Friday, October 14, 2022
Fierce 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 10:49AMThursday, October 13, 2022
Hackney 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 05:13PMTuesday, October 11, 2022
The 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 12:33PMFriday, October 7, 2022
Leicester 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 12:55PMWednesday, October 5, 2022
Wembley 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 08:33AMTuesday, October 4, 2022
NetflixThe 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 09:43AMMonday, October 3, 2022
Soho 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 08:19AMThursday, September 29, 2022
Old 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 10:55AMWednesday, September 28, 2022
Leicester 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 01:07PMThursday, September 22, 2022
Soho 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 11:25AMWednesday, September 21, 2022
In 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 02:33AMSunday, September 18, 2022
New 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 12:07PMMonday, September 5, 2022
Shows 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 10:55AMSunday, September 4, 2022
Assembly 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 09:03AMFriday, September 2, 2022
M&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 07:55AMThursday, September 1, 2022
Monkey 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 10:03AMWednesday, August 31, 2022
Pleasance, 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 07:49AMTuesday, August 30, 2022
Assembly 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 12:03AMMonday, August 29, 2022
I’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 09:55AMSunday, August 28, 2022
Underbelly 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 08:37AMFriday, August 26, 2022
Monkey 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 08:24AMThursday, August 25, 2022
Monkey 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 11:42AMWednesday, August 24, 2022
From Liz Kingsman’s ‘messy woman’ send-up to Seann Walsh’s memories of his off-screen Strictly kiss, the nine-strong shortlist is a triumph for diversity though not without glaring o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:03PMSamira Wiley makes her UK stage debut, there’s an urgent counter to antisemitism, plus a fourth King James, refugee dancers and comedic returns Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:33AMMonday, August 22, 2022
They are the shock troops of comedy, pranksters who risk arrest and worse to ridicule the powerful. As two acclaimed practitioners – including the man who threw Nazi golfballs at Trump –…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:48PMSunday, August 21, 2022
Underbelly, EdinburghOutlandish physical antics and a spontaneous stage presence keep Wardeh’s audience laughing as he clowns through a cast of oddball characters
Clown is in vogue again, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:49PMPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghHoult hangs up the dress and luvvie cadences of his fringe-staple alter ego Anna Mann in a camp, silly yet surprisingly emotional show
When a character comic bi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48PM 
