Comedy and Mark Robertson

Wil Anderson

Australian comedy striving to find the good in us all

11 Aug 2009

This sweet, excitable Aussie thirtysomething is driven to find the good in the world, no matter how cynical it gets. He definitely has his moments, but too often you can see the pay-off from miles away, and he deflates some of his sharpest ideas by…

Alun Cochrane

The weaver of dreams hits top form again

10 Aug 2009

Alun Cochrane came to the Fringe only a few years ago as a fully-fledged comedy concern. His debut show was the complete package – insightful, endearing, and bloody funny – and after a few visits back trying (and not quite managing) to recapture that…

The Hot 100 2008

11 Dec 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

Matt Kirshen

Globe-trotting charmer gets coy

7 Aug 2008

Matt Kirshen explains away his show's title (Keep Smiling, Matt. Just Keep Smiling) saying he has a funny face and smiles a lot. Now this is obviously a more favourable title than, My Adventures in the Weird Land that is America which would have been a…

Andrew Maxwell

Irish export continues to delight

7 Aug 2008

It's a been a few years since Andrew Maxwell consolidated his talents and realised he would be better off not boxing himself into some TV-friendly pigeon hole and just getting on with what he does best: telling very funny stories. The ghost of Ireland's…

Sarah Silverman - Jesus Is Magic

31 Jul 2008

COMEDY (18) 72min Taboos are there to be shattered, barriers are in place to be broken down and sweary words are there to be bellowed out on prime time television. Sarah Silverman knows all this and has made it her speciality. This rather…

Matt Groening & Various - Big Brilliant Book of Bart Simpson

22 May 2008

COMEDY (Titan Books) The boast that The Simpsons is now the longest running animated TV series of all time is a bit of a double-edged sword. For as it rolls out episode after episode, into the multiplexes and beyond, the permutations for new plot…

Reginald D. Hunter

Sprawling set from comedy icon

9 Aug 2007

One of the problems with the Fringe is that us reviewers often need to get in early during a run while comedians may take the month to refine their material so that the show we see on the 3rd is rarely the one performed on the 20th. It’s worth pointing…

Andrew Maxwell

9 Aug 2007

There comes a point in every comic’s career where he or she must decide whether they are going to stay the joker forever or grow up and move onto doing something respectable for the rest of their life. Andrew Maxwell had a brief shot at British TV…

Julian Rothenstein & Mel Gooding

Dr Clock’s Handbook (Redstone)

11 Nov 2006

COMIC MANUAL It’s a novel idea this, a mis-guide book. And if there’s anyone more suitably equipped to publish a tome on the magic and sparkle of the absurd, it’s Redstone, the company that unleashes David Shrigley’s books on us at irregular…

Francis & Power

11 Aug 2006

There’s always a nagging doubt when watching sketch comedy that someone couldn’t quite manage to come up with one good idea but could stretch to two dozen OK ones instead. It only takes seconds to register that this is not the case here with two skilled…