Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Brian Logan explores different types of improvisation on the Edinburgh fringe, and takes a Chaucerian workshop with the 'hard bardic' group The School of NightHe meets the Phill Jupitus Quar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:31AMTuesday, August 16, 2011
Pleasance CourtyardAs if the double-act relationship weren't complicated enough, along comes Toby – real-life sisters Sarah and Lizzie Daykin – with their show Lucky to add a delicious n…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:15PMGilded Balloon, EdinburghYou can't say Australian duo Aamer Rahman and Nazeem Hussain aren't up to the minute. Their show, Fear of a Brown Planet, starts with weeks-old news footage in which…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:14PMThis trio of Footlights graduates have the personality, sketches and style to prosper, once they stop following the herd …The shtick: Three erudite young chaps do sketches, and then do the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:26AMMonday, August 15, 2011
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghRussell Kane thinks he has a problem. In the shows that marked Kane's ascent to the higher rungs of standup, his tyrannical dad loomed large. Now he's …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMPleasance 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 10:14AMSunday, August 14, 2011
Pleasance 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 01:30PMFriday, August 12, 2011
Pleasance 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 11:00AMThursday, August 11, 2011
Comedian 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 12:55PMWednesday, August 10, 2011
Australian 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 12:53PMTuesday, August 9, 2011
Pleasance 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 07:44AMMonday, August 8, 2011
A 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 01:30PMSunday, August 7, 2011
'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 12:40PMThursday, August 4, 2011
National, 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 05:30PMWednesday, August 3, 2011
Soho 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 01:24PMTuesday, July 19, 2011
Conway 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 02:00PMMonday, July 18, 2011
A 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 09:38AMMonday, July 4, 2011
Soho 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 01:00PMTuesday, June 28, 2011
Palace 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 01:00PMPalace theatre, Southend Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMMonday, June 27, 2011
Soho 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 01:30PMSunday, June 26, 2011
Soho 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 12:45PM 
