Tatiana Ostrakova - Live Review

Claudia Wass

Jo Selby's character of Russian comedian Tatiana Ostrakova, fresh from Jongleurs Minsk, was a highlight of the night. Her stern, clipped delivery and unsmiling demeanour make laughter seem forbidden, and so all the more likely as she unemotively recounts her lost-in-translation jokes.

Her glove puppet Mr Twinkles tries to teach us some stark home truths, too, but we are deemed unworthy of his wisdom. This is a distinctive character, skillfully performed with a real sense of comic purpose rare in someone so new to the circuit. More please.

Jo Selby - Live Review

Claudia Wass

Jo Selby's character of Russian comedian Tatiana Ostrakova, fresh from Jongleurs Minsk, was a highlight of the night. Her stern, clipped delivery and unsmiling demeanour make laughter seem forbidden, and so all the more likely as she unemotively recounts her lost-in-translation jokes.

Her glove puppet Mr Twinkles tries to teach us some stark home truths, too, but we are deemed unworthy of his wisdom. This is a distinctive character, skillfully performed with a real sense of comic purpose rare in someone so new to the circuit. More please.

Catherine Semark - Live Review

Though a relative newcomer, well-spoken Catherine Semark has understated elegance and quiet confidence, that draws the audience in – even though her routine is based entirely on her response to the T-shirt boasting ‘Well, it won’t such itself’.

Sarah Millican’s previously used the lewd slogan as a punchline, but Semark manages not only to find her own track, but also makes a silk purse out of this sow’s purse of an idea, cuttingly mocking the idiot she saw wearing it, and extending this simple observation into a surprisingly classy routine. Semark has yet to fully develop as a comedian, but she shows promising signs of being able to do so

Giada Garofalo - Live Review

Italian Giada Garofalo promises some unique material about her country’s political class and Silvio Berlusconi’s antics. Unfortunately, like all politicians, she doesn’t quite deliver on that promise.

She doesn’t advance beyond the fact that her nation has a corrupt system, with the president making political appointments with penis, that makes British MPs’ expensive scandals look positively amateurish. Admittedly, she needs such an easy route in to the topic for UK audience who are unlikely to be up to speed with goings-on in Rome, but after setting the scene, she pretty much repeated every idea, just with a slightly different phrasing, with diminishing returns.

Katerina Vrana - Live Review

The bulk of her set is a routine in which she imagines ruling the world, which becomes a Joyce Grenfellesque piece in which she tells of Israel and Palestine for bickering and banished Zimbabwe to the naughty step.

There are some knowing lines that entertain, but it’s rather too formulaic an idea to sustain such a long item, and rather too smug in its execution.

Elis James - Live Review

Likeable Welshman Elis James’s ruse of opening with new material about Montreal, culled from Wikipedia, was ill-advised – but it did mean a welcome change when he relaxed into more tried-and tested material.

There’s not really much to his tale of an embarrassing experience during a date at the Carmarthen Leisure Centre, but he tells it with the skill of an expert raconteur and a hefty dose of charisma and winning self-deprecation

Miles Jupp - Live Review

Miles Jupp is unassuming in his delivery, with a set that is entirely driven by the understandable perception of him as the sort of posh man who could quite happily be given a ‘small island province’ to govern, though probably needs a butler to tie his shoelaces.

The persona is fully formed, and Jupp gets to both reinforce it and undermine it in equal measure. Importantly, it allows this real-life liberal to go undercover and report back on the twisted moral compass of Daily-Express reading Middle England with an incisive wit.

Jupp’s underplayed delivery means he’s something of a slow-burner – despite having one of the best opening lines in the business – but his set, even over seven brisk minutes, is undeniably satisfying.

Alun Cochrane - Live Review

Inveterate timewaster Alun Cochrane’s subdued approach was perhaps a little too subtle for the more alcohol-soaked punters, but his downplayed charm did eventually win over the room, with a set that focussed on the most inconsequential minutiae of his daydreamer’s thrill-free life. This is a man who not only has a favourite gas hob, but also the desire to share that information with the world.

If you want powerful political polemic, go elsewhere, but this unaffected exposure of his petty distractions is quietly delightful.

Josh Howie - Live Review

Josh Howie’s material is not for the faint at heart, revolving almost entirely around domestic violence, paedophilia, anal sex and rape. Even Frankie Boyle might think ‘Hang on, that’s a bit much’ for the relentlessly hard-edged nature of the set, which Howie was auditioning for the Montreal festival’s Nasty Show.

He’s saved by a great technical expertise in crafting gags, and often you can laugh at the artistry despite the uncomfortable nature of the premise and the bluntness of the payoff. Sometimes, however, he seems to give disconcerting the audience a higher priority than making them laugh – especially in matters of race – at which moments the reaction can only be stony and uneasy.

Carl Donnelly - Live Review

Low-key Carl Donnelly proved an entertaining turn with his quirky stories. He has the look and air of a man who bumbles through life, a magnet for slightly strange experiences. Sure enough, his stand-up reflects that perfectly.

On the face of it, there’s not much to the mild anecdotes he recounts, but his amiable vulnerability combined with the vivid pictures he conjures up with apparently little effort make him an engaging raconteur who’s reliably funny, even though it can be hard to pinpoint exactly why.

