Comedy
Miles Jupp, TouringSaturday, 15 February 2014![]() It's a mark of Miles Jupp's charm that he can do a show with a long segment about being the father of four young children and win over both non-parents and those who wish to forget for two hours that they have left their own offspring at home with a... Read more... |
Comedy Festivals 2014Thursday, 06 February 2014![]() Tomorrow the 2014 comedy festival season kicks off, and while there are several gatherings around the country (and one up a mountain featuring British comics), the oldest and biggest starts in Leicester. Dave's Leicester Comedy... Read more... |
Aisling Bea, Soho TheatreFriday, 31 January 2014![]() Young Irish actress and comic Aisling Bea made a tremendous debut with C'est la Bea at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, where she was deservedly nominated for best newcomer in the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Now she is performing a short run at... Read more... |
10 Questions for Harry ShearerSunday, 26 January 2014![]() It is the fate of political leaders to be played by actors. In the circumstances Richard Nixon hasn’t been dealt a bad hand. He has been portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in Oliver Stone’s Nixon, by Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon on stage and screen and... Read more... |
Tommy Tiernan, Soho TheatreFriday, 24 January 2014![]() In Irish mythology, a stray sod is an enchanted piece of grass that, if stepped on, leaves a person feeling disorientated and lost, even in familiar surroundings. Although there's no reference to this in Tommy Tiernan's new show, Stray Sod,... Read more... |
John Kearns, Soho TheatreSaturday, 18 January 2014![]() John Kearns introduces himself as himself as he comes on stage then, very carefully - tenderly almost - he lays out a blonde wig, a pair of women's high-heeled shoes and a skimpy dress on the floor. They stay there until the final segment of his... Read more... |
Opinion: Today's BBC would have rejected Morecambe and WiseMonday, 25 November 2013![]() A couple of weeks ago I was queueing to get into the BBC’s magnificently revamped HQ at Broadcasting House. Just behind me in the same queue were Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. Their faces are craggier, their hair less confident than when the... Read more... |
Jane Bussmann: Bono and Geldof Are C*ntsWednesday, 20 November 2013![]() Jane Bussmann may not be an immediately familiar name to some, but you will know her work. The writer, who was once a celebrity journalist, has been part of the writing teams for South Park, Smack the Pony and Brass Eye, among other quality... Read more... |
Frank Skinner: Man in a SuitTuesday, 19 November 2013![]() Six years away from live comedy (save for a couple of outings as MC for mixed-bill shows) haven't blunted Frank Skinner's stand-up skills. He's still an accomplished gag writer and performer, and his quick-witted comic's brain is, as ever, much in... Read more... |
Eat Pray Laugh!: Barry Humphries' Farewell Tour, London PalladiumSaturday, 16 November 2013![]() Now here’s a funny thing, possums. Back in 1990 when one great Australian Dame, Joan Sutherland, gave her farewell performance, another, a certain housewife superstar from the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, seemed closer to retirement age.... Read more... |
Stewart Lee, Much A-Stew About NothingThursday, 14 November 2013![]() We shouldn't expect a perfectly formed show with a narrative arc and a final gag that is a series of clever callbacks and which neatly encapsulates all that has gone before, Stewart Lee tells us at the beginning of this show. Much A-Stew About... Read more... |
10 Questions for Count Arthur StrongMonday, 11 November 2013![]() Autumn is a season of tumbling leaves, dark afternoons and of course fatuous memoirs from people off the telly. But every so often the world is taken by surprise, less by autumn itself than by the arrival of an autobiography by a genuine star that... Read more... |
