Comedy and Brian Donaldson

Highlights from the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe programme

Daniel Kitson, Billy the Mime and Paolo Bianchi set to appear

22 May 2012

The Fringe madness is looming on the horizon and as long as the nation isn’t holed up with Olympics fever, this could well be another record-breaking year. You’ll be less than surprised to hear there’s a massive amount of comedy on show, including a…

Junior Melting Pot proves kids can be funny

The show features young performers with both established and original material

22 May 2012

Perhaps it’s been a side effect of the old showbusiness adage about not working with children or animals, but when you see kids in comedy sketch shows, we are usually asked to laugh at youngsters saying things that adults might say (more often than not…

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…

5 things you might not know about Jeremy Hardy

The Perrier award winner is antagonistic towards the far right

22 May 2012

1 Hampshire lad Hardy got into the stand-up game in the early 80s and scooped the Perrier in 1988 beating off competition from fellow nominees such as Doug Anthony Allstars and Robert Llewellyn. 2 His radio show Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation was…

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…

5 things you might not know about Simon Amstell

18 Apr 2012

1 Amstell’s first major TV exposure was as the rather cocky team captain of the Essex All-Stars on Channel 4’s GamesMaster in 1993, the show which featured Patrick Moore’s head. Amstell was 13 at the time, had his cap on back to front, and wore massive…

US TV comedy reviews - 2 Broke Girls and Suburgatory

Two sitcoms let down by overt product placement

18 Apr 2012

There could be a theme developing here. In the pilot episode for New Girl, scatty teacher Zooey Deschanel discovered her live-in man was cheating on her and left to wind up rooming with three guys. In the opening episode of 2 Broke Girls (E4, Thu, 9pm…

Alex Horne on high-concept comedy

The comedian talks about his latest show, Seven Years in the Bathroom

18 Apr 2012

With the world of comedy getting ever bigger and broader, the ambition of its exponents is rarely just confined to telling some jokes into a mic while perched on a small stage. Alex Horne has always been a comic who stepped out of the classic format…

Jimeoin on his comedy heroes

Mitch Hedberg, Stewart Francis and Tommy Cooper are among the Irish comic's favourites

16 Apr 2012

I’ve been doing comedy for 22 years now. Mostly in Australia but as of late thanks to McIntyre, Live at the Apollo and the Royal Variety Show, I’ve started to get an audience when I tour in the UK. But this is on the back of a lot of blood, sweat and…

5 things you might not know about Jeff Dunham

The creator of Ahmed the Dead Terrorist is coming to the SECC

27 Mar 2012

1 Born in Dallas in 1962, Jeff Dunham got into the ventriloquist game at the age of eight having been given a dummy at Christmas, and later performed at birthday parties and Cub Scout banquets. 2 He first tasted serious fame when he appeared on Johnny…

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…

Daniel Sloss on his comedy heroes, Ed Byrne and Tom Stade

The Fifer names his most influential comics

26 Mar 2012

I’d go for Ed Byrne. He did his own style of comedy which was a mixture of one-liners and stories and gags, a really beautiful mix which always had audiences in the palm of his hand. He could tell stories which might not have many gags in them but they…

Lee Camp to play stand-up dates in Glasgow and Edinburgh

The US comedian discusses his politicized comedy

21 Mar 2012

Were US satirist Lee Camp to retire from the comedy game tomorrow, he can always say he once made Jeremy Paxman giggle like a teenage girl. On Newsnight last autumn via satellite, Camp was involved in a debate over a gaffe made by Republican…

Interview: Stewart Francis

The Canadian comedian discusses Bill Hicks, Ricky Gervais and the other Stu Francis

28 Feb 2012

When he first arrived in the UK, there was a recurring subject that would crop up around any discussion of Canadian comic Stewart Francis: was he aware of the iconic 80s kids show presenter who shared that name and boasted a catchphrase about his…

Paul Merton UK tour with Out of My Head

The stand-up will be joined be Impro Chums Lee Simpson, Richard Vranch and Suki Webster

28 Feb 2012

It’s 14 long years since Paul Merton last embarked on a solo tour of the UK. Since then he has performed with his Impro Chums across the country and at several Edinburgh Fringes. The reason he gave up the former is the same reason he has been happy to…

