Shepherd'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 10:15AMAlban Arena, St AlbansWe came for jokes; he's giving us a sermon. The opening moments of Dylan Moran's new set are tantalising, as the Irish comic swaps levity for sonorous pronouncements on…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:57PMShaftesbury, London"One of you will find yourself possessed by an entity." It can only be Derren Brown, tickling our taste for the melodramatic and supernatural. It works a treat during…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:47PMCritics praised James Corden's performance in One Man, Two Guvnors, but few recognised that its funniest moments were someone else's responsibility entirely ...Reviewing the National Theatre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:13AMO2 Arena, LondonTo start his show, Peter Kay turns a camera on his audience, gifting one or two their moment on the giant upstage screen. At the end, he karaokes Queen and the Proclaimers to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:29PMThey're a passionate pair with a fetish for West End playhouses – and they're putting actors off their lines. But who are they?When the Telegraph's Charles Spencer reviewed Nicole Kidman i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMOpen Air, LondonThere are few stages more apt to evoke a desert island than the Open Air Theatre's. This Regent Park venue's oasis-like qualities scarcely need embellishment to double a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:25PMShould a local hit be shown more widely? Promoter Tommy Sheppard says yes – and accuses the Beeb of Oxbridge biasIs the best comedy necessarily the most universal? Hackles have been rising…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:20AMRoyal Festival Hall, LondonWhen photographs of David Cameron's new kitchen were publicised last week, the eagle-eyed identified a Michael McIntyre DVD on the PM's shelves. But standup comedy…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:59AMIt's got dodgy accents, dance routines and Fabio Capello: the creators of Total Football, a new show about football tribes, talk to Brian LoganIt's FA Cup final day in Bar Kick in east Londo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:44PMBarbican, LondonGovernment attempts to engineer national identity are the target of this sideways satire by the theatre duo Ridiculusmus, in which bureaucrats fail to organise Team GB's…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:18PMPeople rate a joke higher when a comedian's name is attached – which proves just how susceptible we are to cults of funninessHave you ever been to see a well-known standup and noticed the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:45AMCharing Cross theatre, LondonThe Leopold and Loeb case has been well represented on stage and screen, notably in Hitchcock's Rope. Stephen Dolginoff's 2005 musical zeroes in on the relations…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:13PMNot so long ago, this British-Muslim phenomenon was a games tester without a 'single positive aspect' to his life. A trip to see much-mocked self-help guru Tony Robbins changed all thatSo fa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:15PMJacksons Lane, LondonGeneration X Factor has found its perfect comedy duo in Frisky and Mannish, a karaoke-cabaret act who belt out medleys of pop hits. The joke is that F&M are "pop educato…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:26PMIf the comedian wants his personal archive to get children hooked on standup, he should try picking some funnier clipsParents! Has your 10-year-old been acting unusually recently? Using his …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:14AMCorn Exchange, CambridgeDividing 19 years of marriage by $20m alimony, John Cleese's former wife made $3,650 each day she spent as Mrs C. The divorce has driven Cleese to undertake his first…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32PMI cower at the mere sight of fake guns in the theatre. Why must plays be peppered with this weapon of mass distraction?"Warning: shots will be fired during tonight's performance." Oh no. Mus…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:51AMThese men are aiming to resurrect the sketch show – with a time-travelling dinosaur and a wise old owlAt a time when comedy is booming and rookie standups are getting TV breaks faster…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMUdderbelly, London"Loud beatboxing and polite conversation" is how Simon "Shlomo" Kahn describes his show Mouthtronica. A one-man band without instruments, this vocal percussionist collabora…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:37PMStandup's growing popularity has seen it emerge from pubs and clubs to grander venues from the Nottingham Arena to the Albert Hall. Now the comedy must develop to fit themYou know all those …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:17AMDes Bishop turned his father's death into an extraordinary standup show. Does he regret it?At last year's Edinburgh fringe, at the end of comedian Des Bishop's extraordinary show about his f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMDes Bishop turned his father's death into an extraordinary standup show. Does he regret it? Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMI've just read Me Cheeta by James Lever, and it's made me think: why can't standup comedy be performed by monkeys? The weaknesses, but mainly strengths, of this novel are not irrelevant to t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:30PMDavid Cameron is wrong to say socialists are humourless. In fact, there is a fine tradition of leftwing wagsYou might think a sense of humour was the first attribute required to be leftwing …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00PMReading Concert HallMilton Jones opens his new show, The Lion Whisperer, in character as his own doddering grandfather. But Jones Senior draws from the same pool of loopy one-liners wit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:09PMRoyal Albert Hall, LondonJohn Bishop's last series of live dates "was less of a tour," he tells us, "and more of me just having a little drive around." But yesterday's nobody is today's BBC1…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMArcola, LondonThe crew of the lakeboat T Harrison "say fuck in direct proportion to how bored they are", one of them tells the ship's cook, Dale. Conclusion: shipping on the Great Lakes is v…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:05PMCan experimental theatre tackle the big issues? Brian Logan meets the companies breeding a new strain of political dramaIn a rehearsal room in east London, five actors are impersonating the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMCottesloe, LondonHere's a novel idea for David Cameron's big society: nothing forges community spirit quite like a serial killer in one's midst.Verbatim dramatist Alecky Blythe has previous …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:22PMUp the Creek, GreenwichIt's late and the audience at Up the Creek has watched two hours plus of comedy before Dwight Slade comes to the stage. And yet, after 30 seconds of Slade, everyone fe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:35AM
