Sam Healy

James Dowdeswell

Mediocre material and rather uneasy delivery

23 Aug 2010

You want to like him, you really do. And in another context maybe this gentle show about Dowdeswell’s discovery that his great-grandfather worked with Charlie Chaplin would pass muster. Alas, his mediocre material and rather uneasy delivery are roundly…

WitTank

High-octane/high-brow character comedy

20 Aug 2010

Now whittled down to a lean and confident trio, WitTank’s evolution into a formidable sketch troupe is arguably complete. Performances are accomplished without being distant or over-rehearsed. Pacing is fluid yet relentless. Material is frequently…

Ian D Montfort

Some great shambolics and ad-libbing

16 Aug 2010

This promising new character from Tom Binns (creator of hospital DJ Ivan Brackenbury) is a Sunderland ‘actual psychic’ who can talk to dead celebrities as well as deceased aunties. Some great shambolics and ad-libbing are let down a bit by occasionally…

The Boy With Tape On His Face

A masterclass of mime

12 Aug 2010

The blunt, artless title sets the tone. Kiwi comedian Sam Wills is indeed gagged by gaffer tape, for the whole hour. Not a word is spoken. And what might have fallen flat, as the indulgent experiment of lopping a supposedly essential element off an…

Matt Green

Hard to fault any specific aspect of his act

24 Aug 2009

Green's material is fine. His delivery is fine. It's hard to fault any specific aspect of his act. Yet the fine whole flatly refuses to be more than its parts' sum. Eagerness to please moves him to defang his more interesting, darker stuff with giggles…

Ross Lee

Sometimes entertaining but mostly depressing

24 Aug 2009

A fame junkie since his gauche childhood in Leeds, Lee presents a video documentary of his own obsessive attempts to be on TV, culminating in a stint as a Nickelodeon UK host. His evident monomaniacal lust for the merest crust of renown is sometimes…

Danielle Ward

Self-aware yet distinctive act

23 Aug 2009

Danielle Ward is not, it emerges quickly, your common or garden aide-mémoire comic, reheating pre-cooked observations and serving them on a Styrofoam plate of uninvested playing-at-caring. Her thematic inventiveness is evident from the first skit, a…

Tom Deacon

Fairly ordinary romp through an indecisive mind

20 Aug 2009

The choice of Kasabian’s ‘Fire’ as the walk-on music for Tom Deacon’s show is telling. It establishes a checklist of expectations which go utterly unchallenged during the subsequent hour of serviceable, unremarkable, rut-deepening comedy. Young Deacon…

Unsupervised Detention

Tight sketch comedy by gifted young players

19 Aug 2009

Tight sketch comedy by gifted young players and, though some scenes suffer from a too-actorly approach, there are more hits than misses and evidence of a genuine facility with the surreal. The introductory premise of bored schoolkids in detention…

Wil Hodgson

The nicest pink-haired ex-punk on earth

18 Aug 2009

In his sixth visit to the Fringe, the nicest pink-haired ex-punk on earth entertains with tales from his chiaroscuro existence in Chippenham. Stories of his characterful drinking buddies, encounters with stripling bigots and bittersweet nostalgia are…

The Bodega Brothers

Laconic, self-deprecating and funny

18 Aug 2009

Comparisons with a certain Kiwi folk-parody duo are inevitable. Rob Castell and Tom Sadler play acoustic guitars and sing comedy songs. They do so very well. Their stage banter is laconic, self-deprecating and funny. Bret and Jemaine might not be…

Rudi Lickwood

Old-fashioned delivery and desperately prosaic observations

18 Aug 2009

It’s not a good sign when a wilfully confrontational show comes off as bland and pedestrian. Lickwood has some funny lines and makes a few good points, but his fatally old-fashioned delivery and desperately prosaic observations on Britain’s ethnic…

Glenn Wool

Has never been funnier or more lustily discombobulated

18 Aug 2009

This disreputable Canadian soapboxer is truly in the ascendant. A perfectly realised tragicomic stage persona (or maybe Glenn is just being Glenn), great lines, heartfelt rage and a skewed but intimate audience rapport make for a rousing, boisterous…

