Comedy
Hannah Gadsby, Royal Festival Hall review - simply magnificentSaturday, 26 October 2019
It's a wonderful thing when a talented comic goes from niche performer to international star almost overnight, and that's what happened to Australian stand-up Hannah Gadsby. In 2017, she announced that her award-winning Edinburgh Fringe show,... Read more... |
Elf Lyons, Komedia, Brighton review - bonkers, brilliant and a bit of bare bumFriday, 11 October 2019
Elf Lyons’ new show, Love Songs To Guinea Pigs, has moved away from her usual slapstick and absurdist mimicry into new realms of traditional stand up. She cites the reason as being unable to do mime on the radio, but there’s a more serious reason... Read more... |
Rob Beckett, St David's Hall, Cardiff review - a mixed bag of observationsTuesday, 08 October 2019
There’s been no avoiding Rob Beckett in recent years. His high beam smile and infectious personality have made him a mainstay of comedy shows. Now he’s back on the road with what he calls the best job in the world, stand up. You can tell he means it... Read more... |
DVD: Do Not Adjust Your Set / At Last The 1948 ShowTuesday, 08 October 2019
Both first broadcast in 1967, Do Not Adjust Your Set and At Last the 1948 Show were collectively written and performed by the future Monty Python team. More written about and discussed than actually seen, many episodes were wiped or lost, and these... Read more... |
Eddie Izzard, Brighton Dome review - splendidly surreal storytellingMonday, 30 September 2019
Eddie Izzard is dressed in a killer outfit of black leather jacket, tartan mini-kilt, thigh-length stiletto boots – and false boobs. “I got them at IKEA,” he deadpans. He’s in jovial form for Wunderbar, his farewell tour before he hopes to enter... Read more... |
Russell Howard, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena review - a return with biteWednesday, 25 September 2019
It’s been two years since Russell Howard last performed stand-up. That’s a long gap for such an established fixture of British comedy. As he points out, the world has changed, something reflected in his new show Respite. There are still the... Read more... |
Ed Byrne, Berry Theatre, Hedge End review - musing on middle-age angstMonday, 23 September 2019
Ed Byrne's new show takes a philosophical bent as he muses on middle age and fatherhood. But don't worry, he's not getting soft at the age of 47 – he's as sarcastic, caustic and self-deprecating as ever in If I'm Honest...He starts by telling us how... Read more... |
Count Arthur Strong, Leeds City Varieties review - stargazing and mangled syntaxFriday, 20 September 2019
Count Arthur Strong, the character created by Steve Delaney, started life in the late 1990s and became a cult figure at the Edinburgh Fringe over several years. Radio shows and three series of a television sitcom (written with Graham Linehan)... Read more... |
Brydon, Mack and Mitchell, Portsmouth Guildhall review - family-friendly funTuesday, 17 September 2019
Rob Brydon, Lee Mack and David Mitchell are the host and team captains respectively of Would I Lie to You?, the long-running BBC One panel game. Now they are touring together in Town to Town, which is family-friendly fun (with occasional naughtiness... Read more... |
Romesh Ranganathan, Brighton Dome review - transgressive, edgy and very likeableMonday, 16 September 2019
One question springs immediately to mind on hearing that Romesh Ranganathan’s new stand-up show, The Cynic’s Mixtape, is touring: how does he find the time? Ranganathan has overtaken Jack Whitehall as Britain’s most media ubiquitous comic, with a... Read more... |
Sofie Hagen, Soho Theatre review - sex weekend in Swansea, anyone?Wednesday, 11 September 2019
Memory is a funny thing: it can get you through exams; it can comfort you or distress you; it can last a lifetime or go in an instant. In Sofie Hagen's case, her idiosyncratic one has provided material for her new show Bumswing, which started life... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2019 reviews: Jordan Brookes/ Catherine CohenSunday, 25 August 2019
Jordan Brookes Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★Jordan Brookes doesn’t tell gags. Well, he does but not in a traditional stand-up way. Rather, his jokes are subtly inserted into I’ve Got Nothing’s seemingly disjointed narrative.Brookes’s previous shows... Read more... |
