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Cameron Esposito: a new kind of comedy hero

September 13, 2018TheGuardian

Esposito’s last show, Rape Jokes, was hailed as part of a new queer-friendly, woke brand of comedy for the #MeToo era. How does she follow it up?

When Hannah Gadsby’s show Nanette went supernova earlier this year, we were told that it was going to change comedy. Nothing, apparently, would be the same again. Much as I acknowledge the show’s power, I reserved judgment on all that. But, at this year’s Edinburgh fringe, I did find myself thinking about Gadsby’s show a lot – particularly when watching comics making sometimes brutal jokes at their own expense. In the past, ringleading the laughter at one’s own weaknesses or points of difference looked like (and may indeed still be) a sign of strength. But post-Nanette, it’s hard not to consider the mental-health fallout.

So, while I don’t think Gadsby has single-handedly changed comedy, she has given us a new lens though which to view it – which is achievement enough. All of which meant that anticipation ran high for the first UK headlining slots of US standup Cameron Esposito, whose most recent show was widely bracketed with Nanette as the most potent comedic expressions yet of the temper of our Time’s Up times. Rape Jokes was released on Esposito’s website in June; all proceeds went to RAINN, the United States’ largest anti-sexual violence organisation. The show addresses Esposito’s own experience of sexual assault. The Daily Beast called it “the first great standup set of the #MeToo era”.

Cameron Esposito is at Soho theatre, London, until 15 September.

David Baddiel has the last laugh at his online trolls

September 8, 2018TheGuardian

Twitter 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

Kevin Bridges review – savant of Clydebank laughs in the face of piety

September 7, 2018TheGuardian

Hammersmith Apollo, London
The 31-year-old breathes new life into well-worn observational comedy in a masterful show that scorns pretension

Kevin Bridges is in his 30s now, a time when fear of hangovers eclipses the joy of drinking, when young people start behaving mysteriously – and old friends called Craigy become grownups called Craig. “But I know you’re still in there, Craigy,” says Bridges, zooming in on the man’s Facebook photo, peering maniacally into his eyes. Judging by tonight’s gig, the Glaswegian won’t rest until he’s hunted down all our inner Craigys. Not for Bridges the conceit that we’ve civilised and matured. He’s here to scorn pretension and pounce on piety – and as ever, it’s a treat to watch him do it.

At Hammersmith Apollo, London, until 15 September. Then touring.

Katy Wix: ‘The Day Today is the funniest TV show I’ve ever seen’

September 7, 2018TheGuardian

The actor and standup comedian on the things that make her laugh the most

I can’t decide between Nomad and I, Partridge. I love Robert Popper’s books, too.

Race is still a touchy subject at the Edinburgh fringe

August 28, 2018TheGuardian

As the only brown person in the room at The Glang Show, I couldn’t shake a sense of otherness when a quip turned sour

I’m a few months into a new career as a standup comedian. I’ve had some lovely gigs, some horrific gigs and I have started to get paid for being funny. The path to comic glory is long and the only place to be in August is the Edinburgh fringe.

In the past, I have covered the festival as a theatre critic; this year I went purely to hustle for five- and 10-minute spots on live shows. On my penultimate night, I went to see The Glang Show at the Hive. It defies any sort of description, but if you picture Vic Reeves Big Night Out in a bouncy castle, on acid, you’ll be close. It is joyful, wonderful fun.

Joke’s over: why standups should refresh the tired ‘Edinburgh show’

August 28, 2018TheGuardian

The classic Edinburgh comedy show lasts an hour, with a strong narrative component and an inevitable ‘sad bit’. But this rigid template is stifling creativity

The late Sean Hughes had a reasonable claim to inventing what we now know as the “Edinburgh show”. Before 1990, wannabe comics went to the Edinburgh fringe and performed their best standup material. Hughes came along with something different: a funny monologue, set in his bedsit and containing a narrative to go with the gags. Comedy with a hint of theatre, in other words.

It worked: A One Night Stand not only won the Edinburgh comedy award (then called the Perrier), it got Hughes a Channel 4 series. And 28 years later, Hughes’s template for a 60-minute show still dominates the fringe.

