Comedy, Reviews and Brian Donaldson

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Births, Deaths and Marriages

New radio sitcom from Alan Partridge regular David Schneider

22 May 2012

The old triumvirate of hatch, match and dispatch will surely prove fertile for the big comedic brain of David Schneider as he launches his new radio sitcom. Set in a Local Register Office, chief registrar Malcolm Fox (not Ian Rankin’s post-Rebus…

Russell Kane - The Humorist

A gory black comedy from the restless comic

24 Apr 2012

(Simon & Schuster) Anyone familiar with Russell Kane’s stand-up comedy won’t be surprised with his debut dip into literary fiction. The winner of the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award might be a restless spirit on stage, but his number one priority is the…

Mr Blue Sky

Second season of Andrew Collins' warmly cosy Radio 4 comedy

27 Mar 2012

When a recession hits, even optimists can feel the heat. In the opening episode of Mr Blue Sky’s second series lovable oaf Harvey Easter tries a few tricks to save the pennies. Such as walking to the newsagent rather than having his paper delivered…

Fist of Fun

Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's debut TV appearance given a DVD outing

28 Feb 2012

‘It’s not as good as I remembered’. Thus sprach Stewart Lee about the first series of Fist of Fun, the BBC Two show which first introduced the bequiffed comic and Richard Herring, his cohort of many years, to a TV audience. While it might not be…

Late'n'Live Guide to Comedy

The greatest hits of the legendary Fringe bear-pit makes an appearance on TV

2 Feb 2012

‘The performing equivalent of self-harm’ is how Johnny Vegas describes the bearpit hell of the notorious Late’n’Live. Brainchild of the Gilded Balloon’s head honcho Karen Koren, this Edinburgh Fringe staple has been sending chills down the spines of…

Meanwhile, It's Will and Greg

Will Andrews and Greg McHugh revive their Ugly Kid sketch talents for radio

6 Jan 2012

On first hearing that Will Andrews and Greg McHugh have collaborated for sketch work under the moniker of Will & Greg, the cynical might believe this to be a forced pairing simply to fulfil a US TV show pun. Reflect on this, cynics: the duo’s working…

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights

The comedian's TV show is a mix of decent stand-up material and woeful sketches

15 Nov 2011

Curious thing the moral barometer. After the faecal flood which surrounded the original Channel 4 showing of Tramadol Nights this time last year, some judicious cutting has been made to the DVD version. Gone is the Jordan/Harvey routine from episode two…

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

Unfunny pop-parody book designed to cash in on upcoming TV fame

18 Oct 2011

(Coronet) ‘We mock the living hell out of stuff for a living,’ claim London pop parody trio The Midnight Beast. Even in this disposable age, simply poking fun at more talented people can only stretch so far before the game is up. Success rarely…

Barking - DVD review

Unessential DVD release of the short-lived C4 sketch show featuring David Walliams and Peter Kay

17 Oct 2011

(Acorn Media) Back in 1998, Peter Kay, Catherine Tate, David Walliams, Omid Djalili and Mackenzie Crook were all looking for a big break in their comedy careers. The Fast Show had ended on the BBC the previous year and it would be another 12 months…

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David's groundbreaking sitcom stays at the top of its game for an eighth season

16 Sep 2011

After the high watermark of season seven’s Seinfeld-reunion storyline, Larry David brings us dragging and cringing back into his world of petty obsessions, chronic misunderstandings and friendships permanently teetering on the brink of abrasive…

Doug Stanhope - Oslo: Burning the Bridge to Nowhere

Live DVD from the controversial stand-up

24 Aug 2011

(Roadrunner Comedy) In a short introduction to this wonderfully unhinged film, Doug Stanhope (glass of lager clamped in hand) prepares the viewer to expect the unprofessional. Anyone picking up a copy of Oslo: Burning the Bridge to Nowhere…

Alison Thea-Skot

Delightfully batty character affair

24 Aug 2011

Tiff Mason is an arch vocal coach with domestic worries, leading to a spell in chokey where she runs rap rehabilitation classes. In this delightfully batty character affair, Skot also introduces us to a terrible Aussie social worker, nervy barrister and…

Richard Herring: What is Love Anyway?

