comedians
Bleak Expectations, Criterion Theatre review - popular radio comedy takes to the stageFriday, 02 June 2023![]() We all need a break from time to time, especially now given the grim state of the world. So it’s not surprising that comedy is making something of a comeback in the West End: Operation Mincemeat; The Unfriend seen recently at this theatre; The Play... Read more... |
Dear Billy, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh review - powerful tribute to Scottish prideMonday, 22 May 2023![]() Anyone expecting to see the Big Yin himself, Gary McNair breathlessly explains as he dashes on stage, should nip out and ask the box office for a refund. It’s an ice-breaking gag that sets the tone nicely for McNair’s fast-moving, often snort-... Read more... |
Doc Martin Christmas Special, ITV review - Santa comes to Portwenn as the final curtain fallsTuesday, 27 December 2022![]() In 10 series stretching over the last 18 years, ITV's Doc Martin unobtrusively became an enduringly popular household name, but it finally reached the end of the road with this Christmas one-off. Unless, of course, there’s a prequel, a sequel, an... Read more... |
Wonderville Magic and Cabaret review - fast-paced show delivers the promised wonderWednesday, 17 August 2022![]() There’s nothing quite like magic, live, up close and personal. Sure there are the TV spectaculars, the casino resort mega-shows and even The Masked Magician to pull back the curtains, but there’s a frisson in the air when the card that’s in your... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The SapheadTuesday, 16 August 2022![]() Buster Keaton made his name in a series of two-reel shorts made from 1917 onwards; The Saphead, from 1920, was his first starring role in a feature film.It’s in no way comparable to the classics which Keaton produced and directed in his mid-... Read more... |
Man vs Bee, Netflix review - or should it be Bee vs Bean?Thursday, 30 June 2022![]() Rowan Atkinson’s strange little comedy (written by Will Davies) is the story of Trevor Bingley, a rather pitiable late-middle-aged man who finds a new job as a house-sitter for a disdainful and ridiculously wealthy couple, Nina and Christian Kolstad... Read more... |
Hacks, Prime Video review - what's so funny about a career in comedy?Saturday, 09 April 2022![]() Acidic showbiz drama Hacks premiered on HBO Max in the States a year ago, and subsequently won a hatful of awards including three Emmys. Now, here it is on Prime Video, so we can get to see what all the fuss is about.Most of it is about Jean Smart’s... Read more... |
Project Dictator, New Diorama Theatre review - anarchic satireThursday, 07 April 2022![]() When Rhum + Clay conceived this show, the idea of a comic becoming a political leader might have prompted thoughts of Boris Johnson's carefully cultivated buffoonery on "Have I Got News For You" and elsewhere. Since then, a certain Volodymyr... Read more... |
The Real Charlie Chaplin review - not as revealing as its title suggestsWednesday, 16 February 2022![]() Even today, Charlie Chaplin still earns glowing accolades from critics for his work during the formative years of cinema, though a contemporary viewing public saturated in CGI and superheroes might struggle to see the allure of his oeuvre as the “... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: writer and comedian Tom DavisFriday, 13 August 2021![]() After leaving school at 14, Tom Davis spent 10 years working as a scaffolder on building sites, while always harbouring what he thought was the impossible dream of getting into comedy. Hailing from Sutton in south London, he had a go at standup and... Read more... |
Rosie Wilby: The Breakup Monologues review - do breakups make us stronger, better people?Tuesday, 01 June 2021![]() According to Rosie Wilby, “breaking up and staying together are simply two sides of the same coin. They are a flick of a switch apart, separated only by one fleeting moment of madness, or perhaps clarity.” Wilby’s book The Breakup Monologues: The... Read more... |
Best of 2020: TVTuesday, 29 December 2020![]() Okay, so some people taught themselves the violin or wrote a novel, but under this year’s circumstances, it was inevitable that television (terrestrial, cable, online or otherwise) was going to clean up. With large chunks of the population forced to... Read more... |
