Comedy Reviews
Frank Skinner, Leicester Square Theatre - mixing some acid with the charmMonday, 17 June 2019
Frank Skinner walks onstage without introduction and a man in the audience gives him a friendly heckle by way of greeting. Skinner is straight on it, engaging him in a brief conversation; his responses are amiable enough but have a few barbs too. Read more... |
Emily Atack, Clapham Grand review - I'm a Celebrity... star's first solo showFriday, 24 May 2019
Most people know Emily Atack from The Inbetweeners, where she played Charlotte, the object of Will's desire. More recently, she found new fans as the runner-up on 2018's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Now she is performing in her first solo comedy show, Talk Thirty to Me. Read more... |
Al Murray as the Pub Landlord, Embassy Theatre Skegness review - comic pulls his punchesMonday, 20 May 2019
Al Murray's Pub Landlord character has been around since the mid-1990s. As such, it's a wonder that Murray has managed to reinvent the embittered, xenophobic loudmouth so many times, but he has – and the EU referendum in 2016 should have, you may have thought, given the character new life or killed him off altogether. Read more... |
Ruby Wax, Brighton Festival 2019 review - how to be humanSunday, 19 May 2019
Once the self proclaimed poster girl for mental illness, Ruby Wax has evolved her stand up act, because, as she puts it, “everyone has mental illness now. It spread like wildfire.” Read more... |
Andy Hamilton, Brighton Festival 2019 review - gently amusing night of reminiscenceTuesday, 14 May 2019
Taking place at the Theatre Royal, Andy Hamilton’s show is entitled An Evening with… rather than a straight stand-up and mainly consists of the comedy writer/performer and gameshow regular answering audience questions. During the first half this is done via raising a hand and shouting out questions; during the second half by leaving pieces of paper on the stage front during the interval. Read more... |
Seann Walsh, Broadway, Letchworth Garden City review - Strictly's bad boy tells his storyFriday, 10 May 2019
Let's start with that kiss – the one that propelled Seann Walsh from “Who?” in last year's Strictly Come Dancing line-up to being the “bad boy” of the series after pictures of his drunken late-night clinch with Katya Jones, his married professional dance partner, appeared in the tabloids. Read more... |
Reginald D Hunter, Princes Hall Aldershot review - underpowered but the laughs come throughMonday, 06 May 2019
Reginald D Hunter drops the n-bomb near the top of the show. He means no offence, he tells the audience, but it's the vernacular where he comes from in Georgia. Read more... |
Krater Comedy Club, Brighton Komedia 25th Birthday review - a south coast institution celebratesSaturday, 04 May 2019
The Komedia is a Brighton Institution and celebrates its birthday tonight in a suitably raucous fashion. The Komedia began in 1994, founded by the directors of the Umbrella Theatre Company, and styled on the cabaret spaces they’d experienced touring Europe. Read more... |
Mark Thomas, BAC review - impassioned polemic about the NHSThursday, 25 April 2019
Mark Thomas issues a health warning for Check-Up: Our NHS at 70 at Battersea Arts Centre – “This show contains swearing, a video of an operation on a stomach and a description of being in A&E when a patient dies.” Indeed it does, but it also contains a heartfelt love letter to the health service Thomas was born in and, as a lifelong socialist, hopes to die in. Read more... |
Britney, Soho Theatre review - finding the funny in a brain tumourMonday, 22 April 2019
A brain tumour isn't usually the subject of a comedy show but Britney, written and performed by comedy duo Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson, is just that. It's “the true story of what happens to two best friends when one of them [Clive] gets a brain tumour” – the size of a golf ball, her father helpfully pointed out. Read more... |
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