Pleasance CourtyardImran Yusuf arrived under the radar on last year's fringe, performing a free show in preparation for a crack at the big time in 2011. But the big time wouldn't wait: Yusuf…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:14AMPleasance DomeI never expected Tim Key to remind me of La Clique. That circus show's signature image was ropes act David O'Mer swooping sexily in and out of a bath, spurting water over the c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghSome comics have to go out and find the funny; Hannibal Buress lets the comedy come to him. You won't find a more laidback act than this 28-year-old standup, kn…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghLate Night Gimp Fight promise "comedy that will leave you feeling violated" – and at last year's fringe, some found their gross-out sketches in poor taste. I …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMThis Canadian comic charms the audience with her cheerful and smart standup, a ukulele and extra 'bonus' materialThe shtick: Nerdy but perky Canadian comic DeAnne Smith talks lesbianism and …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:00AMComedian Alexei Sayle got heckled by his 90-year-old mother, who calls his memoirs 'a pack of lies', so it's no mystery where he gets his tireless revolutionary fury fromAlexei Say…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00PMGilded Balloon, EdinburghIt has been almost 20 years since Harry Hill won the Perrier comedy award, but his spirit is stalking this year's fringe in a hilariously batty new show by Sam Simmo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMAustralian comedians Aamer Rahman and Nazeem Hussain are finding Scotland a tough place to do RamadanAccording to their publicity, Aamer Rahman and Nazeem Hussain are fasting throughout the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:30PMUnderbelly, EdinburghThere's no Doctor Brown onstage for the first 10 minutes of his new show Becaves – and when he does make his presence felt, it's thrashing invisibly behind the curtain…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:15PMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghSmoke billows from the theatre door. Heavy-metal music blares. A figure lumbers through the darkness, his name picked out in fairylights on his chest: Helm. Dar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:53PMPleasance DomeThe election of the Tory-led coalition "has made me a much worse comedian", says Josie Long. She used to write about the human condition; now she's so angry, she can only talk …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMBenny Boot, aka President Walter Montgomery, cheerfully shares the secrets of comedy. Good cheer/beer an essential ingredientThe shtick: Gigglesome Aussie comic and his "President of Standup…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:43AMThe Stand Comedy Club, EdinburghIt's been 10 years since Phill Jupitus performed standup, and there are moments in his new fringe show when you worry for his match fitness. Cliches muster, t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:44AMA raft of sketch-show comedians in Edinburgh are going it alone as standups this year. But are they in for a rude awakening? Brian Logan finds out if they've got what it takesWe never got to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30PMAssembly George SquareFrom innocence to experience, the cast of last year's series of the US reality show Dancing with the Stars ran the full gamut. In one corner, sexual abstinence campaign…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PM'Most people conclude it's Looney Tunes time when Ed's around," says Edward Aczel halfway through his show. Spoken by any other comic, that would sound entirely credible. But spoken by Aczel…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:01PMAssembly George SquareFor Dave Gorman to call his new show PowerPoint Presentation is not remotely to distinguish it from the crowd. These days, fringe comedians feel naked without a screen …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:40PMNational, LondonTwo actors on stage reading from a script usually means a rehearsal, not opening night. But this is Sam Holcroft's Edgar and Annabel: not just a drama of political resistance…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:30PMSoho theatre, LondonWhen Lawrence Leung was growing up in 1980s Australia, the futurology TV show Beyond 2000 foretold a world of robot servants, replaceable body parts – and jetpacks. Now…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:24PMConway Hall, London"Some of us will die." Earthalujah! "But we will have freedom again." Not many comedy shows ask us to sacrifice ourselves to save the planet. Then again, it's not clear wh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMA contest between 10 jobbing standups is more MasterChef than The X Factor bringing as much awkwardness as laughterIt was only a matter of time before standup got its own The X Factor. So we…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:38AMSoho Theatre, LondonIn interviews to promote this show, transgender diva Justin Vivian Bond – formerly of cabaret double act Kiki and Herb – has insisted he/she be referred to using the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMPalace theatre, SouthendThere's not much in my career I'm proud of, says Dom Joly – and this, his first live show, is unlikely to extend that short list. It's not standup, just chat, in wh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMSoho theatre, LondonOne of the stars of the Pajama Men's new show is the South American Give-it-to-me bird, whose call is halfway between a squawk and the erotic moan of a particularly hammy…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMSoho theatre, London Gluttony is hilarious, right? If you agree, Jeff Garlin's standup is for you. If not, the Curb Your Enthusiasm star – he plays Larry David's "fat fuck" manager Jeff Gr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:45PMShakespeare's Globe, LondonIt's not often that, on a balmy summer's evening, one finds oneself willing night to fall. But this Doctor Faustus needs a helping hand with sepulchral atmosphere.…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:39PMGate, LondonFreud isn't so fashionable these days, but you can see what once made his ideas compelling. Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story (which Kubrick filmed as Eyes Wide Shut) is Freud's th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:30PMThe Playboy founder's former fiancee was recorded for Funny or Die sending up her unusual romance. Is this the end of satire?Is this the oddest use to which comedy has been put? When 25-year…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:18AMTheatre Royal Stratford East, LondonSet in and around a Chinese takeaway, Robert Lee and Leon Ko's musical - the first, it's claimed, to represent the British East Asian experience - is a ch…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:43AMShepherd's Bush Empire, LondonThere is a moment in Bo Burnham's show when, crossing the stage from guitar stand to keyboard, he breaks into a dementedly silly walk. "Never waste a moment," h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:15AM