Mould & Arrowsmith

Playful and ingeniously funny

18 Aug 2009

Beyond nerdy, yet playful and ingeniously funny, Steve Mould and Gemma Arrowsmith’s mock-highbrow revue is like a Centre Georges Pompidou of comedy: all exposed plumbing, postmodern form-as-content and paradox fetishism. Hauling a wide load of…

Abracadabra: German Humour Goes Global

Enjoyable, non-ironically zany knees-up

18 Aug 2009

Germany’s best and, by a remarkable coincidence, only international English-language stand-up duo delivers another enjoyable, non-ironically zany knees-up for us Tommies. Henning Wehn is a born comedian even in his second tongue; Otto Kuhnle provides…

The Dark Party

Gothic sideshow for the Top Gear set

16 Aug 2009

Unsure of whether it wants to be physical comedy, gross-out sideshow or gothic visual poetry, this unique hour just about delivers on all three fronts. Shep Huntly, Patrick Bath and Gordo Gamsby (collectively The Dirty Brothers) are dressed in…

Aindrias de Staic - The Summer I Did The Leaving

For fiddle-fanciers and Hibernophiles only

14 Aug 2009

The Summer I Did The Leaving recalls a seminal season in the youth of fiddler, raconteur and all-round rudderless hippie Aindrias de Staic (the Leaving Certificate is the Irish equivalent of the Scottish Highers). Through song and story he revisits…

Keith Farnan

A natural comedic talent

11 Aug 2009

Freshly bearded and with a polished hour of new material on racism, intolerance and the literal luck of the Irish, Farnan is in firm control of his pacy, compassionate show. His natural charm bridges the occasional dry spell, and the overall impression…

Jojo Sutherland

An autobiographical tale of a not very interesting life

11 Aug 2009

Sutherland is a frank middle-aged woman who has led a more interesting life than most. Sadly she seems to think that this plus a few threadbare jokes are enough to carry her autobiographical show. They’re not. Unless your thing is sitting in on a group…

Will Gompertz

Educating the masses about art history

10 Aug 2009

A strange one this. Will Gompertz is a senior director at Tate Gallery and looks it: tall, bookish, bespectacled, with a brow you could advertise on. His show aims to informally inform about the history of modern art from the Impressionists onward and…

Sarah Millican

Facing up to gender politics and the elements

8 Aug 2009

The unflappable Geordie lass looks a bit intimidating on the Mr Muscle-themed poster for her new show, but a minute in her company reassures us that the butch press campaign is just skylarking. Last year’s if.comedy Best Newcomer is in flying form, with…

Fool Koller

Wet feral fun from Dutch pratfaller

21 Aug 2008

The ambit of what has not yet been done shrinks ever smaller. Pity the poor alternative comedians, clutching at auxiliary originalities as the pool of unprecedented material ebbs to nothing: slicker, quicker jokes, more postmodernism, cynicism…

Goodbye Goodbye

21 Aug 2008

Strappingly acted, cleverly written and innovatively staged, this intriguing narrative sketch show is let down by its indecision. At times it's content with its many funny lines and characters, at others it seems to lust vainly after an earnest…

Newsrevue

Satire that fails to hit the target

14 Aug 2008

Consisting entirely of up-to-the-minute topical satire skits, this all-singing, all-dancing soapbox couldn't be more contemporary. Yet there's something desperately antiquated about it, something broad and music hall. In theory this is no bad thing.

