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‘Chinese burn? We just say burn’: comics on joking about race and immigration

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

Phil Wang has a messy relationship with the British empire. Evelyn Mok felt dirty joking about her family. Kae Kurd riffs on being a refugee. Aisha Alfa was shocked to find she had a ‘black perspective’. They talk patriotism, stereotypes and stigmas

I’m a sort of half-immigrant. I was born in Stoke, where my mum is from, but we went back to Malaysia, where my dad’s from, a week after I was born. When I was 16 I moved back to the UK and have been here since. I have a complicated relationship with the British empire but I look for what connects us. Commonwealth countries share a certain sense of humour. The empire spread self-deprecation and a self-mocking attitude across the commonwealth – as well as railroads.

‘It sounds like Michael Bubbly!’ Big Shaq rates his rivals for Christmas No 1

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

The coat-obsessed Man’s Not Hot rapper has made the viral pop hit of the year – and could now be the Christmas No 1. So does he think he can beat Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey and Gregory Porter?

Amid the usual sleigh bells, string sections and festive lyrics in this year’s Christmas No 1 race comes a man in a big coat, adamant that he is not overheating. Big Shaq’s Man’s Not Hot has become a snowballing breakthrough hit during the last few months: a parody of hardnut London rappers who use ridiculous slang, impersonate gunshots, and never, ever take off their coats. The knowingly witless aggression of its lyrics – “take man’s Twix by force” – makes them endlessly quotable, earning the track more than 100m views on YouTube and 74m streams on Spotify. It’s even been repeated in parliament by Peterborough MP Fiona Onasanya.

Sofie Hagen’s new show is raw, urgent and confessional … but is it comedy?

December 14, 2017TheGuardian

Having explored her depression and anxiety, the Danish comic is tackling childhood trauma. How do standups amuse an audience if even they don’t find their subject funny?

Her first show, Bubblewrap, was about depression and self-harm; her second, Shimmer Shatter, detailed her social anxiety. Now comes a show that digs deeper still, beneath the mental health challenges Sofie Hagen has faced and down to the emotional abuse she feels she endured in childhood, at the hands of her “narcissistic, psychopathic step-grandfather”, Ib. As with its predecessors, Dead Baby Frog feels as much like a therapy session as a standup set.

The road that runs from trauma to comedy has been well travelled in recent years – and with considerable success. Bubblewrap won Hagen the Edinburgh fringe’s best newcomer award in 2015. The following year, the festival’s top comedy prize went to Richard Gadd’s show about his experience of sexual assault. This year, Hannah Gadsby won it with Nanette, a fierce reaction against homophobia and gender violence. In comedy, the brutalised are kicking back to a chorus of critical acclaim – and the murmur of: “But is it comedy?”

Peter Kay cancels UK and Ireland tour over ‘family circumstances’

December 13, 2017TheGuardian

Comedian who has not toured for eight years says he deeply regrets decision to cancel more than 100 shows next yearPeter Kay has cancelled his tour of Britain and Ireland, which would have seen him perform more than 100 gigs, citing family circumstance…

Thirty Christmases review – a merry little comedy about festive stress

December 13, 2017TheGuardian

New Diorama, London
A reunited brother and sister try to repair their relationship at Christmas time in this amiable show with songs

Christmas is a time to be with family. But what if your family is fractured? That’s the question at the heart of this amiable show, written by and starring Jonny Donahoe, with songs from his duo Jonny & the Baptists. The tunes include that festive classic Don’t Be a Prick at Christmas.

Donahoe and comedian Rachel Parris play siblings, Jonny and Rachel, who were raised in a car by their socialist Jewish agnostic father, a man who lived by different rules. Christmas was spent in other people’s homes, often uninvited. There was the year they sat outside the house of their mother, eating corned beef sandwiches, watching her celebrate with her new family through the window. And there was the year they turned up unannounced on the doorstep of some Norwegians briefly met at an airport.

