thu 23/01/2025

standup comedy

Chris McCausland, Winchester Theatre Royal review - Strictly winner as cheerfully cynical as ever

By all accounts Chris McCausland had to be persuaded to take part in the most recent series of Strictly Come Dancing, which he won with his professional partner Diane Buswell. It would be a commendable achievement for any non-dancer, but for a blind...

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Gala Preview Show, De Montfort Hall review - Leicester Comedy Festival nicely teed up

Europe's biggest comedy festival, which showcases established stars, works in progress, workshops and competitions, kicks off next month, and this gala show certainly whetted our appetites for its 700-plus events. It was hosted by the nimble-witted...

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Best of 2024: Comedy

Looking back over the past 12 months, it struck me how it has been the shows fashioned from personal stories that have stayed with me. It wasn't simply that the comics could make very good jokes about their travails or embarrassments, but that the...

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Jamie Foxx, Netflix Special review - doctors and divine intervention

In April 2023 the actor and comic Jamie Foxx had a stroke and was lucky to survive. In his latest Netflix Special, What Had Happened Was... he tells us about it, and his recovery. It's fitting, he tells us, that the show was recorded in Atlanta,...

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Ricky Gervais, Touring review - new show, not-so new gags

Ricky Gervais begins by bringing us up to date with the latest “outrage” he has caused; two Netflix specials, SuperNature and Armageddon, upset some people, he tells us, thus giving them even more attention than they might otherwise have had. So now...

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Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Brighton Dome review - a foster carer's tale

Kiri Pritchard-McLean has spoken on stage before about her interest in helping young people – including in her 2017 show, Appropriate Adult, in which she talked about being a mentor to a vulnerable youngster. In Peacock, her latest...

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Rose Matafeo, Arcola Theatre review - Starstruck star muses on love

Rose Matafeo knows how to make an entrance, as she enters the stage with a choreographed dance. She's useless at ending things, she says – shows, relationships – so she's going to start On and On and On with something memorable. She doesn't...

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Ellen DeGeneres, Netflix Special review - no mea culpa and few jokes

Hard to imagine it now, but just a few years ago Ellen DeGeneres was one of America’s biggest daytime TV stars; her chatshow The Ellen DeGeneres Show attracted Hollywood stars and politicians and she was paid millions for it. But then, in 2022, it...

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Joe Rogan, Netflix Special review - US podcaster leaves the controversy - and the jokes - at home

Before Joe Rogan gained fame for his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, he has been, variously, a comic,  presenter of goofball television shows and an analyst of UTC bouts. Now with  his Netflix Special he’s returning to his first...

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Adam Sandler, Netflix Special - songs, silliness and deconstructing stand-up

You may spend some of Adam Sandler's new Netflix Special wondering what's going on. But if you're a fan of his alma mater, Saturday Night Live, you'll guess that the clearly staged first few minutes act as a homage to its “cold opening”, as we see...

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Edinburgh Fringe 2024: Edinburgh Comedy Awards winners

Amy Gledhill won the Don and Eleanor Taffner Best Comedy Show, the main award at the 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Make Me Look Fit on the Poster. The show has variously been described as “bawdy comedy delivered with a blush”, “a funny woman...

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Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Grace Mulvey / John Tothill

Grace Mulvey, Assembly Roxy ★★★ Grace Mulvey has been single for five years, she tells us at the top of the show, a matter of some disappointment to her mother back in Dublin. Even moving to London two years ago didn't change her dating status...

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