Carey Marx: Intensive Carey
Radio preview by Steve Bennett
31/12/2015 … Carey Marx finally gets his own Radio 4 show – and all it took is a heart attack.
2015 Reviews
Here are our reviews of comedy Gigs
Thu 31 December 2015
Thu 24 December 2015
© BBC/King Bert Walliams And Friend
24/12/2015 … If you are going to emulate a mainstream Christmas show of a former era, you may as well go for one of the biggest.
Tue 22 December 2015
© BBC/Endemol Shine UK We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story
22/12/2015 … This is W1A, 1967-style… in which a fearful BBC, riven by internal divisions, doesn't quite put its faith in the talent – and only narrowly avoided killing…
Trevor Noah: Lost In Translation
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Hammersmith Apollo
22/12/2015 … Trevor Noah is the guy who has made The Daily Show– like The Simpsons and Viz – officially ‘not as good as it used to be’.
Fri 18 December 2015
Lewis Schaffer: You Are Beautiful
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Museum Of Comedy, London
18/12/2015 … Lewis Schaffer has built his reputation (‘career’ seems too formal a word) on being a cranky master of chaos, confounding and amusing in equal measure with…
Thu 17 December 2015
Margaret Cho: The PsyCHO Tou
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Square Theatre, London
17/12/2015 … Frank, fearless and outspoken, these are the words that attach themselves easily to Margaret Cho; and she earns them again in The PsyCHO Tour.
© C4/Angus Young Peep Show final episode
17/12/2015 … So, after 13 years Mark and Jez are back where they started, single, jobless and stuck in the same flat, bound in a reluctant codependency because they have run…
Wed 16 December 2015
Muff
Online sitcom reviewed by Steve Bennett
16/12/2015 … MUFF, the new independently-made sitcom from Daniel Sloss and others, certainly wears its intensity and its peculiarities on its sleeve.
Sat 12 December 2015
Hari Kondabolu
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
12/12/2015 … In his first UK gigs in almost five years, New Yorker Hari Kondabolu promises a mix of the old, the new, and stuff he wrote on the plane over.
Graeme Of Thrones
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Square Theatre, London
12/12/2015 … Allegedly, knowledge of HBO’s sprawling fantasy epic is not necessary to enjoy Graeme Of Thrones – though it absolutely is.
Fri 11 December 2015
Kim Noble: You're Not Alone
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
11/12/2015 … It’s hard to overstate how challenging Kim Noble’s shows can be.
Bill Bailey: Limboland
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Vaudeville Theatre, London
11/12/2015 … When a death metal version of Candle In The Wind is followed by the line: ‘Now I love birdwatching…’ you know you can only be in a Bill Bailey show.
Thu 10 December 2015
Hunderby returns
10/12/2015 … Three years have passed since the show was on air, but in Hunderby it has been barely months.
Wed 09 December 2015
Sky Arts Christmas Comedy Shorts
09/12/2015 … Comedians are a cynical bunch, judging from a batch of 12 Christmas shorts unveiled by Sky Arts today.
Weirdos For Christmas No 1
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Grotto @ The HoHo Theatre, London
09/12/2015 … Here’s a shock… this year’s panto from the ever-growing Weirdos collective of comedy circuit oddballs has gone all conventional – and used an actual Christmas…
Tue 08 December 2015
Laughing Horse Comedian Of The Year 2015
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Dogstar, Brixton
08/12/2015 … The Laughing Horse Comedian Of The Year is the third new act final in two weeks, following the Leicester Square Theatre’s showcase last Sunday and the Jewish…
Fri 04 December 2015
Patrice O’Neil: The Lost Files
04/12/2015 … It's revealing to be reviewing a Patrice O'Neal album in the same week as Dapper Laughs' DVD, for the late American comedian tells sexist, and even racist, jokes…
Thu 03 December 2015
Giants
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Pleasance Islington
03/12/2015 … Here's one for the Odd One Out round: Ian Hislop watching a new studenty sketch group in a cosy studio theatre.
Mon 30 November 2015
Dapper Laughs Live: The Res-Erection
30/11/2015 … Whoever would have thought the guy who made idiotic, laddish Vine videos lasting no more than six seconds would ever have his own full-length stand-up DVD? But…
Scottish Comedian Of The Year 2015 final
Gig review by Jay Richardson at the Spiegeltent, Edinburgh
30/11/2015 … All change for the 2015 Scottish Comedian of the Year final, staged outside of Glasgow for the first time in its decade-long history.
Leicester Square Comedian Of The Year 2015 final
30/11/2015 … It was a cavalcade of funny foreigners, both actual and fictitious at the Leicester Square New Comedian Of The Year.
Wed 25 November 2015
Pajama Men: 2 Man 3 Musketeers
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
25/11/2015 … Not just three musketeers, Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen double-handedly create a cast of dozens, from camp centaurs to bewildered audience members, birds of prey…
Mon 23 November 2015
Bridget Christie: A Book For Her
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Square Theatre, London
23/11/2015 … No one has done as much to bring feminism to the forefront of comedy than Bridget Christie, so it’s no surprise that she’s not tinkering too much with the winning…
Sat 21 November 2015
BBC New Comedy Award Final 2015
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Comedy Store, London
21/11/2015 … If performing live to 7.
Cape Town Comedy Festival in London
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London
21/11/2015 … The South African comedy on display at this London showcase hasn't travelled all that well, with too many gags relying on reference points, slang or other particular…
Thu 19 November 2015
Loyiso Gola: Tall Tales
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
19/11/2015 … Perhaps it’s apt for a comedian from the Rainbow nation of so many different groups and 11 official languages, but Loyiso Gola’s show is bitty in tone and…
Mon 16 November 2015
Entertainment
16/11/2015 … The grim, twisted figure of Neil Hamburger is a favourite of comedy festivals and hip venues; a repulsive man with sour jokes unsmilingly whined out through a fug…
Sat 14 November 2015
Tom Holmes: Die Doing What You Love
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Square Theatre
14/11/2015 … Stop the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Fri 13 November 2015
Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes in the West End
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Vaudeville Theatre
13/11/2015 … She called her show 30 Million Minutes to mark how long she's been alive, but Dawn French has been on the road with her autobiographical anecdotes for so long that…
Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes
13/11/2015 … She called her show 30 Million Minutes to mark how long she’s been alive, but Dawn French has been on the road with her autobiographical anecdotes for so long…
Thu 12 November 2015
© Steve Ullathorne Tuesday's Tickles
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Taurus Bar, Manchester
12/11/2015 … Promising up-and-comer Penella Mellor (pictured) makes no bones about the fact that this one-off that she's organised for the last night of the Greater Manchester…
Wed 11 November 2015
© C4/Angus Young Peep Show
Series 9 Episode 1 reviewed by Steve Bennett
11/11/2015 … A lot has been written about the last Peep Show series… and with good reason.
© BBC/Des Willie Josh: Episode 1
11/11/2015 … Telly commissioners always say they’re seeking distinctive voices in sitcom – and we’ve got a lot of them that fit that bill.
Tue 10 November 2015
Beat The Frog World Series Final 2015
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Frog & Bucket, Manchester
10/11/2015 … The Beat The Frog World Series line-ups are always a miscellany.
Mon 09 November 2015
Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
09/11/2015 … ‘This is not stand-up comedy,’ avant-garde diva Penny Arcade declares.
Alfie Brown: -ism
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
09/11/2015 … Over the past handful of years Alfie Brown’s forged a reputation for being a smart, opinionated, contrarian full of firm beliefs, if sometimes difficult and intense…
Wed 04 November 2015
Kieran Hodgson: Lance
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Invisible Dot, London
04/11/2015 … Nostalgic biographical comedies are all the rage on the TV at the moment, and in that sepia-tinted spirit Kieran Hodgson takes us all the way back to the halcyon…
Thu 29 October 2015
© BBC Detectorists: Series 2
29/10/2015 … Have they got a bit more budget for the second series of Detectorists? The opening episode starts with a historical battle… a big set piece that only serves to…
Festival Of The Spoken Nerd: Just For Graphs
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Newbury Corn Exchange
29/10/2015 … For anyone who watches – or remembers – the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, the Festival Of The Spoken Nerd shows will strike a familiar tone as the amiable…
Tue 27 October 2015
© C4 Catastrophe: Series 2
27/10/2015 … Commissioned in double-quick time, the second series of Catastrophe shows no signs of letting up: not on the brutal true-to-life comedy, nor on the agony Sharon…
Mon 26 October 2015
Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse: Legends
26/10/2015 … Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s tour is a tug-of-war between nostalgia and relevance.
Fri 23 October 2015
Brand: A Second Coming
Movie review by Jay Richardson
23/10/2015 … Excess has been a recurring feature in Russell Brand's life.
Frankie Boyle: Hurt Like You've Never Been Loved
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend
23/10/2015 … So, he’s the crass comedian who says appalling things about paedophiles, cancer and Madelaine McCann to prompt a reaction.
Thu 22 October 2015
Sofie Hagen Bubblewrap
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Brighton Comedy Festival
22/10/2015 … Early last year, Sofie Hagen had the sort of personal awakening that might be a Hollywood screenwriter’s wet dream.
Fred Macaulay: Twenty Fifteen
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Brighton Comedy Festival
22/10/2015 … If the title of Fred Macaulay’s tour, Twenty Fifteen, sounds ambiguously non-committal, well that’s only because it reflects the imprecise focus of the show…
Wed 21 October 2015
Stories For The Starlit Sky: Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn
21/10/2015 … ‘It’s value for money,’ Daniel Kitson tells the audience in the preamble to Stories For The Starlit Sky trilogy.
Fri 16 October 2015
Superbob
16/10/2015 … Well, this is certainly a very British take on the superhero movie.
Aaaaaaaah!
16/10/2015 … In his directorial debut, Sightseers star Steve Oram delivers a remarkable film that satirises human behaviour with apeshit craziness.
Patrick Kielty: Help
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Brighton Comedy Festival
16/10/2015 … Let’s start at the end.
Thu 15 October 2015
Gary McNair: Donald Robertson is Not a Stand Up Comedian
Theatre review by Steve Bennett at Oxford North Wall Arts Centre
15/10/2015 … Donald Robertson Is Not A Stand-Up Comedian, and nor is Gary McNair, the creator of this theatre/comedy hybrid that examines why on earth people would ever think…
Wed 14 October 2015
Hannibal Buress: Comedy Camisado tour
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Forum, Lonodn
14/10/2015 … Hannibal Buress hasn’t been in the UK for three years.
Sat 10 October 2015
Brighton Comedy Festival 2015 gala
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Brighton Dome
10/10/2015 … The Brighton Comedy Festival opening gala is usually a star-studded affair, as both compere and headliner alluded to.
Fri 09 October 2015
Tue 06 October 2015
Glitchy
Preview of ITV2's new hidden camera/sketch hybrid
06/10/2015 … TV loves a hidden camera show, but ITV2's latest offering, Glitchy, promises something different, combining the stunts with parodies of familiar programmes more…
Mon 05 October 2015
Weird Al Yankovic: Mandatory Fun
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Hammersmith Apollo
05/10/2015 … ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic doesn’t do cool.
Sat 03 October 2015
Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Glee, Birmingham
03/10/2015 … Another night, another new(ish) act final.
Fri 02 October 2015
© BBC/Gary Moyes The Kennedys
02/10/2015 … Ever since the runaway success of the retro-feeling Mrs Brown's Boys, the BBC seems to be looking backwards for its mainstream sitcoms.
Michael McIntyre: Happy & Glorious
02/10/2015 … The most common criticism of Michael McIntyre’s brand of observational comedy is that since it’s pointing out the obvious, anyone can do it.
