The Australian standup and Radio 4 regular on the things that make her laugh the mostEddie Pepitone had this routine about auditioning for a laundry commercial where the casting agent said he should improvise. And the horror of the dark things he impro…
Continue ReadingRoyal Festival Hall, LondonThe comic is on solid form as he deploys graphs, data and ruthless over-thinking to rage against life’s tiny detailsChurnalism, fraudulent daytime TV, the idiocies of social media – these are the targets of Dave Gorman’s peev…
Continue ReadingRoyal Festival Hall, LondonThe comic is on solid form as he deploys graphs, data and ruthless over-thinking to rage against life’s tiny detailsChurnalism, fraudulent daytime TV, the idiocies of social media – these are the targets of Dave Gorman’s peev…
Continue ReadingRoyal Festival Hall, LondonThe comic is on solid form as he deploys graphs, data and ruthless over-thinking to rage against life’s tiny detailsChurnalism, fraudulent daytime TV, the idiocies of social media – these are the targets of Dave Gorman’s peev…
Continue ReadingVaudeville theatre, LondonThe standup refines his intricate tales with a note of personal poignancy for a set that will leave you drunk on its brillianceWe had no right to ask more of James Acaster – already a five-times Edinburgh Comedy award nominee …
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, London
The US standup, who spent six years in a Texas prison, delivers an accomplished set drawing on his misspent youth
One in three black men in the US will spend time in jail. So it’s safe to assume that – at any given moment – there’s major untapped talent stuck behind those bars. Step forward Ali Siddiq, who spent six years in a Texas prison for selling drugs, and is now a hot-property comic.
For 15 years, Siddiq didn’t address prison in his act. Then, last year, the 45-year-old performed It’s Bigger Than These Bars to inmates at Bell County Jail, Texas, broadcast as his first hour-long special for Comedy Central. Tonight’s show draws on that material, and proves Siddiq to be an accomplished, authoritative standup.
Continue ReadingAfter his sellout shows with Jon Stewart, the US star hosted a free night in London featuring local acts and a raucous slew of close-to-the-bone material
“I see a white man,” said Dave Chappelle to the intimate audience at the Backyard Comedy Club, London, on Wednesday. “Two, three, four … oh my God, 10 white people. I’ll start the bidding at £200.” The room erupted and it was clear just from seeing the crowd that this was going to be nothing like the two shows that Chappelle had co-headlined with Jon Stewart earlier in the week at the Royal Albert Hall.
The secret event was orchestrated by British comedian Kojo Anim, whose club Comedy Funhouse in the West End played a vital role in the development of the black British comedy in the 00s. It was also where Chappelle first engaged with the British comedy scene.
Mo the Comedian’s got his show coming but where are the sitcoms, where are the sketch shows?
Related: Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart review – sharp satire at America’s expense
Continue ReadingAs the standup and co-host of the Elis James and John Robins Show takes their new book on tour, he talks about the things that make him laugh the mostI supported Rhod Gilbert in 2008. He was breathtakingly funny, every night. I also think Daniel Kitson…
Continue ReadingRoyal Albert Hall, London
The world-renowned pair team up with comics Mo Amer and Michelle Wolf to tackle Trump, the opioid crisis and gun violence in a night which delivers big laughs
Plenty of comics critique Donald Trump. Few until now have been greeted with cries of “Run for president!”. Such is the stature of tonight’s American headliners, Dave Chappelle and – the president-not-quite-elect in question – Jon Stewart. I’m not sure this level of reverence is ideal for comedy. But – give or take a self-mythologising moment, most of them in the post-show Q&A – Chappelle and Stewart keep it at arm’s length, delivering strong sets about the state of their nation, with peppy support from compatriots Mo Amer and Michelle Wolf.
There certainly is a statesmanlike quality to Stewart’s 40 minutes, which prove he’s got standup chops while staying resolutely on left-liberal message. It’s textbook stuff, starting with jokes about how he looks (“Jews age like avocados”) then broaching one by one the racism, sexism and gun violence that exercise his Daily Show fanbase. Some jokes are old hat, such as the one about Leviticus, homophobia and shellfish, or the one about Obama’s un-American name. (Stewart argues persuasively that Obama’s, not Trump’s, was the anomalous presidency in US history.) Some are neatly done, like the switchback that makes a mockery of the safeguards around buying firearms.
Continue ReadingThe Whitey McWhiteface and Lefty Tighty Righty Loosey standup on the things that make him laugh the most
Mat Ewins’s Edinburgh show in 2017 is hard to top. He is one of my closest friends in comedy and, as we started out together, I must qualify this by saying that, over the course of the last decade, he is also responsible for some of the worst standup I have ever seen.
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