Comedy
Edinburgh Fringe: Mies Julie/Loretta Maine/Foil, Arms and HogThursday, 16 August 2012
Mies Julie, Assembly Hall **** Miss Julie is pretty full-on at the best of times but in Yael Farber’s striking new version, Strindberg’s themes of class and gender are given a shocking modern makeover. In transposing the action to present-day... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Rosie WilbySunday, 12 August 2012
Rosie Wilby: How (Not) to Make it in Britpop, Bongo Club *** In the 1990s Rosie Wilby was lurking on the outer edges of Britpop with her band Wilby, whose giddy career highlights included opening for Tony Hadley (he evacuated the entire room... Read more... |
Thinking of Something Funny: Eric Sykes, 1923-2012Wednesday, 04 July 2012
“One never consciously observes. The only people who consciously observe are policemen and undercover agents.” Eric Sykes, who has died at the age of 89, was the last of the great vaudevilleans. When I met him in the late 1990s, he was already... Read more... |
The Arts Desk wins Best Specialist Journalism Site of 2012Monday, 25 June 2012
The Arts Desk has been voted Specialist Journalism Site of 2012 at the Online Media Awards. In a celebratory dinner at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium recognising "the best and boldest of online news-based creativity and also the most original", The... Read more... |
Mrs Brown Rides Again, Hammersmith ApolloFriday, 15 June 2012
There's a great PhD to be written about why comics are so keen to dress as old biddies, from Arthur Lucan and Benny Hill to Dick Emery and Les Dawson, by way of any number of panto dames to the most noble of them all, Dame Edna Everage. To this... Read more... |
The Glastonbury of the Mind: Hay turns 25Thursday, 31 May 2012
Apart from “I did not have sex with that woman” and maybe “It’s the economy, stupid”, Bill Clinton seems never to have said anything quite as memorable. Indeed, of all the phrases with his name attached, none is quoted quite so tremulously as... Read more... |
Dara O Briain, Edinburgh PlayhouseSunday, 27 May 2012Read more... |
Comedian does gig in support of ... writersFriday, 25 May 2012Comedians like other figures in the arts are used to being asked to support worthy causes. It’s not often those worthy causes are in the arts themselves.That has not stopped Simon Amstell, the former presenter Never Mind the Buzzcocks and author of... Read more... |
Dara O Briain, The Playhouse, EdinburghFriday, 25 May 2012
The fact that the latest in a long line of Dara O Briain DVDs is already on sale on Amazon is pretty impressive considering that he hasn’t recorded it yet. I know this because the second show of his four-night run at the Playhouse happened to be the... Read more... |
Tom Allen's Society, Udderbelly Festival LondonTuesday, 22 May 2012
The purple cow has taken up its summer residency on the South Bank in London before making the journey to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. As ever, the line-up of performers is extensive: last night comic Tom Allen performed his chat show with the... Read more... |
Stewart Francis, TouringSaturday, 05 May 2012
Before he started making regular appearances on BBC Two's Mock the Week, Stewart Francis was an accomplished comic of some years' standing on the circuit - and that experience shows in his extensive UK tour, Outstanding in His Field, where he proves... Read more... |
Paul Merton, TouringWednesday, 02 May 2012
Paul Merton is a very funny man, as anybody who watches Have I Got New For You will know. But fans of that programme will find his latest live show, billed as his return to stand-up, which he started doing 30 years ago, a very different experience.... Read more... |