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…

Craig Hill talks about his comedy hero Victoria Wood

'It’s all about delivery, tight writing and use of language'

28 Feb 2012

There are a few comedians who inspire me because I like their style. One of them is Ross Noble who I think is an off-the-cuff genius; the first time I saw him I thought how is he able to do this, he’s connecting all these subjects as though he knew them…

Five things you might not know about Spamalot

Eric Idle and John Du Prez's Monty Python-inspired musical tours UK

27 Feb 2012

1 The multi award-winning musical production from Eric Idle and John Du Prez, Spamalot was ‘lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’ I guess Idle can do whatever he wants but an eyebrow was raised by the inclusion of…

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

The Boosh performer's latest TV effort abounds in surrealism but lacks coherence... and jokes

2 Feb 2012

Ahead of his new gaudily-coloured clutter-fest, Noel Fielding admitted that making this solo series left him feeling a bit unhinged. After ingesting just a few minutes of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy (E4, Thu, 10pm) only the most avid Boosh fan will…

Interview: Comedian Chris Ramsey's Offermation

The genial Geordie discusses offensiveness and award nominations

2 Feb 2012

During Chris Ramsey’s stand-up appearance on Russell Howard’s Good News from 2010, there’s a moment when the camera cuts to a shot of happy, laughing people. In among them is one seemingly less than amused woman who appears to have taken offence at the…

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…

Keara Patricia Murphy: My comedy hero - Billy Connolly

'He destroyed me. No one else comes close'

2 Feb 2012

I first heard Billy Connolly on a record of my dad’s when I was seven. He was talking about welly boots and the Barras and telling funny stories about Jesus being born in the Gallowgate and not Galilee. He created a magical world outside my window that…

5 things you might not know about Tiffany Stevenson

The actress comedian from Talk Radio to Show Me The Funny

2 Feb 2012

1 Tiffany Stevenson began her career in the entertainment biz as an actress and has appeared onscreen in The Office, took a lead role in gritty indie feature Spinning Candyfloss and popped up in Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Dirtee Cash’ video [see below]. 2 Her…

Round-up of 2011: Comedy

Tim Key, Tommy Tiernan, Stephen Merchant, Luke Wright and Jerry Sadowitz make our laugh-list

9 Jan 2012

Tim Key Having netted Edinburgh’s big fat award for comedy in 2009, the former Coward blasted back in August with an absolute corker of a show. Masterslut was a masterclass of interactive improv raised to glorious levels by the most memorable use of a…

Author and satirist Nick Revell on coming back to comedy

The prominent 80s comic has several dates lined up at The Stand

6 Jan 2012

As one of the original voices from the 1980s Comedy Store era, Nick Revell has been round a block or two. Having earned a Perrier nomination in 1987, his stand-up career seemed to be flying, but in 1992 he decided to have a break and concentrate on…

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…

5 things you might not know about Nick Helm

The former 'dinner lady' and 2011 Best Joke of the Fringe winner doesn't get on with Alice Cooper

5 Jan 2012

1 Among Nick Helm’s pre-showbiz jobs have been as a ‘dinner lady’ at a secondary school for boys, counting traffic and working in the café of a garden centre. 2 In 2001, he formed a theatre company called Bad Ash Productions whose oeuvre includes I…

Queen of quirk Zooey Deschanel stars in formulaic geeky comedy New Girl

The sitcom falls in neatly with The Big Bang Theory, Scrubs et al

5 Jan 2012

Adorkability. ‘Jess Daly’ has this in spades, and it’s the x-factor that led US executives to immediately order up a bunch of extra episodes after New Girl (Channel 4, Fri 6 Jan, 8.35pm) became the Fox network’s highest-rated autumn sitcom debut in a…

Janey Godley: My comedy hero - Jerry Sadowitz

The chatty comedian booked the hate-fuelled magician in the early 80s

5 Jan 2012

My comedy hero is Jerry Sadowitz and always has been, ever since the day my slightly mad (now deceased) brother Jim brought him into my bar in the early 80s and begged me to ‘put him on’. Which we reluctantly did. I have yet to see anyone as…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 25: Greg McHugh interview

