standup comedy
Interview: 10 Questions for Bobcat GoldthwaitMonday, 02 July 2012
Tracing a career arc which has taken him from stand-up comic to actor, writer and film director, it's not too fanciful to describe Bobcat Goldthwait as an anarchic, indie, low budget version of Woody Allen. The 50-year-old New Yorker started out in... Read more... |
Dara O Briain, The Playhouse, EdinburghFriday, 25 May 2012
The fact that the latest in a long line of Dara O Briain DVDs is already on sale on Amazon is pretty impressive considering that he hasn’t recorded it yet. I know this because the second show of his four-night run at the Playhouse happened to be the... Read more... |
Tom Allen's Society, Udderbelly Festival LondonTuesday, 22 May 2012
The purple cow has taken up its summer residency on the South Bank in London before making the journey to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. As ever, the line-up of performers is extensive: last night comic Tom Allen performed his chat show with the... Read more... |
Stewart Francis, TouringSaturday, 05 May 2012
Before he started making regular appearances on BBC Two's Mock the Week, Stewart Francis was an accomplished comic of some years' standing on the circuit - and that experience shows in his extensive UK tour, Outstanding in His Field, where he proves... Read more... |
Nathan Caton, Firebug, LeicesterTuesday, 07 February 2012
On a bitingly cold and snowy night in Leicester, Nathan Caton still manages to attract a big house for his show Get Rich or Die Cryin'. The hip young Londoner, in corncrow-and-dreads hairstyle and city slicker casual gear, is an immediately engaging... Read more... |
Frank Skinner and Friends, Noel Coward TheatreFriday, 03 February 2012
There must be something in the air. Hot on the heels of Alexei Sayle returning to stand-up in the guise of an MC introducing young talent to a wider audience comes Frank Skinner doing the same. In truth, the latter started the trend two years ago... Read more... |
Alexei Sayle, Soho TheatreSunday, 29 January 2012
It has been 16 years since Alexei Sayle last performed as a stand-up, save the very occasional charity gig, so there was a proper sense of occasion at the Soho Theatre when he came on stage. The old lefty, brought up in a Stalinist household in... Read more... |
Simon Munnery, Soho TheatreSaturday, 14 January 2012
Bubbles are emanating from Simon Munnery's head. They're streaming out of a huge, black stovepipe hat which he has cobbled together from cardboard and sticky tape. He has also slung an electric guitar over his shoulder as he sidles up to the mic to... Read more... |
2011: A Demon Barber, Demented Comedy and a Dogged DetectiveTuesday, 27 December 2011
In a year when there was precious little to laugh at economy-wise, some funny men and women were doing their best to keep our chuckle muscles in working order - although, strangely, you may think, few stand-ups were doing overtly political comedy -... Read more... |
Imagine: The Art of Stand-up, BBC OneTuesday, 20 December 2011
What makes something funny? Why do comics stand on stage in front of strangers and try to make them laugh? Is any subject beyond a joke? What is the purpose of Alan Yentob? Those questions – OK, only the first three – were raised by Imagine's... Read more... |
Set List, Soho TheatreSunday, 04 December 2011
Every year at the Edinburgh Fringe there's a sleeper hit, or a show that promises little on paper but delivers big time in the flesh, and this year's unexpected success was Set List, a kind of improv for stand-ups, which has also been called “comedy... Read more... |
Stewart Lee, Leicester Square TheatreThursday, 24 November 2011
Stewart Lee is in Eeyorish mood. The BBC have not yet got round to recommissioning his acclaimed television show. They have been more bountiful, he grumbles, with Russell Howard, and you can hear the older man’s withering scorn for the younger,... Read more... |
