Comedy Reviews
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... |
Comedy podcasts round-up 1: from home and abroadMonday, 07 December 2020
Podcasts have got many of us through 2020, starved as we have been for most of it of live comedy to leave the house to see. Here's a selection of some of the best; they are available on all podcast platforms unless stated. Dear Joan & Jericha Read more... |
Natalie Palamides: Nate: A One Man Show, Netflix review - deep dive into toxic masculinity still has powerThursday, 03 December 2020
Edgy comedy runs the risk of discomfiting the audience so much that they can't relax and enjoy the show. But Natalie Palamides, appearing as Nate, her alter ego, in Nate: A One Man Show on Netflix, pulls it off, and then some. Read more... |
Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine, Netflix review - star-studded special for Trump lip-syncerTuesday, 17 November 2020
When the world was in lockdown and performers turned to TikTok to keep in touch with their fans, Sarah Cooper started using the online platform for short videos where she lip-synced Donald Trump's speeches, and they quickly went global. Not many people can say they owe worldwide fame to Covid and America's worst-ever president. Read more... |
Dear Joan & Jericha review - glorious wrong advice from spoof agony auntsWednesday, 04 November 2020
The Dear Joan & Jericha podcast began in 2018, and quickly became a cult hit. Read more... |
Adam Kay, Apollo Theatre review - former medic tells tales from NHS front lineFriday, 23 October 2020
What a pleasure it was to step inside a West End theatre again, and what a different experience it was – temperature checks at the door, a one-way system through to the seats and an app to order drinks. Read more... |
Live From the Grand Hall, BAC review - strong mixed bill to start autumn seasonMonday, 19 October 2020
After a successful – and very welcome - summer season of gigs in its outdoor courtyard, Battersea Arts Centre has come indoors for its autumn season of comedy from the Grand Hall; it started with this strong mixed bill curated by the promoters Berk's Nest. Read more... |
Picnic at the Castle review - entertaining mixed billSaturday, 19 September 2020
Of all the outdoor spaces being utilised to keep live performance going in this maddest of years, Warwick Castle is surely among the most striking. Its Picnic at the Castle series has the building as an imposing backdrop to events, the stage reached by a wooden bridge across the River Avon. Read more... |
Mixed bill, 21Soho review - opening of new club is cause for celebrationMonday, 31 August 2020
Comedy is all about timing, and the owners of the UK's newest comedy club should know. Just days after they obtained the final licences they needed to open, the national lockdown was announced in March. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
It has to be hoped that Stuart Staples’ songs for Tindersticks aren’t a reflection of his actual life experiences. No-one really deserves that...
The Mad Hatter gets it about right when he tells Alice: “You’re entirely bonkers… but all the best people are.” Kate Prince takes this line and...
Later this autumn Richard Eyre’s La Traviata celebrates its 30th birthday. Not bad going for the director’s first ever foray...
A woman sits at her computer. She copy-pastes an address into a search engine. She goes to street view. She zooms in. Click. Opens...
Like the BBC’s documentary series The Yorkshire Ripper Files before it, the French six-part drama Sambre on...
Sometimes love never dies and the dead never rot. A lot of water has flowed down the River Styx since...
Once regarded as highly as Kurosawa and Ozu, Japanese director Mikio Naruse’s star has fallen in recent decades, with few of his films readily...
Blame the high cost of city housing, or killer smog. What else can explain a bright young couple’s move from 1970s...
This year, I am delighted to be supporting the Alexandra Dariescu Award at the Leeds International Piano Competition for an outstanding...
The Proms’ Indian summer of big visiting orchestras is over – and what a parade...