Ongals: meet the Korean clown babies baffling audiences of all ages

December 11, 2017TheGuardian

Mixing circus skills with finely honed comedy and bum jokes, these juggling, beatboxing man-toddlers are joyous – and more than a little menacing

My three-year-old son, Gregor, thinks farting is the funniest thing. He let one go while sat on my lap on the bus en route to the Ongals’ show and dissolved into giggles. My daughter, aged seven, is considerably more mature: she likes bums. When we arrived at Soho theatre, the first thing she noticed was the poster for Wild Bore, the performance art/theatre show deconstructing the art of criticism. Its poster features three naked female backsides, and Cora was transfixed by it. Why?, she wanted to know. How!? So I felt pretty pleased as we entered the auditorium for Babbling Comedy, a slapstick comedy from South Korea reportedly heavy on the farting and backsides gags. A surefire success, right?

Well, yes – and, I am happy to report, not primarily for bum-related reasons. OK, so on reviewing the show afterwards, both kids decided their favourite moment was when the pink big baby shoved a bicycle pump up the yellow big baby’s bottom and inflated the balloon sticking out of his mouth. But toilet humour is only a small component of what makes Babbling Comedy an endearing family show. It’s a circus-meets-slapstick hour, performed by grown men in candy-coloured romper-suits, non-verbal if you discount their frenetic gurgling and babbling. (“Ongali” is Korean for “goo goo gah gah”, apparently.) If you don’t like juggling, hold out for the beatboxing. There’s something here for everyone.

The Beakington Town Hall Meetings review – Adam Riches’ tortoise tombola laughathon

December 6, 2017TheGuardian

Battersea Arts Centre, London
The winningly weird comic tasks his audience with solving an animal massacre mystery in an evening that spins a good story from endless fun nonsense

There’s been an incident at Beakington Town Hall, and the mayor is fuming. We councillors – given name badges at the door by Adam Riches’ eager apparatchik – assemble to get to the bottom of the debacle. And until the culprit has been smoked out, no one is leaving. That’s the setup for this pre-Christmas confection from audience participation monster Riches, the latest bespoke festive comedy show at BAC after those by Sara Pascoe, John Kearns and Daniel Kitson in years gone by. But although Riches’ knockabout whodunnit is seasonal only in the sense that it is jolly, The Beakington Town Hall Meetings is about as jolly as it gets.

It’s ramshackle, ends anti-climactically and the premise is as thin as the foil atop Riches’ beloved bottles of Yakult. But it is buoyed along by our host’s force of personality, the communal good cheer he deftly stokes – and several instances of winning oddity. These include two audience stooges being eyeballed by a live tortoise, the sole survivor of a tombola massacre that has threatened to ruin Christmas in Beakington, “a town so backwards it could almost be twinned with itself”.

Riches has audience members – sorry, suspects – get busy with watermelon, party poppers and mistletoe

Choose your favourite stage show of 2017

December 4, 2017TheGuardian

’Tis the season to compile lists of your favourite productions of the year – let us know which ones left you spellbound

As December disappears and the new year beckons, we’re remembering the theatre, comedy and dance shows that stood out in 2017 – and we’d love to hear your favourites. Please fill out the form below before Thursday 14 December, writing up to 250 words about the one show you found unforgettable. We’ll publish a selection of your favourites on the site before Christmas.

Comedians on how to banish festive fear and have a better Christmas

December 3, 2017TheGuardian

From faking illness to binning Brexit chat, standups including Rachel Parris, Milton Jones and Phil Wang share advice on taking the hassle out of the holidays

Rachel Parris: Wear something hilarious at all times. A novelty jumper or naughty apron will give everyone something to talk about that isn’t Brexit.

Tom Allen: It’s the season of goodwill, so let people know how they can improve themselves. Maybe they’ve gone for quantity over quality with the mini quiches, or maybe they’re simply dreadful people. Imagine how pleased they’ll be to have you help them.

Santa didn’t become Santa by playing fair

Christie, Kitson and an unholy cabaret: the best comedy shows this Christmas

December 2, 2017TheGuardian

Bridget Christie promises a night of hope and despair, Daniel Kitson serves up a heartwarmer and Lucy McCormick delivers a trash take on the New Testament. Here are the funniest festive gigs

More to see: Theatre | Carols and concerts | Dance

Her last show, Because You Demanded It, was one of the comedy events of 2016: a hastily assembled, laceratingly funny cri de coeur about the state of Britain post-referendum. Now comes the followup, What Now? – billed as “a night of hope and despair” – trialling across London throughout the festive season.
•In rep until 16 December, at Battersea Arts Centre, Museum of Comedy and the Bill Murray, London.

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