Comedy Reviews
Loyiso Gola, Netflix review - South African muses on race, religion and friendshipWednesday, 07 April 2021
Loyiso Gola, twice nominated for Emmy awards for his satire show Late Nite News, has been a big star in South Africa for some years now but this show should help cement his reputation abroad. Read more... |
Working From Home online review - Johnny Vegas and Jason Byrne in a strong line-upWednesday, 31 March 2021
Comedy promoters Just the Tonic have been keeping occupied during various lockdowns, and are continuing with livestreamed shows until comics can perform live in clubs and theatres again. Read more... |
Comedy podcasts round-up 4: plus a vodcast and some retro audioMonday, 22 March 2021
Fawlty Towers: For the Record Read more... |
Chinese Arts Now Festival review - comedy of the diasporaSaturday, 13 March 2021
Chinese Arts Now was founded in 2005 and aims to produce and present work that explores Chinese themes, stories and art forms in the UK. Its annual festival includes a comedy night (presented in conjunction with Soho Theatre), and this year three comics of Chinese heritage – Evelyn Mok, Ken Cheng and Phil Wang – performed. Read more... |
Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke's Tuesday Night Club review - daft and good-heartedWednesday, 24 February 2021
Lockdown has been mostly pants for live performers, comics included. There was that brief foray into open-air performances last summer, made even more fun by some lovely weather (although not always) – and I sincerely hope that promoters and comics will venture outdoors again this spring and summer. Read more... |
First Night Funnies, Leicester Comedy Festival review - uneven start to 2021's online gatheringMonday, 08 February 2021
The Leicester Comedy Festival, always great fun, was one of the last to be able to run fully in 2020, but this year it's not so lucky. Instead of several hundred events in and around Leicester, the 2021 iteration is an online-only version with many fewer shows of Zoom gigs and interviews. Read more... |
Comedy podcasts round-up 3: from home and abroadWednesday, 03 February 2021
There's something in the water, as no fewer than three comics are launching podcasts related to the one thing we can't do at the moment – travel. They're having a laugh, aren't they? Other offerings include escapist fun with superheroes, music collections and a spoof true-crime series. Available on all podcast platforms unless stated
Alan Carr's Life's a Beach Read more... |
Back, Channel 4 review - return of sibling-rivalry comedy with Mitchell and WebbFriday, 22 January 2021
It has taken three years for the second series of Back to reach our screens (a combination of the creator being busy, a star being unwell and Covid), but it was worth the wait. To recap for those who didn't see the first series of Simon Blackwell's very dark comedy (now on All4), it concerns Andrew (Robert Webb), who suddenly came back into the life of Stephen (David Mitchell), who is, he says, his long-l Read more... |
Comedy podcasts round-up 2: from home and abroadWednesday, 06 January 2021
We're still some way off being able to see live performances in actual clubs and theatres, but here are some more comedy podcasts to keep your laughter quotient healthy in the meanwhile. Available on all podcast platforms unless stated.
Office Ladies Read more... |
Best of 2020: ComedyWednesday, 30 December 2020
What a year that was. Live performance was stopped dead in its tracks for most of 2020, and comedy – as viscerally live as you can get in dark and sweaty enclosed spaces above pubs or in club basements – was particularly hard hit. Never again, I suspect, will comedy fans complain about the privations of broom-cupboard venues at the Edinburgh Fringe. Read more... |
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Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty, BBC Two review - wh...
As Line of Duty aficionados debate the identity of H and wonder who DCI Joanne Davidson shares her DNA with, this new three-part series...
The Master Musicians of Joujouka - a 4000 year-old rock...
The Master Musicians of Joujouka, described by William Burroughs as a “4000 year-old rock’n’roll band”, and recorded by Brian Jones of the Rolling...
DVD/Blu-ray: Catch Us If You Can
Catch Us If You Can, the 1965 road movie starring Barbara Ferris and the eponymous drummer and guiding force of the Dave Clark Five,...
Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott: Failures of State re...
Almost a year ago, in the midst of the first national lockdown, The Sunday Times broke the news that Boris Johnson had failed to attend...
Too Close, ITV review - capable cast struggles with unreward...
What may have happened here is that an intriguing book has been turned into a not so great TV series. Too Close was Natalie Daniels’s...
Benjamin Grosvenor, Barbican online review - black magic and...
I can’t deny that it’s great to be able to experience a recital...
Polly Barton: Fifty Sounds review - what is lost in translat...
Fifty Sounds is translator Polly Barton’s first novel...
Album: Imelda May - 11 Past the Hour
11 Past the Hour opens with its title song, a delicious, twangy, string-laden Nancy Sinatra Bond theme that never was. The album closes...
Singer-songwriter Peggy Seeger: still in the vanguard of her...
If American music has a royal family, it’s surely the Seeger clan. Charles, the patriarch, the composer, musicologist and teacher who could be...
Album: Lady Dan - I Am the Prophet
There’s a line in “No Home”, the staggering centrepiece of Lady Dan’s debut album, that perhaps sums up the project. “Wolves will never...