Soho theatre
America has a habit of producing fabulous stand-ups whose main aim in life is to make audiences laugh. Jake Johannsen is one of the best observational and topical comics in the business. If it’s in the news or in your house it’s in his act. He delivers winning jokes on everything from global warming to toasters. Or as he has put it: “I’m talking about things that everybody can relate to and I think I have my own idea of where the problem is. I don’t feel I make them deliberately bizarre.”
Australian comic Nazeem Hussain has clearly got a sizeable word-of-mouth following in the UK. His first night in Soho was sold out and the audience seemed to be a mix of Asians, Aussies and those simply interested in good quality stand-up. I think all three demographics left the show satisfied.
Hussain, who is of Sri Lankan heritage, last played the UK as part of package tour Fear of a Brown Planet with Aamer Rahman, and like Rahman, a chunk of his set is about the immigrant experience in Australia.
Due to popular demand Des Bishop is returning for a second run at the Soho Theatre from May 26 - 30. Ticket details below. A version of this review first ran in the Evening Standard when he appeared there in April.
Holly Walsh’s show is called Never Had it, in honour of the fact that while some people – from Desmond Tutu to Barack Obama – have ‘it’, that special, cool X Factor, Walsh thinks she is seriously lacking in that department.
Stephen K Amos is supposed to be doing a solo run at the Soho Theatre, but his opening night was more of a team effort. The smartly dressed stand-up repeatedly engaged with his audience and they repaid the compliment by engaging back
Stephen K Amos says in our Rarely Asked Questions feature below that he doesn’t like adjectives before his name so I won't give him one. But if I did it would probably be “brilliant”. Amos is a brilliant comedian who has the ability to strike up an instant rapport with his live audience. I’ve seen him stand in front of a room of strangers and after a few minutes they all seem to be his friends. He can do this whether he is compering or doing his own act.
I don’t know whether it is because she is busy bringing up a family or spending too much time in her native Australia but we don’t see enough of Sarah Kendall onstage in the UK these days. The 2004 Perrier nominee – remember those? – is back this year with Touchdown, a coming-of-age show about events in her life in 1992. She had been picked for her high school touch rugby team and thought things were looking up, but then things took a turn for the worse, both romantically and dentally…
Tony Law has always been a bit of a loon. It's just that the rest of the world finally seems to have caught up with him. Having picked up a Foster's Award nomination in 2012 he has consolidated his position as the go-to guy for onstage ridiculousness with his subsequent two shows.
Bec Hill's show Ellipsis... was all about winning awards and afterwards she bagged a couple. She came up with the nation's favourite toilet joke (see below) and won he inaugural Barry Award (the Edinburgh version set up by Barry Ferns) for Best Show, voted for by fellow performers. Hill is a pocket-sized perma-punning bundle of energy.
Winners of the Foster's Award for Best Newcomer don't always make the grade, but I can't see 2014 winner Alex Edelman slipping into obscurity. I first spotted the 25-year-old American in an el cheapo video clip with Alfie Brown and thought that, like Brown, this young man had something.
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