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Max and Ivan review – rambunctious comic duo are a dorky delight

February 22, 2017TheGuardian

Soho theatre, London
Scout leaders haunt the woods with crossbows and there are groansome puns aplenty in this deliciously silly coming-of-age show

After half a dozen shows together, Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez are presenting the origin story of their friendship. It’s told, as were its predecessors (including the award-nominated Edinburgh fringe show turned recent Channel 4 short The Reunion), in the form of a multi-character, two-person, freewheeling comic play. The teen twosome meet while attending scout camp and wrestling school and their dorky bromance is spliced with sketches and nonsense as the pair’s present-day relationship skates close to the rocks.

Susan Calman review – Radio 4 favourite’s sparky set is far from cosy

February 20, 2017TheGuardian

The Stables, Milton Keynes
The standup reveals she’s taken up boxing on her Calman Before the Storm tour, and the show swipes energetically at a formidable array of targets

“No one says, ‘Hicks. Pryor. Calman’,” says Susan Calman, ruefully. “I’m not a dangerous comedian.” By her own admission, Calman is considered precisely the opposite, a “Radio 4 favourite”: chirpy, erudite, unlikely to alarm the livestock. Now 10 years a comic, her touring show locks horns with that reputation, and asks: is she the comedian audiences suppose her to be? If that sounds self-reflexive, I can only report that the navel gaze has done no harm to the comedy. This is a good-time standup set, more assertive and upbeat – and at ease with itself – than the shows I’ve seen her perform in the past.

The most recent was 2015’s Lady Like, in which Calman recounted a nervous breakdown she experienced as she adjusted to newfound celebrity. No such shadows cloud this set, which is conspicuous for its energy and ebullience. Itemising the expectations others have of her (left-wing, intellectual, lesbian) – endorsing some, scorning others – there’s a real attack to Calman’s comedy here. She’s taken up boxing, she tells us – and this feels like 90 minutes delivered by a contender always on the balls of her feet.

Shappi Khorsandi: ‘My worst job? Life modelling for a woman who made me recite Shakespeare as I posed’

February 18, 2017TheGuardian

The comedian and author on memories of Iran, doing things her way and buying her mum a walk-on part

Born in Iran, Shappi Khorsandi, 43, was granted asylum in the UK after her family was forced to flee following the Islamic Revolution. After a degree in drama, theatre and television, her career in standup took off in 2006 with her Edinburgh show Asylum Speaker. She is the author of A Beginner’s Guide To Acting English, and a novel, Nina Is Not OK. This spring, she tours the UK with her show Oh My Country! She is divorced, has two children and lives in London.

When were you happiest?
Right now. Ask me again when my children are grown, and I’ll sob, “When they loved me more than that woman/man they’ve shacked up with.”

Jon Richardson: ‘The first series of The League Of Gentlemen blew my mind’

February 17, 2017TheGuardian

The standup and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown team captain on what makes him laugh the most

Louis CK. The pressure was on as it was the first date for my future wife and me. We had a lovely time, save for her starting a fight with a man who sneezed on to the back of her head. I stayed out of it because I didn’t want her to get an unfair impression of me, but to learn that I am the kind of man who will not defend her honour even when it has been besmirched.

Jon Richardson: ‘The first series of The League Of Gentlemen blew my mind’

February 17, 2017TheGuardian

The standup and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown team captain on what makes him laugh the most

Louis CK. The pressure was on as it was the first date for my future wife and me. We had a lovely time, save for her starting a fight with a man who sneezed on to the back of her head. I stayed out of it because I didn’t want her to get an unfair impression of me, but to learn that I am the kind of man who will not defend her honour even when it has been besmirched.

Sue Perkins Live: Spectacles – comic comfort food from a good egg

February 17, 2017TheGuardian

The ex-Bake Off presenter’s show is a droll self-portrait full of nostalgia and juicy tidbits about Paul and Mary. But it’s less standup than love-in with fans

Neither standup show nor book tour, but an “animation” of her 2015 memoir, Spectacles – that’s how Sue Perkins describes this live outing, her first stage foray since the pre-Bake Off era. And so Spectacles Live joins that burgeoning pantheon of solo shows (Danny Baker is touring one too) whose hosts are obliged only to be themselves, entertainingly – cribbing material they’ve created for another medium, gossiping about starry chums and dusting off well-worn anecdotes in response to questions from their adoring crowds.

It’s as much celebrity appearance as comedy, in other words, with a few choice extracts from the autobiography thrown in. But it adds up to an enjoyable evening, and – via her family slideshow, self-deprecating stories of immature adulthood, and the inside track on Paul Hollywood’s genitals – Perkins emerges as that most essential of baking ingredients: a thoroughly good egg.