Thu 01 October 2015
John Finnemore's Souvenir Cabin
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Shaw Theatre, London
01/10/2015 … The transition from Radio 4 to the stage is against the usual direction of travel.
Wed 30 September 2015
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical
West End review by Steve Bennett at the Apollo Theatre
30/09/2015 … Showstopper! might be the only West End show you ever need.
Sean Hughes: Mumbo Jumbo
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn
30/09/2015 … After a couple of heavily-themed stand-up shows, Sean Hughes returns to the stage with a more casual affair of loose stories, poems, and a bit of political musing…
Tue 29 September 2015
Stewart Lee: Room With A Stew
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Square Theatre
29/09/2015 … 'No one's equipped to review me,' Stewart Lee asserts with his usual mix of certainty and superiority – guaranteeing this very same line will kick-start a dozen…
Mon 28 September 2015
Paul Chowdhry: PC's World
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Hammersmith Apollo
28/09/2015 … He's recording his second DVD in his third sold-out night at the Hammersmith Apollo, so Paul Chowdhry must be doing something right.
Fri 25 September 2015
Comedy Knights Comedian Of The Year
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Hackney Attic
25/09/2015 … It’s a competition final, but, initially at least, there’s not much sense of occasion to this Comedy Knights gig.
Mon 21 September 2015
Mark Thomas: Trespass
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Greenwich Comedy Festival
21/09/2015 … On the face of it, land ownership seems a dry subject for an hour of comedy.
Magners New Comedy Act Final
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Greenwich Comedy Festival
21/09/2015 … The latest competition for new comedians has one of the shortest journeys from sign-up to victory.
Sat 19 September 2015
Omid Djalii etc at Greenwich Comedy Festival
Greenwich Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
19/09/2015 … Zero stars for the food stall that takes more than 20 minutes to get a bag of chips.
Fri 18 September 2015
Bill
18/09/2015 … The co-writer of Bill, Laurence Rickard, has been quoted as saying he hoped to created something ‘half as good as Shakespeare In Love’ with this feature-film…
Tue 15 September 2015
Kevin Bridges: A Whole Different Story
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Hammersmith Apollo
15/09/2015 … As Jeremy Corbyn takes an entirely predictable kicking at the hands of the mainstream press, he might take solace from Kevin Bridges.
Thu 10 September 2015
Rotters on Sky Arts
10/09/2015 … The latest in Sky Arts’ Playhouse Presents… season couldn’t hope for a better cast, with three out of the last four Edinburgh Comedy Award winners.
Sat 05 September 2015
Marc Maron
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the South Bank Centre, London
05/09/2015 … He’s now hanging out with presidents on a podcast that’s brought him success on his own terms after three decades of desperation and self-destruction.
Thu 03 September 2015
Boy Meets Girl
03/09/2015 … Forget the long set-ups; the premise for Boy Meets Girl is established in six words before the credits roll: Two people on a date and the woman confides: ‘I was…
© BBC/ ITV Cradle Ltd/Matt Squire Cradle To Grave
03/09/2015 … Peter Kay involved in some 1970s nostalgia? Surely not!His casting in Cradle To Grave, the sitcom based on Danny Baker’s teenage years in Bermondsey, is probably…
Misery Loves Comedy
03/09/2015 … You might remember Kevin Pollak from the 2005 film The Aristocrats, in which he impersonated Christopher Walken telling a version of the infamously filthy joke.
Tue 01 September 2015
228 comedy reviews from the Edinburgh Fringe
01/09/2015 … Funz and Gamez Tooz James Acaster: Represent Joe Lycett: That's The Way, A-Ha A-Ha, Joe Lycett John Robins: Speakeasy Kieran Hodgson: Lance Mae Martin:…
Jordan Brookes: Adventures In Limited Space
Edinburgh Fringe review by Steve Bennett
01/09/2015 … Had it not been for his nomination for a Comedians’ Choice award, Jordan Brookes might have flown under the radar completely this Fringe.
Mon 31 August 2015
Routines
31/08/2015 … Every year there seems to be at least one Fringe play set in the green room of a comedy club, but Routines is a rather different prospect.
Seymour Mace: Niche As F*ck!
31/08/2015 … The day after the Foster’s award nominations come out, there’s an elephant in Stand 2.
Kyle Kinane: Ghost Pizza Party
31/08/2015 … At a strip club, being thrown out of a country for a drink-driving conviction, being stoned off his tits at work and abusing an animal… these are the settings…
Eleanor Tiernan: Don't Cry For Me Eleanor Tiernan
31/08/2015 … There’s a story in Don’t Cry For Me Eleanor Tiernan when she recounts appearing on a daytime TV show in Ireland, during which the subject of the horse-meat…
© Idil Sukan/Draw HQ Phil Nichol: I Don't Want To Talk About It
31/08/2015 … ‘Crazy Uncle Phil’ fires straight out the blocks with the supercharged, head-spinning frenetic energy we’ve come to expect, covering more ground in the first…
Cassandra: Mary Canary
31/08/2015 … Decent magic tricks are packed up in an unedifying stream of cheap, lazy sex gags in this largely wit-free character-cabaret hybrid.
John-Luke Roberts: Stdad-Up
31/08/2015 … Making jokes about ‘dead dad’ Edinburgh shows is probably more of a cliche than the emotive shows themselves these days.
© Mark Dawson Photography Marny Godden: Flap 'Em On The Gate
31/08/2015 … Marny Godden is an intriguing prospect, reminiscent at her best of the insane, surreal intensity of Matt Lucas’s George Dawes, but ultimately pole-axed by her…
Jack Heal: Frankenstein's Love Monster
31/08/2015 … Jack Heal is the forgotten winner of the Chortle Student Comedy Award, triumphing over someone called Simon Bird back in 2008.
Joz Norris: Hey Guys!
31/08/2015 … It might be the garish Hawaiian shirt or the bold red-rimmed glasses – but there’s something a bit Timmy Mallett about Joz Norris.
Seymour Stiffs: The Undertaker
31/08/2015 … You don’t get many comedy characters with such a strong image as this.
The Story Beast
31/08/2015 … Once upon a time, a bedraggled, sweaty man charged into a darkened room, shirt falling off his sizeable body, grubby raincoat billowing behind him, and instantly…
James Farmer: Ulitmate Worrier
31/08/2015 … This is one of those Edinburgh debuts that’s probably more for the performer’s development than it is for the audience.
© BBC/Balloon Entertainment/Colin Hutton An Evening with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse
31/08/2015 … After last year’s brilliant Story Of The Twos to mark BBC Two’s 50th birthday, Harry and Paul return to the channel to honour another great institution: themselves.
Sun 30 August 2015
Stuart Goldsmith: An Hour
30/08/2015 … Stuart Goldsmith’s been coming to the Fringe for 21 years, first as street performer, now as a comic, and latterly as acclaimed podcast host, too.
Tobias Persson And The Drivel Rights Movement
30/08/2015 … We journalists frequently bemoan the lack of Fringe shows tackling the big, topical issues, especially when they pertain directly to comedy.
John Hastings: Marked From The Start
30/08/2015 … Perhaps ironically for someone who suffers from the coordination disorder dyspraxia, the word that best describes John Hastings’ work is neat.
Imagine There's No Ben Target
30/08/2015 … Just imagine there was no Ben Target.
Have A Word
30/08/2015 … Abbie Murphy is in the slightly odd position of having created a credible and memorable character, nominated for the Amused Moose award no less, but after two Edinburgh…
Tom Ballard: Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred
30/08/2015 … On balance, 2015 has been a positive year for gay equality, with great strides made in Ireland and the US.
Al Porter Is Yours
30/08/2015 … Should Graham Norton vanish in mysterious circumstances, detectives should pay a visit to Al Porter, since he’d have the most to gain should a vacancy unexpectedly…
Sat 29 August 2015
Lazy Susan: Double Act
29/08/2015 … Though performed very simply, Lazy Susan have cinematic aspirations for their show.
Bobby Mair: Filthy Immigrant
29/08/2015 … Bobby Mair says it himself and he’s right – performing at the Hive suits him.
Alex Smith: The Art Of Grooming
29/08/2015 … With his slicked-high hair and natty, tartan three piece suit, Alex Smith cuts an incongruously dapper figure in his grimy rock bar venue.
Oh Hello!
29/08/2015 … A tour-de-force performance by Jamie Rees captures the complex eccentricities of a comedy hero in this affectionate one-man portrait of Carry On star Charles Hawtrey.
Garrett Millerick: A Selection Of Things I\'ve Said To Taxi Drivers
29/08/2015 … Few comics put as much into their performance as Garrett Millerick, commanding the room with his loud, supercharged energy and extravagant oratory.
Amir Khoshsokhan: Milk And Hedgehogs
29/08/2015 … I don’t know how or when Amir Khoshsokhan came to decide upon his onstage persona, but it was a pretty perverse decision.
Ahir Shah: Distant
29/08/2015 … New-generation leftie polemicist Ahir Shah rages against global iniquity with a poetic passion.
Fri 28 August 2015
Lydia King: A Date With Destiny
28/08/2015 … Lydia King promises an hour of smut and silliness, which is pretty much what she delivers, probably more the former than the latter in this musical comedy trip…
Huntingdon &Hutt: Insignificant Other
28/08/2015 … Fruitfully exploring the comedic tension of platonic friendship, James Huntington and Joanna Hutt describe themselves as each other's insignificant other.
© Ben Carpenter Beasts: Live DVD
28/08/2015 … In Beasts, a rambunctious orgy of slapstick food fights, boisterous nudity, high-energy dancing and silly prop work tumbles across the stage and into the audience…
Ian Smith: Whereabouts
28/08/2015 … Ian Smith has a delightfully descriptive turn of phrase and loves a good callback, two talents which elevate his amiable hour of anecdotes above the norm among other…
Lou Conran: Small Medium At Large
28/08/2015 … By this fatigued state of the Fringe, there must be a lot of comedians convinced they are communicating with dead people every night.
© Steve Ullathorne So You Think You're Funny? Final 2015
28/08/2015 … There was a strong showing at this year's So You Think You're Funny final, with the most established of the new act contests presenting a cryptic snapshot…
Thu 27 August 2015
Danielle Ward: Dani Frankenstein
27/08/2015 … Dani Frankenstein is a masculine-feminist hip-hop act trying to break into the lucrative K-Pop market.
Jimmy McGhie: Winged Goddess Of Victory
27/08/2015 … Ostensibly a show about a comic in his mid-thirties belatedly shaping up, Jimmy McGhie opens by recalling the last time he took cocaine, a drug that never did much…
Larry Dean: Out Now!
27/08/2015 … It took Larry Dean until he was 23 to come out to his parents – long after he revealed his sexuality on stage at his first, bruising comedy gig.
David Elms: Mister Boy
27/08/2015 … David Elms may be a guitar-carrying comic, but his style is less wannabe-rock-god than tender acoustic singer-songwriter.
Alex Williamson: That Guy From The Internet
27/08/2015 … One of the worst shows I’ve ever seen.
Mike Wozniak: One Man Dad Cat Band
27/08/2015 … Mike Wozniak’s ‘shaggy cat story’ is another engaging yarn of the festering frustrations of a mild-mannered man trying to do the right thing, with increasingly…
Laura Lexx: Lovely
27/08/2015 … You can’t accuse Laura Lexx of false advertising.
Chris Turner: XXV
27/08/2015 … With a surprisingly complementary mix of personal medical history and improvised rap, XXV is both fearlessly intimate and assuredly showy.
Elf Lyons: Being Barbarella
27/08/2015 … Sexually empowered, independent and an ass-kicker, cult comic book heroine Barbarella is everything Elf Lyons aspires to be.
