tue 17/06/2025

Comedy Reviews

Rachel Parris, Leicester Square Theatre review - smart observations and satirical songs

Veronica Lee

Five years ago, Rachel Parris tells us, she never thought she would one day be married, a mother and a home owner. Now she's all three – and a stepmother as well – and this year is about to turn 40. It's quite a journey, which she talks about in her new show, Poise.

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Punt and Dennis, The Marlowe, Canterbury review - satire and sketches

Veronica Lee

Ten years after their last tour Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are back on the road with We Are Not a Robot. It comes after their long-running The Now Show on Radio 4 has ended and, reassuringly for their fans, is more of the same affable humour, with the occasional barb that they can throw in now they no longer have to answer to BBC producers.

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Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on great form

Veronica Lee

Clinton Baptiste – clairvoyant, medium and psychic – first appeared briefly as a character in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights on Channel 4. Alex Lowe has since developed him through Clinton Baptiste’s Paranormal Podcast and his live shows, and now he's touring his latest, Roller Ghoster!, which I saw at Leicester Square Theatre in London.

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Jack Docherty, Soho Theatre review - warm and witty childhood memoir

Veronica Lee

For fans of a certain age the name Jack Docherty will always be associated with a very good run of chat shows on Channel 5; he was also the star of Channel 4's sketch show Absolutely and more recently the Scottish comedy Scot Squad. And now he's on the road with David Bowie & Me – Parallel Lives, a sort of memorial to lost youth but also the life-affirming joy of music.

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Rhod Gilbert, G-Live Guildford review - cancer, constipation and celebrity treatment

Veronica Lee

Rhod Gilbert is disarmingly honest about his thought process when he received his diagnosis of head and neck cancer in 2022.

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Fern Brady, Netflix Special review - sex, relationships and death

Veronica Lee

An appearance on Taskmaster and the publication of her acclaimed memoir Strong Female Character have helped propel Fern Brady into the comedy big time – and now comes the accolade of her first Netflix special, Autistic Bikini Queen, which was recorded in Bristol last year.

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Jonathan Pie, Duke of York's Theatre review - spoof political reporter takes no prisoners

Veronica Lee

If you don't like sweary comics – Jonathan Pie uses the c-word liberally – then this may not be the show for you. In fact if you're a Tory, ditto, because it is 70 minutes of political invective, taking aim at a rogues' gallery of senior Conservatives present and past. Oh, and the royal family get it in the neck too.

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Spencer Jones: Making Friends, Soho Theatre review - award-winning comedian mines his post-lockdown escape to the country

Gary Naylor

Lockdown feels more like a dream now: empty streets; bright, scarless skies; pan-banging at 8pm. Did it all happen? One part of our brains insists that it did; another resists such an overthrowing of what it means to be human.

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Six Chick Flicks, Leicester Square Theatre review - funny, frenetic and feminist spoof

Veronica Lee

Spoofing movies or movie genres has been done before, but Six Chick Flicks goes the extra mile. It's a funny, frenetic and feminist take-down of the kind of movies that are aimed at woman, but pretty much always written and/or directed by men.

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Pierre Novellie, Soho Theatre review - turning a heckle into a show

Veronica Lee

Pierre Novellie opens his show by telling how his latest show, Why Are You Laughing?, came into being. It started, he says, when he was heckled at a previous show by someone shouting out: “I have Asperger's and I think you have it too.” It's an arresting start but Novellie doesn't mention it again until the final section of the show.

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