standup comedy
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Stevie Martin / Colin HoultTuesday, 13 August 2024Stevie Martin, Monkey Barrel ★★★ Stevie Martin is part of the generation of comics for whom the internet is a natural home; she has racked up tens of millions of views for her work online, where she had to strut her stuff when the world... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Chris Grace / Ania Magliano / Elvis McGonagallSaturday, 10 August 2024Chris Grace, Assembly George Square ★★★★ How do you produce laughs out of grief and loss? Well Chris Grace does, and then some, in Sardines (A Comedy About Death). The American actor, well known to Fringe regulars as a member of improv... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Emma Sidi Is Sue Gray / Sam LakeThursday, 08 August 2024Emma Sidi Is Sue Gray Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★I have no idea what Sue Gray - the former senior civil servant who is now The Prime Minister’s right-hand woman - sounds like, but I’m guessing not someone who has stepped straight out of The Only... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Eric Rushton / Mark ThomasWednesday, 07 August 2024Eric Rushton, Monkey Barrel @ The Hive ★★★★ Eric Rushton tells us he has enough cash on him to return the price of one person’s ticket if they don’t like what’s about to follow. No one takes up the offer, although I suspect a few in the... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Anna Akana / Elliot Steel / Rosco McClellandTuesday, 06 August 2024Anna Akana, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★ If you like morbid humour, you’ve come to the right place. Asian American comic Anna Akana, a YouTube star making her Fringe debut, dives in at the deep end with It Gets Darker, which deals with, inter alia, her... Read more... |
Rahul Subramanian, Soho Theatre review - rush-hour traffic and upsetting DJsTuesday, 30 July 2024Rahul Subramanian is a well-established comic in his native Mumbai, as evidenced by the appreciative audience of Indian expats gathered at Soho Theatre. His sellout dates in London acted as previews to his debut run at the Edinburgh Fringe, which... Read more... |
Hannah Berner, Netflix Special - sex, politics and relationshipsWednesday, 17 July 2024Hannah Berner isn't a big name in stand-up (yet), but she's well known enough in the United States to have come to Netflix's attention. Her fame comes from TikTok and Instagram (where she has three million followers), her podcasts and formerly being... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana FeetTuesday, 21 May 2024The most striking thing about the 1976 documentary (restored and re-released by the BFI) is just how polite Billy Connolly comes across as. Not that he's impolite now, but the raucous stage presence and vibrant chatshow interviewee was yet to fully... Read more... |
Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on great formMonday, 20 May 2024Clinton Baptiste – clairvoyant, medium and psychic – first appeared briefly as a character in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights on Channel 4. Alex Lowe has since developed him through Clinton Baptiste’s Paranormal Podcast and his live shows, and now he's... Read more... |
Rhod Gilbert, G-Live Guildford review - cancer, constipation and celebrity treatmentMonday, 13 May 2024Rhod Gilbert is disarmingly honest about his thought process when he received his diagnosis of head and neck cancer in 2022. Following quickly from his fears about his possible imminent death, another thought flashed through his mind: “I can get a... Read more... |
Fern Brady, Netflix Special review - sex, relationships and deathMonday, 29 April 2024An appearance on Taskmaster and the publication of her acclaimed memoir Strong Female Character have helped propel Fern Brady into the comedy big time – and now comes the accolade of her first Netflix special, Autistic Bikini Queen, which was... Read more... |
Pierre Novellie, Soho Theatre review - turning a heckle into a showTuesday, 02 April 2024Pierre Novellie opens his show by telling how his latest show, Why Are You Laughing?, came into being. It started, he says, when he was heckled at a previous show by someone shouting out: “I have Asperger's and I think you have it too.” It's an... Read more... |