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Kathy Griffin review – Trump’s nemesis laughs away the pain of persecution

November 12, 2017TheGuardian

London Palladium
The standup leans too heavily on showbiz mudslinging here, but the remarkable story of the fallout from her severed-head stunt is uplifting comedy catharsis

American comic Kathy Griffin fainted on stage in Dublin last week, and there were doubts over whether this London gig would go ahead. Consider those doubts resoundingly dismissed: Griffin performed for two and a quarter hours without pause, motormouthing through screeds of showbiz gossip, self-promotion and an account of “how my life crumbled” when she posed for a photo with a bloodied Trump mask resembling the president’s severed head. The latter story is gripping, but there’s too much celebrity tattle around it at this sprawling show – at least for those of us with strictly limited interest in Kim Kardashian’s domestic life or the dissolute habits of American comedian Andy Dick.

Shazia Mirza: ‘My local rabbi is funnier than most standups’

November 10, 2017TheGuardian

The Brummie standup and writer on the things that make her laugh the most, from Woody Allen to Curb Your EnthusiasmRobin Williams, Mill Valley, San Francisco 2013, a year before his death. He is the funniest standup I have ever seen and ever will see. …

Louis CK: laughter ends as years of allegations dog comedy superstar

November 10, 2017November 10, 2017TheGuardian

The fallout from CK’s sexual misconduct accusations has begun, with HBO dropping his shows and colleagues condemning a man once hailed as a genius

When Louis CK first attempted standup comedy, at a 1985 open mic night in Boston, it was a disaster. He had a five-minute slot but only two minutes of material.

“It was horrible,” he told NPR 30 years later. “My whole throat constricted and … I heard this roaring in my ears. My eyes were watering. My heart was pounding, and I couldn’t control myself. And I just felt like a pile of garbage. And then I kept doing it.”

Carry on Screaming’s Fenella Fielding on fighting with Kenneth Williams and bouncing back after bankruptcy

November 8, 2017TheGuardian

She survived a violent upbringing to become the 60s’ favourite comedy vamp. As she turns 90, the star remembers fending off Norman Wisdom, attempting suicide – and having two lovers for 20 years

Fenella Fielding, 90 this month, has lost none of her comic timing. She is about to publish her memoirs, and I tell her it’s a great gossipy read. “What’s that darling, endoscopy?” Her hearing isn’t what it was. but she’s grinning mischievously. “I thought that was something medical.”

Fielding is probably still best remembered for her star turn in Carry on Screaming! as voracious vamp Valeria. The title of the book is taken from her famous line in the film: “Do you mind if I smoke?” (At which point whirls of smoke rise from her writhing body.)

Daddy used to knock me about with his fists, and my mother would egg him on

Famous comedians don’t want you to be funny. They want you to appreciate how funny they are by laughing engagingly

It’s rather awful sitting waiting for benefits and everybody knows who you are. I had a terrible feeling I was finished

Don’t wait for the punchline: Jordan Brookes and comedy’s rule breakers

November 8, 2017TheGuardian

Shows that delight in flouting conventions, like Brookes’s Body of Work, make us question our expectations of standup – including whether it should all be funny

An offstage voice announces his entrance, but our host refuses to appear. That’s the first shredded expectation in Jordan Brookes’s show Body of Work, which opens at Soho theatre in London this week. Brookes is not the first to upend conventions about how comedians take the stage. Doctor Brown fans will remember his elongated entrances, tangled up in curtains, and many comics get a quick laugh from confessing that the offstage announcer is usually, in fact, the comic themselves. But when Brookes’s show debuted in Edinburgh this summer, critics – myself included – hailed the way that it demolishes so many conventions of comedy.

Katherine Ryan review – a comic in supreme command of her shtick

November 6, 2017TheGuardian

Churchill theatre, Bromley
Ryan delivers plenty of astringent one-liners in a tart set that ranges from single parenthood to Khloé Kardashian’s ‘revenge body’ and the musical Hamilton

The default comparison when describing Katherine Ryan’s work is Joan Rivers, whom she admires and whose caustic superficiality was echoed in Ryan’s earlier work. Her recent Netflix special was crammed with jokes about Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Bill Cosby; she devoted the first half of her 2015 show Kathbum to ruthless celebrity gossip. But it is the more personal second act of that show that she builds on in Glitter Room, which is now touring. This new set parks the A-list scuttlebutt in favour of something more personal, if just as steely: a standup set about single motherhood and the double act she’s formed with her eight-year-old daughter.

