Reviews & features: Comedy, Allan Radcliffe

Sam Simmons - About the Weather

Noisy ‘play’ fails to do Aussie comic justice

Imagine a shouty hybrid of the horror movie Videodrome and that creepy old record ‘Sparky’s Magic Piano’ and you have a fairly accurate idea of Sam Simmons’ play-within-a-Fringe-comedy, About the Weather. ‘It’s going to be weird for an hour,’ roars the…

Doctor Brown: Befrdfgth

Free spirit gets the audience playing along

The evocatively entitled Befrdfgth doesn’t open with a fanfare, a burst of music or even a lighting cue. Instead, the curtain at the back of the stage twitches, almost imperceptibly, and a nose is glimpsed in the ensuing gap. The curtain balloons…

Joe Lycett: Some Lycett Hot

Relaxed raconteur with mischievous glint

This may be Joe Lycett’s debut solo year, but his confidence and comic timing would be the envy of the most experienced turn. Blessed with the fruity tones of Dale Winton, and Kenneth Williams’ imperious demeanor, Lycett’s unabashedly effete persona…

Harry Hill exhibits paintings and sculptures at Edinburgh Art Festival

TV Burp comedian displays other side in My Hobby

The fact that Harry Hill is set to make an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival is not in itself big news. The bald-headed, bespectacled, large-collared comedian has a long association with the world’s largest arts beano, grabbing early raves for his…

Ali Cook

Old-fashioned with homage to TV magic shows

A familiar face from TV magic shows, Cook’s hour is determinedly old-fashioned with homage paid to the polyester-haired showmen of his youth in one sketch. Cook’s sleight-of-hand is impressive, while his elucidation of some of the world’s greatest…

Mary Christ - The Unmusical!

Crude, unfunny innuendo from excitable drag queen

Sharing a black box theatre with Mary Christ is like being trapped in a cupboard with a vampire. The excitable drag queen gets up close and personal with her audience, divulging details of her sex life, but there’s no satire here, just 45 minutes of…

Gareth Richards

A lack of confidence on the comedian's part undermines the good-quality material

A Best Newcomer nominee from 2010, Richards should have more faith in his material. His topical routines, while nicely observed, are delivered in an apologetic manner that doesn’t inspire confidence. He seems more relaxed when performing his clever…

Delete the Banjax

The sketch group appear to be having fun, but the audience isn't in on it

A couple of smart musical numbers and an inspired repeat joke involving a flipchart can’t distract the overall feebleness of this sketch quartet’s material. An unfunny extended pub quiz skit is a particular lowlight, and the excitably shrill…

Dave Gorman's Power Point Presentation

Inspired PowerPoint presentation from the genial everyman

Fringe shows that rely heavily on technical apparatus always stir a slight sense of apprehension. There’s always the risk that a large measure of the show’s impact will be neutered by some unforeseen meltdown. ‘Do you like the big screen?’ asks a…

Glenn Wool: No Lands Man

Hobo comic’s killer dispatches

Gruff Canadian Glenn Wool hasn’t been at the Fringe for a couple of years, instead travelling the world, performing and gathering material inspired by his en route adventures. The hobo comic’s set opens with an account of the time he was strip-searched…

Sarah Millican

A consistent pleasure

Millican has called her new show Chatterbox after her high school nickname. The Geordie funny woman can undeniably bump her gums, and it’s this ability to chat very naturally and wittily (and sometimes rather naughtily) about everyday stuff, from her…

Kevin Bridges

Rising star effortlessly wins over the home crowd

Kevin Bridges’ rapid rise to superstardom appears to have surprised no one as much as Bridges himself. As he ambles onstage to excited chants of ‘Kevin! Kevin!’ there’s an air of bemusement to the youthful funnyman, as though he can’t quite believe that…

Andrew Lawrence gets a few things off his chest

The end result is some high-pitched and hilarious rantings

Andrew Lawrence claims he doesn’t have a grand theme or gimmick to his show: he just wants to get a few things off his chest. Boy, does he want to get a few things off his chest. With most comedians you start to sweat for them after half an hour…

Susan Calman, Stephen K Amos and Bette/Cavett at Fringe 2010

LGBT Edinburgh Fringe Highlights

The List’s LGBT section is about to take a well-earned break (returning in September, folks), but before we head off on our holidays, there’s just time to let you know about some of the gay-friendly stuff that’s appearing at a Fringe Festival near you…

Edinburgh Festival 2010: More Fringe show highlights

Some of the shows to look out for at the Fringe

With over 2,400 shows to choose from at this years Fringe festival, it's all to easy to succumb to the paradox of choice. Here we present our picks for some of the smaller shows that are worth looking out for.

Julian Clary

Former Joan Collins Fan Club becomes national treasure

‘Are there any heterosexuals in here?’ asks a nervous-looking Julian Clary, ‘because if this is an exclusively gay and lesbian audience I’ll do a completely different show.’ It’s an odd question to be asking of the packed crowd in the cavernous Purple…

Carey Marx

Everything from global warming to fisting cows

Marx offers a relatively fresh take on that peculiarly British obsession with doom and gloom in a routine that takes in everything from global warming to fisting cows, Susan Boyle's hair and bum sex while trampolining. While his writing betrays an…

Reginald D Hunter

Consummate stand-up disappoints with weak material

Sitting through Reginald D Hunter’s The Only Apple in the Garden of Eden and Niggas, is a frustrating experience. A consummate stand-up with a punchy delivery and comic timing to die for, Hunter’s commanding stage style is, sadly, victorious over this…

Tom Wrigglesworth

Anecdotes from a comic who cares

From the moment Wrigglesworth embarks on his extended anecdote – about a train journey in which the comic initiated a whip-round for an elderly woman whose entire savings had been gobbled up by a jobsworth ticket collector, before ending up being…

Pajama Men

Strangers on a train with gags

The simplest way to describe the Pajama Men is ‘indescribable’, but as this is perhaps the least helpful word in the critic’s lexicon, I’ll give it a bash. Basically, the US comedy duo (aka Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen) invent numerous outrageous…

Scott Capurro

A mix of the inspired and the obnoxious

It’s been said that the older people get, the less worried they are about causing offence. Scott Capurro, veteran of some 15 Fringe summers, has clearly decided to go for broke this year, trampling all over every sacred cow and totem of political…

Saddle up

As a posse of spoof country and western acts rides towards the Fringe, Allan Radcliffe asks why songs about rednecks, guns and erections make for sublime comedy

Jason Manford

Too much success early on in a career can be a double-edged sword. Jason Manford first came to attention two years ago with an inspired, Perrier-nominated debut in which he exploded various urban myths and apocryphal tales. As a fan of that auspicious…