David O'Doherty

Finding gold in the everyday dirt

14 Aug 2008

By the end of his self-introduction, before he's even reached the stage, David O'Doherty has his audience braying like donkeys. The Dublin comic has done so many consistently enjoyable Fringe shows that getting laughs must be like shooting fish in a…

Johnny Candon

14 Aug 2008

A lean, likeable and sporadically funny show that rises to the challenge set by its timeslot. Dubliner Candon riffs on themes of his adoption, fatherhood and arachnophobia with wit and easy charm. He's one of those sweet-talkers who can say 'fuck' to a…

Jody Kamali

14 Aug 2008

Engaging in concept, Kamali's show is narrated by his key character, Terry the Bristolian handyman. On a backpacking holiday around India, Terry meets an international gallery of fellow travellers, all played (with varying plausibility) by the…

Watson & Oliver

14 Aug 2008

In this vibrant and entertaining sketch act, Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver expose their considerable talents as both writers of intelligent material and character actors with the timing and insight to make it sparkle. The pair sail through their…

Psister Psycho

23 Aug 2007

Violating the first law of comedy musicals – that they be intolerable, unfunny bilge – this broad and imperfect light opera is a pleasant surprise. Though the plotting won’t give the fear to David Mamet, nor the music cause Lloyd Webber any sleepless…

Mark Dolan

23 Aug 2007

An irredeemably bland interactive format, in which the audience does most of the creative work, kiboshes the good offices of Dolan’s natural charm. Showgoers write their problems on paper and the comedian riffs weakly on them, but the fatal flaw is…

Rich Hall

23 Aug 2007

It’s difficult even to imagine a Rich Hall performance being less than entertaining. His intelligent, grumpy, pragmatic worldview is broadcast by way of believable absurdities, anarchic situational vignettes and memorable wordplay. A pity he feels the…

Alyssa Kyria

23 Aug 2007

Kyria’s talents as a comic actor are evident in this patchy but entertaining character act. Compered by Ariadne the Greek socialite, the show also features an Australian New Age dimwit, a snooty tennis-playing nymphomaniac and plenty more grotesques.

Adam Bloom

16 Aug 2007

The concept of downtime is unfamiliar to Adam Bloom. After charging onstage and whirling through five minutes or so of funny, friendly, filthy audience interaction, the act proper begins without a wasted nanosecond. Bloom has a sort of sunny fury…

Mark Olver

16 Aug 2007

Olver’s confidence and breezy stage presence have been whetted by his work as a warm-up comic for TV shows, and a good thing too: you need to be pretty self-assured to hold forth on the intricacies of your colonoscopy to strangers. The Bristolian has a…

Tom Stade

16 Aug 2007

A grating stoner persona and a tendency to giggle at and repeat your own punchlines does not the meritorious comedian make. It’s easy to imagine Stade cracking his ‘outrageous’ gags in the next American Pie sequel, ideally aboard a low-rent cruise ship.

Lucy Porter

16 Aug 2007

From the instant Porter bounds onstage, her consummate professionalism is evident. Speedy, precise delivery and uncommonly consistent rhythm explain her popularity. It’s just a pity she still relies exclusively on relationships for material. She has the…

The Walsh Bros

16 Aug 2007

Enjoyable if somewhat underachieving sketch narratives from a likable Boston duo. Topics include clerical abuse, unusual bicycle designs, lethal subway doors and public onanism. Their vibrant conversational approach to storytelling is novel, but an…

Wil Hodgson

Ex-wrestler grapples with mainly excellent materia

9 Aug 2007

Profiles don’t come much more distinctive than Wil Hodgson’s. With a meticulous pink Mohawk, kohl-rimmed eyes and camp/punk cargo trousers, he looks like a Viking berserker crossed with a highlighter pen. To add to this fairly splendid confusion of…

Paul Foot

9 Aug 2007

Dapper, diminutive Paul Foot may not bestride his narrow stage like a Colossus, but he is on superb comedic form this year. With sharp, singular observational material and a newfound confidence in his stagecraft, the potential he showed in the past has…

David O'Doherty

11 Aug 2006

A Festival habitué by now, David O’Doherty is a slow-burner whose expressly ‘low energy’ shows have had him on fizzy water shortlists in the past. While this year’s offering is no wild departure from orthodoxy, it is still a mighty clever, mighty funny…

Terry Alderton

7 Aug 2006

Now this - take note all who go the perilous route of ‘multimedia’ comedy - is how to do it. It could have gone either way after the artsy, expressionistic video intro, but happily for his wide-eyed audience, Terry Alderton has all the pretentiousness…