Comedy Reviews

Michael McIntyre, O2 Arena

Veronica Lee Thursday, 27 September 2012

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.

Comment

Stewart Lee presents John Cage's Indeterminacy, Cafe OTO

joe Muggs Wednesday, 26 September 2012

John Cage is funny: this much we know. The deadpan prankster at the heart of 20^th-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.

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

Veronica Lee Saturday, 25 August 2012

James Acaster: Prompt, Pleasance Courtyard ***

Edinburgh Fringe: Tony Law

Veronica Lee Friday, 24 August 2012

Tony Law: Maximum Noonsense, The Stand

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

Veronica Lee Wednesday, 22 August 2012

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

Edinburgh Fringe: I, Tommy/Josie Long/WitTank

Veronica Lee Tuesday, 21 August 2012

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.

Edinburgh Fringe: Tam o' Shanter/Trevor Noah/Bridget Christie

Veronica Lee Monday, 20 August 2012

Tam o' Shanter, Assembly Hall ****

Scottish schoolchildren are brought up on Robert Burns but other British students aren't so fortunate. We may know snatches of the great man's work – “Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie”, “O, my Luve's like a red, red rose” and so on – but few of us could recite even a stanza of Tam o' Shanter.

Edinburgh Fringe: Jigsy/Pappy's/Joe Lycett

Veronica Lee Sunday, 19 August 2012

Jigsy, Assembly Rooms ****

Les Dennis may have started his career as a comic, and then as a presenter of cheesy, family-friendly television game shows, but of late he has been plying his trade as a very decent actor. And so it proves again in Tony Staveacre's one-man play about a washed up Liverpudlian club comic.

Edinburgh Fringe: Magnus Betner

graeme Thomson Saturday, 18 August 2012

Magnus Betner, Assembly Rooms ****

Here is the news: dismemberment, suicide bombers, industrial-strength Japanese porn, paedophilia and the descent of Julian Assange from hero to zero. The son of a priest and a superstar in his homeland, Swedish comic Betner is drawn to the dark stuff (come to think of it, there’s not much of a leap between Betner and bête noire), and his show latched on to the mood of post-Olympics comedown and held fast.