Comedy Reviews
Kevin Bridges, Hammersmith ApolloMonday, 01 October 2012
Kevin Bridges, an affable young Glaswegian, has had a meteoric rise in comedy. He started gigging at 17, made his solo Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2009, where he played in a 50-seater and earned an Edinburgh Comedy Awards newcomer nomination, and returned the following year to a sold-out run in a 700-seat theatre. Read more... |
Michael McIntyre, O2 ArenaThursday, 27 September 2012
First a confession: I've never been a great fan of Michael McIntyre. He's a nice bloke for sure, works at his craft and is a slick performer with a huge following, both live and on television. Plus - and this is one of the best compliments I can pay to a stand-up because it's a difficult skill to pull off - he's one of the best MCs in the business. Read more... |
Stewart Lee presents John Cage's Indeterminacy, Cafe OTOWednesday, 26 September 2012
John Cage is funny: this much we know. The deadpan prankster at the heart of 20th-century artistic experimentalism was always about the inadvertent punchline, the chuckle that comes from unexpected disjunction, the relief that comes from reminders of the absurdity of reality, as much as he was ever about any engagement with progress, technology, the transcendent. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: James Acaster/David Trent/Daniel Simonsen/Ben TargetSaturday, 25 August 2012
James Acaster: Prompt, Pleasance Courtyard ***Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Tony LawFriday, 24 August 2012
Tony Law: Maximum Noonsense, The StandRead more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Alfie Moore/Eddie Pepitone/Claudia O'DohertyWednesday, 22 August 2012
Alfie Moore: I Predicted a Riot, Pleasance Courtyard ****Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: I, Tommy/Josie Long/WitTankTuesday, 21 August 2012
I, Tommy, Gilded Balloon ****
Everybody will be familiar with Tommy Sheridan's story, and not necessarily because they closely follow Scottish politics at their most internecine. Rather because the Glaswegian socialist went from being barely a paragraph in broadsheets to being plastered over the front pages of tabloids after a series of revelations – which he strongly denies – about visiting swingers' clubs. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Tam o' Shanter/Trevor Noah/Bridget ChristieMonday, 20 August 2012
Tam o' Shanter, Assembly Hall ****
|
Edinburgh Fringe: Jigsy/Pappy's/Joe LycettSunday, 19 August 2012
Jigsy, Assembly Rooms ****
Les Dennis may have started his career as a comic, and then as a presenter of cheesy, family-friendly television game shows, but of late he has been plying his trade as a very decent actor. And so it proves again in Tony Staveacre's one-man play about a washed up Liverpudlian club comic. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Magnus BetnerSaturday, 18 August 2012
Magnus Betner, Assembly Rooms ****
Here is the news: dismemberment, suicide bombers, industrial-strength Japanese porn, paedophilia and the descent of Julian Assange from hero to zero. The son of a priest and a superstar in his homeland, Swedish comic Betner is drawn to the dark stuff (come to think of it, there’s not much of a leap between Betner and bête noire), and his show latched on to the mood of post-Olympics comedown and held fast. 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...
La Cocina review - New York restaurant drama lingers too lon...
La Cocina is one of those films that cuts an excellent trailer, succinctly delivering just enough characters, plot and visual...
Album: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia
It’s been 14 years since Alison Krauss and Union Station released an album – 2011’s Paper Aeroplane. The world’s shed a few skins since...
Batsashvili, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester revie...
Mariam Batsashvili, the young virtuosa pianist from Georgia, is a star. No doubt about that. Trained at the Liszt Academy in Weimar and winner of...
Blu-ray: Lifeforce
Tobe Hooper changed cinema with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) for pennies in rancid Southern heat, but came closest to a mainstream...
Der fliegende Holländer, Irish National Opera review - saili...
So much looked promising for Irish National Opera’s first Wagner: the casting, certainly, the conductor – Music Director Fergus Sheil knows and...
The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wi...
When the world’s darkness is too much, there is a Netflix rabbit-hole you can disappear down to a kinder place: the...
Lauren Mayberry, Barrowland, Glasgow review - solo star stay...
It took until the last song before Lauren Mayberry started to well up onstage, which was good going. The singer had mentioned early on the...
Album: Toria Wooff - Toria Wooff
On the cover of her eponymous debut album, the Bolton-raised Toria Wooff reclines on a church pew located in Stanley Palace, a 16th-century...
Music Reissues Weekly: Too Far Out - Beat, Mod & R&B...
The thrill of hearing “Crawdaddy Simone” never wears off. As the September 1965 B-side of the third single by North London R&B band The...