Man behind Fresh Meat and Gary: Tank Commander

16 Dec 2011

When it comes to arresting openings in new TV comedy-dramas during 2011, it’s unlikely that anything came close to Channel 4’s Fresh Meat. The sight of Greg McHugh, naked from the waist down, blow-drying a row of Peking ducks won’t leave many witness…

Geordie stand-up Gavin Webster on irony, young people and The Stand

Man behind Fringe show All Young People Are C**ts revisits Scotland

13 Dec 2011

When Newcastle comic Gavin Webster brought his show to the Fringe in August, news broke that you imagine would have had him rubbing his hands. Asterisked-up to the max, the provocatively titled All Young People Are C**ts was made heavily topical when…

The best comedy DVDs to give as Christmas presents in 2011

Tim Vine, Tommy Tiernan and Richard Herring among highlights

7 Dec 2011

What does it say about America that ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is among that nation’s top earning comedians? In 2009, Forbes.com placed him third behind Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, having banked an estimated $30m. In response, an astonished Dunham…

Five things you might not know about the Pajama Men

Some fun facts about comedy duo Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez

16 Nov 2011

1 The Pajama Men are Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez who met at high school in Albuquerque, while performing in a string of comedy improvisation groups. They got their big break at Chicago’s Second City, the legendary comedy and theatre mecca which helped…

Omid Djalili: Tour of Duty - interview

The British-Iranian stand-up discusses TV, touring and unintentional slapstick ahead of his new tour

15 Nov 2011

There is mounting evidence that Omid Djalili may be the most accident-prone comedian in stand-up. Setting aside the time he knocked his chicken salad onto this interviewer’s shoes in 2002, his onstage falls are fast becoming the stuff of legend. At the…

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…

Comedian Carey Marx on his heroes

Woody Allen, Lennny Bruce, Mitch Hedberg and Louis CK are among the former magician's idols

15 Nov 2011

When I started out in comedy I was a magician and my act largely consisted of pulling vegetables out of people’s ears. I didn’t have any heroes because there is a dearth of vegetable-based magic acts. As I moved into pure stand-up (I like to think what…

Channel Hopper - Life's Too Short

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant team up with short actor Warwick Davis for new comedy mock-doc

15 Nov 2011

When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant set about their next major BBC project, they must have wondered whether to go for the docu-drama fakery of The Office or the celeb-heavy naturalism of Extras. In the end they squashed the two together for Life’s…

Mark Nelson's comedy hero: Doug Stanhope

One charmingly profane comic praises another

18 Oct 2011

Naturally being Scottish, I have always regarded Billy Connolly as an inspiration and probably the inventor of modern stand-up. Growing up I always loved Jack Dee and Frank Skinner and now as a comedian myself there are comics I work with whom I…

Dave Gorman's Powerpoint Presentation - interview

The Gorman-hunting, Googlewhacker presents latest high-concept show

18 Oct 2011

When Dave Gorman gets a chance to look back on his career, he can be mightily proud to have pretty much single-handedly created a new kind of stage comedy. Even though he’s not sure what it should be called exactly. ‘They were narrative shows which…

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…

Five fun facts about Ed Byrne

Some little known facts about the Irish comic's altercations with popes, Perriers and Piers Morgan

17 Oct 2011

Born in the Dublin suburb of Swords, Byrne first got involved in stand-up comedy as a horticulture student at Strathclyde University. As part of the student union, Byrne hosted pub quizzes and karaoke nights which provided him with a taste for showing…

Christmas comedy memoirs roundup

Lee Evans, Johnny Vegas, Jason Manford and Simon Day all have books on the way

17 Oct 2011

With the Christmas market positively saturated these days with stand-up comedy DVDs, publishers have clearly decided it’s time to cash in by launching a batch of memoirs from folk who may (or may not) have made you laugh down the years. Titlewise, Lee…

5 Things you might not know about Alan Carr

19 Sep 2011

1 Carr’s distinctive toothy look was due to a childhood accident when he fell and banged his chin on the caravan-towing bar on a family holiday. 2 Before he got proper famous, Carr had a litany of awful-sounding temp jobs: putting shampoo in boxes…

