Interview
Al Porter is definitely going places. Probably that primetime household name shiny-floored place. He certainly looks the part in his sharp suit and Leslie Crowther hairstyle. And he has the talent to go with it too. Still in his early twenties he is already a TV regular back home in Ireland and made a big impression when he appeared on Live at the Apollo last year. He certainly works hard too, squeezing more words into his set than most would use in a week.
Ventriloquism looks like it is having what you might call its rock and roll moment. Paul Zerdin won America’s Got Talent and in London Nina Conti is about to embark on what must surely be the longest-ever West End run for a member of this venerable variety profession. Certainly the longest run since the golden age of vaudeville. Conti plays 18 shows at the Criterion Theatre from February 25, but she will not be alone onstage.
Maybe it's when you don't give a toss about winning awards that you produce your best work. Seymour Mace has been delivering a particularly North-Eastern brand of offbeat nonsense (see also R Noble, V Reeves, B Mortimer) for over a decade now. This year he went up to the Edinburgh Fringe and performed at the Stand venue with a wilfully daft show entitled Niche As ****. And guess what, after all these years he was nominated for a Foster's Award.
Jos Houben is returning to the London International Mime Festival with two shows in January 2016. His classic solo show The Art of Laughter and the world premiere of Marcel, in which he reunites with his colleague from Complicite, Marcello Magni.
2015 was Sam Simmons’ breakthrough year. He had always had a loyal cult following and had regularly picked up award nominations for his screwy comedy shows, but Spaghetti for Breakfast found him moving up through the gears. The wild unpredictability was still there but it was joined by both proper jokes and a personal back story that put his somewhat extreme behaviour onstage into context. He was a deserving winner of the Foster’s Comedy Award in Edinburgh.
Cariad Lloyd was nominated for a Foster’s Best Newcomer Award in 2011 and since then has also made a name for herself on the live scene, most notably with Austentatious, the highly skilled troupe who create a new Austen play at each performance. Lloyd is nothing if not diverse. She has been vocal about the tampon tax and created a character called Sanitary Bag Lady who shouted at men who might be disgusted by the mention of menstruation.
Luisa Omielan has always done things her own way. She put on her first show What Would Beyonce Do?! without a manager and turned it into a huge hit. She followed it up with Am I Right Ladies?! and proved that the debut was no fluke. One of the routines in her second show, about the thigh gap, went viral and has had over 30 million views. Omielan’s shows clearly touch a nerve. They are high energy fun, but also passionate, powerful pieces about female empowerment. They are as much about feminism as Bridget Christie’s work.
John Early has been described as "endearingly honest and absurdly funny" by The New York Times, "a cross between Dennis the Menace and Christopher Guest" by PAPER Magazine and "cute and young and blonde" by The Huffington Post. He'll be appearing soon in Neighbors 2 opposite Dave Franco, as well as the Netflix original series Love, executive produced by Judd Apatow. Early recently created and starred in a comedy special for Netflix, playing a variety of original characters, and he is a guest star in season five of HBO's Girls.
I've had that John Robertson in the back of my lounge. A while back I was unable to go to his Dark Room show so he very kindly came to me to perform a bespoke intimate version. It was great fun but I am sure it is better when there is a crowd of people competing in what can only really be described as a live, immersive video game. If you like to indulge in funny, potentially scary choose-you-own-adventure activities this will be right up your street.
Justin Moorhouse is a very funny bloke who makes something very hard look very easy. I met him backstage at a comedy event in Wales earlier this year and he made me laugh more times in the green room than a lot of acts make me laugh onstage. There isn't room to go into a big theory here, but like a lot of people from the north-west – Bishop, Manford, Kay – he has an eye for a funny detail and the gift of the gab. Or maybe I mean gift of the gag.
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