Wed 26 August 2015
Chortle Student Comedy Award Final
26/08/2015 … In his preamble, Chortle Student Comedy Award host Mark Watson perfectly captures the nerves of the finalists, the inevitable disappointment for the majority of…
© Steve Ullathorne Dane Baptiste: Reasonable Doubts
26/08/2015 … Last year, Dane Baptiste pretty much nailed the ‘this is who I am’ debut, with a slick, award-nominated offering about his relatively cosseted life and his…
Floe-Joe's Faces
26/08/2015 … When more than half an audience, including this reviewer, willingly joins a performer on stage to pop and lock, vogue and twerk, that's usually an indication of…
Nick Doody: T'ai-Po
26/08/2015 … Nick Doody’s not an especially fashionable comic.
Michael Che: Six Stars
26/08/2015 … By his own admission, Michael Che didn’t need to come to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Tue 25 August 2015
Nathan Cassidy: Back To The Future II
25/08/2015 … Nathan Cassidy has a difficult gig tonight.
Bridget Christie: A Book For Her
25/08/2015 … Two years on from winning the Foster’s Best Comedy award, Bridget Christie is keeping her foot on the gas, and on the throat of her political enemies.
Gyles Brandreth: Word Power!
25/08/2015 … Gyles Brandreth has been researching this beautifully enunciated love letter to the English language for nigh-on half a century.
Mick Ferry Is Just A Bloke
25/08/2015 … Taking his show title from a review on this website, skewed to sound more negative than it was, Mick Ferry adopts a couldn't-care-less insouciance that can occasionally…
Jessie Cave: I Loved Her
25/08/2015 … Quirk and charm are Jessie Cave’s stocks-in-trade, but the former Harry Potter star has a very sobering story to tell in her new show: The one-night stand that…
Mon 24 August 2015
Horne Section's Questions Sessions
24/08/2015 … It combines the three greatest forms of live entertainment: comedy, music, and quizzes, so The Horne Section’s latest format should be a guaranteed big-hitter.
Caimh McDonnell: Bride And Prejudice
24/08/2015 … Caimh McDonnell successfully mastered the difficult dance between a straightforward crowd delighting, God-I’m-so-Irish stand-up show and the critic-assuaging…
Michael Legge: Tell It Like It Is, Steve
24/08/2015 … It’s an artistic rite that’s helped inspire the muse in authors from Byron to Hemingway; to escape to some corner of a foreign land to focus on their work.
Rob Auton: The Water Show
24/08/2015 … Free-flowing, versatile, transparent but elusive, and covering almost everything on Earth, Rob Auton has chosen an apt preoccupation for his latest eccentric, high-concept…
Steve Hall: Zebra
24/08/2015 … With the rest of his We Are Klang compadres, Steve Hall was once one of the biggest draws on the Fringe.
Tiff Stevenson: Mad Man
24/08/2015 … With the gender pay gap and music videos still pandering to male fantasies of lipstick lesbians, this remains very much a man's world, as if conceived by some Madison…
Hal Cruttenden: Straight Outta Cruttenden
24/08/2015 … Hal Cruttenden is on a mission to prove that he’s an angry, politicised comedian, even if you would never think it from his camp, smiley demeanour.
James Acaster: Represent
24/08/2015 … He’s a serial award nominee for the Edinburgh Comedy Award, but never yet the winner, so no wonder James Acaster’s mind has been drawn to the world of jury deliberations……
Sun 23 August 2015
The Gideon & Hubcap Show
23/08/2015 … If there was an Edinburgh prize for ‘show with the most hipster sensibilities’ – as there surely one day will, given that there’s an award for everything…
Roland Gent: Rock 'N' Roll Radio Idiot
23/08/2015 … Roland Gent is a real-life Barry Shitpeas, the spoof talking head micro-celebrity from Charlie Brooker's Wipe shows.
© Sun Lee Mae Martin: Us
23/08/2015 … Introspection isn’t normally so warm and jolly as this.
© Seth Olenick Jena Friedman: American C*nt
23/08/2015 … 'I have trust issues,' Jena Friedman says of herself about her relationships; though it could also apply to her comedy, as she doesn't entirely seem to trust her…
Sat 22 August 2015
Brydie Lee-Kennedy Loves You Too
22/08/2015 … A good show in search of an audience.
Angela Barnes: Come As You Are
22/08/2015 … A show of two unequal halves, this.
Andrew Ryan: Perfectly Inadequate
22/08/2015 … Hitherto an engaging storyteller with a natural, roguish charm, Andrew Ryan has lately added more of an irritable streak to his style.
Matt Winning: Mugabe And Me (3D)
22/08/2015 … Matt Winning certainly shows commitment to a joke.
Sarah Kendall: A Day In October
22/08/2015 … Sarah Kendall delivers a spellbinding hour that begins with plenty of laughs, thanks to her ease and likeability that puts the audience immediately in their comfortable…
Alex Edelman: Everything Handed To You
22/08/2015 … Last year Alex Edelman bagged the best newcomer award, and he might well be catching the eye of the Foster's awards panel again this year, with his seriously strong…
Pierre Novellie is Anxious Peter
22/08/2015 … Pierre Novellie’s show is about anxiety.
Fri 21 August 2015
Julian Deane
21/08/2015 … There’s no clue from the title of Julian Deane’s show nor the Fringe website what his show is about, and if you’ve seen him before you might reasonably expect…
Mark Forward Presents Mark Forward
21/08/2015 … No one does whimsy like Mark Forward.
Joel Dommett: Conquer
21/08/2015 … It may be the Free Festival, but this show felt like An Event from the get-go.
James Christopher's Annual Cry For Help
21/08/2015 … Where to start? Two shows in one with almost nothing to commend either of them.
© Steve Ullathorne Suzy Bennett: Gumption!
21/08/2015 … Leaving an unhealthy relationship takes some gumption, says Suzy Bennett, but not as much as attempting to reconnect with the friends she lost touch with during…
When The Sh*t Hits The Fan
21/08/2015 … Sisters Lauretta and Sharon Gavin – aka Gavin & Gavin – have not appeared as a sketch duo on the Fringe for half a dozen years.
Wee Man Syndrome
21/08/2015 … Just as Michael Pennington created a monster with Johnny Vegas, Neil Bratchpiece's personality has been subsumed into his character The Wee Man, a trigger-tempered…
Thu 20 August 2015
© Sun Lee Luke McQueen: Double Act
20/08/2015 … There’s a desperation to Luke McQueen’s comedy that is reminiscent of Nick Helm.
Funz And Gamez Tooz
20/08/2015 … After their unexpected award-winning cult success last year, the FAGZ team of Phil Ellis, Bonzo The Dog and Jim the Elf are and back ‘to ruin all the goodwill…
Erich McElroy's Imperfect Guide To Picking The Perfect President
20/08/2015 … So intense is US media coverage of next year's presidential election already that Erich McElroy seems positively tardy in performing this show a mere 15 months…
Andrew Lawrence: Uncensored
20/08/2015 … He’s probably Britain’s most reviled comic, at least among other comics.
David Tsonos: Walking The Cat
20/08/2015 … Talking about your pet cat for an hour and making it funny is quite impressive, unless you’re playing to an entire audience of feline haters.
The Man Called Monkhouse
20/08/2015 … Bob Monkhouse’s reputation has undergone a reinvention since his death in 2003.
Sean McLoughlin: Whatever It Takes
20/08/2015 … Fate has most definitely crapped on Sean McLoughlin in the last 12 months.
Aidan Strangeman: Horsey
20/08/2015 … It makes a lot of sense that Aidan Strangeman used to be a singer-songwriter.
Pat Cahill: Panjandrum
20/08/2015 … The smaller room at the Hive already has the feel of an Anderson shelter, which gives Pat Cahill's wartime themed show an extra authenticity.
Laurence Owen: Cinemusical
20/08/2015 … The speakeasy at the Voodoo Rooms really is a gorgeous room for a show: a little bit jazzy, a little bit sexy – and Laurence Owen has a show befitting of the…
Wed 19 August 2015
Franks and Skinner Present Myself and Myself
19/08/2015 … The voice of Frank Skinner tells the audience that this show is definitely not about him.
Lucy Frederick: In The Wild
19/08/2015 … Plummy and 'quite posh', it's little surprise to learn that Lucy Frederick was a member of The Pony Club.
Ed Gamble: Lawman
19/08/2015 … Ed Gamble’s enjoyable sophomore solo show is about how he’s a stickler for the rules, and he certainly adheres to the comedy rule of start strong, end strong.
Charmian Hughes: When Comedy Was Alternative
19/08/2015 … In her story about the origins of alternative comedy, Charmian Hughes takes us back more than 30 years, when she stood in front of rooms full of people and struggled…
The Pin: Ten Seconds With The Pin
19/08/2015 … A strange night at the office for sketch boffs The Pin.
Matt Reed: Stalked
19/08/2015 … The word 'stalker' is bandied about a bit too casually in comedy, as it is in life, usually to mean some unwarranted attention.
Ali Brice presents: Eric Meat Has No Proof, Only Memories of Pasta
19/08/2015 … The smaller room at The Hive really is becoming the spiritual home of lunacy.
Mat Ewins: Day Job
19/08/2015 … Mat Ewins’ character comedy showcase is a car crash of a show.
TV review: Top Coppers
With John Kearns and Steen Raskopoulos
19/08/2015 … Top Coppers invites comparisons with Naked Gun – or more specifically the Police Squad TV series that inspired the movie franchise.
Tom Binns: The Club Sets
19/08/2015 … Tom Binns says he wants to pay tribute to the variety bills that were on TV in his youth, and true to his word he’s created a one-man Seaside Special – Roger…
John Robins: Speakeasy
19/08/2015 … He’s a cocky bugger onstage, is John Robins, but he can’t half back it up.
Jack Barry: This Title Came To Me In A Dream
19/08/2015 … Jack Barry's day job running the social media accounts of a leading fast food company does not sound a particularly strong basis for an hour of stand-up.
Hardeep Singh Kohli: Big Mouth Strikes Again
19/08/2015 … In Edinburgh, the king of audience interaction is Jason Byrne.
Tue 18 August 2015
Chris Stokes: Altruism In Birds
18/08/2015 … Chris Stokes has been to hell (the Black Country) and back since his last Edinburgh show.
Karl Schultz: Matthew Kelly - Hypnagogia
18/08/2015 … Well this definitely didn’t work.
© Lorna Jane Newman Jody Kamali: Spectacular!
18/08/2015 … Character comedy! Physical comedy! Circus Gorbachev! And Jody Kamali.
Chris Coltrane: Left-Wing Propaganda Machine
18/08/2015 … Political comic Chris Coltrane wants to hit you with some knowledge.
Katherine Ryan: Kathbum
18/08/2015 … With most comedians, more personal the subject matter, the stronger the jokes.
Emma Sidi: Character Breakdown
18/08/2015 … It can be hard to stand out among the many one-woman multi-character shows that come to the Fringe each year, but Emma Sidi does it, thanks to several inspired…
Bobby Mair: Filthy Immigrant
18/08/2015 … My first Periscope review YAY! Twisted Canadian stand-up Bobby Mair is the only stand-up to figure out that broadcasting your show live on social media sensation…
Matthew Crosby: Smaller Than Life
18/08/2015 … What would a Vladimir Putin Fringe show be like? Inspired by a holiday to Russia, Matthew Crosby, Pappy's de facto leader and foremost small man syndrome sufferer,…
Zoe Coombs Marr Dave
18/08/2015 … Why this struggling open mic comic, with his unreconstructed sexism and trite observational material, has come from rural Australia to do an hour at the Edinburgh…
Mon 17 August 2015
Glenn Wool: Creator, I Am But A Pawn
17/08/2015 … There are few finer sights in comedy than Glenn Wool in full flow, and this is a powerhouse hour of stand-up slightly let down by the odd routine and a weird last…
The Kagools
17/08/2015 … Rarely has mime been so beautifully executed by two women wearing raincoats, dancing to an Eighties pop soundtrack.
