Dancefloor disaster: Ayelen Parolin masters the choreography of comedy

The show must go on for the trio of hapless performers in Parolin’s new production Zonder, which finds the funny side in failureContemporary dance and comedy don’t exactly go hand in hand but Ayelen Parolin is a choreographer with funny bones. In her n…

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Iliza Shlesinger: ‘I’m thinking what many women are thinking – but saying it out loud’

The American comic on performing to a stripper party, the best heckle she’s had and why honest emotions are funnyHow did you get into comedy?I was always into watching funny shows – what was on TV that I could sneakily watch after my mom went to bed. I…

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Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine review – a frilly-bonneted comedy for today

Soho theatre, LondonIn this giddily inventive show, Minnitt plays a woman trying to bag a beau before her sentence to spinsterdom is declared‘I’m starting to get hysterical,” says Rosalie Minnitt’s Clementine, bearing down on her show’s denouement. “I …

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Fascinating Aïda review – caustic comments and filthiness 40 years on

Rose Theatre, Kingston upon ThamesFrom a killer song about cosmetic surgery to ditties on doppelgangers and dogging, Dillie Keane, Adèle Anderson and Liza Pulman are still going strongHow do you make your act feel new, 40 years on? Arguably, Fascinatin…

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Standup and be counted: Eddie Izzard and the comics who took politics by storm

Can the surreal comedy superstar parlay comedy chops into political power? Izzard certainly wouldn’t be the first standup to pivot from telling jokes to canvassing for votesFrom Eddie Izzard’s comedy we expect the incongruous. But was anything ever odd…

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To Have and to Hold review – fond family comedy from the writer of One Man, Two Guvnors

Hampstead theatre, LondonRichard Bean’s new play touches on ageing and alienation, care and family love, but focuses on making us laughYou might guess what kind of night you’re in for by To Have and to Hold’s fabulous opening: the first painstaking ent…

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Park your cynicism! Michael McIntyre is a super-relatable well-oiled joke machine

The everyman standup delivers substantial comic payloads by itemising the oddity of human behaviour. A successful formula his new tour continues to exploitAll the countries of the world have their own bread, runs one of Michael McIntyre’s routines in h…

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Laura Smyth: ‘I did my comedy show to silence – it was humbling and hilarious’

The Funny Women award-winner on her witty family, why she loves being mocked and the best heckle she’s hadHow did you get into comedy?My husband bought me a day’s writing course with Logan Murray as a wedding gift (I had confessed to him that it was my…

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Tig Notaro: Hello Again review – all the right notes, except on piano

Theatre Royal, BrightonThe comic brings an assured touch to tales of everyday humiliation, and even her terrible musicianship is endearing for a whileTig Notaro has never had an interval onstage until now – “intermissions”, in her word, not being a thi…

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Munya Chawawa review – YouTube star’s standup still a work in progress

Kentish Town Forum, LondonThis is a big stage for a streaming star who’s still a rookie standup, and at times his show feels over-engineered and effortful – but he still has enough honesty and charm to go far‘People know the content, and the characters…

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