Farnham Maltings, Surrey The Portsmouth native is good company, cheerfully goofing around for our entertainment, but the set feels one draft short of its full potential New baby. Spiking anx…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:07AMO2 Arena, London The controversial US podcaster finds fertile material challenging society’s sensitivities – yet while his standup takes pains to short-circuit offence, fear of emasculat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:07AMSoho theatre, LondonRubina Pabani and Poppy Jay hop between banter, song and comedy skits in a show with a solid emotional and political core You get a particular type of laughter, undergird…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:07AMWhen his show was pulled this summer over reports of nudity, sexism and racism, it caused a furore. In his first major interview since, the comedian explains why he will never tone down his …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33PMHammersmith Apollo, LondonFine crowd-work, choice joke-writing and a standout set-piece about the comedian’s Kafkaesque efforts to trace his birth parents We have Covid to thank for So Whe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03AMFierce festival, BirminghamThis immersive cabaret invites you into a world of ‘goblin core’, drag ogres and live art happenings Birmingham’s Fierce festival opened this week with a com…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:49AMHackney Empire, LondonThe crossword-setting comic has lost none of his zest as he noodles in the nooks and deep-dives into the details Struggling for comedy work under lockdown, Dave Gorman …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:13PMThe hotly tipped comic was the talk of Edinburgh with his blistering hour of hilariously hollow egomania – and audiences haven’t a clue whether to pity or deplore him UK standup has a ne…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33PMLeicester Square theatre, LondonThe American comedian goes straight for the jugular in a fearlessly off-colour and skilfully constructed show ‘Oh, your queen died,” says Michelle Wolf, f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMWembley Arena, LondonThe standup returns to the UK with a set on morality, sex and religion that often excels but also stalls with casual misanthropy The last time Louis CK performed major U…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AMNetflixThe campaigning US satirist covers politics, parenthood and ‘the jurisprudence of jokes’ in a brash set delivered with major brio You can’t accuse Hasan Minhaj of not packing en…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:43AMSoho theatre, London A brief but brazen set by the HBO series co-star shows a talent in full control of her own brand of scattershot comedy Emmy Award-nominated for playing a standup comedia…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:19AMOld Market, Brighton A thoroughly likable autobiographical show, comparing Suttie’s domestic midlife and her past daredevilry, hits the comic jackpot with its songs When Isy Suttie was a g…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:55AMLeicester Square theatre, LondonLess richly structured than his best work, this looser-limbed evening has given the comic wing-spreading room to experiment “Pure. Simple. Classic.” That�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:07PMSoho theatre, LondonThe standup was planning an altogether sillier show, but life got in the way, resulting in a set that spins grief and loss into an uproarious hour Before Covid, and in co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:25PMSoho theatre, LondonThe notorious comic and performance artist explores loneliness and the human/animal divide in an intricately assembled scrapbook show It’s taken Kim Noble seven years t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:25AMIn Lullaby for Scavengers, the no-holds-barred performance artist returns to outfox and outrage audiences. He talks about trying to snog his mother, bathing with maggots and being an ‘old …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:33AMNew theatre, OxfordFrench heaps detail upon self-abasing detail as she shares hugely engaging stories from her 40-year career It’s called semantic satiation, when you say a word so many ti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:07PMShows like Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg exist to make politicians seem upright and substantial. Lycett rightly pointed out that some of them are not “Memo: don’t put comedians on Ques…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:55AMAssembly George Square, EdinburghThe Australian physical comedian conjures up a career for himself as a professional spear-thrower in this wacky if uneven show There is a distinguished, if n…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMM&S Bank Arena, LiverpoolThey are arguably the two greatest US standups of their generation – and both topical for not always lovely reasons. Could this double-whammy possibly live up …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:55AMMonkey Barrel, EdinburghSince her last show, about weightlifting, the 39-year-old has split from her son’s father and moved in with a woman. Which adds up to hilarity for the audience if n…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:03AMPleasance, EdinburghMaddix is a fluent, playful comic, but the window opened here on his conflicted psyche feels unresolved – for him as much as his audience ‘I needed to say it more tha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:49AMAssembly George Square, EdinburghThere are few bells and whistles in Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher’s fringe debut, just two seasoned US comics in effortless harmony with each other Here�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:07PMThe baby-faced oddball has gone from performing to tiny audiences to winning live comedy’s most coveted prize, the Edinburgh festival fringe comedy award What does an Edinburgh comedy awar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:03AMI’ve spent my whole professional life loving and writing about the fringe. But rocketing rents, a lack of diversity and its overwhelming scale are pushing this world-class cultural crucibl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:55AMUnderbelly Bristo Square, Edinburgh The Dave’s Edinburgh comedy awards best newcomer nominee carries a confidence and warmth that is hard to resist In a lesser controversy at this year’s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:37AMMonkey Barrel Comedy, EdinburghThe standup puts her working-class status front and centre in this compelling and cathartic journey through her Covid years Lauren Pattison had two ambitions f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12PMMonkey Barrel Comedy, EdinburghPugh shambles his diffident way into the spotlight with a stealthy, clever and heartwarming show Incompetent, negative, a follower not a leader: Josh Pugh is h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AMMonkey Barrel, EdinburghThe Australian comic takes incongruity to uncommon lengths – and this year he’s recalibrated his show towards warmth “My mind is a prison full of crazy ideas. A…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:43AMMonkey Barrel Comedy, EdinburghDean’s great skill is to make the audience feel like intimate confidantes, but sometimes his impatience to get to the next laugh weakens the shtick It’s a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:42AM
