Live Review

Live Review: Tim Key, Megadate, Theatre Royal, Brighton Festival

Tim Key – prize-winning comedian, poet, of Mid Morning Matters with Steve Coogan and Detectorists with Mackenzie Crook. If you didn’t know this about the man before Megadate, you will do the end of this part theatre, part stand up, part storytelling show, as he neatly folds in true aspects of his own life to make up his flawed romantic protagonist.

Live Review: Sara Pascoe, Jordan Brookes, Tez Ilyas, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, The MCT at Alleyn's, SE22

"Hello, I am your scumbag for the evening." Skilful compere Kiri Pritchard-McLean set the tone for this gig with her very first salvo. For comedians used to dodging the heckles and inflatable cocks at stag and hen dos on a Saturday night this new monthly gig must be a delight. It takes place in a private school in Dulwich in a state-of-the-art theatre that puts a lot of Fringe venues to shame. The audience is receptive and polite, though luckily not too polite to laugh in all the right places.

Live Review: Kerry Godliman, Soho Theatre

This review first appeared in the London Evening Standard here.

Kerry Godliman is currently on tour. Buy tickets here.

 

Live Review: Young Frankenstein, Garrick Theatre, WC2

If you are going to see Young Frankenstein please leave your political correctness antennae in the cloakroom. I counted three gags about breasts in the first fifteen minutes and the rest of the show is positively peppered with the kind of smutty humour that makes the Carry On films seems like Chekhov. And yet somehow this doesn't matter. In this age of triggers and safe spaces it feels a bit old school to say this, but you'll probably be laughing too much to care.

Live Review – Bruce Forsyth, Royal Albert Hall

This review below first appeared in the Evening Standard in 2012. I wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing the Strictly Come Dancing star, I think it might have clashed with a Daniel Kitson gig, but I really was blown away. He totally lived up to his reputation as an all-round entertainer. You sometimes wonder if his TV schtick was scripted but it certainly wasn't here as he spontaneously riffed with his fans as if his life depended on it. He played to the crowd better than anyone I've ever seen.

Live Review: Old Comedian of the Year, Leicester Square Theatre, WC2

If the idea of The Old Comedian of the Year final conjures up images of Zimmer frames and senior moments nothing could be further from the truth. You only need to be 35 to enter, so I’ll be eligible myself in a few years. At 83 compere Lynn Ruth Miller was easily the oldest person on the stage and she was as sharp as a hat pin, keeping the crowd onside with her briskly delivered reflections on geriatric sex or the lack of it and much more.

Live Review: Stuart Goldsmith, The Stand, Glasgow Comedy Festival

Marketing teams take note. It was interesting to discover how Stuart Goldsmith sold most tickets for his show at the Glasgow Comedy Festival. Not through PR. Not through advertising. Through his podcast. A mention of his excellent Comedian's Comedian interview series (200 guests and counting) got hands shooting up into the air as if he was giving away free shortbread.  

Live Review: John Shuttleworth, Leicester Square Theatre, WC2

Never let it be said that John Shuttleworth does not respond to global events. His latest show, My Last Will And Tasty Mint, is his response to the catalogue of music business deaths in the last year. In fact, prepare yourselves for a nightmare scenario, Shuttleworth has decided that the music business is now too risky for him and he has decided to quit…

Live Review, UK Pun Championships Final, De Montfort Hall, Leicester Comedy Festival

This year’s UK Pun Championships Final went the full WWF. The eight finalists didn’t perform on a stage, they had their joke-offs in a wrestling ring MC’d by Jason Byrne, who press-ganged audience members – in the nicest possible way –  into announcing each round by running round the ring holding cards up. 

Live Review, Live at the Chapel with James Acaster, Kevin Eldon, Jayde Adams, Carl Donnelly, John Robins

When the pioneering Invisible Dot organisation closed down in 2016 there was a fear that the regular Union Chapel gigs promoted by ID might come to an end too. There have been lots of memorable nights at this Islington church over the years and luckily for the comedy world promoter Will Briggs has picked up the baton. Briggs is clearly a shrewd man, even if last night’s compere John Robins described him as looking like a stoner out of Point Break.

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