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Jon Richardson review – a wildly funny whinge of volcanic frustrations

January 2, 2018TheGuardian

G Live, Guildford
In his touring show The Old Man, Richardson’s peevish, mouse-that-roared routines range from loading the dishwasher to massaging his pregnant wife

‘Let’s get ready to grumble!” Where comedy meets nit-picking, Jon Richardson has carved a niche – and he’s not budging from it. Why get out of his comfort zone when, in his view, there’s always something stopping him from getting wholly into it? His touring show, The Old Man, is a two-hour whinge – tongue always slightly in cheek – at all that’s bothersome about his peevish life, from the barber’s to the internet, from weddings to cohabiting with his new wife. And it’s constantly enjoyable, rising to occasional peaks of near-heroic comic fastidiousness.

His passive-aggressive way of addressing tiny domestic disharmonies is delightfully done

Flight of the Conchords, Chris Rock and 2018’s most uproarious comedy

January 1, 2018TheGuardian

One of the world’s biggest standups does his first tour in a decade, Bridget Christie looks beyond Brexit and Maria Bamford makes a rare UK appearance

“Often more philosophical than scientific,” one critic wrote of Newman’s recent critique on brain science, Neuropolis – a book and a radio series, but initially a live standup show. Perhaps Newman’s taken the comment to heart: his new show Total Eclipse of Descartes, touring early this year, reprises the history of philosophy (“from Pythagoras to artificial intelligence by way of Pavlov’s dogs”) as it assembles a modus vivendi for our troubled present.
• 8-20 January, Soho theatre, London. Then touring.

Late Night Gimp Fight review – death, deviance and smutty sketches

January 1, 2018TheGuardian

Soho theatre, London
The troupe return with gags about Tindr, Trump and kidnapping. But can you still sell puerile shock-comedy when you’re middle-aged?

The best thing about this Late Night Gimp Fight offering – the sketch group’s first in four years – is the musical numbers, the first of which gets the show off to a great start. Performed to an upstage video, it finds “head gimp” Lee Griffiths living a life of mid-30s domestic tedium, before submitting to temptation and reassembling the old team for one last, gimp-mask-clad hurrah. But can you still sell puerile shock-comedy when you’re middle-aged? I enjoyed the song, welcomed the honesty about the quintet’s predicament – and hoped it foretold a new depth where once there’d been just crude gags about smut, death and sexual deviance.

But nope: it’s the same brand of smut, sexual deviance etc as way back when, albeit with bigger production values. It’s been hailed as a triumphant return by some, including the two women next to me in row J, convulsed with delight throughout. Are they buying the Gimps’ brand of juvenile humour at face value, or is there some ironic register at play that I’m missing? Either way, these first-base gags, predicated on the inherent funniness of masturbating and soiling oneself are lost on me.

Daliso Chaponda: from Malawi to a major UK tour with gags about slavery

December 31, 2017TheGuardian

Daliso Chaponda gets laughs from topics other comedians shun. After a whirlwind year of success on Britain’s Got Talent, he explains why he does it

Jokes about famine and slavery are not the standard fodder of a comedy routine, but Daliso Chaponda revels in crossing the line.

The 38-year-old Malawian was a surprise star of Britain’s Got Talent this year, winning over millions with his cheeky but close-to-the knuckle gags about life as an African in Britain.

People like that I talk about crazy subjects like slavery and colonialism in a way that isn’t guilt tripping

‘Improv saved my life’: the comedy classes helping people with anxiety

December 20, 2017TheGuardian

Once the domain of aspiring performers, improv courses are increasingly being attended by students experiencing mental health problems

“Your heart’s beating faster, you feel all these eyes on you, your body reacts with panic.” No, it’s not the discarded first line of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, but Alex MacLaren’s description of how his students feel in work meetings, job interviews or even the pub. MacLaren teaches improvisational comedy at the Spontaneity Shop in London. At first, its courses attracted performers. Now, he estimates half his students are seeking help with anxiety or confidence.

