Comedy Reviews
Ben Elton, Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall review - magnificent return to stand-upThursday, 31 October 2019
It has been 15 years since Ben Elton, known as Motormouth in his 1980s heyday – last toured. Read more... |
Lenny Henry, Watford Colosseum review - enjoyable evening with genial hostMonday, 28 October 2019
It’s a long time since Lenny Henry performed live comedy, and a lot has happened in that interval. He has reinvented himself as a serious actor on stage and screen, become a spokesman for the black British experience, was knighted in 2015 and is now a national treasure. Read more... |
Hannah Gadsby, Royal Festival Hall review - simply magnificentSaturday, 26 October 2019
It's a wonderful thing when a talented comic goes from niche performer to international star almost overnight, and that's what happened to Australian stand-up Hannah Gadsby. In 2017, she announced that her award-winning Edinburgh Fringe show, Nanette, was to be her last as she felt ground down after a decade in a misogynistic and homophobic industry. Read more... |
Elf Lyons, Komedia, Brighton review - bonkers, brilliant and a bit of bare bumFriday, 11 October 2019
Elf Lyons’ new show, Love Songs To Guinea Pigs, has moved away from her usual slapstick and absurdist mimicry into new realms of traditional stand up. She cites the reason as being unable to do mime on the radio, but there’s a more serious reason for the switch. Read more... |
Rob Beckett, St David's Hall, Cardiff review - a mixed bag of observationsTuesday, 08 October 2019
There’s been no avoiding Rob Beckett in recent years. His high beam smile and infectious personality have made him a mainstay of comedy shows. Now he’s back on the road with what he calls the best job in the world, stand up. You can tell he means it, with a show that thrives on enthusiasm if not consistency. Read more... |
Eddie Izzard, Brighton Dome review - splendidly surreal storytellingMonday, 30 September 2019
Eddie Izzard is dressed in a killer outfit of black leather jacket, tartan mini-kilt, thigh-length stiletto boots – and false boobs. “I got them at IKEA,” he deadpans. He’s in jovial form for Wunderbar, his farewell tour before he hopes to enter politics. Read more... |
Russell Howard, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena review - a return with biteWednesday, 25 September 2019
It’s been two years since Russell Howard last performed stand-up. That’s a long gap for such an established fixture of British comedy. As he points out, the world has changed, something reflected in his new show Respite. There are still the whimsical anecdotes that made him a star, but he now has bigger foils than his own family. Read more... |
Ed Byrne, Berry Theatre, Hedge End review - musing on middle-age angstMonday, 23 September 2019
Ed Byrne's new show takes a philosophical bent as he muses on middle age and fatherhood. But don't worry, he's not getting soft at the age of 47 – he's as sarcastic, caustic and self-deprecating as ever in If I'm Honest... Read more... |
Count Arthur Strong, Leeds City Varieties review - stargazing and mangled syntaxFriday, 20 September 2019
Count Arthur Strong, the character created by Steve Delaney, started life in the late 1990s and became a cult figure at the Edinburgh Fringe over several years. Radio shows and three series of a television sitcom (written with Graham Linehan) followed and now he’s taking the character back on the road with Is There Anybody Out There? Read more... |
Brydon, Mack and Mitchell, Portsmouth Guildhall review - family-friendly funTuesday, 17 September 2019
Rob Brydon, Lee Mack and David Mitchell are the host and team captains respectively of Would I Lie to You?, the long-running BBC One panel game. Now they are touring together in Town to Town, which is family-friendly fun (with occasional naughtiness from the delightfully sweary Mack). Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, b...
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that effect. This quote from Milton’s ...
London Choral Sinfonia, Waldron, Smith Square Hall review -...
The London Choral Sinfonia are a very impressive group, a professional choir who are churning out terrific recordings at a breakneck pace – I...
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - bra...
It’s hard to think of anyone even half as persistent as William Forsythe in changing the conversation around ballet. The American...
Manic Street Preachers, Barrowland, Glasgow review - elder s...
As you might expect from a Manic Street Preachers gig, literary influences were never far away. A DH Lawrence quote was prominently displayed on...
DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons
A longshot of transgender Elvira (Volker Spengler) circled by gay men, assignation turning to assault as dawn mist rises from Frankfurt’s Main...
Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dr...
It had begun to seem that Jon Hamm, whatever other roles he might appear in, was destined to be forever remembered exclusively as Mad Men...
Goldberg Variations, Ólafsson, Wigmore Hall review - Bach in...
Víkingur Ólafsson had something to prove at the Wigmore Hall. And prove it he did, even if, this time, his Goldberg Variations left a few features...
Shanghai Dolls, Kiln Theatre review - fascinating slice of h...
The writer Amy Ng has made a sterling effort in digging up the true story behind her new play at the Kiln, Shanghai Dolls, but...