Reginald D Hunter

Not just a race comic, he insists

16 Sep 2011

One of the prime misconceptions about Reginald D Hunter is that all he does is talk about race and racism. Sure, he may have had the word ‘Nigga’ in several of his show titles, but within a Hunter show will be a plethora of topics and areas touching on…

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…

Carl Donnelly

The comedian tells us about his comedy hero Mitch Hedberg

13 Sep 2011

Picking one comedy hero is much harder than it sounds, especially for me as I don’t seem to have had the standard path to becoming a stand-up myself. Comedians tend to talk about how they grew up listening to Richard Pryor albums but I actually watched…

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…

Men of War

Scene after scene falls flat for talented quartet

23 Aug 2011

A talented quartet they may be (including Stephen ‘Toulson and Harvey’ Harvey and Jay’s dad from The Inbetweeners), but scene after scene fall flat. When a good idea does raise its head (a serial killer meeting his girlfriend’s father), momentum is…

Footlights in 'Pretty Little Panic'

One moment of surrealist brilliance can't compensate for lack of comedic guile

23 Aug 2011

Asides from one moment of surrealist brilliance, the current Footlights batch patently don’t have a Key or Fry among them, as they cut a swathe through far too many sketches. Their ‘borrowing’ of the Marx Brothers mirror sequence only serves to prove…

Sally-Anne Hayward: DOn't Judge Me

A pleasant jaunt through middle-class concerns

23 Aug 2011

Hayward cannot wait to be old, as she’ll be able to say what she truly feels. For now, she’s trying to hold it all back, and this is reflected in her comedy which is a pleasant enough jaunt down some middle-class concerns without ever threatening to…

Max and Ivan are Holmes and Watson

Slick but over-the-top, confusing and largely gag-free tale

23 Aug 2011

There may be a slickness to Max and Ivan’s take on Holmes and Watson, but this is an over-the-top, confusing and largely gag-free tale. It may simply be that their story is too busy for a double act to carry off, unless their name happened to be the…

Croft and Pearce - Funnier Than It Sounds

Flashes of brilliance lost in a melee of mundanity

23 Aug 2011

Flashes of brilliance are unfortunately lost in a melee of mundanity as this double act trot out predictable stuff about the Middletons, a horrendous job interview and domineering Italian mothers. But the Brownies gang warfare sketch and creative…

Chris Ramsey: Offermation

Enthusiastic natural wit is impossible to resist

23 Aug 2011

With Offermation, this lively comic discusses the cult of delivering unwanted information without prior consent, centring around some letters sent to his family. The central theme is somewhat undermined by an uplifting finale, but Ramsey’s enthusiastic…

Tim Key

A sublime and spirited Slut sequel

22 Aug 2011

Following up an award-winning success is never the easiest of operations. Perhaps this is why Tim Key has taken two years out to get his sequel into shape, having used this same Pleasance Dome space last year as a testing ground with a short run of the…

Todd Barry

Every trivial matter is prey to the laconic American

22 Aug 2011

In a short pre-show filmed interview, Todd Barry notes that his first few dates in Edinburgh are likely to be detrimentally effected by jetlag. Given that the default setting for his delivery is among the most downbeat in stand-up history, it’s hard to…

Neil Hamburger

Anti-comedic filth, hate and fury

22 Aug 2011

Almost 20 years ago, Gregg Turkington released an album of prank phone calls in which he first unleashed the now fully-formed and twisted character of Neil Hamburger. God only knows the current state of mind of those individuals on the receiving end. An…

Tiffany Stevenson

Cuddly musings on Cockneys and kids

22 Aug 2011

When she took her Scottish boyfriend along to a good old-fashioned Cockney party in her own backyard, Tiffany Stevenson couldn’t get out of there quick enough. A horrible vision of her possible future has presented itself as she moved around the room…

The Unexpected Items

A largely threadbare and shallow show

22 Aug 2011

This quintet has garnered a zillion YouTube hits for their amusingly satirical ‘Gap-Yah’ sketches and there’s a murmur of recognition as Matt Lacey wanders on to deliver a new atrocity from the plummy, chundering Orlando. In a curious twist of Pub…

