Comedy Reviews

Edinburgh Fringe: Alfie Moore/Eddie Pepitone/Claudia O'Doherty

Veronica Lee Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Alfie Moore: I Predicted a Riot, Pleasance Courtyard ****

Edinburgh Fringe: I, Tommy/Josie Long/WitTank

Veronica Lee Tuesday, 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.

Edinburgh Fringe: Tam o' Shanter/Trevor Noah/Bridget Christie

Veronica Lee Monday, 20 August 2012

Tam o' Shanter, Assembly Hall ****

Scottish schoolchildren are brought up on Robert Burns but other British students aren't so fortunate. We may know snatches of the great man's work – “Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie”, “O, my Luve's like a red, red rose” and so on – but few of us could recite even a stanza of Tam o' Shanter.

Edinburgh Fringe: Jigsy/Pappy's/Joe Lycett

Veronica Lee Sunday, 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.

Edinburgh Fringe: Magnus Betner

graeme Thomson Saturday, 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.

Edinburgh Fringe: Liam Mullone/Sarah Kendall/Iszi Lawrence

theartsdesk Friday, 17 August 2012

Liam Mullone: A Land Fit For Fuckwits, Stand 4 ****

Edinburgh Fringe: Mies Julie/Loretta Maine/Foil, Arms and Hog

Veronica Lee Thursday, 16 August 2012

Mies Julie, Assembly Hall ****

Miss Julie is pretty full-on at the best of times but in Yael Farber’s striking new version, Strindberg’s themes of class and gender are given a shocking modern makeover. In transposing the action to present-day South Africa, she has written a story about the divide that still exists between the haves and have-nots, and the crippling emotional history that has yet to be overcome by the young nation.

Edinburgh Fringe: Rosie Wilby

graeme Thomson Sunday, 12 August 2012

Rosie Wilby: How (Not) to Make it in Britpop, Bongo Club ***

In the 1990s Rosie Wilby was lurking on the outer edges of Britpop with her band Wilby, whose giddy career highlights included opening for Tony Hadley (he evacuated the entire room for the soundcheck), being clamped outside the venue while supporting Bob Geldof, and getting their own plastic name tag in the racks of Virgin Megastore.

Mrs Brown Rides Again, Hammersmith Apollo

Veronica Lee Friday, 15 June 2012

There's a great PhD to be written about why comics are so keen to dress as old biddies, from Arthur Lucan and Benny Hill to Dick Emery and Les Dawson, by way of any number of panto dames to the most noble of them all, Dame Edna Everage. To this esteemed list of comics should be added Brendan O'Carroll, whose Agnes Brown is an astonishing creation, a foul-mouthed Dublin widow whose passions in life are bingo and poking her nose into her children's lives.

Dara O Briain, The Playhouse, Edinburgh

graeme Thomson Friday, 25 May 2012

The fact that the latest in a long line of Dara O Briain DVDs is already on sale on Amazon is pretty impressive considering that he hasn’t recorded it yet. I know this because the second show of his four-night run at the Playhouse happened to be the one immediately before the gig being filmed for a timely pre-Christmas release. If it captures the warmth and verve of last night’s show it might even turn out to be one of those rare comedy DVDs worth buying.