Comedy
Veronica Lee
"The Bible; it goes on and on and on," says Ross Noble. "And don’t they annoy you, those people who go on and on and on..." Funny that, because the Northumbrian comic goes on and on and on himself, and by the end of this lengthy gig last night I felt like I was trapped in a broken lift with a 19th-hole bore.The first half of Things meandered in Noble’s usual way, going off on so many tangents that it took 20 minutes to get to the punchline of his Michael Jackson gag. It was indeed very funny and a cut above the usual lazy references to the recently departed king of pop, but by then Noble had Read more ...
Jasper Rees
It sounds like a joke. These two Jehovah’s Witnesses walk up a garden path. You could, suggests Ross Noble, write it and “give it to someone like Jim Davidson”. Only this one's a true story. A few years ago these two Jehovah’s Witnesses, a man and a woman, walked up Ross Noble’s garden path. For all his big black hair, thick Geordie accent and a face that says "I am a stand-up comic", they evidently had no idea whose door they'd knocked on. “They said, ‘Can we talk to you about God?’ And I said, ‘Go on then.’ We stood on the doorstep for an hour talking and then they came in. I said, ‘Do you Read more ...
Veronica Lee
The presence of an ellipsis in the title of Sean Hughes’ new show, What I Meant to Say Was..., is a clue to how the evening proceeds. He comes on stage with no announcement, chats for 90 minutes about this and that, rambles a bit when he loses his thread and frequently goes off at a tangent when he interacts with the audience. He even tells us he always talks rubbish for the 15 minutes and the show proper will begin after then.On first sight then it looks unplanned and rather disordered, but Hughes is a sly old fox. Because behind his casual appearance and seemingly shambolic delivery is a Read more ...
Veronica Lee
It says much for Ed Byrne’s talents as a stand-up that he can make his show Different Class, which he first performed a year ago, feel fresh and current. But with topical gags aplenty - many of which must have been written just hours before he took the stage at the Vaudeville Theatre in London, where is doing a month-long residency - it feels bang up to the minute.The show is ostensibly about Byrne’s confusion about where he, an Irishman, fits into the British class system. It’s simpler in Ireland, he says, because you just ask if someone has a horse - you’re upper-class if you can afford Read more ...