Glitter Room showcases a comic in supreme command of her shtick: hers is an imperious persona, disinclined to reveal even the slightest sign of weakness. This isn’t a set about the practical and emotional difficulties of single parenthood – it’s a defiant celebration of it. To Ryan, a boyfriend is a “luxury item” and the only good husband is a dead one. Left to their own devices, she and daughter Violet can decorate their home however they please (hence the show’s title). And who needs a lover to unzip your tight dresses when you’ve got an eight-year-old or (if desperate) an Uber driver on hand?

The urge to provoke is usually transparent: at one point, she speculates about how easy her daughter would be to traffic

Old-school Ryan bares her teeth at the end, with a riff on Melania Trump

Katherine Ryan review – a comic in supreme command of her shtick

November 6, 2017TheGuardian

Churchill theatre, Bromley
Ryan delivers plenty of astringent one-liners in a tart set that ranges from single parenthood to Khloé Kardashian’s ‘revenge body’ and the musical Hamilton

The default comparison when describing Katherine Ryan’s work is Joan Rivers, whom she admires and whose caustic superficiality was echoed in Ryan’s earlier work. Her recent Netflix special was crammed with jokes about Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Bill Cosby; she devoted the first half of her 2015 show Kathbum to ruthless celebrity gossip. But it is the more personal second act of that show that she builds on in Glitter Room, which is now touring. This new set parks the A-list scuttlebutt in favour of something more personal, if just as steely: a standup set about single motherhood and the double act she’s formed with her eight-year-old daughter.

Glitter Room showcases a comic in supreme command of her shtick: hers is an imperious persona, disinclined to reveal even the slightest sign of weakness. This isn’t a set about the practical and emotional difficulties of single parenthood – it’s a defiant celebration of it. To Ryan, a boyfriend is a “luxury item” and the only good husband is a dead one. Left to their own devices, she and daughter Violet can decorate their home however they please (hence the show’s title). And who needs a lover to unzip your tight dresses when you’ve got an eight-year-old or (if desperate) an Uber driver on hand?

The urge to provoke is usually transparent: at one point, she speculates about how easy her daughter would be to traffic

Old-school Ryan bares her teeth at the end, with a riff on Melania Trump

Ken Dodd at 90: the rib-tickling genius is still crazy after all these years

November 4, 2017TheGuardian

With a gag for every occasion, the tattyfilarious comic clocks up 50,000 miles a year performing his epic standup shows. He talks about stage fright, playing Yorick for ‘Sir Kenneth All-Bran’ and taking on the audience like a gladiator

Is theatre the best rejuvenating pill on the market? I’ve recently talked to a sprightly, 92-year-old Peter Brook and seen the 90-year-old playwright Peter Nichols hold an audience spellbound. I’m also recovering from two extraordinary encounters with Ken Dodd, who turns 90 next week: one was a private lunch in Liverpool, the other a public lunch in London where Sir Ken was lauded by members of the British Music Hall Society. On both occasions, I got a glimpse into the transformative power of comedy. As Ken said to me: “I’m told that before I go out on stage, I look my age. Once I’m there, I suddenly turn into a 32-year-old.”

I was in the church choir – till they found out where the noise was coming from

How many men does it take to change a toilet roll? I don’t know. It’s never been done

Paul Chowdhry: ‘When I was 15, I wore snakeskin-patterned trousers with pride’

November 3, 2017TheGuardian

The standup comic on the things that make him laugh the most, from people falling over to his dadMr Chowdhry, AKA my dad. In my lifetime he has provided me with countless material. My surroundings are an integral part of my comedy, which he unintention…

Don’t go there? Standups on Weinstein, taboos – and the gags they regret

November 3, 2017TheGuardian

Is it ever OK for comedians to joke about sexual assault? Is there such a thing as ‘too soon’? Margaret Cho, Doug Stanhope, David Cross and other fearless comics on the fine line between funny and offensive

Last month, as accusations against Harvey Weinstein began to flood in, James Corden stepped on stage at a black-tie event in Los Angeles and joked about the film producer’s alleged sexual assaults. “It’s a beautiful night here in LA,” he said. “So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage.”

Two days later, after a barrage of criticism, Corden apologised. He is one of many comedians who have attempted to engage with a contentious topic only to have the move wildly backfire. It requires huge skill to take on a taboo subject and even then it’s still a minefield. Lenny Bruce was arrested many times for breaking obscenity laws, for saying things like “jack me off” and “motherfucker”. He was eventually convicted in 1964. One routine, which suggested that men will cop off with anything, included the phrase “go come in a chicken”. In 2003, he received a posthumous pardon.

I don’t say ‘faggot’ any more – even though I have defended the use of it in the past

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