Nick Cody: Beard Game Strong
17/08/2015 … Why do bad titles happen to good comics? Australian stand-up Nick Cody's Edinburgh debut is an hour of solid, no-nonsense comedy from a solid no-nonsense guy,…
Peter Brush: Older Than The Oldest Dog That Ever Lived
17/08/2015 … What a solo debut for Peter Brush! This is a man whose lack of stage presence, lack of cool, and turned-down-to-two demeanour all reverse expectations and make him…
Alice Fraser: Savage
17/08/2015 … There’s something very appealing about the way Alice Fraser’s sharp mind works.
Minor Delays
17/08/2015 … Initially, the thing that sets Minor Delays apart as a sketch trio is their unique performance style – always facing forward, never each other, even when they’re…
© Sun Lee Joseph Morpurgo: Soothing Sounds For Baby
17/08/2015 … Charity shops across the land must have been delighted to see Joseph Morpurgo over the past year, carting off obscure LPs that they would never have otherwise shifted.
Andrew Watts: How To Build A Chap
17/08/2015 … Andrew Watts is pleased to have carved out a niche for himself in comedy, a tweedy mix of cricket, economic theory and very English social awkwardness.
Aidan Killian: The Holy Trinity Of Whistle Blowers
17/08/2015 … Aidan Killian consistently writes and performs the most committed, knottiest, issue-comedy shows on the Fringe; he’s done the bankers, he’s done Buddhism and…
Diary Of A Dating Addict
17/08/2015 … An exuberant show from a charismatic performer, Maddy Anholt does a Bridget Jones for the 21st century, ripping through dating websites and apps and giving vivid…
Sun 16 August 2015
James Veitch: Genius Bar
16/08/2015 … James Vetch is not a man short of talent.
© Sun Lee Liam Williams: Bonfire Night
16/08/2015 … One of the true auteurs of stand-up, Liam Williams is a fascinating, insightful and unique voice – but not always one that’s easy to hear.
Evelyn Mok: Idiot
16/08/2015 … A slightly unfortunate series of events led to this being almost a non-gig, with Evelyn Mok bringing the show to an end after about 25 minutes as if she was doing…
Yianni: Why Did The Chicken Cross The Line?
16/08/2015 … Do we need much more philosophising on offence and ‘political correctness’ in comedy? Yianni Agisilaou certainly thinks he has something add to the countless…
Aisling Bea: Plan Bea
16/08/2015 … Aisling Bea was last in Edinburgh two years ago, with a superb debut that demonstrated her star quality.
Jo Romero: Scenes of A Sensual Nature
16/08/2015 … Not quite a sketch show, and not quite a theatre show, comedian Jo Romero’s eclectic series of sex-based vignettes varies from the awkwardly funny to the just…
Iain Stirling: Touchy Feely
16/08/2015 … The irony of struggling to tell a story about a nightmare gig while performing a nightmare gig isn't lost on Iain Stirling.
Gary Colman: Tickling Mice
16/08/2015 … On the spectrum of Edinburgh comedy shows, with at one end a twentysomething university graduate with an overhead projector and a 'message', and at the other a…
Sat 15 August 2015
Lee Nelson: Suited & Booted
15/08/2015 … Even before the Fringe stared, Lee Nelson’s creator Simon Brodkin set the bar high for himself, thanks to another of his alter-egos.
Kevin Day: Hairline
15/08/2015 … This was a thoroughly enjoyable, relaxed hour.
Louise Reay: It's Only Words
15/08/2015 … Louise Reay’s concept appears strikingly original: To perform a full stand-up show in Chinese, to an audience that doesn’t speak it.
Some Like It Thea-Skot
15/08/2015 … I think the best way to describe Alison Thea-Skot’s new show is: an absolute hoot.
Womanz: Jou're Welcome
15/08/2015 … Daggy dancing, they call it where she comes from – and Tessa Waters believes it is the path to happiness.
Jonny Awsum: Everything Is Awsum
15/08/2015 … Jonny Awsum positively smashed this musical comedy show, taking the audience all the way with him.
Scott Bennett: About A Roy
15/08/2015 … Scott Bennett has made a very enjoyable stand-up show, any of the killer routines from which could be used for a club set.
Abi Roberts: Downtown Abi
15/08/2015 … Abi Roberts is smashing it at the Voodoo Rooms.
Fri 14 August 2015
George Egg: Anarchist Cook
14/08/2015 … He’s the man who cooks in hotel rooms – George Egg.
Tom Parry: Yellow T-Shirt
14/08/2015 … They say write to your passions – and of all the weighty and personal topics being addressed at the Fringe, Tom Parry has gone for, erm, fancy dress.
Gurpal Gill: India's Strongest Man (1982)
14/08/2015 … It’s a nice conceit for a sketch; the idea that India’s Strongest Man isn’t that strong after all.
© Steve Ullathorne Sarah Callaghan: Elephant
14/08/2015 … This is absolutely what Edinburgh’s all about… inspiring a comic who’s been doing decent work on the circuit for a few years to to burst up to the next level…
Lolly
14/08/2015 … Already pretty hotly tipped, Lolly Adefope’s Fringe calling card comes in the form of a character comedy showcase, set at a community centre’s local open mic…
Kieran Hodgson: Lance
14/08/2015 … To compare Kieran Hodgson’s show to a bike race (or any race for that matter), I’d say: slow start, picked up in the middle, nailed the finish.
Phil Wang: Philth
14/08/2015 … I hope no one sees the name of Phil Wang’s third show – Philth – and turns up expecting to see an hour of 'blue' from an end-of-the-pier comic.
Sarah Franken: Who Keeps Making All These People?
14/08/2015 … Not everyone got the memo… ‘We don’t have a Sarah Franken here, but we’ve got Will Franken,’ the lad outside Stands 5 & 6 told a friend of mine: ‘I…
Markus Birdman: Grimm Realities
14/08/2015 … Combining illustrations with stand-up comedy may not sound entirely original (Dylan Moran, Tim Minchin’s Storm etc) but Markus Birdman gives his audience an…
Thu 13 August 2015
Alistair Barrie: No More Stage 3
13/08/2015 … Can you joke about cancer? As a long-standing regular with the Comedy Store’s topical Cutting Edge nights, Alistair Barrie is used to making bad-taste quips about…
Davey Connor - So There You Go
13/08/2015 … Davey Connor has a hypnotically soothing voice, not always the best asset in stand-up.
© Steve Ullathorne Damien Slash: Ubermen
13/08/2015 … Character comics so often come across as if they’ve been raised on a diet of Radio 4, and Radio 4 only, that it makes a refreshing change to see someone a little…
Spencer Jones Presents: The Herbert in Proper Job
13/08/2015 … Who would have thought that today, in 2015, one of the funniest performers on the world's leading magnet for cutting-edge comedy artists would be, essentially,…
Sofie Hagen: Bubblewrap
13/08/2015 … Sofie Hagen has quite some pedigree as a newish comic, with the Laughing Horse New Act competition and Chortle Best Newcomer award under her belt.
Mark Steel: Who Do I Think I Am?
13/08/2015 … Mark Steel has the perfect putdown for a couple of ticket-holders who inexplicably make their exit two-thirds of the way through his show.
Amy Howerska: Sasspot
13/08/2015 … Amy Howerska has got a really interesting (© Steve Davies) show.
Adam Riches is Coach Coach
13/08/2015 … It’s certainly an ambitious move by Adam Riches to move from his usual sketch-based comedy, heavy on audience participation, into a full-scale narrative epic…
Stephanie Laing: Nincompoop
13/08/2015 … There’s honest, and there’s eye-wateringly honest.
Andrew Doyle: Minimalism!
13/08/2015 … Not content with being just the comic, Andrew Doyle kicks off his show by being the usher as well, buzzing around the Stand 6, showing people to their seats.
Feminazi
13/08/2015 … It's surely a sign of society moving in the right direction that, in a few short years, feminism has gone from a fringe position to a viable marketing option.
Wed 12 August 2015
Joe Hart: Dirty Rotten Appleas
12/08/2015 … This is what Fringe shows are for.
Massive Dad 2.0: Step Up 2 Massive Dad
12/08/2015 … There I was, enjoying the second show by sketch trio Massive Dad, when … it stopped.
Tats Nkonzo: The African With Wifi
12/08/2015 … With Trevor Noah about to take over the Daily Show, could South Africa be propelled into the international comedy spotlight? If so, Tats Nkonzo would be well-placed…
Holly Burn: I Am Kirsty K
12/08/2015 … Holly Burn’s gimmick this year is that she’s going to inhabit her alter-ego Kirsty K, 24/7 for the duration of the Fringe – which could be something of a…
Richard Gadd: Waiting For Gaddot
12/08/2015 … In another intense, high-concept white-knuckle ride, Richard Gadd takes the conventions of Fringe shows and bashes them around with the brutality of a street fighter.
Mark Silcox: No Women Plenty Of Cry
12/08/2015 … Mark Silcox is certainly redefining comedy.
© Steve Ullathorne Stephen Bailey: Should've Been A Popstar
12/08/2015 … Watching Stephen Bailey, one can’t help but feel a bit naughty.
© Steve Ullathorne Funmbi Omotayo: Legal Immigrant
12/08/2015 … Given how race and racial tensions are in the news so much, it’s noticeable how very few comedians actually talk about it.
Beth Vyse: As Funny As Cancer
12/08/2015 … This is a delicate tightrope to tread.
Pelican: A Sketch Show
12/08/2015 … Pelican make it easy for you to dislike them with their theatre-studenty approach to the sketch show.
The Man
12/08/2015 … We critics are not supposed to reveal the identity of The Man, but he has been on the circuit for a while, delivering posturing political comedy about the corrupt…
Tue 11 August 2015
Phil Jerrod: Neanderthal
11/08/2015 … You can see why Phil Jerrod was snapped up by the agents at comedy kingmakers Off The Kerb.
Adrienne Truscott's A One-Trick Pony!
11/08/2015 … Two years after wowing the fringe with her vagina-flashing show reclaiming the rape joke, Adrienne Truscott is wondering where to go next.
Joe Lycett: That's The Way, A-Ha A-Ha, Joe Lycett
11/08/2015 … Some comedians just make it look so easy, and Joe Lycett is one such example.
Ismo Leikola: Observing The Obvious
11/08/2015 … ‘The funniest person in the world’ is quite the title; but even if Ismo Leikola can’t live up to the accolade bestowed on him at an international stand-up…
James Dowdeswell's Perfect Pub
11/08/2015 … The siren call of the format show is a seductive one.
Adam Hess: Salmon
11/08/2015 … ‘The boy who never grew up’ makes for a nice story… though in real life, you would end up with someone incredibly creepy – or incredibly odd.
Hurt and Anderson: Sketchbombs
11/08/2015 … Double acts are measured by first impressions as the audience likes to know the straight one from the funny one.
Nish Kumar: Long Word... Long Word... Blah Blah Blah... I'm so Clever
11/08/2015 … An increasingly potent political comedy powerhouse, Nish Kumar has built some passionate and bold arguments for his third solo show, driving a wrecking ball through…
Ally Houston: Shandy
11/08/2015 … Not one for coulrophobes, Ally Houston’s nightmarish musical fantasy about a man and his pet clown Shandy is rather too sluggish and repetitive to garner the…
The Kinsey Sicks: America's Next Top Bachelor Housewife Celebrity Hoarder Makeover Star Gone Wild!
