Comedy Reviews
Best of 2023: ComedySaturday, 30 December 2023
From Covid-delayed dates (yes, that's still a thing) to emotional comebacks and assured debuts, 2023 had much to offer. Read more... |
Reuben Kaye, Purcell Room review - Australian gives powerhouse performanceFriday, 22 December 2023
As the panto season is in full swing, theatregoers will be expecting to hear some smut. For those who don't like the traditional artform but still like a bit of filth – with songs – then Reuben Kaye's The Butch Is Back will do nicely. Read more... |
Trevor Noah: Off the Record, O2 review - welcome return to standup for the polyglot motormouthSaturday, 25 November 2023
The O2 has to be the K2 of comedy peaks: a vast ovoid drum of a place where those right at the back have to be content with watching magnified images on screens. And for a standup, there are no electric instruments to drown out the echoing acoustics. Read more... |
Lucy Beaumont, Touring review - Hull’s finest goes on the roadFriday, 10 November 2023
Lucy Beaumont tells some tall stories – many ridiculous and some of them true, one assumes. But such is Beaumont’s wide-eyed delivery that you believe her, particularly if you have seen her on the current series of Taskmaster, where her confused “I don’t know what I thought would happen” approach provides great entertainment. Read more... |
Michael McIntyre, Brighton Centre review - observational everymanMonday, 30 October 2023
It takes some chutzpah to do a substantial section of a comedy show in 2023 (and touring until mid-2024) that deals with your pandemic woes, but that’s Michael McIntyre for you – he has never been short of confidence. Read more... |
John Robins, touring - high anxiety can be funnyFriday, 20 October 2023
Recovery from alcoholism is now standard fare in stand-up comedy; so too are living with ADHD, OCD, depression and anxiety. It's the last of those conditions, combined with becoming sober, that 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner John Robins has fashioned into a striking and affecting show, Howl, which I saw at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury. Read more... |
Peter Kay, O2 Arena review - comeback show is worth the waitMonday, 18 September 2023
In 2017, Bolton comic Peter Kay had to cancel his planned tour because of “family circumstances”. But then, when he announced last year that he was back in the saddle, the tickets for Better Late Than Never sold like the proverbial. Well into what has mushroomed into a mega tour continuing until 2025, I caught him at the O2 Arena. Read more... |
Kate Berlant Is KATE, Soho Theatre review - glorious spoof of actory typesTuesday, 12 September 2023
The show begins before the audience troops into the theatre; the walls of the staircase leading to it are plastered with images of Kate Berlant, its writer and performer; we file past her (sitting by the doorway with a sign saying “Ignore me”) and a long word-salad statement by her; and then, before she appears, we watch a film on the onstage screen in which – in arty black-and-white, quoting Stanislavsky and Oscar Wilde – Berlant preens and pouts and Looks Very Serious. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 review: Ahir ShahMonday, 28 August 2023
Ahir Shah, Monkey Barrel Ahir Shah is a fast talker, but then in Ends – which deservedly won best show in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards – he has a lot to say. It's a show about multiculturalism, family, identity, fitting in, and encompasses modern history on two continents, so he has a lot to pack in. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: Janine Harouni / Paddy Young / Ian SmithFriday, 25 August 2023
Janine Harouni, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★ Read more... |
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