Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Pleasance 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 12:45PMFriday, June 24, 2011
Shakespeare'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 01:39PMWednesday, June 22, 2011
Gate, 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 02:30PMMonday, June 20, 2011
The 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 09:43AMSunday, June 19, 2011
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 10:15AMWednesday, June 15, 2011
Alban 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 01:57PMTuesday, June 14, 2011
Shaftesbury, 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 01:47PMWednesday, June 8, 2011
Critics 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 05:13AMTuesday, June 7, 2011
O2 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 01:29PMThursday, June 2, 2011
They'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 11:03AMTuesday, May 31, 2011
Open 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 07:20AMMonday, May 30, 2011
Royal 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 11:59AMMonday, May 23, 2011
It'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 04:44PM 
