Ben Clover

Ben Clover

Clover was born in Lewisham, south east London and studied history at York University, where he started writing plays. After graduating he worked in a variety of jobs including as a postman, on the Cutty Sark, and as a reporter for the South London Press. As a stand-up he was a finalist in the 2013 Laughing Horse New Act Of The Year competition.
Read More

Ben Clover: Oh Nyeah Yeah!

Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Ben Clover is an inventive and savvy writer of short chunks of stand-up, but in Oh Nyeah Yeah! he struggles to build up enough momentum for this to feel like a rewarding show.

Partly that’s because there’s no narrative or thematic drive, partly it’s because he frequently breaks out of material to chat with the audience, apros pro of nothing much. He’s not bad at the bantz, but it adds to the granular feel of the hour, as does his insistence on offering a thinking-aloud commentary on how he thinks the gig is going.

His two children provide the closest thing to a thread. His daughter named the show, and there's a good routine about her saying not so much the funniest things but the most disconcerting. First words, the debate over smacking and pocket money offer other gags or witty vignettes from his life. 

As with other material, there’s often a dark edge to some of this, lest it threaten to become cutesy. He’s got a keen eye for an original analogy, too, which deploys across the hour, and even when he’s on previously trodden ground – such as online product reviews – he usually finds something worth saying.  

Observations about lockdown and irritating pub apps are the exception, even if the latter leads him down a peculiar path he doesn’t quite sell the train of thought successfully.

The upshot is this feels like one of those shows that’s an excellent 20-minute club set – where little consideration of anything beyond ‘how funny’s this bit?’ is required – with a bit of less certain material and a lot of crowd work.

• Ben Clover: Oh Nyeah Yeah! is on at the Laughing Horse at the Hanover Tap at 4.30pm until August 29.

Read More

Published: 19 Aug 2021

Past Shows

Edinburgh Fringe 2014

Return to Superglad


Edinburgh Fringe 2015

Read All About It!


Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Ben Clover: Best Newcomer


Agent

We do not currently hold contact details for Ben Clover's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.