The American comic on performing to a stripper party, the best heckle she’s had and why honest emotions are funnyHow did you get into comedy?I was always into watching funny shows – what was on TV that I could sneakily watch after my mom went to bed. I…
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, LondonIn this giddily inventive show, Minnitt plays a woman trying to bag a beau before her sentence to spinsterdom is declared‘I’m starting to get hysterical,” says Rosalie Minnitt’s Clementine, bearing down on her show’s denouement. “I …
Continue ReadingRose Theatre, Kingston upon ThamesFrom a killer song about cosmetic surgery to ditties on doppelgangers and dogging, Dillie Keane, Adèle Anderson and Liza Pulman are still going strongHow do you make your act feel new, 40 years on? Arguably, Fascinatin…
Continue ReadingCan the surreal comedy superstar parlay comedy chops into political power? Izzard certainly wouldn’t be the first standup to pivot from telling jokes to canvassing for votesFrom Eddie Izzard’s comedy we expect the incongruous. But was anything ever odd…
Continue ReadingHampstead theatre, LondonRichard Bean’s new play touches on ageing and alienation, care and family love, but focuses on making us laughYou might guess what kind of night you’re in for by To Have and to Hold’s fabulous opening: the first painstaking ent…
Continue ReadingThe everyman standup delivers substantial comic payloads by itemising the oddity of human behaviour. A successful formula his new tour continues to exploitAll the countries of the world have their own bread, runs one of Michael McIntyre’s routines in h…
Continue ReadingThe Funny Women award-winner on her witty family, why she loves being mocked and the best heckle she’s hadHow did you get into comedy?My husband bought me a day’s writing course with Logan Murray as a wedding gift (I had confessed to him that it was my…
Continue ReadingTheatre Royal, BrightonThe comic brings an assured touch to tales of everyday humiliation, and even her terrible musicianship is endearing for a whileTig Notaro has never had an interval onstage until now – “intermissions”, in her word, not being a thi…
Continue ReadingKentish Town Forum, LondonThis is a big stage for a streaming star who’s still a rookie standup, and at times his show feels over-engineered and effortful – but he still has enough honesty and charm to go far‘People know the content, and the characters…
Continue ReadingThe late comedian’s son, Bob Cryer, offers an intimate and astute portrait of his father’s skill and wit, and the vulnerability beneathI never met Barry Cryer, but I do have a memory of him, which seems characteristic of those generated by this great l…
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