Soho theatre
This review first appeared in the Evening Standard here.
There is always one excellent performer that the Edinburgh Comedy Award judges seem hell bent on overlooking and in 2015 it was Lolly Adefope. The versatile young comedian gathered great reviews and enthusiastic word-of-mouth buzz yet bizarrely the panel dismissed her.
Jena Friedman certainly looks like she has plenty of attitude in her surly press shots. And calling her show American C*nt – even with an asterisk – is quite audacious. Onstage, however, she is less in your face. There are only flashes where she justifies her own build-up.
Appearances can be deceptive. The picture of Nick Thune here suggests that he is a Victorian time traveller or some smart hipster who can’t leave the house until he has waxed his moustache. But look a little closer. Could that be a jazz cigarette he is smoking? That offers more of a clue to the kind of comedy you get from this Seattle stand-up who has made quite a few TV appearances in America and had his own Netflix special.
A version of this review appeared in the Evening Standard here.
Countless comedians discuss their anxieties on stage, but if oversharing was an Olympic event Jessie Cave would be a multiple gold medallist. In I Loved Her, this hip, oddball anecdotalist finds deliciously awkward humour in her obsessive behaviour.
A version of this review first appeared in the Evening Standard here.
Hello surrealism, meet breast cancer. Beth Vyse's As Funny As Cancer is one of the strangest, loveliest comedy shows I’ve seen in a long while. It takes a degree of skill, courage and also screwball wit to marry absurdist humour to the story of your cancer diagnosis and treatment. Somehow Vyse pulls this off, lobbing in some nice anecdotes about growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, her quirky Croc-wearing dad, having a boyfriend called Michael Jackson and travelling on the number 12 bus in London.
Adrian Edmondson is to star in an adaptation of William Leith’s comic bestseller Bits of Me are Falling Apart. Adapted by Edmondson and Soho Theatre’s Artistic Director Steve Marmion, the play will premiere at Soho Theatre, running from January 20 - February 20, 2016.
Comedians aren't supposed to be competitive or want to win awards but there is no getting away from the fact that the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award is the biggest gong in stand-up. Sam Simmons finally won the prestigious prize this year after two previous nominations. His latest show had slightly passed me by until it was shortlisted, but once I'd seen it I could understand what all the fuss was about. Spaghetti for Breakfast was both consistent with and very different to his previous shows.
Let’s face it, we all have our prejudices. And as much as I try to fight them I’ve got mine when it comes to comedy. I love stand-up and I love theatre. Yet I have a difficulty with sketch groups. Somehow they often tend to fall between too stools for me. Not theatrical enough to be theatre, not, erm, stand-uppy enough to be stand-up.
If having a strong back story is good for comedy then Australian stand-up Corey White is sorted. As he explains at the outset, his father was a criminal, his mother was a junkie who died of an overdose. If White can find the funnies in this he can probably find the funnies in anything.
Pages
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
