Friday, August 14, 2015
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThere’s no one better at constructing a show than Acaster – and half the fun is how emphatically he addresses vanishingly small subjectsSerial award-nominee…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:20AMSneaky Pete’s, EdinburghThe audience are treated for head lice and a grandad plays chicken with his life-support machine in a show that explores a whole spectrum of strangeEcole Philippe G…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:09AMThursday, August 13, 2015
The festival’s comedians were historically young, gifted and white. Now, shows by black and minority ethnic acts are popular, diverse and nothing to do with skin colour“Diversity in the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMGilded Balloon, EdinburghBea is an energetic storyteller with charm to spare but she’s going through the motions a bit with these observations about shame and confidenceMost comics perform…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:58AMThe Stand, EdinburghRyan excels at the barbed comedy of supercilious abuse in a disjointed set that riffs on the Taylor Swift/Nicki Minaj row and has a standout section on Bill CosbyReported…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:25AMWednesday, August 12, 2015
Wherever you look at the festival, comedians are unselfconsciously rocking the mic. Critic Brian Logan joins the party …Cue hip-hop beat. Middle-aged, middle-class, white comedy critic try…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:37PMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghPart musical comedy, part doomed romance and part Desert Island Discs, this is an eccentric, subversive work about the soundtrack to a life Joseph Morpurgo migh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:09AMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghKumar directs his intelligence and moral fury toward race, privatisation and oppressed capitalists – and comes out triumphantAnother day, another article in a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:00AMTuesday, August 11, 2015
Standups relish language and forms of communication, so it’s no wonder emojis are a feature of so many shows this year. But how much can you really say with yellow symbols?The Edinburgh fr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:01PMThe Stand, EdinburghThe fringe superstar returns with a mostly uproarious, sometimes sobering set in response to social injustices of every hueIs it a show? Is it a book launch? Fringe super…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:30AMThe Tron, EdinburghThe anarchic member of sketch trio Pappy’s lets loose in an irrepressible and mischievous – but non-trivial – celebration of fancy dress and funFans of the sketch tr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AMMonday, August 10, 2015
Underbelly Cowgate, EdinburghThe comedian is impressive as her sexist alter ego Dave, but the brand of chauvinist comedy depicted makes for a fairly soft target“I mostly hang out with come…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:44PMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe standup’s festival return sees him get serious about the state of racial politics, while retaining his keen sense of sillyEnjoyable though it was, there w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:34AMSunday, August 9, 2015
Pleasance DomeThough sadly not living up to the promise of their 2014 fringe debut, this comedy trio are still an impressive and endearing actThe month of previews, the week to break in your…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:31AMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe comedy threesome play off their incongruous personae to create an odd, slippery and exhilarating show of extreme slapstick and fresh, uneasy jokes Recently …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMSaturday, August 8, 2015
Gilded Balloon, EdinburghTruscott has some funny, transgressive material but technical glitches and a lack of polish undermines the flow of this performanceNot many acts enter fringe legend …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:47AMLaughing Horse @ The Free SistersWilliams tiptoes around outright bleakness as he adds relationship angst to his ideological distress in another exciting Edinburgh showLast year’s show was…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:52AMThursday, July 30, 2015
There are spirited and charismatic performances in the Muju Crew’s cross-cultural sketch show – as well as the occasional lapse into bad tasteRamadan as a fitness programme (“I lost 30…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:07AMSaturday, July 18, 2015
Huge crowds for sets by Tim Key, Dylan Moran and others show how popular comedy is at music festivals; no wonder standup was spilling out all over the site this yearAs a symbol of how comedy…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:21PMFriday, July 17, 2015
Comedy is growing out of pubs and arenas, and making inroads into respected arts festivals – but could it lose its edge as a result?Interesting times for comedy fans: we’re watching an a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:52AMWednesday, July 15, 2015
Just the Tonic at the CavesThe term character comedy doesn't quite cover what San Francisco standup Will Franken does in an underground cave, late at night on the Fringe. Yes, he flits in an…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:55PMSaturday, July 11, 2015
Soho Theatre, London"Kamikaze cabaret", "post-postmodern performance", "opera brut". Read Meow Meow's publicity, and you expect something new and indefinable. W…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:25PMFriday, July 10, 2015
Pavilion theatre, ManchesterManic trio Sheeps redeem a Manchester festival comedy night whose amusement value even the performers seem uncertain about“Are you having a good night?” compe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:26AMLast year, Holly Walsh posed with an upside-down cigarette, this year Nish Kumar is going retro … what makes for a good comedy poster? And does a comic’s offering actually draw audiences…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:16AMThursday, July 9, 2015
Hammersmith Apollo, LondonChappelle kicks off with gleeful, scorching indelicacy, but his cock-of-the-walk comedy doesn’t always match his considerable charisma You’d think it was a rock…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:20AMWednesday, July 8, 2015
Rumour is rife that Monty Python's surviving members are to reform – but can they ever be as good as their heyday? Here are some favourite clips (and not a parrot among them) Continue …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:34AMMonday, July 6, 2015
The outspoken standup talks about teenage bad behaviour, panel shows and the ‘stubborn’ iPhone pest who inspired her Manchester international festival showThe seeds of Sara Pascoe’s Ma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:52AMFriday, July 3, 2015
Soho theatre, LondonThe character comic is charismatic and subtle, but his attempts to get the audience to deliver the laughs sometimes fall flatWant to be a duck? Want your face lathered in…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AMFriday, June 26, 2015
Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonComedy’s king of Twitter is flamboyantly smutty – not only for the fun of it, but as a way to test the boundaries of good tasteAs declarations of intent go, i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:41AMQueen Elizabeth Hall, LondonThe US standup and Catastrophe star is unsentimental and dissolute – not only for the fun of it, but as a way to test the boundaries of good tasteAs declaration…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMI’m expecting great or unusual things on the fringe from this selection of standups and sketch trios – who’s on your list?Anticipating the Edinburgh fringe is almost as much fun as bei…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:14AM 
