Comedy Reviews
Lenny Henry, Watford Colosseum review - enjoyable evening with genial hostMonday, 28 October 2019
It’s a long time since Lenny Henry performed live comedy, and a lot has happened in that interval. He has reinvented himself as a serious actor on stage and screen, become a spokesman for the black British experience, was knighted in 2015 and is now a national treasure. Read more... |
Hannah Gadsby, Royal Festival Hall review - simply magnificentSaturday, 26 October 2019
It's a wonderful thing when a talented comic goes from niche performer to international star almost overnight, and that's what happened to Australian stand-up Hannah Gadsby. In 2017, she announced that her award-winning Edinburgh Fringe show, Nanette, was to be her last as she felt ground down after a decade in a misogynistic and homophobic industry. Read more... |
Elf Lyons, Komedia, Brighton review - bonkers, brilliant and a bit of bare bumFriday, 11 October 2019
Elf Lyons’ new show, Love Songs To Guinea Pigs, has moved away from her usual slapstick and absurdist mimicry into new realms of traditional stand up. She cites the reason as being unable to do mime on the radio, but there’s a more serious reason for the switch. Read more... |
Rob Beckett, St David's Hall, Cardiff review - a mixed bag of observationsTuesday, 08 October 2019
There’s been no avoiding Rob Beckett in recent years. His high beam smile and infectious personality have made him a mainstay of comedy shows. Now he’s back on the road with what he calls the best job in the world, stand up. You can tell he means it, with a show that thrives on enthusiasm if not consistency. Read more... |
Eddie Izzard, Brighton Dome review - splendidly surreal storytellingMonday, 30 September 2019
Eddie Izzard is dressed in a killer outfit of black leather jacket, tartan mini-kilt, thigh-length stiletto boots – and false boobs. “I got them at IKEA,” he deadpans. He’s in jovial form for Wunderbar, his farewell tour before he hopes to enter politics. Read more... |
Russell Howard, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena review - a return with biteWednesday, 25 September 2019
It’s been two years since Russell Howard last performed stand-up. That’s a long gap for such an established fixture of British comedy. As he points out, the world has changed, something reflected in his new show Respite. There are still the whimsical anecdotes that made him a star, but he now has bigger foils than his own family. Read more... |
Ed Byrne, Berry Theatre, Hedge End review - musing on middle-age angstMonday, 23 September 2019
Ed Byrne's new show takes a philosophical bent as he muses on middle age and fatherhood. But don't worry, he's not getting soft at the age of 47 – he's as sarcastic, caustic and self-deprecating as ever in If I'm Honest... Read more... |
Count Arthur Strong, Leeds City Varieties review - stargazing and mangled syntaxFriday, 20 September 2019
Count Arthur Strong, the character created by Steve Delaney, started life in the late 1990s and became a cult figure at the Edinburgh Fringe over several years. Radio shows and three series of a television sitcom (written with Graham Linehan) followed and now he’s taking the character back on the road with Is There Anybody Out There? Read more... |
Brydon, Mack and Mitchell, Portsmouth Guildhall review - family-friendly funTuesday, 17 September 2019
Rob Brydon, Lee Mack and David Mitchell are the host and team captains respectively of Would I Lie to You?, the long-running BBC One panel game. Now they are touring together in Town to Town, which is family-friendly fun (with occasional naughtiness from the delightfully sweary Mack). Read more... |
Romesh Ranganathan, Brighton Dome review - transgressive, edgy and very likeableMonday, 16 September 2019
One question springs immediately to mind on hearing that Romesh Ranganathan’s new stand-up show, The Cynic’s Mixtape, is touring: how does he find the time? Ranganathan has overtaken Jack Whitehall as Britain’s most media ubiquitous comic, with a deluge of TV shows and appearances, a column in the Guardian newspaper and even a recent autobiography. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Albums of the Year 2024: Samara Joy - Portrait
From placing first in the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition in 2019 to being a triple Grammy winner, Samara Joy’s rise has been...
Nutcracker, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - Tchai...
No new production of a beloved old ballet can please everyone, and there is none more beloved, or more frequently produced, than ...
You Me Bum Bum Train, secret location review - a joyful mult...
This feels like the theatrical equivalent of being in a centrifuge – a wild, spinning ride...
The Tempest, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane review - Sigourney We...
Shakespeare must have relished the opportunities brought by the indoor...
Albums of the Year 2024: Mercury Rev - Born Horses
Born Horses remains as inscrutable as it was when it was issued in the summer. While it is about the search for enlightenment through...
Strike: The Ink Black Heart, BBC One review - protracted, co...
The man whose name sounds like a major aviation accident, private...
Albums of the Year 2024: Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso - Baño M...
My Spotify Wrapped this year is somewhat at odds with my Album of 2024. My ‘Van Life Folie Americana’ phase of Spring (presumably due to the...
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Donmar Wareho...
Broadway shows sometimes hit the West End like...