So common is the ‘sad bit’ now that not only is it a cliche in comedy circles, it’s also become a cliche for standups to knowingly point it out

Olga Koch review – from Russia with love and oligarchs

August 27, 2018TheGuardian

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
In a spirited Edinburgh debut, the daughter of a former deputy PM of Russia tells her father’s fascinating story

Plenty of comics get good material from their parents’ behaviour, and plenty of comics talk politics. Seldom before have those species of comedy been cross-bred – but then not all comics have a story to tell as eye-opening as Olga Koch’s. She is the daughter of a provincial mayor in the USSR, briefly turned deputy PM of Boris Yeltsin’s Russia. Alfred Koch cooked up the “voucher privatisation” scheme that channelled Soviet state assets into the hands of the oligarchs. As Olga says, that’s a hell of dad fact for a teenage daughter to have in reserve when she needs to win a family argument.

Her debut Edinburgh show (she was shortlisted for best newcomer) tells her parents’ story in flashback from the time, four years ago, that her dad went alarmingly awol from his Moscow apartment. It’s part storytelling, part family album, and part Clive James on TV mockery of Russian advertising. I found those latter sections a little condescending. But given what her dad has suffered, and continues to suffer, at Russia’s hands, you can’t blame Koch – Russian-born, American-educated – for taking potshots in the other direction.

Sarah Keyworth: Dark Horse review – tomboy tales and top-notch jokes

August 27, 2018TheGuardian

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
The LGBTQ+ standup twists gender into new shapes in a fringe debut that feels like a great intro to a fresh comic personality

Should we be disowning words like “boys” and “girls” – or broadening what those words are allowed to mean? Sarah Keyworth is in an interesting position to discuss the question. She’s LGBTQ+, even if she seldom lingers beyond the first letter. As a solo-show debutante, nominated for b est newcomer at the Comedy awards, she’s part of generation pulling gender into new shapes. And her adolescence was blighted by bullying because she didn’t conform to stereotypes of what a girl should be.

Such is the stuff of Dark Horse – a maiden fringe hour that (as per convention) sets out Keyworth’s stall, but without a hint of navel-gazing. For that, we’ve got Roly to thank – he’s one of two well-heeled children she’s nannied for the last four years. Latterly, Roly emerges as the show’s subject and star, as Keyworth sees her mafia levels of infant confidence eroded by the pressure never to be “bossy”, far less a “slut”. Like Cora Bissett’s What Girls Are Made Of, Dark Horse is determined to let girls fearlessly be girls. Keyworth risks overarticulating the point, and there’s no need: her show could scarcely be better constructed to express it.

Dazzling drama: the unmissable theatre, dance and comedy of autumn 2018

August 27, 2018TheGuardian

Gender-swapped classics, Hans Christian Andersen’s closet secrets, two giants of US comedy sharing a stage, plus Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as rulers in love

More autumn picks: Film | TV | Pop | Classical | Art | Games

Twenty years after they made their names, the individual members of The League of Gentlemen are riding as high as ever – with Inside No 9 a cult smash on BBC2, and Mark Gatiss prominent in practically everything on TV. But they’ve carved out time – after a screen revival last Christmas – to return to their sinister Royston Vasey-based sketch comedy for an autumn tour (their first since 2005). Gatiss promises “some old favourites, some new stuff and some sort of sequels” to the three recent Christmas specials.
At SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, 28-29 August, then touring

The League of Gentlemen review – a brilliantly twisted return to the stage

August 26, 2018TheGuardian

Sunderland Empire
Exhilarating new material joins favourite vintage sketches as Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton bring their chilling creations to life again on tour

TV tie-in live tours aren’t always artistic successes. Sometimes, they’re more about nostalgia than comedy; sometimes it’s just a thousand people shouting out catchphrases. Neither applies in the case of this cracking League of Gentlemen stage outing, the group’s first for 12 years. Perhaps it’s because they clearly delineate old material, in the first half, and new, after the interval. Maybe it’s because (with Sherlock, Inside No 9, and all that) their careers beyond the League are flourishing; they’re doing this not because they need to, but because they want to. Mainly it’s because what’s on show is just brilliantly written and performed.

The first half couldn’t be simpler, as the performing trio – Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton – zip through a selection of their vintage sketches. There’s the Go Johnny Go Go Go card game with its impossible rules, the dating agency run by a woman who despises her clients, and Pamela Doove’s feral audition for an orange juice commercial. The feel is old-school: the performers wear tuxedos and there are blackouts between sketches. But the performances throb with life. There’s real hatred in Charlie and Stella’s bickering over Trivial Pursuit, real resentment when Olly Plimsolls rails against the theatre industry – and when Gatiss’s “Mordant Mick” leads us on a Royston Vasey terror tour, the twist generates real chills.

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