Reviews & features: Comedy, Claire Sawers
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Ava Vidal
28 Jul 2009
Obama-inspired reflections on change for the better
The day Barack Obama won the election was a big day for London comedian Ava Vidal. She started it facing charges in the dock and ended it appearing on ITN, giving her opinion on the new US president. ‘That was a very stressful day for me,’ she exhales.
Taking flight: Rhys Darby
24 Jul 2009
Free from managing New Zealand's third hottest folk-comedy duo - Darby returns
It’s 9am New Zealand time when Rhys Darby answers the phone. His three-year-old son had just left for day care, and finding the house suddenly peaceful again, Darby was signing up for Twitter. ‘I wasn’t planning on doing Twitter,’ he explains, those…
Serf abuse: Jamie Kilstein
24 Jul 2009
The US firebrand comic on mixing politics with comedy
If you haven’t yet, it’s probably time to start getting excited about Jamie Kilstein. For a while, the American has been the comedian that other comedians get excited about: beloved beardie stand-up Daniel Kitson called Kilstein one of 2009’s Edinburgh…
Adams and Rea
24 Jul 2009
Well-mannered but occasionally naughty musical pair
‘I do like to get down,’ confesses Leisa Rea, half of the warmly surreal double act, Adams and Rea. ‘So there’s more of my salacious dancing this year,’ she says, referring to their cult internet hit, ‘Stick it in Me Bin’, an anti-litter ragga rant…
Jason Byrne
21 Aug 2008
Totally insane, bloody funny
Several things will probably happen at a Jason Byrne gig. A teenage boy in the crowd will squirm while Byrne guesses what he gets up to behind closed bedroom doors. Audience members get assigned surreal characters, based around something Byrne’s caught…
Paul Kerensa
21 Aug 2008
Failing the great playlist challenge
Although lots of love and forward planning have clearly gone into Paul Kerensa’s show, his fuddy duddy, granny-friendly material taints the brighter, more likeable stuff. Taking his cue from Dave Gorman, he designed a show around a comedy challenge by…
Pagagnini
21 Aug 2008
Giving clowning a modern twist
After five minutes of classical music in a strictly straight-faced, show-off virtuoso style, from a string quartet in coat-tails and white bow-ties, the first signs of slapstick start to appear. It’s from the Spanish mime and physical theatre troupe…
Badly Ranted Thoughts Via the Magic of Song
21 Aug 2008
A cult alternative to stand-up-by-numbers
Doktor Cocacolamcdonalds is a crowd divider of a man. One half remains stony-faced, mentally working out what else they could have spent that tenner on, and the other ends up laughing slightly hysterically at his brand of freak or unique comedy. Wearing…
Shazia Mirza
21 Aug 2008
A stilted set about the big issues
A lot of Shazia Mirza’s material deals with her social awkwardness. Juggling the roles of devout daughter of fundamentalist Muslims and trailblazing female Muslim stand-up, she’s experienced her fair share of cultural dilemmas. But beyond the hype over…
Eleanor Tiernan & John F O'Donnell
21 Aug 2008
The premise here - that bumbling, shaking Tiernan can't cope without her American sidekick - unfortunately turns out to be too close to the truth. When O'Donnell is a no-show, Tiernan's jokes about having crap material aren't followed with any real…
7 Sins
21 Aug 2008
Limelight-loving, fabulous and about as butch as Dorothy's dog Toto, San Francisco comedian James Judd's fate was inevitable from the day his mum paid him to act out soaps she'd missed. In a breathless hour, with quick Martini stops, he acts out…
Joke-e-oke
21 Aug 2008
This strangely simple but effective pub game lets punters try out their favourite comedian's routine, with help from an autocue. Just like karaoke, a mix of real talent and boozy have-a-go heroes come out the woodwork to copy Richard Pryor, Dylan Moran…
Girl and Dean
21 Aug 2008
Tragically, the hand-knitted props from last year haven't returned, and an annoying puppet and some over-long sketches have snuck in instead. The quirky duo still deliver occasional gems like their posh thesp stereotypes and weird cake-themed…
Shitty Deal Puppet Theatre Company
21 Aug 2008
This low-tech, frantic and ingenious wee show uses Action Man, plastic dinosaurs and teenage-goth panda bear puppets to act out scenes from art history and blockbuster films. Luckily it moves too fast to dwell on the less funny jokes, but cameos from a…
Barry & Stuart: Part-time Warlocks
14 Aug 2008
Part-time warlocks, full-time fun
It's hard to imagine Paul Daniels onstage with a joint that transforms into a gold chain, and there's no danger you'd have caught him magically turning a porn mag into a map of Iraq. Describing themselves as the 'anti-Paul Daniels of magic', these…
Jim Jeffries
14 Aug 2008
How to lose your crowd in one horrible hour
No one expects fluffy, cuddly material from Jim Jeffries. The Australian comic is infamous for his potty-mouthed, middle-finger-up comedy, and he'll trash anything - cancer, self-harmers, molested children - as long as it gets a laugh. But unlike other…
Seymour Mace
14 Aug 2008
Bible stories told by an idiot
An hour with this Geordie comic won't leave you any the wiser about his love life or neuroses. That's not his thing. He doesn't want to offend his crowd, brag at them or sleep with them, he just wants to share his oddball little world. It's a sort of…
Dead Cat Bounce
14 Aug 2008
Am-dram antics fall flat
There's an old-fashioned feel to this sketch show, which uses the same hotel bedroom as a backdrop for a set of Goons-style skits. Three American sailors on shore leave burst into knee-slapping golly-gee-whizz song at every opportunity, a ginger man…
JL Roberts & Nadia Kamil present: Wisecrackin', Mindsqueezin' Behemoth
14 Aug 2008
Breakneck capers with Angela Lansbury
There can't be too many shows at the Fringe which feature a musical about BNP über-führer Nick Griffin and his Robertson's Jam-eating, red, white and blue ways. And will anyone else dare to include cameos from Angela Lansbury and her crime-solving…
Sean Grant and Tiernan Douieb
14 Aug 2008
Kicking off with tepid, half-baked and badly edited gags by Douieb, who wants to turn Rage Against the Machine songs into a musical, the show improves in the second half with Glaswegian acid tongue, Grant. Making his family life sound like the Addams…
John Bishop
14 Aug 2008
Last year Scouse sales director Bishop ditched his job to go pro on the comedy circuit. The office's loss was comedy's gain and his warm blether hits its stride with an energetic and funny show. Embarrassing tales of his panto debut, having a son who…
Dermot McMorrow
14 Aug 2008
It's hard to decide whether Sligo-born comedian McMorrow should be hailed as a cult hero or stretchered off to the loony bin. Wavering between wide-eyed nutter and intelligent, left-field observer, he reflects on fractal maths, reads animal suicide…
Maeve Higgins
14 Aug 2008
Irish cake-baking, tea-cosy loving chatterbox Higgins is a sweet treat. Entering her weird world, where a warm, stream of consciousness makes her irresistible, she creates a memorable atmosphere with understated stories about her other dream job (museum…
A Guide To Sexual Misery
14 Aug 2008
More chatty lecture than stand-up set, friendly Viennese therapist-comedian Wolfgang Weinberger gives relationship advice, like why and when things go wrong in the bedroom. And what women really want. Using an audience Q&A, some gender clichés…
Graeme Thomas
14 Aug 2008
Pedestrian material (including gags about actual pedestrians) is churned out by this Stand regular. Although he begins well with his attempts to 'start smoking', his quickly rattled-out patter about office temping, daytime telly and shopping trolleys…
