sun 12/05/2024

Comedy Reviews

Greg Davies, touring

Thomas H Green

Greg Davies strolls onstage to the sound of Fatboy Slim’s remix of Wildchild’s “Renegade Master”, the “44 year old renegade master,” as he drily observes. From there he initially dwells on middle age and the way his stomach has expanded. His manner is so genial that his gigantic size - 6’8” – is not especially immediate or imposing. Clad in jeans and a black T-shirt he achieves the rare feat, throughout the 90-minute  set, of being likeable and funny without ever utilising viciousness.

Read more...

Michael Mittermeier, Soho Theatre

Veronica Lee

There must be something on the air; a few foreign comics (including Edinburgh Comedy Awards newcomer winner Daniel Simonsen) were performing in English at this year's Edinburgh Fringe and now one of them, Germany's Michael Mittermeier, has brought his Fringe show, A German on Safari, to London for a short residency at Soho...

Read more...

Danny Bhoy, Bloomsbury Theatre

Veronica Lee

Danny Bhoy is big in Scotland and Canada and huge Down Under, as they say, but is a surprisingly unfamiliar name to many. I'm not sure, other than a lack of a television presence, why he's not as well-known throughout the UK as he should be: he's an extremely affable, laidback Scot whose brand of observational, conversational comedy is easy on the ear.

Read more...

Kevin Bridges, Hammersmith Apollo

Veronica Lee

Kevin Bridges, an affable young Glaswegian, has had a meteoric rise in comedy. He started gigging at 17, made his solo Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2009, where he played in a 50-seater and earned an Edinburgh Comedy Awards newcomer nomination, and returned the following year to a sold-out run in a 700-seat theatre.

Read more...

Michael McIntyre, O2 Arena

Veronica Lee

First a confession: I've never been a great fan of Michael McIntyre. He's a nice bloke for sure, works at his craft and is a slick performer with a huge following, both live and on television. Plus - and this is one of the best compliments I can pay to a stand-up because it's a difficult skill to pull off - he's one of the best MCs in the business.

Read more...

Stewart Lee presents John Cage's Indeterminacy, Cafe OTO

joe Muggs

John Cage is funny: this much we know. The deadpan prankster at the heart of 20th-century artistic experimentalism was always about the inadvertent punchline, the chuckle that comes from unexpected disjunction, the relief that comes from reminders of the absurdity of reality, as much as he was ever about any engagement with progress, technology, the transcendent.

Read more...

Edinburgh Fringe: James Acaster/David Trent/Daniel Simonsen/Ben Target

Veronica Lee

James Acaster: Prompt, Pleasance Courtyard ***

 

Read more...

Edinburgh Fringe: Tony Law

Veronica Lee

Tony Law: Maximum Noonsense, The Stand 

 

Read more...

Edinburgh Fringe: Alfie Moore/Eddie Pepitone/Claudia O'Doherty

Veronica Lee

Alfie Moore: I Predicted a Riot, Pleasance Courtyard ****

 

Read more...

Edinburgh Fringe: I, Tommy/Josie Long/WitTank

Veronica Lee

I, Tommy, Gilded Balloon ****

 

Everybody will be familiar with Tommy Sheridan's story, and not necessarily because they closely follow Scottish politics at their most internecine. Rather because the Glaswegian socialist went from being barely a paragraph in broadsheets to being plastered over the front pages of tabloids after a series of revelations – which he strongly denies – about visiting swingers' clubs.

Read more...

Pages

 

latest in today

Britten Sinfonia, The Marian Consort, Milton Court review -...

Gesualdo was, in the words of New Yorker critic Alex Ross – “irrefutably badass”, a double murderer, sado-masochist and black magic enthusiast who...

Music Reissues Weekly: Little Girls - Valley Songs

The name, Caron and Michelle Maso explained to Los Angeles radio DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, was a literal description. “We’re both like five feet. We...

DVD/Blu-ray: The Holdovers

Glance at The Holdovers’ synopsis and you might suspect that...

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes review - a post-human para...

Planet of the Apes is the most artfully replenished franchise, from the original series’ elegant time-travel loop to the reboot’s rich,...

Sappho, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - a glitzy celeb...

Who is Sappho? What is she? Not much is known about the...

Gomyo, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, National Concer...

No soloist gets to perform Shostakovich’s colossal First Violin Concerto without mastery of its fearsome technical demands. But not all violinists...

The Winter's Tale, Royal Ballet review - what a story,...

If there is a more striking, more moving, more downright enjoyable way to experience...

Sansara, Manchester Collective, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester...

Manchester Collective have come a long way since their early days of chamber music in dark and dingy Salford basements and former MOT test centres...

Album: Ani DiFranco - Unprecedented Sh!t

Having moved out of her mother’s apartment aged 15 to become “an emancipated minor” and set up her own record label, Righteous Babe, just four...