Sometimes the Fringe coverage is so obsessed with unearthing someone new that polished talent can be overlooked. Tom Allen has seen plenty of Edinburgh action since winning So You Think You’re Funny... more
Previews
I was writing the other day about the way Edinburgh acts can be divided into the mainstream crowdpleasers and arty experimentalists. Of course things are never quite that simple. Where, for instance... more
When it comes to the Fringe it always feels as if there is an underlying tension between the arty acts and the straightforwardly crowdpleasing stand-ups. Earlier this week I read a debate on Facebook... more
Every sketch group needs its resident idiot and Pappy’s has Tom Parry. Although Ben Clark does run him close at times. It is Parry who tends to come up with madcap schemes. It is Parry who tends to... more
The three-day freebie binge in Balham comes to an end today with another triple-barrelled bill of comedy. There are shows from 2.30pm in three different rooms at the Bedford pub so you'd be well... more
You want Edinburgh previews? What's that? You don't want to pay for them? Then can I humbly suggest that you a) stop being such a tightarse and b) head to Balham's Bedford pub this weekend for the... more
Everyone must surely know Mitch Benn by now. It feels as if he has doing topical songs on The Now Show since we last had a genuinely left wing government. The Liverpool-born Beatles obsessive, sorry... more
Winners of awards always have a little more more pressure on them when they do their first full shows, but I don't think pressure will be a problem for Steve Bugeja, who won the 2013 BBC New Comedy... more
Balls of steel. Testicles of Titanium. Nutsacks of pure granite. I can’t really come up with a better explanation of how Simon Brodkin has managed to pull off his recent stunts, joining Kanye West... more
Satirist Matt Forde has a problem. Just as he mastered his Ed Miliband impression Ed went and got wiped out at the election. Forde now has to master either Andy Burnham, Jeremy Corbyn or put on a... more
