The comedian, 62, on growing up shy in Middlesbrough, losing his dad, meeting Vic Reeves, and the deep contentment of fishingI was quite a shy boy. Growing up in Middlesbrough, I felt a bit of an outsider. My three elder brothers are funny and boistero…
Continue ReadingThe comedian and her dad recreate a childhood photo and talk about early days in India, agoraphobia and swapping banking for comedy Born in New Delhi in 1969, Sindhu Vee spent her childhood in India and the Philippines, before throwing herself into aca…
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, LondonAmrou Al-Kadhi’s drag alter ego, poised between self-absorption and self-irony, delivers a tart, funny and swaggering tale“Too gay for Iraq, too Iraq for gay.” That’s Amrou Al-Kadhi’s predicament, and From Qur’an to Queen recounts t…
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, LondonMcGrath is smart and sardonic about the after-effects of British imperialism in Africa – even if she’s just skimming the surfaceThe Berlin Conference of 1884, the legacy of Hugh Trevor-Roper and the religious practices of Kenya’s Wa…
Continue ReadingNetflixRather than explore the blind spots within modern gender and racial thinking, the comedian’s latest special triples down on the phobia‘I’m going all the way,” is Dave Chappelle’s refrain through this last in his run of Netflix specials. It’s a b…
Continue ReadingBloomsbury theatre, LondonThe comedian is on ebullient form in a gossipy touring show about entering one’s seventh decadeYou can understand why Jenny Eclair might focus her standup on the experience of turning 60. Comedy stages are not exactly teeming …
Continue ReadingFor character comics such as Zach Zucker, Bilal Zafar and Jay Bennett, performing as other people is a way to both escape from – and confront – their personal livesAfter an eventful 18 months away, Zach Zucker is back on a London stage, and making a me…
Continue ReadingLondon PalladiumChris and Rosie Ramsey’s material about their married life is jolly enough, but a five-minute advertorial is rather less soIt has 65m downloads and counting. It claims the record for the biggest live podcast audience ever. It sold out t…
Continue ReadingLondon PalladiumThe veteran provocateur, with his usual equal offensiveness policy, is amusing when he isn’t railing at straw men in this revival of his 2019 show Supernature“I’m a white heterosexual millionaire,” says Ricky Gervais, and as such, in a …
Continue ReadingWith the plagiarism claim against him, Kae Kurd joins an illustrious list of alleged copycatsIt’s no joke: standups in legal row over ‘stolen’ comedy routineThe most notable thing about the plagiarism row raging between Kae Kurd and Darius Davies is th…
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