tue 19/03/2024

Comedy reviews, news & interviews

Catherine Bohart, Soho Theatre review - girlfriends, gossip and gay parenthood

Veronica Lee

Catherine Bohart opens by telling us that we're seeing her at the beginning of a long tour – before her energy flags, she says. It's difficult to believe, however, that the Irishwoman ever performs at anything less than full throttle, and so it proves here with Again, With Feelings, a show about where her life is at the moment.

Miles Jupp, Cambridge Arts Theatre review - life's vicissitudes turned into laughs

Veronica Lee

It takes a talented comic to turn a horrible life experience into comedy, but Miles Jupp is nothing if not talented. Add in a bit of self-depreciation, a smidgen of philosophical musing and a dollop of ruderies about bodily functions and you have On I Bang, which charts the comic's diagnosis with – and, thankfully, recovery from – a benign brain tumour.

Andy Parsons, Touring review - reasons to be...

Veronica Lee

In the middle of another age of austerity, a climate crisis and seemingly intractable international conflicts, it's cheering that a comic should tour...

Bill Bailey: Thoughtifier, Brighton Centre review...

Thomas H Green

I first saw Bill Bailey at least 30 years ago in the cabaret tent at Glastonbury Festival, the audience lying on hessian matting, a fug of hash smoke...

Paul Foot, Soho Theatre review - how to discover...

Veronica Lee

It's probably fair to say that Paul Foot is an acquired taste for some; his absurdist, poetic comedy isn't for everyone but he has built a strong and...

Jessica Fostekew, Soho Theatre review - age is just a number

Veronica Lee

Landmark birthday prompts some musings

Fascinating Aida, London Palladium review - celebrating 40 glorious years of filth and defiance

Helen Hawkins

Age has not withered one jot the FAs' fury at the absurdities of modern life

Frank Skinner: 30 Years of Dirt, Gielgud Theatre review - a mature master of class-A smut

Helen Hawkins

Has Skinner's act got less dirty over the years, or audiences more so?

Tatty Macleod, Soho Theatre review - cross-Channel relations

Veronica Lee

Entertaining debut from TikTok star who grew up England and France

Best of 2023: Comedy

Veronica Lee

Comebacks, emotional journeys and assured debuts

Reuben Kaye, Purcell Room review - Australian gives powerhouse performance

Veronica Lee

Cabaret setting for biographical comedy and songs

Trevor Noah: Off the Record, O2 review - welcome return to standup for the polyglot motormouth

Helen Hawkins

Back on tour, the former TV host has lost none of his charisma and charm

Lucy Beaumont, Touring review - Hull’s finest goes on the road

Veronica Lee

Taskmaster star has some tall tales

Michael McIntyre, Brighton Centre review - observational everyman

Veronica Lee

Jovial comic's first tour in five years

John Robins, touring - high anxiety can be funny

Veronica Lee

Addiction and angst laid bare

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

Veronica Lee

Nostalgia-fest delivers an emotional punch

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

Veronica Lee

US comic brings her off-Broadway hit to the UK

Edinburgh Fringe 2023 review: Ahir Shah

Veronica Lee

Deserved winner of prestigious award

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

Veronica Lee

Family life, the perils of flatshares, and how to beat stress

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

Veronica Lee

An eventful adult gap year, masterful mayhem, and an accomplished debut

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

Veronica Lee

Infertility, friendship, and leaving chaos behind

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

Veronica Lee

Women in tune, musical improv, and a backstage story

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

Veronica Lee

Storytelling magic, a fantastical journey, and political satire

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

Veronica Lee

An anti-whinge Australian, delightfully silly sketches and a war spoof

Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Krystal Evans / William Thompson / Alison Spittle

Veronica Lee

Untimely death, overcoming disability, and soup du jour

Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Ania Magliano / Elliot Steel / Alexandra Haddow

Veronica Lee

A bad hair day, testicular fun, and saying sorry

Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Ed Byrne / Fiona Allen / Kieran Hodgson

Veronica Lee

Bereavement, the daily grind, and reinventing oneself

Urooj Ashfaq, Soho Theatre review - assured UK debut by Mumbai stand-up

Veronica Lee

Divorce, dating and teenage diaries

The Crown Jewels, Garrick Theatre review - star laden comedy fails to sparkle

Gary Naylor

Al Murray and Carrie Hope Fletcher provide the only high points in a disappointing production

Footnote: a brief history of British comedy

British comedy has a honourable history, dating back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, through Shakespeare’s and Restoration plays to Victorian and Edwardian music hall and its offspring variety, and on to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, working-men’s clubs, 1980s alternative comedy, and today's hugely popular stand-up acts in stadiums seating up to 20,000 people.

In broadcast media, the immediate decades after the Second World War marked radio’s golden age for comedy, with shows such as ITMA, The Goons, Round the Horne and Beyond Our Ken. Many radio comedy shows transferred to even greater acclaim on television - such as Hancock’s Half Hour, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Day Today, Red Dwarf, The League of Gentlemen, Goodness Gracious Me and Little Britain.

In television, the 1970s and 1980s were the great age of British sitcom, when shows such as Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, Rising Damp, Dad’s Army, Porridge, Yes, Minister, Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers and Blackadder. They were marked by great writing, acting and directing, although the time should also be noted for great British dross such as On the Buses and Love Thy Neighbour.

By the 1990s, British sitcom had developed into intelligent über-comedy, with shows such as Absolutely Fabulous and The Office making dark or off-kilter (although some would say bad taste) shows such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Peep Show, Green Wing and The Inbetweeners possible. In film, British comedy has had three great ages - silent movies (Charlie Chaplin being their star), Ealing comedies (Passport to Pimlico perhaps the best ever) and Carry On films. The first are in a long tradition of daft physical humour, the second mark the dry sophistication of much British humour, and the last the bawdiness that goes back to Chaucer.

The 2000s marked the resurgence of live comedy, with acts (including Jimmy Carr, Peter Kay and Russell Howard) honing their talents at successive Edinburgh Fringes and their resulting TV, stadium tour and DVD sales making millionaires of dozens of UK comics. Comedians cross readily from TV to stand-up to film to West End comedy theatre. The British comedy industry is now a huge and growing commercial business, with star comics such as Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre grossing tens of millions of pounds from arena tours, and attendances of up to 20,000 at venues across the UK.

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