Phill Jupitus: Stand Down

An excitement-sapping hour of chat

18 Aug 2011

The first thing that you can’t help but notice about Phill Jupitus is not his substantial weight-loss, impressive though that is. It’s how much he closely resembles the silvery-pirate modern look of Eddie Izzard, even down to the eyeliner and…

Iain Stirling and Sean McLoughlin

The star signing lets down the team

18 Aug 2011

No offence to the jaunty Iain Stirling, but it’s intriguing to wonder what a solo hour with Sean McLoughlin would have turned out like. CBBC’s Scottish presenter Stirling seems billed as the main event here given his status as compere and closing act…

Piff the Magic Dragon

A laconic but jaw-dropping set

17 Aug 2011

It’s not enough these days for a magician to simply get up there on stage and do some jaw-dropping trick. A gimmick is always an added extra and in John van der Put’s case, he’s chosen to dress like a dragon, give himself a suitably puntacular name and…

Holly Walsh - The Hollycopter

A brave and bittersweet recollection

17 Aug 2011

When her fellow comics were padding about the Fringe in August 2010, Holly Walsh was clowning around on Worthing Pier. Unfortunately, her charity leap into the West Sussex sea resulted in a shocking injury that led to national media coverage for the…

Music Box

Mash-up improv troupe never hit a true stride

16 Aug 2011

Maybe it was a lack of imagination on the audience’s part (a musical called Fish set in a chip shop doesn’t seem to be in keeping with the mash-up improv spirit), but this troupe never hit a true stride, going round in circles when they chance upon a…

Vikki Stone & The Flashbacks: Big Neon Letters

Comedy songs in band format

16 Aug 2011

Effervescent musical comic Stone is desperate to be on TV. She’s been there before on embarrassing adverts and Blue Peter, but she craves the studio lights, if only to get close to her teenage crush Phillip Schofield. In a bruising encounter she emits…

Meryl O’Rourke - Bad Mother

Some funny and moving material on mixed heritage

16 Aug 2011

O’Rourke won’t be the last Fringe comic to reference the street-riots but it was perhaps unwise to let us hear a better joke on the subject from her spouse. It’s an early off-note that she makes up for with some funny and moving material about her…

Fred Cooke

The Irishman's musical talent is overshadowed by his over-stretched observations

15 Aug 2011

Playing the gormless Oirishman to a fault, the Tommy Tiernan-endorsed Cooke has one distinct ability: he’s a human jukebox when it comes to playing requests on his soprano melodica. As a stand-up, though, he opts for physical shenanigans instead of…

Dana Alexander

Great comedic flair but average material from the Canadian

15 Aug 2011

The Canadian comic meanders through a flat set in which she discusses cake, weight, big bums the cosmetics industry and stretch marks, while observing that Chinese people are small and Italian mothers are domineering. She has the style and patter down…

Tom Rosenthal: Child of Privilege

A very funny and innovative debut about privilege

14 Aug 2011

At around the halfway point in Tom Rosenthal’s debut show, he applies the brake and settles into a gorgeous little homage to one of his comedy idols, Stewart Lee. Around him, some of the crowd are not entirely sure what’s going on as he seems trapped in…

The Beta Males

Good scripting and coming timing from the funny foursome

14 Aug 2011

A stonking show this one as a slick quartet channel the Dutch Elm Conservatoire for a rollercoaster of a journey on the sinister train, Olympus. Skulduggery is afoot with a cast including four manic businessmen, Stephen Byers and the Titanic love duo. A…

Andrew Doyle's Crash Course in Depravity

A full-on assault on the borders of taste

14 Aug 2011

Russell Kane has made a habit out of turning negative comments by reviewers into the show title for his subsequent Fringe show. Easy Cliché and Tired Stereotype and Gaping Flaws were both borne from lines penned by critics. Andrew Doyle has not only…

Josh Widdicombe: If This Show Saves One Life

Steering away from the dangers of blanding out

14 Aug 2011

After an impressive opening flurry of gags about trees, scissors and burglars, Josh Widdicombe is suddenly bumped off his stride. Not by hecklers per se, but by the woman on his front row who has, shall we say, a bit of a thing for him. Once the awkward…

