Comedy
Ed Byrne, TouringThursday, 10 March 2011
Many of you will know Ed Byrne from his appearances on BBC shows such as Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You, where his sardonic take on current affairs marks him out as a sharp-tongued and quick-witted comic. Now he’s touring with a new show... Read more... |
Ruby Wax: Losing It, Menier Chocolate FactoryThursday, 24 February 2011
Ruby Wax has packed a lot into her life - writer, actor, stand-up comic, television interviewer, to name a few. But possibly her greatest professional achievement will be her work in mental health, prompted by her own experiences of depression,... Read more... |
Lenny Henry, TouringMonday, 21 February 2011
It takes a certain something to make a roomful of white people get their funk on. I feel I have dispensation to make that ridiculous generalisation because Lenny Henry, famously born in Dudley to immigrant Jamaican parents, addresses the whiteness... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Comedian Ruby WaxFriday, 11 February 2011
Misery and comedy have always been happy bedfellows. The sad clown, the stand-up who falls down offstage – we know who we’re talking about. But for all their problems, comedians don’t generally make a habit of turning medical pathology into material... Read more... |
Jimmy Carr, Orchard Theatre, DartfordSunday, 16 January 2011
Jimmy Carr, a comedian who has more than once got into hot water over jokes that some find offensive, does a very strange thing for the encore of his latest show, Laughter Therapy - he gives a lecture cum homily on the limits of offensiveness, and... Read more... |
Punt & Dennis, TouringThursday, 13 January 2011
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis originally came to fame in the late 1980s as one half of the satirical sketch group The Mary Whitehouse Experience, with fellow Cambridge alumni David Baddiel and Rob Newman. Now, though, most people know them (as a double... Read more... |
Jackson's Way, TouringMonday, 10 January 2011
Will Adamsdale was so sweat-drenched by the end of his character-comedy show Jackson's Way – on the night I saw it at the Soho Theatre – that you might think he had just emerged from a frantic triathlon swim. Actually, he is performing a marathon of... Read more... |
Year Out/Year In: Comedy Stands Up to Questions of TasteFriday, 31 December 2010
It was a year when comics at opposite ends of the scale - offensive or annoyingly bland - were taking up room on our television screens and selling out ever-larger arena tours. And the depressing rule of thumb (with a few honourable exceptions) that... Read more... |
Boxing Day Bloat: theartsdesk recommendsSaturday, 25 December 2010
Yesterday was yesterday. Today there's the rest of the week. What are the options? You could go to the shops and exchange all your presents, or you could pursue something more in the cultural line. To which end, theartsdesk is delighted to propose... Read more... |
theartsdesk's Christmas Presents GuideMonday, 13 December 2010
With the lightning speed of online delivery, there is still masses of time to select the best and most enjoyable presents for Christmas, thanks to the taste and wisdom of theartsdesk's pack of writers. With battered guitars, Belgian cartoons, Pacino... Read more... |
Comedy DVDs Round-UpSaturday, 11 December 2010
Comedy is a funny old thing: what makes one person helpless with laughter can leave another resolutely unmoved, which generally has less to do with the quality of the material, and more to do with the individual’s sense of humour. But among the... Read more... |
Jason Manford, Hammersmith ApolloWednesday, 24 November 2010
In the course of his decade-long career Jason Manford has benefited from the British public’s appetite (eagerly fed by television producers) for inoffensive and family-friendly comics. Similar stand-ups, for instance Michael McIntyre and Peter Kay,... Read more... |
