July 2013
There is a lot riding on Pappy's new BBC3 sitcom Badults. The much-loved sketch combo has already had two tries at transferring their lunatic stage sensibility, doing a pair of C4 Comedy Lab pilots, so is Badults third time lucky? It certainly comes when their confidence is riding high. Last year's Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated Fringe show, Last Show Ever, was their best live show to date.
The Soho Theatre's comedy programming policy has been consistently high in recent years but in the last couple of months they've blotted their impeccable track record with a few disappointing – to me, anyway – American visitors. Judah Friedlander failed to lived up to the hype and college humour duo Jake & Amir just made me feel old with their blend of juvenile smut and puerile banter. But the best venue(s) in London gets back on track this week with two surefire bets both opening on Monday.
All I can say is thank goodness for the internet. Otherwise if all the press releases constantly pinging into my inbox were printed on paper and posted there would be no trees left. And my postman would have a quadruple hernia. I've noticed in the last few weeks that my inbox has been inundated with way more releases than in past years. I've received about three releases in the post and one of those included booze, which is not as effective if sent as a jpeg.
Were my ears deceiving me? On Tuesday night I turned Radio 4 on at 6.30pm and heard a familiar Scottish accent being unfamiliarly reasonable. Frankie Boyle was one of the guests on the first edition of a new series of It's Not What You Know, chaired by Miles Jupp.
Is it really eight years since I interviewed Reece Shearsmith? Eight years since the League of Gentlemen's movie came out? This interview originally ran in the Evening Standard to coincide with The League of Gentlemen's big screen debut, and also Shearsmith's appearance as Jaques in As You Like It at Wyndham's Theatre.
So the good news is that The Wright Way will not be coming back. Shane Allen, the BBC's Comedy head honcho has confirmed that there will be no second series of Ben Elton's risible, dated Health & Safety so-called sitcom.
There is no Pappy's show in Edinburgh this summer – sob – but that doesn't mean they will be keeping a low profile, oh no. Their eagerly anticipated BBC3 sitcom Badults starts later this month and BTJ will be running a review shortly. But if you still need your live fix of Tom, Ben and Matthew they are doing a one-off podcast recording of Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown at the Soho Theatre tonight.
I attended the annual breakfast briefing for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards yesterday. The good news – apart from the fact that the croissants were excellent – was that Foster's has confirmed that they are sponsoring the award for the next three years, which was maybe not a surprise as the award has been a great way of linking lager with laughs and I'm sure it has helped their sales figures. It can only be a matter of time before critics stop calling it the award formerly known as the Perrier Award.
Alexander Armstrong appears to have put his foot in it with his comments in the Evening Standard yesterday (July 3) about the return of cabaret and the revival of interest in burlesque. Armstrong was speaking to promote the London Festival of Cabaret which he is taking part in this autumn – singing, rather than telling gags.
Pages
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
