standup comedy
Edinburgh Fringe: Sam Simmons/ Totally Tom/ Humphrey Ker/ Nick HelmWednesday, 24 August 2011
Sam Simmons, Gilded Balloon **** Sam Simmons clocks a young girl in the front row and stops the show. “How old are you?” the Aussie comic asks. “Ten,” comes the reply, and he suggests to her mother that this may not be the show for them, so... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Kieran and the Joes/ Conor O'Toole/ Tom Allen/ Kate SmurthwaiteSunday, 21 August 2011
Kieran and the Joes are a three-man sketch group (Kieran Hodgson, Joe Markham and Joe Parham, working with co-writer Tom Meltzer) who are young, personable and very neatly dressed in shirts and ties - but while they may appear clean... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Tiffany Stevenson/ Carl Donnelly/ The Two WrongiesFriday, 19 August 2011
Tiffany Stevenson ★★★★The comic is currently appearing on Show Me the Funny on ITV, where her smily disposition is a welcome antidote to some of the sneery critics they have mustered. There’s boyfriend stuff in Cavewoman but Stevenson also delivers... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: DeAnne Smith/ A Slow Air/ DregsTuesday, 16 August 2011
DeAnne Smith, Gilded Balloon **** Don’t be fooled by DeAnne Smith’s gamine appearance of boyish clothing and Bieberesque hairstyle. And don’t be fooled either by the way her act begins with a riff on existential angst - prompted by an... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Jason Cook/ Cul de Sac/ Fear of a Brown PlanetTuesday, 16 August 2011
Jason Cook has masterly audience skills, and he needed them all the night I saw him. A middle-aged teacher (who really should know better), whose refreshment clearly led her to the delusion that she was the person people had paid to see, kept... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Glenn Wool/ Jerry Sadowitz/ Ford and AkramSunday, 14 August 2011
The Canadian is making a welcome return to the Fringe after a few years away and the break has served him well, as he's been doing a bit of travelling, and it was an incident when he flew to Indonesia that provides the starting point - and... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Jackie Leven/ Jen Brister/ Doris Day Can F**k OffSaturday, 13 August 2011
Physically reduced he may have been, but his talents were as expansive as ever, and more than capable of holding a small room captivated with just voice and guitar. Whereas in recent years Leven has released a somewhat bewildering range of music... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Dana Alexander/ A Sentimental Journey/ Dog-Eared CollectiveThursday, 11 August 2011
After 12 years in the business, Dana Alexander, an ebullient and instantly likeable presence on stage, is still the only black woman on the Canadian comedy circuit. Not that her ethnicity is Alexander's pre-occupation – it most definitely isn't –... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Lounge Room Confabulators/ Andi Osho/ Matthew CrosbyWednesday, 10 August 2011
Imagine that Tim Burton, or some other great modern-day storyteller of your choice, knocks at your door and asks if he can come into your living room for an hour to tell some fantastical stories. You would get some beers in and friends around... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Margaret Cho/ The Wheel/ Jessica ForteskewTuesday, 09 August 2011
Margaret Cho, Assembly **** Margaret Cho is back, and how. Ten years away from the Fringe, the American-Korean bisexual - “I'm just greedy, I guess” - is a little softer around the edges maybe, but still as funny. With her lefty humour,... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: The Monster in the Hall/ Joel Dommett/ Katherine RyanMonday, 08 August 2011
The Monster in the Hall, Traverse **** David Greig's indie comedy musical, first performed at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre at the end of last year, is a bright and inventive four-hander about a 16-year-old girl struggling to keep everything together.... Read more... |
Sam Simmons, Soho TheatreSunday, 24 July 2011
The award-winning Australian comedian Sam Simmons is shuffling around in a pair of bread loaves. He's wearing them like slippers and trying to take bites out of them at the same time. Indeed, his tremendously silly show, Fail, is essentially a... Read more... |