11/08/2015 … The Kinsey Sicks are an a cappella drag queen quartet who deliver everything you would hope and expect an a cappella drag queen quartet to deliver – and do so…
A Very Tall Storrie
11/08/2015 … A genuinely shocked Ashley Storrie had to start her show a full 15 minutes earlier than she intended, since she was so in demand that all the seats were already…
Kelly Kingham: Inside Out
11/08/2015 … This is an interesting second show from Kelly Kingham, at 50 more than twice the age of a lot of Edinburgh sophomores.
Mon 10 August 2015
Felicity Ward: What If There Is No Toilet?
10/08/2015 … Felicity Ward’s delivery fizzes and flashes and bangs like an untethered Catherine Wheel, showering white-hot sparks everywhere.
Jonny Pelham: Before And After
10/08/2015 … A socially awkward West Yorkshireman with a speech impediment who finds confidence through comedy, skilfully enticing audiences into his off-kilter world… there’s…
LetLuce in Sea Men (A Naval Tale)
10/08/2015 … Well here’s a sure-fire way to brighten up your afternoon.
Fifty Shades Of Fizzog
10/08/2015 … Imagine if Mrs Brown’s Boys had cousins from the Black Country.
James Ross: Leopardoptera
10/08/2015 … James Ross describes himself as a ‘not instantly relatable’ as a comic.
Jessica Fostekew: Imaginary Colin
10/08/2015 … Imaginary Colin is Jessica Fostekew’s unborn child.
Paul Kerensa: Back to the Futon Pt2: Dude, Where's My Hoverboard?
10/08/2015 … It’s a wonder there aren’t more Back to the Future-themed shows at Edinburgh this year, given how significant the year 2015 is to the film trilogy, and, working…
Mark Stephenson: Amsterdam
10/08/2015 … Mark Stephenson is a shy and awkward man – and a shy and awkward comedian.
Steve Bugeja: Day Release
10/08/2015 … Steve Bugeja is the biggest buzz-kill square since Tiananmen.
Calypso Nights: Juan, Two?
10/08/2015 … 'Part dance party, part chutney class' is how Calypso Nights is billed, and the real thing is every bit as strange as that suggests.
© Steve Ullathorne Richard Soames Does The Right Thing
10/08/2015 … As the Beta Males sketch troupe fragments into its constituent parts, Richard Soames is keen to prove he’s the nice one of the gang… Look at those soft eyes…
Grace The Child: Playground Politics
10/08/2015 … Shortly before going to see Grace the Child, I bumped into a 24-year-old comic who could reasonably be described as precocious.
David Mills: Don't Get Any Ideas
10/08/2015 … David Mills is a superior act… and by that I refer to his social status; aloof and savagely cutting about all those beneath him.
Sun 09 August 2015
Sally-Anne Hayward: Something Old, Something New, Nothing Borrowed, Quite A Lot Blue
09/08/2015 … Her all-girl school has taught her well – not necessarily educationally, but in the art of bitching.
The Wonderful World of Lieven Scheire
09/08/2015 … At the start of his show, Lieven Scheire explains that he’s going to tell us all about Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.
Leggoland
09/08/2015 … Colin Leggo has put together an engaging hour’s show here, the story of losing his leg 14 months ago and subsequently getting his life back on track.
Bucket
09/08/2015 … There’s been a Cardinal Burns-shaped hole in the comedy world since we lost them to telly, but Bucket do a pretty good job of filling it – and not just because…
© Idil Sukan Brett Goldstein: Burning Man
09/08/2015 … Over his past couple of Edinburgh shows, Brett Goldstein has proved himself a personable, compelling teller of stories from his own experience.
Gein's Family Giftshop: Volume 2
09/08/2015 … An antidote to all those Oxbridge troupes doing clever, genre-twisting things with the sketch show format, Gein’s Family Giftshop are three dickheads who do jokes…
Michael J Dolan: Miserable Guts
09/08/2015 … Michael J Dolan doesn’t know what he’s doing here on the Fringe.
Goose: Kablamo
09/08/2015 … If there was an award for hardest-working comedian on the Fringe – not in terms of the number of shows performed but in sheer number of kilojoules expended on…
Sat 08 August 2015
Nathan Cassidy: Back To The Future
08/08/2015 … The first in Nathan Cassidy’s ambitious bid to stage a trilogy of shows about the Back To The Future this festival is, to be honest, not particularly about the…
Lucie Pohl: Cry Me A Liver
08/08/2015 … As a character actor, Lucie Pohl totally inhabits her creations, defined by subtleties of pose and physicality.
Gabriel Bisset-Smith Tells The Most Original And Funny Joke In The Universe!
08/08/2015 … Talk about over-promising.
Viv Groskop: Say Sorry To The Lady
08/08/2015 … Writer, presenter and comic Viv Groskop is almost daring reviewers to call this a ‘sorry show’ – however unfair that would be – for it is an hour about…
Reginald D Hunter: Bitchproof
08/08/2015 … 'It’s a preview,' says Reginald D Hunter midway through his hour after a routine in which he defends Gwyneth Paltrow falls flat.
Gay Furnish: Flirt Coach
08/08/2015 … Character comics love creating lifestyle gurus and one of this year’s crop is flirtation expert Gay Furnish, the alter ego of Charlotte McDougall – who is…
Will Durst: BoomeRaging From LSD to OMG
08/08/2015 … Seasoned? Vintage? Steadfast? Will Durst is looking for an adjective to replace the obvious one: old.
© Steve Ullathorne Tez Ilyas: TEZ Talks
08/08/2015 … Now this is just playing into the negative stereotypes.
Fri 07 August 2015
© Steve Ullathorne Abigoliah Schamaun: Post-Coital Confessions
07/08/2015 … Should you have been weaned on a cultural diet of Hollywood movies, Cosmo magazine and chick-lit, you’ll know sex to be a beautiful, balletic coming together…
Darren Walsh: Punderbolt
07/08/2015 … Puns are like Marmite; you either love them or groan audibly in despair.
Carl Donnelly: Jive Ass Honky
07/08/2015 … The blurb for recent divorcé Carl Donnelly’s seventh Edinburgh hour describes it as a show about ‘therapy, depression, relationships, body issues and parents’.
Harriet Kemsley: Puppy Fat
07/08/2015 … Harriet Kemsley exudes a child-like quality.
Jennie Benton Wordsmith
07/08/2015 … On paper, this show sounds like something to freeze the marrow, a 15-year-old rapper from Tunbridge Wells offering a show.
John Robertson: Let's Redecorate
07/08/2015 … Let’s Redecorate isn’t obviously one of the best show titles this Fringe.
Omar Hamdi – In The Valley Of The Kings
07/08/2015 … He’s from Middle Eastern stock, but Omar Hamdi might remind you of a certain other comedian.
Mon 03 August 2015
Sam Simmons: Spaghetti For Breakfast
03/08/2015 … Reviewed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2015 Sam Simmons has a bugbear about ‘relatable’ comedy – an adjective that’ll never get…
Joel Creasey: The Hurricane
03/08/2015 … Reviewed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2015 Exaggeration and embellishment are the tools of the anecdotal comedian – but Joel Creasey has such…
Corey White: The Cane Toad Effect
03/08/2015 … Reviewed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in May 2015 This is a show that’s been a lifetime in the making.
Aunty Donna
03/08/2015 … Reviewed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2015.
Puddles Pity Party
03/08/2015 … Reviewed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, April 2015.
Ben Russell: The Tokyo Hotel
03/08/2015 … Reviewed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in April 2015.
Fake It 'til You Make It
03/08/2015 … Review of the Latitude Festival version in July 2015.
Sat 01 August 2015
Stand-up For Satire
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Union Chapel, Islington
01/08/2015 … 'I am going to reinstate your faith in censorship,' Frankie Boyle tells the audience at the Index On Censorship charity gig, foreshadowing the barrage of appalling-taste…
Wed 29 July 2015
Terry Alderton's All Crazy Now
Radio (p)review by Steve Bennett
29/07/2015 … Bizarre voices in the head, all expressing contrasting emotions that make up a transient form of self… both the plot to Pixar’s new family animation Inside…
Tue 28 July 2015
Come In! Sit Down!
Review of Muju Crew sketch show by Steve Bennett
28/07/2015 … The Muju Crew is a ten-year-old project between Jewish and Muslim performers working together 'through a shared passion for creating art.
Fri 24 July 2015
The Last Sparks Of Sundown
24/07/2015 … On stage, the Pajama Men create multi-stranded filmic epics in their nightwear, so a transfer to the big screen seems long overdue.
Mon 20 July 2015
© Jen O'Neill Latitude Extra
20/07/2015 … Matt FordeIt must be the worst time to be a political comedian.
Jason Manford at Latitude
20/07/2015 … When it comes to bookings, Latitude seeks the alternative, credible bands – but on comedy its tastes are notably more mainstream, with Jason Manford closing the…
Shappi Khorsandi at Latitude
20/07/2015 … One peculiarity of playing a tent in the middle of the day is that the comedian can see the entire audience.
Sun 19 July 2015
Fake It Til You Make It
Latitude review by Steve Bennett
19/07/2015 … Tim Grayburn decided to make this show last summer, when Robin Williams died.
Tiff Stevenson at Latitude
19/07/2015 … It’s just a two-word phrase, but it points to something that’s slightly astray at the heart of Tiff Stevenson’s routine.
Sara Pascoe at Latitude
19/07/2015 … Sara Pascoe receives a lot of love from the Latitude audience, and she repays them handsomely.
Marcus Brigstocke at Latitude 2015
19/07/2015 … Latitude stalwart Marcus Brigstocke has been to every one of these festivals and says he doesn’t really like all the jokes about what a middle-class nirvana it…
© C4 The Last Leg at Latitude
19/07/2015 … Latitude has staged live versions of TV shows before – a slightly chaotic Never Mind The Buzzcocks from 2011 springs to mind – but this year it’s the time…
Sat 18 July 2015
Diane Chorley: Duchess Of Canvey
Latitude review by Steve Bennett
18/07/2015 … Back in the day, Diane Chorley used to run a nightclub in Canvey Island.
John Robins at Latitude
18/07/2015 … A taste of his own medicine, that’s what John Robins doled out to Stewart Lee in his Latitude set.
Mark Steel at Latitude
18/07/2015 … Is it too late to add another name to the Labour leadership ballot? After an incisive Literary Arena session in which Andrew Marr outlined the scale of the problem…
Alan Davies at Latitude
18/07/2015 … Alan Davies is such an accomplished storyteller that he has a packed comedy arena hanging on every word of his truthful tales of parental frustration.
Russell Kane at Latitude
18/07/2015 … Russell Kane likes coming to Latitude – or Latte-tude as he calls it.
Fri 17 July 2015
© Carys Lavin On Yer Bike - The Maggie Thatcher Game Show!
Latitude review by Steve Bennett
17/07/2015 … It was genius converting Margaret Thatcher into a cabaret diva; and now Matt Tedford’s version of the Iron Lady has become a game show hostess.
Thu 16 July 2015
The Invisible Dot Cabaret at the Manchester International Festival
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Manchester International Festival
16/07/2015 … As part of its collaboration with the Manchester International Festival, London producers The Invisible Dot are staging a series of late-night comedy – which rather…
The Crocodile by Tom Basden at the Manchester International Festival
Theatre review by Steve Bennett
16/07/2015 … You don't normally associate Fyodor Dostoyevsky with lines like 'aww, mate!', 'just dicking about' or 'can you please just fuck off'.
