fri 22/08/2025

Comedy reviews, news & interviews

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Tom Birchenough

We are bowled over! 

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Cat Cohen / Lachlan Werner / KC Shornima

Veronica Lee

Cat Cohen, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★★

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Emmanuel Sonubi...

Veronica Lee

Emmanuel Sonubi, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★This show – Life After Near Death – is not about dying, it is about living, Emmanuel Sonubi...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Eric Rushton /...

Veronica Lee

Eric Rushton, Monkey Barrel ★★★★ Everything about Eric Rushton is lo-fi. His delivery, his movement about the stage, his interactions with...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Lily Blumkin /...

Veronica Lee

Lily Blumkin, Gilded Balloon @ Patter House ★★★ Lily Blumkin has always planned to be a big-time comic, she tells us. So when her...

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Desiree Burch / Andy Parsons

Veronica Lee

The delights of perimenopause & pertinent political comedy

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Lily Phillips / Ayoade Bamgboye

Veronica Lee

Giving birth laid bare & a memorable debut

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Jacob Nussey / Phil Green

Veronica Lee

Working at the Amazon coalface; men’s midlife crises laid bare

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Rob Auton / Saaniya Abbas

Veronica Lee

A motivational speaker's tale; one woman’s vision of Hell

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor / Alex Berr

Veronica Lee

Tabloid excess in the 1980s; gallows humour in reflections on life and death

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Alison Spittle / Christopher Macarthur-Boyd

Veronica Lee

A weighty debate; and observations about this and that

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Rhys Darby / Alex Stringer

Veronica Lee

A fantastical journey into the age of AI, and one woman's search for sobriety

Eddie Pepitone, Special review - return of the curmudgeon

Veronica Lee

New Yorker finds much to rail against

Summer Laugh review - five comics gear up for the Fringe

Veronica Lee

Terrific initiative by Scottish stand-ups

Kieran Hodgson, Soho Theatre review - a love affair soured by Trump

Veronica Lee

Can America be great again for the comic?

Sarah Silverman, Netflix Special review - finding the funny in losing a parent

Veronica Lee

Affectionate memorial to her dad

Dara Ó Briain, Soho Theatre Walthamstow review - master storyteller spins a family yarn

Veronica Lee

Search for his birth father takes a few turns

Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic tricks and mayhem

Veronica Lee

Nick Mohammed gives his creation's origin story

Zoe Lyons, Touring - midlife, without the crisis

Veronica Lee

Warm and witty take on finding contentment

Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes

Veronica Lee

Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy

Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare

Veronica Lee

Observations on what it is to be a bloke today

Matt Forde, Touring review - politics, poo and Viagra

Veronica Lee

The personal and political collide

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Harry Hill, Wilton's Music Hall review - madcap comic on terrific form

Veronica Lee

Utterly daft mix of new material and favourite old characters

Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway?, Brighton Dome review - a melee of jubilant spontaneity

Thomas H Green

The ventriloquist-comedian's improvised hour-long outing is skilful and fabulously entertaining

Amy Gledhill, Soho Theatre review - delightfully bawdy take on serious subjects

Veronica Lee

Best show winner at the Edinburgh Fringe

Russell Howard Live at the Palladium review - feelgood philosophy with added smut

Veronica Lee

Special recording available to download

Ben Elton, Duke of York's Theatre review - big subjects, big laughs

Veronica Lee

Comic is as punchy as ever

Chris McCausland, Winchester Theatre Royal review - Strictly winner as cheerfully cynical as ever

Veronica Lee

Back to the day job telling gags

Footnote: a brief history of British comedy

British comedy has a honourable history, dating back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, through Shakespeare’s and Restoration plays to Victorian and Edwardian music hall and its offspring variety, and on to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, working-men’s clubs, 1980s alternative comedy, and today's hugely popular stand-up acts in stadiums seating up to 20,000 people.

In broadcast media, the immediate decades after the Second World War marked radio’s golden age for comedy, with shows such as ITMA, The Goons, Round the Horne and Beyond Our Ken. Many radio comedy shows transferred to even greater acclaim on television - such as Hancock’s Half Hour, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Day Today, Red Dwarf, The League of Gentlemen, Goodness Gracious Me and Little Britain.

In television, the 1970s and 1980s were the great age of British sitcom, when shows such as Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, Rising Damp, Dad’s Army, Porridge, Yes, Minister, Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers and Blackadder. They were marked by great writing, acting and directing, although the time should also be noted for great British dross such as On the Buses and Love Thy Neighbour.

By the 1990s, British sitcom had developed into intelligent über-comedy, with shows such as Absolutely Fabulous and The Office making dark or off-kilter (although some would say bad taste) shows such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Peep Show, Green Wing and The Inbetweeners possible. In film, British comedy has had three great ages - silent movies (Charlie Chaplin being their star), Ealing comedies (Passport to Pimlico perhaps the best ever) and Carry On films. The first are in a long tradition of daft physical humour, the second mark the dry sophistication of much British humour, and the last the bawdiness that goes back to Chaucer.

The 2000s marked the resurgence of live comedy, with acts (including Jimmy Carr, Peter Kay and Russell Howard) honing their talents at successive Edinburgh Fringes and their resulting TV, stadium tour and DVD sales making millionaires of dozens of UK comics. Comedians cross readily from TV to stand-up to film to West End comedy theatre. The British comedy industry is now a huge and growing commercial business, with star comics such as Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre grossing tens of millions of pounds from arena tours, and attendances of up to 20,000 at venues across the UK.

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