There seems to be no stopping the inexorable rise of clowning on the Fringe. Ever since Dr Brown won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2012 I feel as as I have been inundated by press releases mentioning... more
Interviews
Comedy critics are supposed to be able to tell who is good and who is bad. But sometimes some acts simply defy the easy good v bad equation. When I saw Kelly Kingham at the New Act of the Year final... more
As double acts go this is an unusual one. Bryony Kimmings is a performance artist, comedian and maker of experimental theatre. Her partner onstage in Fake It ’Til You Make It is Tim... more
James Veitch is a keypad warrior. A fighter for justice with a broadband connection instead of a cape. In his breakthrough Edinburgh show he took on the Nigerian scammers and led them a merry dance... more
People talk about overnight success in comedy but it’s not really like that. Anyone who breaks through has probably been slogging away on the circuit for years, gigging to one man and his dog before... more
Comedy's bleak philosopher is back asking the questions nobody else will. When did I last go outside? Am I already dead? How are you meant to maintain a happy marriage in the face of the unstoppable... more
One of the word-of-mouth hits in Edinburgh last year was Andrew Watts' Feminism For Chaps. It did so well that Watts added some extra free daytime shows and I had to sit behind a family tucking into... more
If you like your comedy off-the-beaten track you really should have come across Joanna Neary by now. She has been doing, sorry about this word, ‘quirky’ characters in shows such as Robin Ince's Book... more
Felicity Ward was one of the first comedians to make a splash on The John Bishop Show. I tuned in expecting the usual Saturday night supermarket checkout/airport security blandness and instead got... more
Following yesterday's interview with Pappy's lynchpin Tom Parry, today we are gently probing the tiniest (in height) member of Pappy's, Matthew Crosby, whose solo show is at Just The Tonic's Mash... more