Jarred Christmas - Live Review

Jarred Christmas played a blinder tonight, unafraid to burst out of the wings and immediately start playing with the audience in rather the same way a cat may play with a mouse – all very jolly, but with no doubt who’s in charge, as he unequivocally proved when one heckler dared to question Christmas’s sartorial taste.

Though his ribald banter injected much-needed spontaneity into the night, Christmas also had the material to back it up, with hilarious riffs on his surname and the military might of his native New Zealand, both of which took unexpected turns and added further zing to an already effervescent set. Impressive stuff.

Zoe Lyons - Live Review

Zoe Lyons has pitch-perfect delivery with all the technical skills, cheery grumpiness and straight-to-the-point premises that have served generations of Northern comics. She hasn’t always got the most distinctive material, but there are some rock-solid gags here, and her effortless likeability gets her a very long way.

Pat Burtscher - Live Review

Pat Burtscher struggled to fully engage the audience. He’s a relaxed Canadian stand-up – perhaps a little too relaxed, as he seemed singularly unconcerned that his set-ups were hopelessly windy, with far too much flannel before he even approached the punchline.

Yes, we all know bawling babies are an annoyance on flights – so the quicker he could get round to his witty solution, the better. Ultimately, his ideas are inventive and funny; but he needs some focus to make the most of them.

Elizabeth Mee - Live Review

Elizabeth Mee admits she’s a stereotype: middle-aged and upper-middle-class, she’s Radio 4 in human form, and makes predictable references to Agas and children named Hermione.

Though inexperienced, she’s an elegant performer, with a warm RP accent that could guarantee her a career as a voiceover artiste, and a poised, controlled delivery. Stylish gags pepper the set, if not quite frequently enough, but the writing lacks depth, neither advance nor subvert her personality beyond the obvious caricature. But it’s a good starting point.

Rhona McKenzie - Live Review

Relative newcomer Rhona McKenzie offers an earthy set, with cheap-laugh references to the likes of camel toes, overgrown bushes and big pants, which she’s not slow in showing us. It’s about as original as it is subtle, though McKenzie’s certainly got lots of personality in delivering it. But gags about lies on dating ads – ‘cuddly’ = ‘fat’ for example – are as old as the hills.

Tania Edwards - Live Review

Tania Edwards has a beautifully natural style and poise on stage, with an unpretentious, chatty style you can’t help but to warm to.

Unfortunately, she’s used that to take some liberties with her writing, which can be unfocussed, as she talks around the subject of making a few too many sexual mistakes.

She hits her stride after a while, though, and nails a succinct, funny line about premature ejaculation before an engaging story about a pointless lie she told to a Waitrose checkout girl. There’s not quite enough meat to her material, but top marks for relaxed presentation.

Marie Vagen - Live Review

One’s a Norwegian, the other is a British Muslim from Pakistani parents, but from the very first line, it’s impossible not to draw comparisons between newcomer Marie Vagen and Shazia Mirza. Their cadence is almost identical, the dry deadpan, phrased with mechanical deliberation and dripping with contempt.

Vagen’s material is left brutally exposed by this pattern – predictable shtick about inbreeding and drunkenness (and that was just the children!!) in her homeland. A line or two, even from such uninspired beginnings, hint at potential for more, but it’s thin pickings at the moment.

Miss London - Live Review

Claudia Wass

‘Single ladies MAKE SOME NOISE!’ As feisty as they come, high-impact Miss London – the alter-ego of 20-year-old Dionne Hughes – bursts on to the stage with attitude so in-your-face you can’t ignore it.

Her aggressive stance is such that she sneers at ugly boys who dare to talk to her on the dance floor and orders us to clap at routines she insists are worthy.

Slipping in phrases from both African and Caribbean cultures, she demands that we enjoy her through sheer force of personality alone.

Closer analysis might reveal a lack of substance beneath all this front, but for a short set she injects such energy into the room that it’s hard to resist.

Charlie Covell - Live Review

Though primarily an actor, the dry and quirky newcomer Charlie Covell shows considerable promise as a stand-up, despite some faltering first steps. Her opening remarks about feeling neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, but perfectly ‘whelmed’ had an air of familiarity, while her next topic – finding no lock on a public toilet door – must be one of the most common for new act to explore.

But she took the material down an unexpected route, much to her credit. There is much to enjoy in her tales of teenage angst, too, not least the dreadful poetry she reads.

Some of the gags need to be sharper, but while Covell isn't the most polished act, she is a potentially interesting one.

Eve Webster - Live Review

Eve Webster is an impressionist with a definite knack for voices, which is the least you can expect from the job description.

As with most exponents of the genre, there’s a chuckle of recognition for each accurate impersonation that’s recognised – but equally no ambition in writing beyond ‘imagine if Ann Widdecombe were on the X-Factor’ or ‘Mrs Thatcher (topical!) on Loose Women.

Her repertoire includes Joanna Lumley, Charlotte Church and Barbara Windsor, and she’s not going to let the fact she has no reason to launch into any of the voices stop her from doing so.

Such old-fashioned shtick didn’t interest me in the least, but the volume of the ovation at the end of her routine is proof that she’s a clear audience favourite.