This was our award-winning, critically acclaimed EDINBURGH FRINGE 2011 show. The final performance was October 2011.
Casual Violence! have worked out the meaning of death.
The good news is: it involves Siamese twins working as hitmen, smelly deathbeds, bubble guns, lonely clowns in Santa hats, and completely armless serial killers. The way we see it: if you’re going to die (and you are), you might as well die laughing…
WINNER: THREEWEEKS EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD 2011
NOMINEE: MALCOLM HARDEE AWARD FOR COMIC ORIGINALITY 2011 (writer/creator James Hamilton, for Casual Violence: Choose Death)
RANKED #2: BIGGEST ONLINE BUZZ OF THE EDINBURGH FRINGE 2011 via EdTwinge (as seen on the Guardian’s website)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Ludicrously inventive… brilliantly constructed… dark and twisted writing… heart-wrenching scenes of tragicomedy… an accomplished and diverse show displaying the extent of this group’s talent… […] the next stars of the genre” – ThreeWeeks, 2011
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Choose Death is a stand-out show from an exciting comedy group” – Fringe Guru, 2011
★ ★ ★ ★ “Gloriously bleak and black… a weird and wonderful show more reminiscent of things like Charles Addams and Edward Gorey comic strips than any of Casual Violence’s sketch-group peers…an unexpected trip into the bizarre. I can’t say how much I enjoyed it.” – The Skinny, 2011
★ ★ ★ ★ “Dark, weird and bold stuff that, brilliantly, doesn’t forget to be funny… this is massively enjoyable comedy: twisted, smart and unique” – British Comedy Guide, 2011
★ ★ ★ ★ “Strong and original sketch comedy” – Fringe Review, 2011
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Riotous…had to be seen to be believed” – Latest 7, 2010
“It’s getting harder to distinguish between all the fresh-faced, hyperkinetic sketch troupes out there, but Casual Violence! (with a distinctly darker-hued take) are a pretty safe bet… TOP TEN BEST COMEDY GIGS TO SEE” – The Independent, 2011
“Casual Violence could have created a new genre of ‘realistic surrealism’… Choose Death was so strange it is beyond any sane description and, in a long-shot way, is the most interesting of the three [sketch shows I saw]. The show was written by James Hamilton. I think he may need psychiatric help. Though not creative help. He is doing something right. There is something very original in there. I just don’t know what the fuck it is.” – John Fleming, Malcolm Hardee Awards organiser & judge