Christopher Bliss: Writing Wrongs

A fine character creation with flawed literary pretensions
Christopher Bliss might claim to be an author but he falls down on the most basic of levels. For one thing, most writers know the difference between novels and chapters, but this weird gap in his knowledge is just one failing of the ignorant Bliss.
Sending us on our way with a copy of A Murder and a Robbery at the Same Time on the Train from London to Shropshire, Bliss (character comic Rob Carter) has to deal early on with a walk-out from a couple who were presumably here believing that an actual book event was taking place.
So lovingly crafted has Carter moulded Bliss that such a reaction is not that much of a surprise: the book (well, pamphlet, really) he hands out contains his mobile number just in case you want to keep in touch with Bliss during Fringe time. After his initial gambit of a spooky ghost story, it's clear that another spirit haunts this place: saddled with slightly impeded vocals and hampered with a vaguely over-enthusiastic superiority which masks failure and delusion, Bliss has more than a touch of the Rik Mayalls about him.
Conjuring up fictional characters such as Peter Book, Moira Wisp and Nicholas Bigboy, Bliss leads us in recreating some excerpts for this often hilarious depiction of a man who believes his own hype.
Voodoo Rooms, until 27 Aug (not 14), 2.55pm, free.