Joe Fairbrother: Characters

Gentle audience-teasing character comedy

14 Aug 2011

Whoever was doing the flyering for this show should be awarded some kind of Edinburgh Flyering Award. They absolutely nailed the target audience for the opening salvo of Joe Fairbrother’s fiendishly subtle character show. Welcomed in by a posh…

Chris Martin

Run of the mill show from the man who definitely isn't in Coldplay

14 Aug 2011

Martin certainly has swagger, but his comedy feels not so much natural but ‘learned’ (with honours from the Whitehall/McIntyre College of Advanced Observational Stand-Up). The initial promise of a show about being alone in a hectic world is ditched for…

Andrew Maxwell

Blistering set from the mercurial Dubliner

12 Aug 2011

Anyone who goes to see a barrel-load of comedy this August will no doubt witness stand-up after stand-up making a fleeting reference to the summer riots, if only to prove they have a handle on what’s going on in outside the Edinburgh bubble. Not Andrew…

Gavin Webster: All Young People Are C**ts

Likeably profane and bitter hour

12 Aug 2011

Accoding to Geordie comic Gavin Webster, ‘all young people are cunts’. He believes that so much that he’s been driven to name this year’s Fringe show with the phrase, concluding his amiable hour with a profanity-fuelled sing-along. Admitting to being…

Benny Boot: Set-Up, Punchline… Pause for Laughter

The secrets of comedy remain a mystery here

12 Aug 2011

When you set yourself up as a stand-up who has nailed the very fundamentals of comedy structure, you really are setting yourself up for one mighty fall. And Benny Boot plummets without trace during this show. The crowd is welcomed in by his South…

Toby - Lucky

Divisive duo spark a riot of tutting and scowling

12 Aug 2011

If this performance of Toby’s Lucky was set in front of a focus group, clear scientific findings would have been concluded. The semi-surreal double act are loved by student blokes in their early 20s and loathed by fortysomething women. At one point…

Interview: US comedian Todd Barry set for Edinburgh Fringe

High hopes for American Hot show from 'third conchord'

9 Aug 2011

When Todd Barry made his Fringe debut in 2004, the experience didn’t seem to be to anyone’s liking. Stuck in a cavernous hall with a near-midnight start time, people failed to show up in their droves and those who did couldn’t quite get to grips with…

Luke Wright's Cynical Ballads

Wonderful slices of fractured Britain

8 Aug 2011

As part of ‘poetry boyband’ Aisle 16, Luke Wright helped to bring spoken verse to a new generation. In his previous solo shows, he has had a dig at Andrew Motion for having the temerity to be Poet Laureate when clearly Luke was the right man for the job…

Matthew Crosby: AdventureParty

A safe and hilarious haven for geeks and nerds

8 Aug 2011

Any fears that Matthew Crosby would be exposed under the Fringe glare without the back-up of his showbiz buddies have been put resolutely to bed with this debut solo effort, the distinctly Pappy’s-esque entitled AdventureParty. Let’s get one thing…

Tom Green

Porn and meat-fuelled non-event

8 Aug 2011

On the most relentlessly wet Fringe day since the sodden floods of 2008, it’s perhaps understandable that a late show might start half an hour late. That our bone-dry Hollywood host made no mention whatsoever of the endurance test his devoted fans (and…

Diane Spencer: All-Pervading Madness

Don’t judge a comic by their gentle demeanour

8 Aug 2011

One of the first thoughts that might enter your head when popping along to a Diane Spencer gig is whether or not she will play on the fact that her name is but a single letter away from one of the most famous women of the 20th century. Actually, playing…

Catie Wilkins: A Chip Off the Odd Block

Enthusiastic and wry story about parents

8 Aug 2011

While children can be so cruel, parents are nothing less than a walking embarrassment to their offspring. Especially if they, like the blood-line guardians of Catie Wilkins, are an over-emotional firecracker (mum) and a cold, pedantic robot (dad).

James Acaster: Amongst Other Things

Mixing up the comedy flavours

8 Aug 2011

In the modern stand-up world, there seems to be a desperate need to fill every moment with high-octane verbiage, constant blather and, maybe, a spot of shouting while running, hoping to dear christ that your mic-cheek stays in position. You won’t find…