Comedy Reviews
Dara Ó Briain, Hammersmith ApolloSaturday, 18 September 2010
At 6ft 4in, Dara Ó Briain is a massive bloke. With his bald, cannon-ball head and barrel-chested torso – togged out in a suit – he looks like a bulldog that's acquired a tailor. But it is not, of course, his physical build that has made this affable Irishman a huge name in the entertainment industry. What's key to his popular appeal is his "ordinary bloke" manner combined with his gift of the gab and his quick mind. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Bo Burnham/ Ovid's Metamorphoses/ Tony Tanner's CharlatanSaturday, 28 August 2010
Bo Burnham says he doesn’t like the terms musical comic, internet sensation or teenage wonder. Well he’s all three, save the last now, as he turned 20 during this year’s Fringe - and anyway he prefers the term prodigy, he tells us in deadpan tones typical of the deeply ironic, faux offensive manner of his performance style. But sensationally talented he undoubtedly is, and this is an hour so stuffed with gags - verbal, visual and musical - that one almost doesn’t have enough time to savour... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Patrick Monahan/ Asher TreleavenThursday, 26 August 2010
With the charm-cum-cheek of a naughty schoolboy, Patrick Monahan is an instantly likeable presence whose latest show, I Walked, I Danced, Iran, is a lop-sided but very funny hour-and-a-bit of observational comedy. Monahan is a veteran of several Fringes and a regular on The Paul O’Grady Show on Channel 4. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Sarah Millican/ The Phantom BandWednesday, 25 August 2010
When Sarah Millican won the If.comedy newcomer award two years ago, it was with one of the most accomplished shows I had ever seen at the Fringe - by newbie or veteran - and now the South Shields stand-up has made critics reach for the superlatives again with another hour of superbly crafted comedy. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Greg Davies/ Apples/ Carl DonnellyTuesday, 24 August 2010
Comic Greg Davies has made us wait for his solo debut - he’s in his early forties, appeared at the Fringe as part of sketch group We Are Klang for a few years and more latterly has been starring in The Inbetweeners on Channel 4 as Mr Gilbert. Before that he was a drama teacher in a secondary school for 13 years. But boy, was it worth the wait. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Rob Rouse/ Daniel Sloss/ Teenage Riot/ Mark Nelson/ The Fitzrovia Radio HourMonday, 23 August 2010
Rob Rouse is one of those hugely likeable comedians guaranteed to make you laugh and so it proves with The Great Escape, prompted by his family’s recent move to the Peak District, an expertly crafted autobiographical narrative with lots of fresh observational comedy thrown in for good measure. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Kevin Eldon/ Lovelace: A Rock Musical/ Jeremy Lion/ Susan CalmanSaturday, 21 August 2010He may call it Titting About, but Kevin Eldon’s show, his first as a solo performer (at the grand age of 49), should be made compulsory viewing for young comics. For this is a man who has learned his craft, the value of good writing, of stage presence, of timing and myriad other things while putting together a lengthy CV that includes Nighty Night, I’m Alan Partridge, Fist of Fun and Brass Eye. If you have seen him in any of those, you will know he's... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: The Boy With Tape on His Face/ Barbershopera/ Tom AllenFriday, 20 August 2010This is a show of such originality and inventiveness that I will struggle to convey just how much fun it is to watch a man perform sight gags and physical comedy for an hour - and who does indeed appear throughout with a strip of black gaffer tape over his mouth. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Stuart Goldsmith/ Steve Mason/ Peter StrakerThursday, 19 August 2010You may think the very well-presented comic Stuart Goldsmith - clean-shaven and wearing sensible Merrells (“which says I’m not wearing a fleece but I own one”) - is the sort of bloke your mum always hoped you would end up marrying or having as your best friend. His show is titled The Reasonable Man, and Goldsmith is indeed utterly dependable, he tells us, plus he comes from that most nondescript of towns, Leamington Spa. But he would like to break out a bit. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Marcel Lucont/ Primadoona/ Phil NicholTuesday, 17 August 2010
Marcel Lucont, “France’s greatest misanthropic lover”, comes on stage looking like the love child of Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg - in head-to-toe black, sporting manly stubble and clutching a bottle of vin rouge. Is he an ethnic stereotype, or is he the alter ego of Alexis Dubus from Buckinghamshire, who happens to speak perfect French? |
Pages
latest in today
There are many definitions of bravery, and taking on the challenge of embodying John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in Cleese’s own stage...
What with the likes of Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, The Hatton Garden Job and the oeuvre of Guy Ritchie, the...
The sixteen voices of the Dunedin Consort raided the large store of music inspired by the Song of Songs and the sonnets of Petrarch in a sensual...
It’s unusual for a play to be revived with its original director and star, let alone a decade after they premiered the piece. But here we are,...
Let’s put our cards firmly on the table here. I am a big fan of Bruce Robinson’s cinematic masterpiece about two out-of-work actors who live in...
For fans of a certain age the name Jack Docherty will always be associated with a very good run of chat shows on Channel 5; he was also the star...
It’s a long way to the middle. Jack Savoretti has worked hard to get there. He’s grafted. His first album, 2007’s Between the Minds,...
Two women were best friends at school but they haven’t...
A visually dazzling, fiercely acted psychological drama with a manic comic edge, Hoard channels an 18-year-old South Londoner’s quest to...
It’s hard to imagine that The Arches – a string of stylish glass-fronted units in prime city centre location, housing boutique bars,...