Comedy
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Eric Rushton / Mark ThomasWednesday, 07 August 2024
Eric 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 2024
Anna 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... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Jin Hao Li / Sian DaviesMonday, 05 August 2024
Jin Hao Li Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★Jin Hao Li was born in China, raised in Singapore and studied English at a Scottish university. So it’s perhaps not surprising that, in drawing on so many cultural sources, his brand of comedy should be so... Read more... |
Rahul Subramanian, Soho Theatre review - rush-hour traffic and upsetting DJsTuesday, 30 July 2024
Rahul 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 2024
Hannah 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... |
Jazz Emu, Soho Theatre review - delightfully daft musical spoofFriday, 14 June 2024
Jazz Emu bounds on to the stage, launching into a song that talks about the importance of team work and how he has no ego. But strangely enough, Knight Fever is all about him, a Jarvis Cocker-esque synthpop charmer.He tells us we are gathered not in... Read more... |
Rachel Parris, Leicester Square Theatre review - smart observations and satirical songsSaturday, 08 June 2024
Five years ago, Rachel Parris tells us, she never thought she would one day be married, a mother and a home owner. Now she's all three – and a stepmother as well – and this year is about to turn 40. It's quite a journey, which she talks about in her... Read more... |
Punt and Dennis, The Marlowe, Canterbury review - satire and sketchesSaturday, 25 May 2024
Ten years after their last tour Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are back on the road with We Are Not a Robot. It comes after their long-running The Now Show on Radio 4 has ended and, reassuringly for their fans, is more of the same affable humour, with... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana FeetTuesday, 21 May 2024
The 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 2024
Clinton 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... |
Jack Docherty, Soho Theatre review - warm and witty childhood memoirThursday, 16 May 2024
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 of Channel 4's sketch show Absolutely and more recently the Scottish comedy Scot Squad. And now he's on... Read more... |
Rhod Gilbert, G-Live Guildford review - cancer, constipation and celebrity treatmentMonday, 13 May 2024
Rhod 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... |
