European comics assembled for a gig about Britain’s departure from the EU – but ended up talking about sex and poultryIt’s an article of faith among remainers that Brexit has made the UK a global laughing stock, right? So as I entered the Camden Comedy…
Continue ReadingThe Other Palace, LondonComedy’s rational surveyor of the political scene fires a centrist shot at easy targets from Boris Johnson to Jeremy CorbynThe left/right divide is no longer a useful guide to interpreting modern Britain, Matt Forde tells us in …
Continue ReadingAfter a turn on stage as George III, the co-founder of the League is returning to horror to recreate Dracula for TV. What he finds ‘frightening and debilitating’ now, though, is leaving the EUMark Gatiss is recalling an early memory, rocking back and f…
Continue ReadingAfter a turn on stage as George III, the co-founder of the League is returning to horror to recreate Dracula for TV. What he finds ‘frightening and debilitating’ now, though, is leaving the EUMark Gatiss is recalling an early memory, rocking back and f…
Continue ReadingAfter a turn on stage as George III, the co-founder of the League is returning to horror to recreate Dracula for TV. What he finds ‘frightening and debilitating’ now, though, is leaving the EUMark Gatiss is recalling an early memory, rocking back and f…
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, London
The Mash Report host unleashes a high-octane, self-mocking political show brimming with exasperation and anger
You can tell it’s been two years since Nish Kumar’s last live show – as long as it’s possible, surely, for this most vociferous of comics to keep a lid on things. The first 10 minutes of It’s in Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves are like a dam bursting: he’s got so much to say about the state of our benighted nation, so many apoplectic opinions to advance. It’s a cracking opening, as the Mash Report man hurls himself at the government’s handling of Brexit (“an Ocean’s Eleven of rank incompetence”), the revelation that makes sense of Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the high British Asian vote to leave the EU.
On that latter topic, members of his own family aren’t spared, and if the punchlines here are more playground abuse than Shavian wit – well, Kumar’s bad temper is part of the joke. Most of the gig is delivered at a high pitch of dismay: we’re never far from the next screech of exasperation, at “random” airport bag checks on brown people, or at the post-Office career of Ricky Gervais.
At Soho theatre, London until 4 October. Then touring until March.
Continue ReadingHard Brexit innuendos, frolics in fields of wheat, that strong and stable obsession … four drag queens reveal why the prime minister is camp gold
Continue ReadingTwitter abuse proves rich source of material for new standup show
If there’s one thing even the most stupid and bigoted of internet trolls may soon learn, it’s to be wary of getting into an argument with a funny Jewish guy on Twitter – particularly if that guy happens to be David Baddiel.
The multi-talented comedian and children’s novelist finds his constant battles with internet trolls on social media so amusing and illuminating that he is creating a new standup show to explore what provocative online conversations reveal about modern discourse.
I’ve got into online debates where people are being racist about Jews but don’t even understand they’re being racist
Continue ReadingThe whip-smart comic talks about mocking Piers Morgan and Donald Trump, mixing scorn with good cheer and moving from songs to satire
‘Determined cheerfulness is something I happen to do very well,” says Rachel Parris. If you’ve seen her live musical comedy shows, you won’t need telling: they present Parris as a wholesome West End Wendy forever on the verge of a nervous breakdown, performing songs that put a brave face on a chaotic life (The Gym Song) or – like her terrific X Factor spoof I’m Amazing – clothe sharp satire in faux-positivity.
No one who saw her excellent but unheralded stage shows ever doubted Parris’s talent, but it’s a big surprise that she’s now found her mainstream niche in political satire. Her whip-smart work on the BBC show The Mash Report has been adored – and deplored – by tens of millions, and she’s become one of the most prominent political comics in the UK and beyond.
Continue ReadingThe whip-smart comic talks about mocking Piers Morgan and Donald Trump, mixing scorn with good cheer and moving from songs to satire
‘Determined cheerfulness is something I happen to do very well,” says Rachel Parris. If you’ve seen her live musical comedy shows, you won’t need telling: they present Parris as a wholesome West End Wendy forever on the verge of a nervous breakdown, performing songs that put a brave face on a chaotic life (The Gym Song) or – like her terrific X Factor spoof I’m Amazing – clothe sharp satire in faux-positivity.
No one who saw her excellent but unheralded stage shows ever doubted Parris’s talent, but it’s a big surprise that she’s now found her mainstream niche in political satire. Her whip-smart work on the BBC show The Mash Report has been adored – and deplored – by tens of millions, and she’s become one of the most prominent political comics in the UK and beyond.
Continue Reading