Comedy Reviews
Edinburgh Fringe: Kieran and the Joes/ Conor O'Toole/ Tom Allen/ Kate SmurthwaiteSunday, 21 August 2011
Kieran and the Joes are a three-man sketch group (Kieran Hodgson, Joe Markham and Joe Parham, working with co-writer Tom Meltzer) who are young, personable and very neatly dressed in shirts and ties - but while they may appear clean-cut their comedy veers nicely towards the dark. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Adam Riches/ Kristin HershSaturday, 20 August 2011
From the moment Adam Riches bursts onto the stage, spewing his business cards around as a manic showbiz agent who wants to sign up everyone and everything - including even the venue's walls and floor - this is a show of hyper energy and absurdist comedy. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Tiffany Stevenson/ Carl Donnelly/ The Two WrongiesFriday, 19 August 2011
Tiffany Stevenson ★★★★ The comic is currently appearing on Show Me the Funny on ITV, where her smily disposition is a welcome antidote to some of the sneery critics they have mustered. There’s boyfriend stuff in Cavewoman but Stevenson also delivers a few astute political observations, as well as the occasional unPC gag - such as suggesting Tina Turner's dance moves were inspired by her avoiding Ike’s punches. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: The Cave Singers/ The Real MacGuffins/ An Instinct for KindnessThursday, 18 August 2011
A three-piece hailing from Seattle and its environs, The Cave Singers are an authentically hairy proposition. With his tweed hat and red beard, at this Edge festival gig singer Pete Quirk looked like a cross between the late Robin Cook and a stray leprechaun from Finian’s Rainbow, while Derek Fudesco dispensed his lovely, liquid guitar lines from beneath a blur of flying hair. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: DeAnne Smith/ A Slow Air/ DregsTuesday, 16 August 2011
DeAnne Smith, Gilded Balloon ****Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Jason Cook/ Cul de Sac/ Fear of a Brown PlanetTuesday, 16 August 2011
Jason Cook has masterly audience skills, and he needed them all the night I saw him. A middle-aged teacher (who really should know better), whose refreshment clearly led her to the delusion that she was the person people had paid to see, kept interrupting. Even the engaging and unfailingly polite Geordie comic's patience was wearing thin, but he constantly bested her and got on with the job of making us laugh. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Glenn Wool/ Jerry Sadowitz/ Ford and AkramSunday, 14 August 2011
The Canadian is making a welcome return to the Fringe after a few years away and the break has served him well, as he's been doing a bit of travelling, and it was an incident when he flew to Indonesia that provides the starting point - and beautifully conceived climax - to No Lands Man. Read more... |
BBC Proms: Tim Minchin, Kit and the Widow, Beardyman, BBC Concert OrchestraSaturday, 13 August 2011
It has been, we can safely agree, a truly terrible week. Art, culture, call it what you will, is unequal to the task of diagnosing a nation’s ills, let alone curing them. But on a night such as the inaugural Comedy Prom, it comes equipped with healing balm. This evening was maybe not perfect. There were wrinkles, little bits here and there that didn’t quite work. But the Saturday night that the BBC Proms gave over to the business of laughter could not have been more opportune. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Jackie Leven/ Jen Brister/ Doris Day Can F**k OffSaturday, 13 August 2011
Physically reduced he may have been, but his talents were as expansive as ever, and more than capable of holding a small room captivated with just voice and guitar. Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Dana Alexander/ A Sentimental Journey/ Dog-Eared CollectiveThursday, 11 August 2011
After 12 years in the business, Dana Alexander, an ebullient and instantly likeable presence on stage, is still the only black woman on the Canadian comedy circuit. Not that her ethnicity is Alexander's pre-occupation – it most definitely isn't – but it does play a part in her act. Read more... |
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