Comedy Reviews
Matt Forde, Purcell Room review - politics plus deft impressionsMonday, 03 December 2018
You might think that, given the upheaval we are living through, political comics would be 10 a penny but, surprisingly, they’re thin on the ground. Regardless of how any rivals he has, though, Matt Forde is surely the outstanding political comic working today. Read more... |
Dave Gorman, Royal Festival Hall review - PowerPoint king is back with biteTuesday, 27 November 2018
Anyone who has seen a previous Dave Gorman show or his television series Modern Life Is Goodish knows what to expect: a show that's part lecture, part conversation, all pedantry, done with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation – clicker, laptop and onstage big screen as important as the patter, the text on screen often providing an addendum gag to the one he has already told, or... Read more... |
Natalie Palamides, Soho Theatre - challenging show about consentFriday, 16 November 2018
The #MeToo movement is barely a year old, but it is already prompting some clever and insightful comedy – from standalone jokes or set-pieces in several comics’ shows, or, here, a very funny but frequently discomfiting hour that delves deep into the subjects of gender, relationships and toxic masculinity. Read more... |
Ayesha Hazarika, Soho Theatre review - feminism examinedMonday, 29 October 2018
As a former adviser to Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband – and a woman who has put her name forward to be a Labour Party candidate at a Westminster election – Ayesha Hazarika certainly knows her politics from the inside. Read more... |
Ciarán Dowd, Soho Theatre review - terrific spoof swordsman taleMonday, 15 October 2018
The Edinburgh Fringe does throw up some oddities – in comedy shows, of course, but also in its dishing out of awards. And so it was that Ciarán Dowd's marvellous Don Rodolfo deservedly gained the Edinburgh Comedy Award for best newcomer, even though he's an old Fringe hand. Read more... |
Ivo Graham, Soho Theatre review - the perils of growing upMonday, 08 October 2018
Considering where Motion Sickness ends up, Ivo Graham's new show begins a million miles away, as he talks about his love of trains and his favourite train company, Chiltern – or “The Chilt”. But don't be fooled by this quotidian fare; what begins as a seemingly aimless wander down a path of nothing very much packs an emotional punch by the end of the hour. Read more... |
Nish Kumar, Soho Theatre review - the state we're inFriday, 05 October 2018
Blimey, Nish Kumar is angry. Angry about Donald Trump, angry about misogyny, angry about racism, angry about Brexit – angry about a lot of things. Read more... |
Katherine Ryan, Garrick Theatre review - feminism with extra sassFriday, 21 September 2018
Katherine Ryan was making her West End debut – a big moment in any comic’s career – but she made her entrance on stage at the Garrick unannounced. Yet if the opening to Glitter Room was strangely underwhelming, it wasn’t long before the Canadian’s trademark waspish style was to the fore and the sass kicked in. Read more... |
The League of Gentlemen Live Again!, Sunderland Empire review - going local for local peopleTuesday, 28 August 2018
When the League of Gentlemen – Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, plus non-performing writer Jeremy Dyson – reformed for an excellent series to update us on events in Royston Vasey (“portal to another world, or just a shit hole?”) for the BBC last year, they enjoyed it so much that they announced a tour for 2018, their first live show since late 2005. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2018: Rose Matafeo reviewMonday, 27 August 2018
As we enter the venue, Rose Matafeo is playing a game of mini table tennis with a member of the audience. Nothing that follows seems to relate to this “just a bit of fun to start the show” – but, trust me, it's one of the cleverest bits of misdirection you will ever see. Read more... |
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