Tue 14 July 2015
BBC Comedy Feeds 2015
14/07/2015 … The BBC has just released its new batch of iPlayer-only Comedy Feed pilot episodes – and a strong batch they are too.
English Comedian Of The Year 2015 final
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Udderbelly, London
14/07/2015 … There are a lot of new act competitions.
Mon 13 July 2015
The Mentalists with Stephen Merchant and Steffan Rhodri
Theatre review by Steve Bennett
13/07/2015 … A passionate idealist sits in a bedroom, setting out his manifesto to a video camera: how capitalism is flawed, how politicians are all the same, how we could build…
Thu 09 July 2015
Dave Chappelle at the Hammersmith Apollo
09/07/2015 … Dave Chappelle has a reputation as the bad boy of comedy.
Wed 08 July 2015
Festival Of The Spoken Nerd: Full Frontal Nerdity DVD
08/07/2015 … This is possibly what Top Gear would be like if it were about science, not cars.
Mon 06 July 2015
Dear White People
06/07/2015 … Dear White People is an ambitious movie that attempts to cram a whole spectrum of racial identity questions into a smart, wry campus comedy.
Fri 26 June 2015
Rob Delaney: Meat
Revie by Steve Bennett at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
26/06/2015 … For Rob Delaney, stand-up is like wild sex.
Thu 25 June 2015
Jake Johannsen
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
25/06/2015 … Since you have the remarkable good taste to be reading Chortle, it can be assumed you’re something of a comedy connoisseur.
Wed 24 June 2015
Jim Jefferies etc: BST festival
Gig review by Steve Bennett in Hyde Park
24/06/2015 … After the weekend warm-up acts of Kylie and Blur, London’s Hyde Park has now been given over to the comedians.
Thu 18 June 2015
Alan Davies and Paul Merton's Impro Chums
Review from the Hampton Court Festival, by Steve Bennett
18/06/2015 … This is a long way from pushing back the pool tables in the back room of the Dog and Duck to make way for the comedy.
British Muslim Comedy
Review of the new iPlayer shorts by Steve Bennett
18/06/2015 … Does the i stand for Islam? To mark the star of Ramadan, the BBC has released five shorts from Muslim comedians on the iPlayer platform.
Wed 17 June 2015
Carl-Einar Häckner: Shards
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Thearte
17/06/2015 … Shabby Scandi-clown Carl-Einar Häckner makes a rare return to the UK with Shards.
Tue 16 June 2015
It's A Funny Old Week with Jason Manford
16/06/2015 … ITV’s latest venture into topical comedy is less a UK version of The Daily Show and more a programme for those who find Russell Howard’s Good News too edgy.
Fri 12 June 2015
Stewart Francis: Pun Gent
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London
12/06/2015 … They never show incidents like this when he’s on Live At The Apollo, but telly favourite Stewart Francis was seriously thrown off his game by a bothersome audience…
Wed 10 June 2015
Tommy Tiernan: Out Of The Whirlwind
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
10/06/2015 … Tommy Tiernan’s always had the mischief in him; a compulsion for naughtiness that, combined with his impetuousness, can sometimes land him in trouble.
Old Comedian Of The Year final
10/06/2015 … Think of your favourite British comedians of all-time, and chances are you’re thinking of someone who is – or acts as if – they are at least middle-aged.
Wed 03 June 2015
Chris Betts – Original Review
03/06/2015 … Canadian comic who moved to London from Montreal in 2012 after five years on the North American circuit.
Mon 01 June 2015
© C4 Man Down Series 2
01/06/2015 … The death of Rik Mayall was a huge loss to comedy – and especially to Man Down.
Sat 30 May 2015
© BBC/Lola Entertainment/Ellis O’Brien The John Bishop Show
30/05/2015 … The boilerplate for The John Bishop Show is as standard as they come.
Fri 29 May 2015
Spy with Melissa McCarthy and Miranda Hart
29/05/2015 … Miranda Hart made a wise decision choosing Spy as her Hollywood debut, with her role as Melissa McCarthy’s wing-woman in this endearing and hugely fun secret…
Wed 27 May 2015
Album: Burnsy vs Brendon
27/05/2015 … Now re-released on vinyl more than a decade on, this is the Edinburgh show that got Brendon Burns properly noticed by the comedy world – and marked the start…
Sun 24 May 2015
Best Boy: Bested
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
24/05/2015 … The alleged backstory of Best Boy is that they once had a sketch performed on Radio 4.
Sat 23 May 2015
Chris Graham Variety Show
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
23/05/2015 … I learned a lot about Chris Graham, but only after his show.
Fri 22 May 2015
Jarred Christmas: Hotfoot Mojo
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
22/05/2015 … For Jarred Christmas, it is the work of mere moments to transform a studio theatre half-full of uncertain midweek punters into an energised, up-for-it crowd.
Sat 16 May 2015
Eddie Pepitone: What Rough Beast
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Thearte
16/05/2015 … Most mainstream comics base their act on the premise that they are just like you.
Thu 14 May 2015
Reginald D Hunter: The Man Who Attempted To Do As Much As Such
14/05/2015 … Although he’s the epitome of dignified Deep South good manners in his demeanour, in his content Reginald D Hunter can be filthy and provocative, which means he’s…
Tue 12 May 2015
aLOne: Loren O'Brien
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
12/05/2015 … The conceit here is that American gal Loren O’Brien was supposed to be performing a two-hander with her English comedy partner Amy – who hasn’t shown up.
Mon 11 May 2015
James Bennison: How to be a Superhero
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
11/05/2015 … Welcome a new addition to the pantheon of superheroes: FunnyMan.
...And Ephgrave
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
11/05/2015 … The title of this show comes as David Ephgrave is also in a double act you’ve probably never heard of either.
Fri 08 May 2015
Jurassic Lark
Theatre review by Steve Bennett at the Lion & Unicorn, Kentish Town
08/05/2015 … Perfectly timed a month before the next sequel in the Jurassic Park franchise hits the big screen, this is a decidedly lower-budget version of the original.
How Will I Know?
Theatre review by Steve Bennett at the Brighton Fringe
08/05/2015 … Basically a classic farce with modern sensibilities, How Will I Know? is a brisk single-scener set in an American apartment on October 31, the day before a big…
Thu 07 May 2015
Dylan Moran: Off The Hook
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
07/05/2015 … He doesn’t much chug at his ever-present red wine, not like he used to, but Dylan Moran remains the epitome of ‘in vino veritas’.
© C4 Bugsplat!
07/05/2015 … Appropriately enough for a comedy about drone pilots, Bugsplat! seems to have snuck in under the radar, this test episode airing on Channel 4 last night with little…
Wed 06 May 2015
Murder In Successville review
06/05/2015 … It takes a lot of hyphens to describe Murder In Successville, BBC Three's new comedy-reality-cop-drama-impressions-improv-pastiche show.
Nicole Harvey: Delicious & Dateless
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
06/05/2015 … In the words of the great philosopher-poet Tyler: ‘Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the Gods?’This is Nicole Harvey’s rather more lengthy…
Sami Shah: I, Migrant
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Soho Theatre, London
06/05/2015 … It’s a shame that the state of the world means that Pakistani-born comic Sami Shah has to contest, at some length, the idea that all Muslims are potential terrorists.
Live at Parliament Square
06/05/2015 … The revolution’s going to need a little help yet.
Tue 05 May 2015
Brody and Chadwick's Great Blimp Deception
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
05/05/2015 … Oh dear, do these two – or sometimes three – have commitment issues.
Jonny And The Baptists: Rock The Vote
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
05/05/2015 … If Ed Miliband was half as charming and populist as Jonny and The Baptists, he'd be a shoe-in for No 10.
Dave Chawner: Normally Abnormal
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
05/05/2015 … Everyone needs an angle, and Dave Chawner is setting out his stall as the ‘anorexia comic’.
Mon 04 May 2015
© Chortle Chris Titmas's Weekend Breakdown
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
04/05/2015 … I'm sitting cross-legged on a very blustery seafront, watching a woman dressed as a man emerge from a beach hut gyrating to Sexy And I Know It… it has to be the…
Sun 03 May 2015
Aidan Killian: Saving Julian Assange
Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett
03/05/2015 … The most apt thing about a show allegedly themed around Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, is that this, too, is an often indiscriminate dump of a large amount of…
Fri 01 May 2015
Phil Buckley's Big Idea
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Square Theatre
01/05/2015 … This is supposed to be a review of Phil Buckley’s Big Idea, currently touring small venues.
Thu 30 April 2015
TV review: Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central
30/04/2015 … Russell Howard owns stand-up on digital television.
Fri 24 April 2015
© BBC Peter Kay’s Car Share
24/04/2015 … It seems fitting that Peter Kay's first sitcom in more than a decade has been released online first.
Headliners at the Aeronaut
Gig review by Steve Bennett in London
24/04/2015 … It’s a big—top themed venue that offers suitably circusy entertainment at weekends.
Wed 22 April 2015
Russell Brand: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Movie review by Jay Richardson
22/04/2015 … Russell Brand opens his new film, The Emperor’s New Clothes, reading Hans Christian Andersen’s short story across footage of The Lord Mayor’s Show in London,…
© C4 Ballot Monkeys
22/04/2015 … The two problems that topical TV comedies have is thinking up punchlines that top real-life – and not having the internet beat you to them.
Dave Hill: New York City Via Cockfosters
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Aces And Eights, London
22/04/2015 … Whatever the opposite of the humblebrag is, American comic Dave Hill is the master of it.
Mon 20 April 2015
Max & Ivan: The End
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
20/04/2015 … Max and Ivan’s latest narrative sketch show is based in the sleepy, set-in-its-ways town of Sudley-On-Sea, a Ukip stronghold if ever there was one.
Rich Hall: 3:10 To Humour
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
20/04/2015 … Rich Hall is back with a new tour, obscurely titled after a 2007 Russell Crowe remake of a half-century old Western.
Sun 19 April 2015
Ronny Chieng: You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About review
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
19/04/2015 … You don’t need Google to tell you how many comedy awards Ronny Chieng won last year, because he’ll tell you.
Frenchy: Live & Lanky
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
19/04/2015 … Frenchy gets his sold-out show under way by asking who’s seen his work on YouTube.
Heidi O’Loughlin: A Woman Talking
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
19/04/2015 … The debut that won Heidi O’Loughlin a best newcomer nomination at Melbourne’s Barry Awards is as much an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? as it is comedy…
Sat 18 April 2015
Angus Hodge: Slow Death of the Spirit Animal
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
18/04/2015 … Still a relative newcomer, Angus Hodge has the assured demeanour of an established comic and the well-practised rhythms and cadences of stand-up.
Fri 17 April 2015
Clara Cupcakes: The Merchant of Whimsy
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
17/04/2015 … This could be what happened if Amelie did cabaret.
Clem Bastow: Escape From LA
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
17/04/2015 … This is the tale of Clem Bastow’s two years spent in Los Angeles, trying and failing to make it as a scriptwriter.
Corey White: The Cane Toad Effect
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
17/04/2015 … This is a show that’s been a lifetime in the making.
Thu 16 April 2015
Ben Russell: The Tokyo Hotel
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
16/04/2015 … A dynamic and versatile performer, Ben Russell showcases his considerable talents in this one-man sketch show, each scene taking place in a room of The Tokyo Hotel.
Suren Jayemanne: Eat Praline, Die
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
16/04/2015 … Punning on the novel Eat, Pray, Love, the title of Suren Jayemanne’s solo debut tries hard, but doesn’t quite come off… which proves endemic of many of his…
John Kearns: Shtick
16/04/2015 … There’s often a peculiar atmosphere in comedy festival shows once they’ve been nominated for an award, when some come not because they think they’ll like…
Lawrence Mooney: Surely Not
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
16/04/2015 … Relentless is the word for it.