It’s a trend noted by other improv teachers. In Manchester, Brainne Edge runs workshops as head of ComedySportz UK. In the past five years she’s seen the proportion of non-performers attending her courses rise to around 75%.

It teaches you to have a better link between your brain and your mouth

Jeff Garlin review – Curb Your Enthusiasm comic goes off-script

December 20, 2017TheGuardian

Larry David’s accomplice makes up for the fitfulness of a half-assembled show with infectious off-the-cuff comedy about bras, body lotions and creepy old men

‘I’m aware it’s not been the best show,” says Jeff Garlin – and he’s right. It has been some unconnected bits of material cribbed from notes – a rehearsal for a forthcoming off-Broadway run, he tells us. It should be billed as a work in progress, but isn’t: tickets start at £26. Yet it’s more fun than Garlin’s last visit to Soho, when he also used crib-sheets but was more tied to scripted routines about his over-eating. Here, the ratio of ad-libbing to rehearsed material is higher, and the Curb Your Enthusiasm man is clearly having enormous fun. For the most part, it’s infectious.

It starts oddly. I have no idea why the lights come up on Garlin chatting to UK comic Naomi Cooper (for a podcast), before surrendering the stage for five minutes to Irish standup Conor Drum. It’s that kind of gig: anything goes. Garlin identifies as an improviser, he says, more than a performer of prepared material. He’s here to try stuff out – such as dancing with his audience – and if it doesn’t all stack up, no matter. And so, his amusing off-the-cuff chat splices awkwardly with semi-rehearsed jokes, aperçus and shards of anecdotes – many of them free of context, consequence or climax. “I hate doing material,” he growls at one point. “It ruins my rhythm.” He’s not wrong.

The top 10 comedy shows of 2017

December 17, 2017TheGuardian

A virgin dominatrix whipped Edinburgh, Tim Key looked for love and Hannah Gadsby quit then won two awards. But only the snide, brutal brilliance of Frankie Boyle could triumph over the year’s horrors

• More of the best culture from 2017

Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People review – variety show for atheists returns

December 17, 2017TheGuardian

Conway Hall, London
A joyful lucky dip in which secular sermons and Christmas messages quoting Kurt Vonnegut make for a silly but rousing celebration of rationalism

It’s hard to believe this is the 10th year of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, an endearingly shambolic, joyful lucky dip of a show described by its creator, Robin Ince, as what would happen “if the Royal Variety Show was put in a matter-transportation machine with the Royal Institution Christmas lectures”.

If this revival after a three-year hiatus lacks the headline names of its Hammersmith Apollo heyday, when Brian Cox, Richard Dawkins, Dara O’Briain and Jarvis Cocker were regulars on the bill, it still serves up a Christmas feast of eclectic performers, held together by Ince’s scattershot observations and infectious curmudgeonly enthusiasm.

Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People review – variety show for atheists returns

December 17, 2017TheGuardian

Conway Hall, London
A joyful lucky dip in which secular sermons and Christmas messages quoting Kurt Vonnegut make for a silly but rousing celebration of rationalism

It’s hard to believe this is the 10th year of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, an endearingly shambolic, joyful lucky dip of a show described by its creator, Robin Ince, as what would happen “if the Royal Variety Show was put in a matter-transportation machine with the Royal Institution Christmas lectures”.

If this revival after a three-year hiatus lacks the headline names of its Hammersmith Apollo heyday, when Brian Cox, Richard Dawkins, Dara O’Briain and Jarvis Cocker were regulars on the bill, it still serves up a Christmas feast of eclectic performers, held together by Ince’s scattershot observations and infectious curmudgeonly enthusiasm.

The League of Gentlemen announce 2018 UK tour

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

The dark comedy foursome are to hit the road, taking new show to ‘all the wonderful local places in our increasingly local country’

Their three forthcoming reunion specials for the BBC are among this Christmas’s most anticipated television shows. Now, the League of Gentlemen have announced that they will be touring the UK for the first time in over 12 years.

The League of Gentlemen Live Again! tour starts in Sunderland on 25 August 2018, offering local entertainment for local people around the UK, culminating in three nights at London’s Eventim Apollo, from 27 to 29 September.

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