Comedy
Veronica Lee
We live in strange times, so it's appropriate that a socially distanced pop-up arts festival – of theatre, comedy, improv, music and magic – calls itself The New Normal. I went to the first comedy night of its August run, curated by Good Ship Comedy, a great comedy club which is normally located at a pub in north London, but is decamping to south London for a couple of dates here.And what a here: The New Normal is taking place at a gem of a location, the baronial gothic Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in Wandsworth, once an asylum for girls (for which read workhouse), later an MI5 Read more ...
Veronica Lee
At the age of 80, John Cleese probably doesn't care what people think of him. But then, when you were one-sixth of Monty Python and co-creator of one of TV's funniest sitcoms, you can afford not to play to the gallery as the royalties from Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers still roll in (even if, as he never tires of telling his audiences, a fair chunk goes in alimony).A cynic might say that explains why his new show, Why There Is No Hope, has so few laughs – but, to be fair, it was livestreamed from an empty Cadogan Hall, which killed many of his jokes stone dead. He began, though, with a Read more ...
Veronica Lee
After drive-ins, now come Covid-secure outdoor shows as the comedy industry tries to find its way back to normality. Battersea Arts Centre is utilising its hitherto unused courtyard for a season of outdoor comedy, during which Al Murray and Russell Howard will perform.The courtyard accommodates fewer than 50 people – about 30 seated, the rest standing – and the audience had to wear masks throughout. We were encouraged to laugh rather than smile by MC Luke Kempner as we sat like a “bunch of assassins”.Fortunately there was a lot to laugh at. The comic, as well as being a jovial host, is a Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Drive-in comedy shows are now well into their groove (although sadly a couple of promoters have had to cut their losses because of poor sales at some venues), and distinct differences in approach to what's on offer have emerged. Clearly going for the upper end of the market is Dine and Drive Theatre, an old hand at curating outdoor events, whose USP is classy locations and food catered by top chef Tom Kerridge.And very nice my picnic bag was too, with a decent assortment on offer – rather like the mixed bill on stage, curated by Mark Watson (who MCs each event in Mark Watson's Carpool Comedy Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Hot on the heels of The Car Park Club and @TheDriveIn comes Car Park Party, a series of shows presented in partnership with The Comedy Store. Car Park Party presents an evening of four comics doing short sets, presented by an MC.The performance I saw in the beautiful surroundings of Henley Royal Regatta, where the cancelled Henley Festival would normally be held, was hosted by Stephen Grant, who jollied things along nicely and created as much audience participation as is possible at a drive-in – much helped here by the good weather, picnicking guests and the large proportion of the audience Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Drive-ins are now firmly establishing themselves as the only method by which culture fans can see live arts in person for the future. Hot on the heels of The Drive-In Club comes @TheDriveIn, sponsored by Suzuki and produced by Jericho Comedy.The producers are staging two kinds of drive-in shows; those mainly about comedy, and others mainly about film, the latter with a broader entertainment vibe. On the evening I went, a couple of comics and a turntablist were the warm-up acts for the main event, a screening of Grease.Ivo Graham kicked off proceedings and instead of doing a truncated version Read more ...
Veronica Lee
It was a weary and frustrated Dom Joly (★★) who left the stage after performing the first drive-in comedy show in the UK. Sadly it had been, as he said earlier, “the first car crash at a drive-in”.In the inauspicious surroundings of the car park at Brent Cross shopping centre, we were entering the new world of live comedy – where closely packed small rooms above pubs and even socially distanced arenas are verboten for the foreseeable future – but this momentous event had turned into a technical nightmare for the Trigger Happy TV star.His show, Holiday Snaps: Travel and Comedy in the Danger Read more ...
Veronica Lee
You may have seen Desiree Burch, a Californian now living in London, on The Mash Report on BBC One. She's an engaging and energetic storyteller and Desiree's Coming Early, her 2019 Edinburgh Fringe show directed by Sarah Chew, is a fantastical tale about her visit to the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, when she accidentally took LSD.But it's not just cheap laughs about expanding her mind, as Burch ruminates on race, men's sexual misbehaviour and identity. And, stepping aside from the stand-up every so often and reading from a lectern, she weaves in some interest facts about Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Daniel KitsonDaniel Kitson, in a rare and welcome move, has released his 2009 Edinburgh Fringe show, The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church, in a version he has edited.Various times, 18-22 Maydanielkitson.comCambridge Footlights Stand-up ShowcaseDoes what it says on the tin: stand-up comedy from one of the oldest and most famous comedy troupes in the UK, written and performed by the current crop of graduating and postgrad students.9pm, 19 May, 2 and 16 Juneadctheatre.com/whats-on/comedy/footlights-stand-up-showcase/Marcus BrigstockeMarcus Brigstocke brings back his gap-yah posho idiot Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Jerry Seinfeld said in a recent interview that this Netflix special – 23 Hours to Kill – may be his last stand-up show. That's a shame, as there's much to enjoy here, even if he is retreading some old ground.Much of this material he performed during UK dates last year (and some of it he had also performed when he previously visited the UK, in 2011), but that's OK as far as it goes – he's still a very funny man, and his grouchy, world-weary shtick can bear some repetition.The show starts with – unusually for Seinfeld – a surprisingly showbizzy sequence, a filmed skit in which he dives out of a Read more ...
Veronica Lee
“There are places in India where it's safer to be a cow than a woman” is a seemingly innocuous statement, but for Indian comic Aditi Mittal it was a dangerous one to make in a comedy show. It led to her arrest after a man complained that it was offensive to Hindus (and possibly cows, who knows).Yet Mother of Invention, an energetic and engaging hour about where Mittal's feminism comes from, isn't a political show per se. It's silly and often raucous – she's upfront about her sexual life – but the low value placed on women in Indian society is an ever present underscore, and all the more Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Who knew in the early days of his career, when Simon Amstell was taking the mick out of celebrities on Popworld and then Never Mind the Buzzcocks, that he would turn into one of the cleverest comics of his generation, with a special talent for making existential angst funny?And now the latest of his amusing navel-gazing stand-up shows is Set Free (recorded late last year). In it he turns his soul-searching – for which read his search for his father's approval – into a form of group therapy with a barrel of laughs thrown in.The comic sets out by saying: “The problem with humanity at the Read more ...