Wed 15 April 2015
Adam Hills: Clown Heart
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
15/04/2015 … Adam Hills’s Clown Heart oozes confidence.
Kitty Flanagan: Seriously?
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
15/04/2015 … Googling herself one day, Kitty Flanagan was troubled by a description of her act which said she exploited her single and childless status for comedy.
Tue 14 April 2015
David Quirk: Thrasher
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
14/04/2015 … In the stand-up equivalent of Kevin Smith’s cult movie Clerks, David Quirk takes us to the skateboarding shop where he’s worked for 14 years to recount tales…
Kate Dehnert: Pony Yell
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
14/04/2015 … With this bit of nonsense about a lazy postie and her long-suffering pony, Kate Dehnert boasts all the storytelling techniques of a seven-year-old.
Helen Duff Vanity Bites Back
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
14/04/2015 … An odd English cook with a very unconventional approach to food preparation has arrived in Melbourne.
Blake Mitchell: High Noon At Yum Yum Mountain
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
14/04/2015 … Well, this was desperately unpleasant.
Mon 13 April 2015
Harmon Leon: Yank Me
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
13/04/2015 … Harmon Leon is a unique mix of gonzo journalist and absurdist comedian, offering reports of his various ‘infiltrations’ interspersed with mind-warping video…
Raw Comedy National Final 2015
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
13/04/2015 … The future of Australian comedy is looking healthy if this year’s Raw comedy national final is anything to go by – and its past record suggests it certainly…
The Narelles
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
13/04/2015 … This takes me back to my student days of the late 1980s; the alternative disco held in grotty room above a pub with the sticky floors and the walls damp with the…
Sam Campbell: Cambo's On Top
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
13/04/2015 … Sam Campbell’s debut is the raw, undisciplined product of a creatively strange mind.
Joel Creasey: The Hurricane
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
13/04/2015 … Exaggeration and embellishment are the tools of the anecdotal comedian – but Joel Creasey has such great yarns that such jiggery-pokery is unnecessary.
Sun 12 April 2015
Dilruk Jayasinha: Immigrateful
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
12/04/2015 … This is a gentle show from a gentle man.
Aunty Donna [Melbourne 2015]
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
12/04/2015 … You can’t deny Aunty Donna’s energy.
Jonestown: Guinea Pigs
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
12/04/2015 … They are better known as a ventriloquist and a a magician respectively – but Guinea Pigs is likely to change all that.
Sat 11 April 2015
Gen Fricker: Monsterpussy
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
11/04/2015 … Monsterpussy suggests a show that’s going to be either crude or silly… but events that happened to Gen Fricker since submitting the title to the comedy festival…
Doug Anthony All Stars
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
11/04/2015 … Isn’t there something just a little bit tragic about an once-anarchic band getting back together in their late-middle age, trying to relive past excesses even…
DeAnne Smith: Get Into It
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
11/04/2015 … There’s not a wasted beat in this pacy, joyous romp through DeAnne Smith’s glorious insecurities.
Fri 10 April 2015
Comedy Zone Asia
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
10/04/2015 … It’s a great move for the Melbourne festival to encourage the nascent stand-ups scenes across South East Asia by bringing the pick of the region’s emerging names…
Huw Joseph: Songs That Will Never Leave My Bedroom
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
10/04/2015 … The title of Huw Joseph’s show came from a withering comment that a critic made about an earlier performance, suggesting he should keep his music to himself.
Damien Power: I Can't Believe I Cared
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
10/04/2015 … We live in tumultuous times.
Thu 09 April 2015
Watson: Who\'s Afraid Of The Dark
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/04/2015 … Comedy meets immersive theatre in this spooky experience starring… well, a reputedly haunted decommissioned prison where 133 people have been hanged.
Steen Raskopoulos: Character Assassin
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/04/2015 … Steen Raskopoulos is well aware that the two words most comedy festival punters most dread are ‘audience’ and ‘participation’.
Penny Greenhalgh: Pop Pop
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/04/2015 … Penny Greenhalgh’s gauche physicality and ironically cheesy crowdwork are certainly fun, but she’s treading old ground in this Melbourne debut, and treading…
Eddie Sharp: Magnum Opus
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/04/2015 … It’s a shambolic pile-up of ideas that are not always seen through, but Eddie Sharp’s show, just ended in Melbourne, demonstrates a nascent comedy talent as…
Jen Kirkman; I'm Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine)
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/04/2015 … Her material – about life lessons learned the hard way – is so intensely personal, but Jen Kirkman’s delivery of it is strangely aloof, at least tonight.
Wed 08 April 2015
Juan Vesuvius in Calypso Nights
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
08/04/2015 … It’s fiesta time! Wander into Calypso Nights and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into a roadshow by a genuine Venezuelan local radio DJ as he…
Trygve Wakenshaw: Nautilus
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
08/04/2015 … Although it's not advertised – nor priced – as such, this is, I'm quietly told as I take my seat, a work in progress from Trygve Wakenshaw, creator of one of…
Tue 07 April 2015
The Sound Of Nazis
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
07/04/2015 … This must have been a riot when they dreamt it up, an extravagantly over-the-top retelling of the Von Trapp family story, full of cheesy bad taste and cheap props.
Daniel Kitson: Polyphony
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
07/04/2015 … Daniel Kitson's typically boastful about the scope and ambition of his new show, speaking of his genre-busting form and mind-blowing themes.
Axis of Awesome: Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas
07/04/2015 … How much mileage can one YouTube sensation provide? Axis Of Awesome’s viral Four Chords song – 48million views and counting – is the big hit that fans will…
Laura Davis: Ghost Machine
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
07/04/2015 … As crowd work goes, ’Remember your first existential crisis?’ is far from ordinary as ice-breaker, but then Laura Davis’s thoughtful and bold show…
Brendon Walsh: Bearded, Juvenile
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
07/04/2015 … Mischief-maker Brendon Walsh rebels against conformity – and indeed maturity – through the medium of pranks.
![Boy With Tape On His Face: More Tape [Melbourne 2014] | Review by Steve Bennett](/images/photos/small/boy_with_tape_on_his_face.jpg "Boy With Tape On His Face: More Tape [Melbourne 2014] | Review by Steve Bennett")
Boy With Tape On His Face: More Tape [Melbourne 2014]
07/04/2015 … Nearly two years after making its Edinburgh debut, The Boy With Tape On His Face’s brilliant second show retains every morsel of its joyous appeal.
Mon 06 April 2015
Lawrence Leung: The Escapist
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
06/04/2015 … Many festival shows wear their themes like a straitjacket.
Michael Hing: Much Ado About Not Hing
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
06/04/2015 … In the sitcom of life, Michael Hing is a badly-written character.
Wizard Sandwiches: Lettuce Play
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
06/04/2015 … The bawdy boys of Wizard Sandwiches smash through their sketches with imprecise exuberance, dicking around with great spirit but little focus.
Puddles Pity Party
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
06/04/2015 … Standing near 7ft high, with shaved head, impassive whiteface and white Pierrot outfit, Puddles looks more Batman villain than sentimental harlequin.
Papa CJ: Naked
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
06/04/2015 … Setting out his ‘philosophy’ for Naked, Indian comic Papa CJ promises to expose all his vulnerabilities until he is emotionally – and perhaps physically –…
Sun 05 April 2015
Matt Okine: The Other Guy
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
05/04/2015 … Australian radio is the graveyard of so many promising comedians.
Heckle!
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
05/04/2015 … Heckle, a late-night format in which audience members are invited to yell out at the comics on stage doesn’t really work – at least not tonight – and probably…
Claire Hooper: School Camp
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
05/04/2015 … Theming a show around such a universal Australian experience as the school camp offers Claire Hooper the chance to wallow in lots of cute ‘remember this…’…
Sat 04 April 2015
Rob Caruana: Learn Comedy
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
04/04/2015 … Seventeen minutes in, and Rob Caruana’s show is interrupted by his brother and his mates noisily entering the tiny 40-seater room.
Nazeem Hussain: Legally Brown
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
04/04/2015 … This might be his first solo show, but Nazeem Hussain comes to the Melbourne comedy festival with his own TV vehicle – SBS’s Legally Brown – and years of…
Anne Edmonds: You Know What I'm Like!
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
04/04/2015 … Anne Edmonds’ obvious forte is her precise portrayal of an awful collection of suburban grotesques, although of all her personalities, the one that most intrigues…
The Heckler
Melbourne International Comedy Festival film review by Steve Bennett
04/04/2015 … To live someone else's life, if only for a day, is such a potent philosophical scenario that it's little wonder that there's an established film genre of body-swap…
Fri 03 April 2015
Ceremony with Dr Brown and Sam Simmons
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
03/04/2015 … A messy, sweaty orgy of barely-choreographed chaos, Ceremony lets Sam Simmons and Dr Brown fully off the leash to indulge their most anarchic ideas… and neither…
Thu 02 April 2015
Hannah Gadsby: Donkey
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
02/04/2015 … Mental health is an increasingly fertile ground for comedy, partly because the issue is losing its wider stigma and partly because stand-ups always want to explore,…
![Headliners [Melbourne 2015] | Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett](/images/photos/small/headliners15.jpg "Headliners [Melbourne 2015] | Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett")
Headliners [Melbourne 2015]
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
02/04/2015 … Whether by accident or design, there’s a varied ethnic mix to the initial line-up of Melbourne’s US stand-up showcase Headliners, featuring a Jewish guy, an…
Susie Youssef: Owl Eyes On You
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
02/04/2015 … Early in her show, Susie Youssef jokes with an air of ironic self-deprecation that she’s trepidatious about the show, but: ‘I don’t know why I’m nervous……
Wed 01 April 2015
Sarah Kendall: A Day In October [Melbourne]
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
01/04/2015 … A Day In October is in content and style a natural progression from Sarah Kendall’s last festival show, Touchdown, as she matures from stand-up to storytelling.
Sam Simmons: Spaghetti For Breakfast
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
01/04/2015 … Sam Simmons has a bugbear about ‘relatable’ comedy – an adjective that’ll never get affixed to his wild, absurdist output.
An Evening With Sammy J And Randy
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
01/04/2015 … Sammy J and Randy have just wrapped on their first sitcom, an odd-couple flatshare affair based on their 2010 live show Ricketts Lane for the ABC.
Tue 31 March 2015
Elaine Malcolmson: Arrangements
Glasgow Comedy Festival review by Jay Richardson
31/03/2015 … There's a striking bit in Elaine Malcolmson's hour where the Northern Irish comic takes herself out of the story she's telling about death and remembrance, to reflect…
Mon 30 March 2015
Alan Carr: Yap, Yap, Yap
Gig review by Steve Bennett at G Live, Guildford
30/03/2015 … There’s an old saying, attributed to 1930s American funnyman Ed Wynn, differentiating innate wit from learned techniques: ‘A comic says funny things; a comedian…
Sun 29 March 2015
America Stands Up
Glasgow Comedy Festival review by Jay Richardson
29/03/2015 … Always the most compelling entry in the programme for punters hoping to see something new, and the only real justification for 'international' in the Glasgow International…
Fri 27 March 2015
Buttery Brown Monk
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Leicester Square Theatre
27/03/2015 … The first thing to say about Buttery Brown Monk is that that their name – like the similarly theological Cardinal Burns’s – comes from their surnames, not…
Thu 26 March 2015
© BBC/Sophie Mutevelian TV review: Inside No 9
26/03/2015 … With its wordless opening, it initially looks as if the second series of Inside No 9 is going to repeat the most audacious episode of the first, and create a near-silent…
Mon 23 March 2015
Mel Brooks Live In London
Gig review by Darren Richman at the Prince Of Wales Theatre
23/03/2015 … Mel Brooks is the history of American Jewish humour in human form – and in his eagerly awaited London stage debut at the ripe old age of 88, he entertained…
Sun 22 March 2015
The Friday Night Experience
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Invisible Dot, London
22/03/2015 … The Friday Night Experience, a new format being trialled by new-wave London producers The Invisible Dot, is an engagingly slapdash mix of gameshow, sketch performance…
Fri 20 March 2015
Death Of A Comedian
Theatre review by Steve Bennett at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin
20/03/2015 … There’s an awful lot of bland, watery observational stand-up in this show… but for once, that’s not a criticism.
