Comedy Reviews
Leicester Comedy Festival Gala Preview Show, De Montfort Hall review - mixed bag in mixed billMonday, 13 January 2020
A mixed bill rarely pleases all comedy tastes – whether in style or content – and so it proved at the launch of the Leicester Comedy Festival, which starts next month. In a line-up of eight comics that had few star names, the best came last – but more of that later. Read more...
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Best of 2019: ComedySaturday, 28 December 2019
It was a year in which we welcomed some big, big names back on stage, including Ben Elton, Clive Anderson and Jack Dee. Read more... |
Adam Kay, Bloomsbury Theatre review - festive tales from the NHS coalfaceMonday, 09 December 2019
Medic-turned-comic Adam Kay had been performing for some years before he wrote his 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show Fingering a Minor at the Piano. It had a personal addendum – about why he left medicine – and was a call to arms to save the NHS. Read more... |
Andy Parsons, Stamford Corn Exchange review - politics and the art of persuasionMonday, 02 December 2019
Andy Parsons is a comic known to like a good old rant, particularly on a political issue. Read more... |
Jack Whitehall, O2 Arena - a mix of posh and puerileTuesday, 26 November 2019
Jack Whitehall is hardly ever off the telly, appearing on gameshows or jollying around with his father, Michael, presenting the BRIT Awards and proving to be a decent actor in dramas such as Decline and Fall. Read more... |
Ivo Graham: The Game of Life, Soho Theatre review - privilege and parentingThursday, 21 November 2019
Ivo Graham's latest show The Game of Life follows on from his previous hour, in which he talked about passing a milestone in life and the prospect of starting a family. Read more... |
Stewart Lee: Tornado/Snowflake, Leicester Square Theatre review - snark to SharknadoTuesday, 19 November 2019
Stewart Lee is back on the road after three years, and he comes back wonderfully refreshed and on marvellous form with this double header, Tornado/Snowflake. Read more... |
Jack Dee, Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage review - now he really is a grumpy old manMonday, 11 November 2019
Jack Dee has made a career out of being a grumpy old man, even though he started on the comedy circuit in 1986 when he was 25. Read more... |
Tim Minchin, Eventim Apollo review - fabulous triumph of rhyme and reasonSaturday, 09 November 2019
Is there anything Tim Minchin cannot do? He sings his own songs, plays hot bar-room piano and tells jokes about the existence of God. He composes musicals, performs in Lloyd Webber and Stoppard, writes a multimillion-dollar Hollywood cartoon which he is allowed to direct – until he isn’t. Read more... |
Jonathan Pie, Eventim Apollo review - spoof reporter in coruscating formTuesday, 05 November 2019
Jonathan Pie is a YouTube star, a spoof television news reporter (created by actor and comic Tom Walker), who is prone to gaffes. It was one of those on-screen gaffes that led to Pie being sacked as the BBC's Westminster correspondent, footage of which we see here on the onstage big screen alongside the highlights and lowlights of Pie's career – mostly the latter. Read more... |
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