fri 23/05/2025

Comedy Reviews

John Robins, touring - high anxiety can be funny

Veronica Lee

Recovery from alcoholism is now standard fare in stand-up comedy; so too are  living with ADHD, OCD, depression and anxiety. It's the last of those conditions, combined with becoming sober, that 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner John Robins has fashioned into a striking and affecting show, Howl, which I saw at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury.

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Peter Kay, O2 Arena review - comeback show is worth the wait

Veronica Lee

In 2017, Bolton comic Peter Kay had to cancel his planned tour because of “family circumstances”. But then, when he announced last year that he was back in the saddle, the tickets for Better Late Than Never sold like the proverbial. Well into what has mushroomed into a mega tour continuing until 2025, I caught him at the O2 Arena.

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Kate Berlant Is KATE, Soho Theatre review - glorious spoof of actory types

Veronica Lee

The show begins before the audience troops into the theatre; the walls of the staircase leading to it are plastered with images of Kate Berlant, its writer and performer; we file past her (sitting by the doorway with a sign saying “Ignore me”) and a long word-salad statement by her; and then, before she appears, we watch a film on the onstage screen in which – in arty black-and-white, quoting Stanislavsky and Oscar Wilde – Berlant preens and pouts and Looks Very Serious.

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 review: Ahir Shah

Veronica Lee

Ahir Shah, Monkey Barrel

Ahir Shah is a fast talker, but then in Ends – which deservedly won best show in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards – he has a lot to say. It's a show about multiculturalism, family, identity, fitting in, and encompasses modern history on two continents, so he has a lot to pack in.

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Janine Harouni / Paddy Young / Ian Smith

Veronica Lee

Janine Harouni, Pleasance Courtyard 

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Olga Koch / Bill O'Neill / Mary O'Connell

Veronica Lee

Olga Koch Monkey Barrel 

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Darran Griffiths / Louise Atkinson / Louise Young

Veronica Lee

Darran Griffiths, Pleasance Courtyard 

Lots of comics talk about sex in their shows but few do so with such charm and purpose as Darran Griffiths with Inconceivable, his debut hour.

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Flat & the Curves / Shamilton! / I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical

Veronica Lee

Flat & the Curves, Pleasance Dome 

Flat & the Curves – Katy Baker, Charlotte Brooke, Issy Wroe Wright and Arabella Rodrigo – perform a gig-style musical comedy show with risqué material about what it means to be a modern woman. And there's a generous side helping about the inadequacy of men, too.

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Rob Auton / Laura Davis / Matt Forde

Veronica Lee

Rob Auton, Assembly @Roxy 

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Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Amos Gill/ Lorna Rose Treen/ Crizards

Veronica Lee

Amos Gill Gilded Balloon 

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