Comedy Reviews
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... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Liam Mullone/Sarah Kendall/Iszi LawrenceFriday, 17 August 2012
Liam Mullone: A Land Fit For Fuckwits, Stand 4 ****Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Mies Julie/Loretta Maine/Foil, Arms and HogThursday, 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. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Rosie WilbySunday, 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. Read more... |
Mrs Brown Rides Again, Hammersmith ApolloFriday, 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. Read more... |
Dara O Briain, The Playhouse, EdinburghFriday, 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. Read more... |
Tom Allen's Society, Udderbelly Festival LondonTuesday, 22 May 2012
The purple cow has taken up its summer residency on the South Bank in London before making the journey to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. As ever, the line-up of performers is extensive: last night comic Tom Allen performed his chat show with the help of a few comedy guests. Read more... |
Stewart Francis, TouringSaturday, 05 May 2012
Before he started making regular appearances on BBC Two's Mock the Week, Stewart Francis was an accomplished comic of some years' standing on the circuit - and that experience shows in his extensive UK tour, Outstanding in His Field, where he proves to be a slick performer whose set is delivered with exquisite timing. Read more... |
Paul Merton, TouringWednesday, 02 May 2012
Paul Merton is a very funny man, as anybody who watches Have I Got New For You will know. But fans of that programme will find his latest live show, billed as his return to stand-up, which he started doing 30 years ago, a very different experience. First thing to report is that it's not really stand-up, more an autobiographical run-through of his life, using jokes, songs and sketches, aided by some chums from his improv group Paul Merton's Strolling Players. Read more... |
Benet Brandreth, Soho TheatreFriday, 30 March 2012
Storytelling, they say, is an almost lost art. Well, not while Benet Brandreth is around, it's not. Brandreth, Sandhurst graduate and a lawyer by day, studied Philosophy at Cambridge and has packed rather a lot into his life, real or imagined. He weaves a fantastical tale charting his story from graduation to last year - when, not for the first time, he saved the life of a member of the royal family. Read more... |
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