June 2014
Simon Munnery has come up with more original comedy ideas than most comedians have had punchlines. Alan Parker Urban Warrior. League Against Tedium. Cluub Zarathustra. And most recently his Fylm concept, in which he does stand-up gigs while sitting in the audience. This year he is taking Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard to the Fringe.
“The stupid face, the silly hair, the bracelets, what a repulsive man, take him away and smother him”. Well that’s what someone commented in the Evening Standard when I reviewed Russell Kane’s show Smallness at the Queen Elizabeth Hall earlier this year. I, on the other hand, rather like Kane. He is smart, funny and interested in going into places that stand-up doesn’t often go. Smallness is about the way the English like things to be little. We are repressed, we don't want to make a fuss, that sort of thing.
Well at least we didn’t hear yet again about Terry Jones having to pay his mortgage. BBC Imagine’s inevitable Monty Python doc was on a hiding to nothing. What hasn’t already been said about the veteran comics since they announced their imminent O2 Arena dates last November? The clue was in the title. It did, after all, promise us something rather similar.
Chelsea Handler is an outspoken American stand-up comedian and talk show host. She turned to comedy aged 21 when she had to give a talk having been charged with DUI (driving under the influence). She got so many laughs she was advised to try it professionally. In 2007 she launched her show on the E! network, Chelsea Lately, and over the years her irreverent approach has become compulsive viewing for lovers of celebrity. Guests have included Justin Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow and the Kardashians.
Update 15/11/14: Hello Eric Lampaert fan. A lot of people have been coming this is page recently but I don't know why as it is an old piece. A great piece about Eric, but an old piece. If you could send the link which mentions this page to [email protected] I would be very grateful. Thanks, Bruce Dessau, Editor.
Imran Yusuf already has a place in history for Edinburgh Comedy Awards nerds like myself. In 2010 he was the first comedian performing his show for free to pick up a nomination when he was shortlisted for Best Newcomer. Yusuf was playing an afternoon gig in a funny little nightclub round the back of Cowgate. A month later he was on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. I’d like to say I could see this coming, but in comedy as in movie-making, nobody knows anything. He was certainly interesting from the start though.
What more can one say about Richard Herring that hasn't already been said? Podcast pioneer, purveyor of plays, past partner of Stewart Lee. Herring returns to Edinburgh this summer with an all-new show, Lord of the Dance Settee, which looks like it finds him in more playful mode than ever. After tackling men's tackle in Talking Cock, the Bible in Christ on a Bike, death in We’re All Going To Die! and amour in What Is Love, Anyway?
I was talking to Sara Pascoe yesterday about the stresses and strains of getting an Edinburgh show right in time and she said that one of the hardest aspects – apart from making it funny – was coming up with an ending. I raised the name of rising star John Robins who I saw at the very start of the 2013 Fringe.
My editor on the Evening Standard was deciding whether to run a review of Dawn French’s touring show in Brighton last night and asked me who had reviewed it already. I replied that I didn’t really know. I vaguely remembered seeing some headlines on some arts pages when the tour started, but I had made a point of not reading the reviews. I didn’t want them to prejudice me for or against a show before I had made up my mind. The star rating system, which the Stage newspaper has just succumbed to, makes things even worse.
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