The Glaswegian standup and Radio 4 regular on the things that make her laugh the most
Billy Connolly. I’ve never managed to see him live but when I was younger I had a tape of one of his gigs which I used to play on my Sony Walkman. I remember being on a train once and I had to switch the cassette off because I was crying with laughter. I felt physical pain it was so funny.
Continue ReadingFrom the actor’s rarely seen character comedy to an immersive version of Moulin Rouge: your at-a-glance guide to the best in culture
Whoopi Goldberg
A brilliant one-off: the award-winning actor brings two performances of her character comedy to the London Palladium for the first time on Saturday 11 February. Her standup deals in alter-egos, so expect to meet Fontaine the career dope-smoker or Lurleen the southern matriarch.
At London Palladium, W1
Rose theatre, Kingston
Toksvig’s play has plenty of good gags but there’s far too little characterisation, leaving an experienced ensemble treading water
Sandi Toksvig’s new comedy, set in a retirement home during a flood, puts five older women firmly centre stage. That should be something to cheer about: but in order to win itself a feelgood ending, Silver Lining plays to the stereotype that these women are useless old biddies whose stunted lives are far behind them, and who now exist in the stultifying limbo of the care home, protected from a terrifying outside world of technological, social and cultural change.
Related: Women’s Equality party founders: ‘It needed doing. So we said, “Let’s do it”’
Continue ReadingRose theatre, Kingston
Toksvig’s play has plenty of good gags but there’s far too little characterisation, leaving an experienced ensemble treading water
Sandi Toksvig’s new comedy, set in a retirement home during a flood, puts five older women firmly centre stage. That should be something to cheer about: but in order to win itself a feelgood ending, Silver Lining plays to the stereotype that these women are useless old biddies whose stunted lives are far behind them, and who now exist in the stultifying limbo of the care home, protected from a terrifying outside world of technological, social and cultural change.
Related: Women’s Equality party founders: ‘It needed doing. So we said, “Let’s do it”’
Continue ReadingA white coat is often a sign of funny bones, as periodic outbreaks of medically trained comedians demonstrate
Is there an affinity between comedy and medicine? Certainly, a notable number of comedians used to work in the medical profession. One of them, Adam Kay of Amateur Transplants fame, has now signed a publishing deal for the book of his show about life as a junior doctor. Kay has spent most of his comedy career avoiding the subject of doctoring. Now he’s addressed it, he’s enjoying his biggest success since the viral London Underground Song that made his name.
On one level, it’s easy to explain why doctors, surgeons et al might make good comedians. As – to cite one recent example – Scott Gibson’s award-winning show demonstrated, life in the hospital ward is rich with comic potential precisely because it’s so deadly serious. Here is human life in extremis, all privacy and delusions of nobility stripped away (and that’s just the doctors – boom boom!). That’s what comedy often does too – it reminds us that we’re animals and punctures our pretensions to decorum or lofty self-esteem.
Continue ReadingA white coat is often a sign of funny bones, as periodic outbreaks of medically trained comedians demonstrate
Is there an affinity between comedy and medicine? Certainly, a notable number of comedians used to work in the medical profession. One of them, Adam Kay of Amateur Transplants fame, has now signed a publishing deal for the book of his show about life as a junior doctor. Kay has spent most of his comedy career avoiding the subject of doctoring. Now he’s addressed it, he’s enjoying his biggest success since the viral London Underground Song that made his name.
On one level, it’s easy to explain why doctors, surgeons et al might make good comedians. As – to cite one recent example – Scott Gibson’s award-winning show demonstrated, life in the hospital ward is rich with comic potential precisely because it’s so deadly serious. Here is human life in extremis, all privacy and delusions of nobility stripped away (and that’s just the doctors – boom boom!). That’s what comedy often does too – it reminds us that we’re animals and punctures our pretensions to decorum or lofty self-esteem.
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, London
The comic alter egos of Dan Renton Skinner and Alex Lowe claim to be the New Power Generation come to save us in a thin but skilfully written show
It’s a match made in – well, Ladbrokes, or round the back of Morrisons. Angelos Epithemiou (Dan Renton Skinner) is a gormless social misfit and erstwhile sidekick on Vic and Bob’s Shooting Stars. Barry from Watford is Alex Lowe’s wheezing octogenarian alter ego. Together, they present a popular podcast and now bring us the New Power Generation, their cult – sorry, spiritual movement – designed either to save the world or raise enough money to settle Barry’s debts to his pissed-off wife.
What follows can seem thinner than Angelos’s frayed Sainsbury’s bag, and frequently puerile. One routine trades on saying “tits” over and again at a picture of two songbirds; another on the amusingness of our hosts’ euphemisms (“plum bag”; “elderly nut-sack”, etc) for testicles. But at least the shambling and idiocy is entirely in character. And as the show develops and strains appear in this enfeebled duo’s relationship, subtler notes are played.
Continue ReadingSSE Hydro, Glasgow
Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill return to the stage with an even more ambitious live show – and just as many laughs
When does a sitcom get too big for its boots? It’s a worry that must have crossed the minds of Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill on returning to the hangar-like Hydro where, in 2014, Still Game played to 210,000 people in 21 nights.
There’s something surreal about seeing the TV escapades of Jack and Victor in a venue where bouncers guard the stage and the audience needs two giant screens just to see what’s happening. Undaunted, they’ve come back with a show of even greater ambition – and just as many laughs.
Continue ReadingAfter the EU referendum result, Bridget Christie ripped up her Edinburgh show and created a new one in just a few weeks. This is an anatomy of a standup set that has changed with the headlines
Creating a new hour of standup can be a lengthy process. Most comics spend months writing material and honing punchlines. For many, performing a run in Edinburgh is the final goal. For more established names, there’s life after the fringe, with possible London runs and national tours. So what happens when, after months of labouring over an idea, world events derail your plans? On 23 June, Britain voted to leave the EU. Suddenly that seemed far more important to Bridget Christie than the topic she was writing about, so she ripped up her show and started from scratch.
I meet Christie in a cafe near her home in Stoke Newington, north London, to talk through the creation of that new show – how every idea was formed, every punchline introduced, all in just a matter of weeks. She sits down, opens her rucksack and pulls out reams of A4 paper – drafts, handwritten set lists and pen-marked notes like handed-back school tests. So let’s start at the beginning.
Related: Bridget Christie five-star review – an electrifying Brexit tirade
Related: Laughing gear: the best live comedy to start 2017
Continue ReadingFrom the super-sharp standup latest set to the hip-hop megastar’s mammoth tour: your at-a-glance guide to the best in culture
Bridget Christie
The queen of feminist comedy continues her two-week run in London, with a new show that faces up to our EU exasperation, before heading out on tour.
At Leicester Square Theatre, WC2, to Saturday 11 February; touring to Thursday 22 June