Thu 19 March 2015
CHUNKS Of The Year 2015
Gig review by Jay Richardson at the Glasgow Comedy Festival
19/03/2015 … Loosely set up like a talent show for the maladjusted and socially maligned, with each act competing to win the Golden Pineapple trophy, this anarchic chunder through…
Wed 18 March 2015
The Producers
Review by Steve Bennett at the Palace Theatre, Manchester
18/03/2015 … You can't escape Mel Brooks at the moment: his classic 2,000-Year-Old man sketches are being revived in London, he's about to make his West End stage debut at the…
Mon 16 March 2015
Andrew Learmonth: All the People I've Ever Loved Will Die
Gig review by Jay Richardson at the Glasgow Comedy Festival
16/03/2015 … After expressing surprise at how many people have turned up, Andrew Learmonth claims he’s bad at starting a show, his shambling self-deprecation peaking with…
Sun 15 March 2015
Stu Who? Beyond A Joke
Gig review by Jay Richardson at the Glasgow Comedy Festival
15/03/2015 … Never seemingly growing older, yet doing so disgracefully all the same, veteran act Stu Who? remains a vital presence on the Scottish stand-up circuit.
Thu 12 March 2015
© Blake Ezra Photography The 2,000 Year Old Man
Theatre review by Steve Bennett at JW3, London
12/03/2015 … The 2,000-year-old man would actually be 2,054 now – given the adjustment for how long it’s been since Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner first performed the now-classic…
Sat 07 March 2015
TV review: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
07/03/2015 … A few minutes into Tina Fey’s new sitcom, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and you can perhaps understand why NBC passed on the project from their biggest comedy star.
Fri 06 March 2015
Larry David's Fish In The Dark
New York threatre review by Darren Richman
06/03/2015 … Bad Jews is a play currently wowing critics in London but it is a title that could just as easily apply to Larry David’s Broadway debut.
Mon 02 March 2015
Pompidou
02/03/2015 … Maybe Matt Lucas can take solace from the fact no one liked Paris’s now iconic Pompidou Centre when it first opened.
Fri 27 February 2015
Michael Redmond, Aidan Strangeman and Colin Murphy
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Queen's Comedy Club
27/02/2015 … Michael Redmond has a face that looks like it’s been left out in the rain too long, with his eyes, jowls and particularly moustache smudging droopily downwards…
Mon 23 February 2015
Mick Ferry: And That Was Just The Teachers
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
23/02/2015 … Rightly or wrongly, there is a distinction between a ‘festival’ comic and a ‘club’ comic.
© BBC Toilet Duck Award
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
23/02/2015 … The Toilet Duck Awards were set up by Tedfest, the annual celebration of Father Ted.
Brendon Burns: Outside The Box
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
23/02/2015 … This isn’t the sort of gig Brendon Burns really wants to be playing.
Thu 19 February 2015
Midlands Tonight
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
19/02/2015 … A little friendly local rivalry surrounds the Midlands Today showcase, as a battalion of new and newish comics from the West Midlands encroach on the biggest comedy…
Midlands Tonight
19/02/2015 … A little friendly local rivalry surrounds the Midlands Tonight showcase, as a battalion of new and newish comics from the West Midlands encroach on the biggest…
Tue 17 February 2015
American Sharia
17/02/2015 … See a Muslim in a Hollywood film, and chances are they'll be a terrorist.
Mon 16 February 2015
© BBC Funny Valentines
Review of the BBC's new comedy iPlayer shorts
16/02/2015 … The BBC's new Funny Valentine shorts released on iPlayer to mark the romantic weekend just gone are an intriguing bunch - more fascinating curios than obvious pilot…
Daliso Chaponda: Love Sucks
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
16/02/2015 … It’s perversely appropriate that Daliso Chaponda’s Love Sucks is performed at the Leicester Comedy Festival so close to Valentine’s Day.
The Geek All Death Stars
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
16/02/2015 … Visiting Danish comics Mads Brynnum and Niels Forsberg might have performed their gig in their native tongue for all the sense they made.
Sun 15 February 2015
James Cook: Always Be Rolling
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
15/02/2015 … James Cook is a player.
Count Arthur Strong: Somebody Up There Licks Me
Gig review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
15/02/2015 … More people than ever are aware of Count Arthur Strong now he's on BBC One, but there is nothing quite like seeing the shambolic old cove live and unadulterated.
Fri 13 February 2015
The UK Pun Championships 2015
Review from Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
13/02/2015 … The pun has a peculiar place in comedy - it's the only sort of joke that elicits a groan for disapproval, rather than silence.
Thu 12 February 2015
Dara O Briain: Crowd Ticker
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend
12/02/2015 … Dara O Briain is one of the most natural, straightforward comics we have.
Wed 11 February 2015
Michael Mittermeier: Das Blackout
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Soho Theatre
11/02/2015 … Already a successful comic in Germany, Michael Mittermeier continues his advances on the UK with this London run of his sophomore Edinburgh show.
Tue 10 February 2015
Her And Her
10/02/2015 … Her and Her is a straightforward double-bill from two newish comics, Bisha K Ali and Stephanie Laing,each working up 20-25 minutes sets.
John Shuttleworth: A Wee Ken to Remember
Leicester Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
10/02/2015 … Time stands still for John Shuttleworth, I was surprised to find that it had been more than four years since I’d last seen this mild-mannered singer-songwriter…
Mon 09 February 2015
© BBC/2LE Media/Colin Hutton TV review: Asylum
BBC Four's new embassy-based comedy
09/02/2015 … All good sitcom characters are trapped, so Julian Assange’s situation, holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy with a potential death sentence hanging over him, is…
Ivo Graham: Bow Ties And Johnnies
Leicester Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/02/2015 … Eton has a double-edged reputation for forging leaders of men, brimming with confidence and entitlement that they are somehow an elite breed above the rest.
Danny Deegan: From Beginning To End
Leicester Comedy Festival Review by Steve Bennett
09/02/2015 … It’s not yet 9pm on Sunday, but it feels much later: the audience are relaxed – some after a full day of seeing festival shows – and the venue intimate.
Dan Lees: Brainchild
Leicester Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
09/02/2015 … Formerly half of musical comedy duo Moonfish Rhumba, Dan Lees’s first solo show has him in the guise of a modern-day clown with a penchant for audience participation,…
Fri 06 February 2015
The Keith Lemon Sketch Show
06/02/2015 … Crude, laddish and trashy, Keith Lemon’s Celebrity Juice is TV’s answer to the Daily Star, with the added shame of popularising the phrase ‘smash her back…
Thu 05 February 2015
Goodbye: The (After) Life of Cook & Moore
Theatre review by Steve Bennett at the Museum Of Comedy
05/02/2015 … Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are in purgatory.
Tue 03 February 2015
© John Fleming 10 Years On: The Malcolm Hardee Show
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Up The Creek, Greenwich
03/02/2015 … Malcolm Hardee was never diligent in wiring material, preferring an armoury of catchphrases to the tyranny of disciplined writing.
© BBC/Vera Productions Ltd/Natalie Seery Rory Bremner's Coalition Report
03/02/2015 … ‘One election every five years seems old-fashioned,’ says Rory Bremner, commenting on the world of instant opinion.
Mon 02 February 2015
© C4 Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights Live
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Manchester Arena
02/02/2015 … He couldn’t be there in person, but Ted Robbins’s presence was strongly felt at the second performance of Phoenix Nights Live.
Wed 28 January 2015
Joke Newington with Eric Lampaert
New act/new material night reviewed by Steve Bennett
28/01/2015 … Yet another night in the London open-mic subculture, Joke Newington certainly has a great room – the sort of rough-and-ready basement where comedy thrives, full…
Mon 26 January 2015
© BBC NATY 2015 final review
26/01/2015 … Going for nigh on 30 years, the NATYs have previously thrown up finalists such as Russell Brand, Stewart Lee, Daniel Kitson, Micky Flanagan – and, erm,the…
Sun 25 January 2015
Amused Moose Soho review
25/01/2015 … In a new(ish) home at the swanky Sanctum Hotel behind London's Regent Street, the Amused Moose offers the sort of line-up a telly panel show would be happy to assemble.
Thu 22 January 2015
Guffaw Comedy Club with Paul Tonkinson
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Underdog Art Gallery
22/01/2015 … Beneath the railway arches near London Bridge station, the new home of long-running Guffaw Comedy Club has the makeshift feel of a hastily put-together Fringe venue.
Mon 19 January 2015
Tatterdemalion
Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Camden People's Theatre
19/01/2015 … There’s rarely been so much physical comedy in London; and the latest to join the throng is Tatterdemalion, a mix of audience participation, puppetry and slapstick…
Fri 16 January 2015
EricTheFred
16/01/2015 … What does the man who sticks a firework up his arse do for an encore? This is the answer.
EricTheFred
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Jacksons Lane
16/01/2015 … What does the man who sticks a firework up his arse do for an encore? This is the answer.
Wed 14 January 2015
The Lion's Den's 8th birthday
New act night reviewed by Steve Bennett
14/01/2015 … Comedy club comperes usually stick to generic questions when it comes to getting the audience bonding over shared experience.
Sat 10 January 2015
Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival Preview Show 2015
10/01/2015 … The preview show for the Leicester Comedy Festival – Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival as host Alan Davies repeatedly corrected himself – is an interesting…
Fri 09 January 2015
Kraken at Soho Theatre
09/01/2015 … Former Edinburgh award-winner Dr Brown seems to have reopened the door for physical comedy, though which Trygve Wakenshaw, a fellow graduate of the Gaulier School,…
Wed 07 January 2015
Bec Hill in… Ellipsis
Gig review by Steve Bennett at Soho Theatre
07/01/2015 … In November, Bec Hill won a plastic loo seat for having the best toilet joke: ‘For Christmas last year I got given Sudoku toilet paper.
Tue 06 January 2015
Tree, by Daniel Kitson
Theatre review by Steve Bennett
06/01/2015 … Daniel Kitson actively avoids having a high profile, but the month-long London run of his two-hander Tree, performed with Tim Key, must be his most commercially…
Sat 03 January 2015
Piccadilly Comedy Club New Comedian Of 2015
03/01/2015 … Quick out of the blocks as ever, the Piccadilly Comedy Club has already crowned its new act of 2015, from a line-up of finalists that it was largely difficult to…
Fri 02 January 2015
BBC Radio New Comedy Award 2014 final
02/01/2015 … Switching the final of the BBC New Comedy Award to the afternoon, so it can be broadcast live on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show, guarantees it a huge bump in listeners.
Thu 01 January 2015
![Alexis Dubus: Cars & Girls [Melbourne 2014] | Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett](/images/photos/small/ad_alexis-Dubus_cars.jpg "Alexis Dubus: Cars & Girls [Melbourne 2014] | Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett")
Alexis Dubus: Cars & Girls [Melbourne 2014]
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett
01/01/2015 … Alexis Dubus is best known for his French alter-ego Marcel Lucont, pure Gallic arrogance in a turtleneck.