?

I used to perform simple plays for my mother and my family and I used to sing along to Ceefax music and pretend I was a famous country and Western singer. In fact, I thought I’d convinced my grandma of this but then she said to me “I’m sorry, Paul. I know it’s you.”

Why do you think Edinburgh Fringe is so important to performers and artists around the world?

It’s a melting pot of all kinds of different disciplines of creative expression. The fringe is something we can all be incredibly proud of. I think the word-of-mouth aspect of it is amazing because you can do something in a small room and people talk.

How do you plan to relax and enjoy the city when you’re not performing.

I will enjoy the city in my own time due to my own set of requirements. This may involve times of relaxation and it may also involve times where I wish to invigorate my senses, fully and awaken myself to the world and how it is now.

Who is your showbiz idol and why.

Spike Milligan is one of my heroes. I like the fact he was actually incredibly miserable a lot of the time, but in a very extraordinary way he managed to refine his thought process to override his own reality and then dip into the absurdity of his own perverse nature, Now that’s showbiz.

What is your idea of a perfect Fringe moment?

I’ve just glued a football to a large gardening glove. I think that’s a fairly Fringe thing to do. I plan to work it in tonight. Click Here For Article

August 8, 2024   Neurodiverse Review

Quick Fire Questions

Fringe stalwart and former frontman of Dawn of the Replicants Paul Vickers (AKA Twonkey) returns to his solo cabaret roots after years of experimentation with theatre, pandemics and an autism diagnosis.

Why did you make this show?
Over the last year or so largely by slowly replacing the good ideas with even better ideas, Having a really good idea often means you have bring the rest of the show up to that level which can mean losing a lot of content you thought was good at start . I often find it’s about not being afraid to just dive in deep and drag up the pearls from the deep but sometimes you have work out which pearls suit you and which are just stones.

What is the part of the show you’re most proud of?
My Steve Martin puppet is wonderful, made by Grant Pringle, his wife hates when he makes a new puppet for my show as he makes the house messy and appears to lose his mind for a short period of time . Over the years he made some crackers like the Wobbly Waiter and Mothra the monster made famous for putting Godzilla on the ropes. He uses odd materials, like Steve Martin’s hair is made from a sanitary towel. He also steals clothes from his children to dress the puppets, lol 😂

As a disabled practitioner, what do you want to see change at The Edinburgh Fringe?
It would be nice if the venue costs came down and accommodation costs are through the roof but that has an on impact everyone not just the disabled. Being Autistic can make handing out flyers tricky, as I’m a being shy 🙈 person when not on stage and I don’t like getting in people’s hair.

Why should we come and see the show?
Because I personally feel it’s my best show in years since Twonkey’s Night Train to Liechtenstein 🇱🇮 it’s got a nice flow and feeling about it this year. Sometimes the chips just land the right way up or the wrong way up but for the right reasons. I know my shows better than anyone so if say I’m happy with it, it’s a good thing, I’ve not had a normal job recently which has really helped, I’ve had the time to work on it and I’ve not rushed it, that’s a real luxury. Click Here For Article

August 5, 2024    North West End

4 Star Review

What would happen if an achingly cool cocktail bar in the vicinity of Edinburgh’s Public Triangle made available a small function room for Mark E Smith and Don Van Vliet? (Difficult to predict, the results probably tricky to discern, but definitely must-see.) Click Here For Review

August 5, 2024    The Scotsman

4 star review in the Scotsman from Kate Copstick

We are a small, but representative audience when I visit this year's version of the Twonkeyverse : two first timers, one ardent fan, and me. Paul Vickers – aka Twonkey – turns shambles into an art form. Props are dropped or thrown away, only to be needed later requiring a frantic search, his new head keeps falling off while Steve Martin's has broken already (it is only the first show) but we plough on, having been warned that the show has been rated as requiring 'moderate concentration'.
It doesn't. It requires not so much a suspension of your disbelief as launching it into orbit. Just go with Twonkey. The seemingly bottomless toybox of his hour is full of your favourites – Chris Hutchinson, the pan pipe playing Tootie Patootie, your Transylvanian Finger Fantasy troupe and the sooth-saying ship's wheel which, tonight, reveals the mild-mannered looking Twonkey virgin in the front row to be into 'pouching'. We do get to Peru, although there is minimal actual basket weaving (possibly because of the chainsaw). One of the reasons Twonkey's shows are such a glorious experience is that, in a world where so little in comedy is unique, Twonkey is. His world is wonderful if you let go of yours for an hour.
One of our Twonkey virgins says that he didn't 'get' the funny. That it is like looking at a surrealist masterpiece, that you know is a masterpiece, you just don't understand why.
When we get back from Peru, unusually, Paul Vickers emerges for a short chat, and the stories he has about performing with Dawn of the Replicants and why he was banned from the Stand ( treacle and Daniel Sloss) bring a whole new dimension to a show which is already, quite simply, a multi-dimensional marvel of mirth.
 Click Here For Review

August 5, 2024    Neurodiverse Review

5 Star Review

Autistic singer, storyteller and absurdist Paul Vickers, has been part of the Edinburgh Fringe landscape for well over a decade. So much so, that if you ever get in the way of his tractor beam you may end up coming back year upon year to bask(et) in his glory. Click Here For Review

July 7, 2024   Skinny

13 Scottish Acts to see at the Fringe (Skinny)

Make room for Twonkey (Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly, 1-25 Aug (not 5, 12, 19), 8.15pm, Free/PWYC). Unlike anything else you’ll see all Fringe, the cult comic was once banned from The Stand for “treacle misadventure”. Click Here For Article