The "King of Edinburgh" at his scintillating best

23 Aug 2011

Back to his scintillating best, Herring delivers a barrage against our notions about love despite (or because of) his own admission that he may have found ‘the one’. She plays a key role in a typically lengthy sequence about Ferrero Rocher pyramids and…

Alun Cochrane: Moments of Alun

A reliably hilarious hour

23 Aug 2011

When it comes to a reliably hilarious hour, Cochrane is fast becoming the go-to guy. While he can’t see himself selling out stadiums, he’s more than happy to plough his furrow in ‘proper’ comedy environments. He’s the only one in the room who seems…

The Baby Diary

Wry play featuring couple soon to be parents

23 Aug 2011

Emily Watson Howes’ wry play features a couple soon to become parents: she’s suitably over-excited, he’s more concerned about losing his pet rabbit Duncan as he relates to his filmed ‘dadblog’. For a piece about the relentless march of technology, it’s…

Steve Hall's Very Still Life

Surreal tales and batty antics

23 Aug 2011

Where would modern comics be without their crazy parents? We get to laugh at the antics of the Klang man’s batty dad, but mainly we’re chortling at Hall Jnr’s shortcomings amid a tale of love (almost) lost. There’s the night he made a fool of himself at…

Joe Bor: In Search of the Six Pack

Limp hour saved by supporting cast

23 Aug 2011

This doesn’t start well, with a laugh-free vox pops film in which Bor asks the public what they find sexy. Worse is to come with the mercifully brief ‘songs’ which are chucked in to merely ‘show-off’ his recently-acquired guitar skills. What saves this…

Interpretive Dances to My Diary! (72% Non-Fiction)

100% total cobblers

23 Aug 2011

Fancy spending time with two red boiler-suited Americans called Ryan who love to let themselves go? Maybe your partner will be led onstage to get tongued by tall Ryan while smaller Ryan giggles at their sheer daring? All in the name of a ‘surreal…

Zoe Lyons - Clownbusting

Hotchpoth of scenarios largely uninspired

23 Aug 2011

Coming across like your favourite fruity auntie, Lyons delivers a hotchpotch of scenarios centring around her long-held belief that Kate Bush’s 1983 hit was called ‘Clownbusting’. She zips through a largely uninspired set which contains a highlight…

Lunch with Quattro Formaggio

Lovely conceit of Italian waiter on the verge does the job nicely

23 Aug 2011

There’s a lovely conceit at play here as the driving force behind this quartet gets a bit too ‘method’ in his Italian waiter role. The team fall out spectacularly with the fourth wall constantly being pushed over, this storyline forcing attention away…

Chris Mayo's Panic Attack

An engaging stress-related show

23 Aug 2011

Alongside Seminar and Raymond Mearns’ hour, here is another stress-related show, as Mayo chats forcibly about what makes him panic. Everything, by the sounds of it, but he’s confident enough to get up and retell some embarrassing moments (trying to…

So On and So Forth present 'Human Era'

A missing member, predictible hilarity ensues

23 Aug 2011

The ruse here is that this trio have permanently lost their fourth member with the deceased’s estate imposing a ban on his work being used. Cue ingenious skits with jokes and set-ups going missing, while a running gag about a space mission fares better…

Seminar

Predictable but well performed self-help for the stressed

23 Aug 2011

Kimberley Jane Feldhauser is an expert on stress and is here to smash the audience’s anxieties to smithereens. Naturally, Feldhauser (Emily Watson Howes) is a ticking bomb and, perhaps too predictably, loses the plot on numerous occasions during this…

Wade McElwain - The Littlest Hobo

Eloquently taste-busting lines

23 Aug 2011

It’s a pity that this Canadian comic found someone in the audience who shared a farming background as the ensuing banter takes the fizz from the head of steam he gains early on with a series of eloquently taste-busting lines. Naming his show after The…

Matt Forde: Dishonourable Member

Ill-judged hagiography of Tony Blair and Brian Clough

23 Aug 2011

Entitled Dishonourable Member, you might expect this hour to be a coruscating bite at British politics. But Forde’s show turns out to be a protracted love letter to Tony Blair. The sequence about two awkward encounters with his childhood hero Brian…

331 articles.

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