standup comedy
Edinburgh Fringe 2017 reviews: Tom Allen / Cally Beaton / Lauren Pattison / TrumpageddonTuesday, 15 August 2017
Tom Allen ★★★★ Tom Allen is celebrating his 10th year at the Fringe, and he appears to be having a ball – and so do we. He bounds on stage full of energy and does a fantastically strong 10 minutes' interaction with the audience, and... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2017 reviews: Kiri Pritchard-McLean / Dad's Army Radio Hour / Elliot SteelMonday, 14 August 2017
Kiri Pritchard-McLean ★★★★Appropriate Adult has an unlikely subject for comedy – Kiri Pritchard-McLean's work with vulnerable teenagers. But it proves rich territory as she recounts her relationship with one in particular, 15-year-old “Harriet... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2017 reviews: Tiff Stevenson / Jarlath Regan / Urzila CarlsonThursday, 10 August 2017
Tiff Stevenson ★★★★“I identify as a 10!” Tiff Stevenson tells us in Bombshell. It’s a strong opener, particularly as she follows with: “And if you don’t agree you’re beauty-phobic.” It’s not to boast, though, more marking her territory in a show... Read more... |
The Big Sick review - enchanting romcom about mixed marriagesWednesday, 26 July 2017
The Big Sick is an enchanting film from the Judd Apatow comedy production line. Don’t be put off by the terrible title. There are two forms of sickness on display in the story of Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani American who plays himself in his own... Read more... |
Russell Brand, Touring review - grandiloquent performer in reflective moodFriday, 30 June 2017
Were ordinary folk to plunder their lives for comedy, most of us would be sadly lacking in any topics worthy of analysis, let alone laughs. But Russell Brand, who every few years appears to reinvent himself – from drug addict to stand-up comic, from... Read more... |
Ricky Gervais, Touring review - chatty and relaxed riffingFriday, 12 May 2017
Ricky Gervais enters the stage after recordings of some the great (and not so great) men of history – including Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Adolf Hitler. And then there's a portentous introduction – are we then going to hear some deep... Read more... |
Ayesha Hazarika, Soho Theatre review - 'politics is her patch'Thursday, 20 April 2017
What a day to open your political stand-up show, entitled State of the Nation, a few hours after Theresa May had announced a snap election. If Ayesha Hazarika needed any extra material, yesterday morning's events would certainly have supplied it.... Read more... |
Our Friend Victoria review – Victoria Wood’s genius is irreplaceableWednesday, 12 April 2017
In the closing credits of Acorn Antiques, wobbling diagonally across the screen, it says the part of Berta was taken by “Victoria Woods”. Has there ever been a lovelier, truer typo? There was only one Victoria Wood, and yet she seemed somehow to be... Read more... |
Russell Howard, Touring - 'the passion and anger are real'Wednesday, 12 April 2017
Russell Howard is in typically chipper form, and so he should be. Dismissed by some at the start of his career as just one of the slew of beige twenty-something blokes emerging in stand-up in the Noughties, he has built a solid television career and... Read more... |
The Miser, Garrick TheatreMonday, 13 March 2017
Trimmings, trimmings. They prove the final straw for Molière’s Harpagon in this new adaptation of the classic French comedy-farce. The menu for his wedding banquet – which he doesn’t want to spend a centime more on than he has to – is being... Read more... |
Miles Jupp, London PalladiumMonday, 27 February 2017
Miles Jupp starts by telling us he’s trying to fathom the kind of comic he should be, after he overheard a comment by an audience member at a show on his previous tour: he was nice, the man proffered, but what he said had taken him by surprise. So... Read more... |
Suzi Ruffell, Soho TheatreWednesday, 01 February 2017
Suzi Ruffell tells it straight: she's working-class and proud, but some people might think she's "common", which is the show's title. She has devised a quick quiz for us to check if we're working-class ourselves, and among the amusing tell-tale... Read more... |