Sue Perkins Live: Spectacles – comic comfort food from a good egg

February 17, 2017TheGuardian

The ex-Bake Off presenter’s show is a droll self-portrait full of nostalgia and juicy tidbits about Paul and Mary. But it’s less standup than love-in with fans

Neither standup show nor book tour, but an “animation” of her 2015 memoir, Spectacles – that’s how Sue Perkins describes this live outing, her first stage foray since the pre-Bake Off era. And so Spectacles Live joins that burgeoning pantheon of solo shows (Danny Baker is touring one too) whose hosts are obliged only to be themselves, entertainingly – cribbing material they’ve created for another medium, gossiping about starry chums and dusting off well-worn anecdotes in response to questions from their adoring crowds.

It’s as much celebrity appearance as comedy, in other words, with a few choice extracts from the autobiography thrown in. But it adds up to an enjoyable evening, and – via her family slideshow, self-deprecating stories of immature adulthood, and the inside track on Paul Hollywood’s genitals – Perkins emerges as that most essential of baking ingredients: a thoroughly good egg.

All standups have angles. But my jokes about being Asian just seem to upset @BritFIrstPete7

February 13, 2017TheGuardian

Often people just Asian assume Asian that Asian everything you Asian talk about Asian is just the Asian fact that you’re Asian

It has become a rule that if I ever make any sort of joke about my race on TV, I can pretty much guarantee that I will receive a series of tweets along the lines of: “Romesh waited four minutes before mentioning his race – new record,” or: “Great to see an ethnic comedian talking about being ethnic – NOT.” I once received a death threat from a man who said that his grandparents didn’t fight in the war to have me spouting my shit on the TV. In my defence, I have never once suggested that anyone went over the trenches shouting: “This is so Romesh can do Live at the Apollo!”

I also get accused of reverse racism a lot. I once joked off the cuff about not being invited to a wedding because it was “a different type of white wedding”. When the show went out, a viewer tweeted me to tell me that I was a racist, and that if a white comic had said the same thing there would have been national outrage. First of all, I think that woman is massively overestimating the number of viewers of 50 Greatest Wedding Disasters; and, secondly, I don’t understand how I can be accused of being racist when I’ve married one of your lot. The truth is, I need an angle. If I wasn’t Asian, I would just be an overweight father of three who is into veganism, comics and hip-hop. I think it’s possible that had I been white, I might have browned up to get ahead. Being Asian is the main point of difference with the majority of the audience, so why not talk about that difference? I’m not going to stop doing it because it upsets @darren1581 from Basingstoke.

All standups have angles. But my jokes about being Asian just seem to upset @BritFIrstPete7

February 13, 2017TheGuardian

Often people just Asian assume Asian that Asian everything you Asian talk about Asian is just the Asian fact that you’re Asian

It has become a rule that if I ever make any sort of joke about my race on TV, I can pretty much guarantee that I will receive a series of tweets along the lines of: “Romesh waited four minutes before mentioning his race – new record,” or: “Great to see an ethnic comedian talking about being ethnic – NOT.” I once received a death threat from a man who said that his grandparents didn’t fight in the war to have me spouting my shit on the TV. In my defence, I have never once suggested that anyone went over the trenches shouting: “This is so Romesh can do Live at the Apollo!”

I also get accused of reverse racism a lot. I once joked off the cuff about not being invited to a wedding because it was “a different type of white wedding”. When the show went out, a viewer tweeted me to tell me that I was a racist, and that if a white comic had said the same thing there would have been national outrage. First of all, I think that woman is massively overestimating the number of viewers of 50 Greatest Wedding Disasters; and, secondly, I don’t understand how I can be accused of being racist when I’ve married one of your lot. The truth is, I need an angle. If I wasn’t Asian, I would just be an overweight father of three who is into veganism, comics and hip-hop. I think it’s possible that had I been white, I might have browned up to get ahead. Being Asian is the main point of difference with the majority of the audience, so why not talk about that difference? I’m not going to stop doing it because it upsets @darren1581 from Basingstoke.

Whoopi Goldberg review – standup or glorified chat show?

February 12, 2017TheGuardian

London Palladium, London
US comedian’s first UK standup show got personal with segments about ageing and resenting her child-friendly reputation

The last time Whoopi Goldberg played London, it was as a nun in Sister Act. And on this UK visit, the raptures greeting her entrance are more revivalist meeting than comedy show.

This one-off gig – which became two-off when a late-night repeat was announced to meet demand – finds Goldberg performing standup in the UK for the first time, surprisingly. In a part comedy, part Q&A set, she does enough to make us wish the wait won’t be so long next time – even if there’s nothing to her act that British audiences haven’t encountered before.

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