Phil Nichol

Phil Nichol: The Simple Hour

Dumbed down silliness peppered with droll quips

16 Aug 2011

An hour in Nichol’s company seems to canter by in the wake of the comic’s own upbeat and vociferous performance. However, the material is constantly in danger of descending into vacuity, and although he peppers the silliness with droll quips, the…

Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still

Monologue that’s less than straightforward

8 Aug 2011

'This is true.’ Comedian Phil Nichol implores you to believe in his story midway through this experimental monologue, seemingly trying to inject a moment of clarity into a deliberately fractured and confusing play from Royal Court young writer Dave…

Phil Nichol sketches out Welcome to Crazytown

Board Meeting: Phil Nichol

7 Aug 2010

Drawing on the board, chatting, posing and having the photo taken takes Phil Nichol about three minutes. This comedic whirlwind is what whisked his reputation into the public eye, and this year the storm is again channelled into the unnerving world of…

Vive Le Cabaret gives nightly Vaudevillian glamour

3 Aug 2010

Willkommen, bienvenue, and welcome to a new nightly cabaret show, hosted by Des O’Connor. But calm yourselves, game show fans, Mister Take Your Pick Des O’Connor is not coming to the Fringe. ‘No, it’s not the orange faced one of the telly,’ points out…

Phil Nichol gives us a warm welcome to Crazytown

Comic's 2010 Fringe show promises 'dark poetic theatrical jazz silliness'

29 Jul 2010

What five words best describe your show this year? Dark poetic theatrical jazz silliness. Which comic should be more famous by the end of August? Carey Marx is consistently one of the most progressive-thinking, hardest-working and under-rated…

Edinburgh Comedy Award nominations

Who's up for the Fringe's top prize?

27 Aug 2009

The name may be up for debate, but what isn't in doubt is the prestige of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards and the impact it can have on a comic's career. Known in its most memorable form as the Perrier Award from 1981 to 2005, followed by a brief stint…

Comedy hitlist

23 Aug 2009

Alun Cochrane, Anna & Katy, Brendon Burns, Jonny Sweet, Kim Noble, Pappy's Fun Club, Phil Nichol, Richard Herring,

Phil Nichol

Fringe favourite hits all the right notes

16 Aug 2009

‘Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be Bobby Spade.’ Phil Nichol’s transformation into a white-suited lounge lizard with a sideline in psychopathy, is so complete that all that’s missing is the trademark Stars in Their Eyes dry-ice intro. Accompanied by jazz…

School for Scandal

School for vandals

13 Aug 2009

RB Sheridan’s classic comedy has much to recommend it in our current era of vacuous celebrity tittle-tattle and grotesque self-interest. Yet the normally admirable Cal McCrystal’s production seems to have read the text so radically against what it seems…

Gagarin Way

Comics successfully revive Fringe hit

10 Aug 2009

At first glance, the decision to revive Gregory Burke’s heavy-hitting play about labour unrest and kidnapping might appear to be an act of folly on the part of the Comedians Theatre Company. Burke’s debut was first staged to great acclaim at the…

Five festival over-achievers

6 Aug 2009

Robin Ince One can only assume that Robin Ince sits in a thick blue funk for that small portion of the day when he isn’t A) hosting a ‘lunchtime celebration of science and the wonderful’, B) being a ‘bleeding-heart liberal’ or C) opposing ‘the moral…

Man for all seasons - Phil Nichol at the Fringe

Mark Fisher finds Phil Nichol mining two rich seams of comedy at this year’s Fringe

23 Jul 2009

One is a Restoration farce typically performed by seasoned rep actors on grand proscenium-arch stages. The other is a scabrous heist comedy in which a middle-management executive is kidnapped in a Fife factory.

Edinburgh Festival 2009 - Fringe programme highlights

11 Jun 2009

Roll up, roll up. It may just seem like yesterday that the Edinburgh Fringe packed its bags for 2008 but now it’s back with a vengeance. Against stiff competition from its international and national counterparts, this year’s Fringe line-up looks…

Five Things You Might Not Know About - Phil Nichol

2 Apr 2009

1. His CV reports: ‘born in Scotland and raised by wild rabbits in Canada.’ One of these statements seems to be half-true. 2. He has something of a streaker instinct. Prior to winning the if.comedy prize for his Naked Racist show, he stripped right…

Top comedy gigs to look out for

10 Sep 2007

Tom Stade It takes years of hard, dedicated gigging to appear as relaxed as Tom Stade does on stage. Charming, handsome and unflappable he may be, but the Canadian émigré also possesses that indefinable knack of drawing you completely into his offbeat…

Phil Nichol

23 Aug 2007

When a comic stands before his crowd after yet another uninspired anecdote and asks: ‘Don’t you think that was hilarious? I thought that was hilarious,’ you can only conclude that he knows he is in big trouble. With Hiro Worship, last year’s inaugural…

Breaker Morant

23 Aug 2007

Kenneth Ross’ great Australian tale of official injustice still feels powerful in the telling. In it, three Australian officers are put on trial for the murder of prisoners in the dog days of the second Boer War. Great courage is shown in the face of…

Phil Nichol

1 Aug 2007

We’ve all got our heroes, and perhaps they provide us with life models. Or perhaps not. Phil Nichol’s new show throws into question the nature of our obsession with celebrity, and other forms of worship we see in contemporary society.

Breaker Morant

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

After the success of Talk Radio, the Comedians Theatre Company returns to the Fringe with a hard-hitting courtroom drama. But as the Australian leads tell Steve Cramer, the play is not without its bawdy elements

Phil Nichol

ABC, Glasgow, Sat 24 Mar; the Stand, Edinburgh, Su

12 Mar 2007

STAND-UP Many comedians bare all on stage but precious few take it quite as literally as Phil Nichol. Although born in Glasgow, his accent is Canadian, and his wide-eyed, manic, positive energy most definitely not a product of the Central Belt.

Comedy Cuts

ITV2, Thu 18 Jan, 10.55pm

16 Jan 2007

COMEDY Some people hold the view that since the demise of The Tube, TV’s commissioning heads haven’t really taken live music seriously. Well, what of live comedy then? Apart from the Stand-Up Show, Scotland’s Live Floor Show, and the odd bonanza on…

Phil Nichol

11 Nov 2006

To the world he may be that crazy Canadian fella, but considering his birthplace (Glasgow) we shall claim the inaugural winner of the if.comeddies awards as one of our ain folk. Admittedly, this is akin to us giving up Jerry Sadowitz as being a New…

Phil Nichol

21 Aug 2006

The Walker Brothers once crooned that breaking up is so very hard to do. It must be tougher still when it’s because you bit one of your girlfriend’s bunions during sex. But hey ho, Phil Nichol drugged the pain away on a four-day bender in Amsterdam…