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Optimism v pessimism in 2017: the comedian and the psychologist debate

January 2, 2017TheGuardian

Liam Williams quit standup fearing his pessimism about the state of the planet was making audiences worryingly apathetic. But is a sunny outlook really any healthier? We sat him down for a session with psychotherapist Philippa Perry

More uplifting culture for 2017

One day last year, Liam Williams locked himself out and tried to climb in through his bedroom window. “I’d done it before very skilfully when drunk,” he says, “but this time I was hungover, so I guess I had that reduced inhibition, but not that derring-do – you know, the reckless optimism of a drunkard.” It didn’t end well. “It was only the first storey but I didn’t have any shoes on and it was quite a high window. I fell and broke my heels. It really hurt.”

The comedian is telling this story to psychotherapist Philippa Perry and me as we meet in a London cafe to consider the merits of optimism and pessimism. Is pessimism necessarily bad for you? What health benefits come with being optimistic? Does being optimistic help you in relationships? Does being pessimistic make you pragmatic about a prospective lover’s shortcomings? If you’re as bleakly pessimistic as Eeyore, can you change? If you’re as misguidedly optimistic as Mr Micawber, can you get a firmer grip on reality? More troublingly, what looks like pessimism to one can seem like optimism to another. Consider Williams’s attempted break-in. Perry suggests that his climb was optimistic. Liam worries it was doomed by pessimism. “It comes under the heading of risk-taking,” says Perry. “Optimists are more likely to take risks – they think they can drive into that gap in traffic or climb through windows.” She pauses before adding: “That’s not necessarily a good thing.”

Rising stars of 2017: comedian Lolly Adefope

January 1, 2017TheGuardian

The English graduate from south London has gone from open-mic contender to Edinburgh comedy favourite thanks to her one-woman cast of sharply drawn characters
• Click here to see the Observer’s rising stars of 2017 in full

On stage, a brash political correctness coach is explaining the importance of wishing each other a “happy Winterval” before confusedly proclaiming that “all lives matter”. A call-centre worker with a high-pitched screech croons velvety Adele songs in between calls. Talk show host Windy Le Fontaine L’Doeuf dispenses dubious life advice and recipes for increasingly improbable dishes, not least of which is her “big pot of glams”.

This sequence of surreal characters is vividly brought to life by 26-year-old south Londoner Lolly Adefope, whose own persona occasionally makes an onstage appearance to undercut the jokes with equally funny barbed asides. The fourth wall is also broken to incorporate viewers in unwinnable game shows. It’s a thrilling experience, often playing on audience awkwardness about race and the fear of living in an echo chamber.

A white comedian won’t get told: ‘oh, you never mentioned your race’

Capital panto: Ricky Whittington surveys modern London’s malaises

December 30, 2016TheGuardian

A crack cast of millennial comics deliver social satire amid the poo jokes and spoof songs in an alt-panto created by Liam Williams and Daran Johnson

The “all-age family entertainment” of panto is being “doused with ill-disguised ordure,” protested one correspondent in the Guardian’s Letters page last week, in response to Michael Billington’s review of the London Palladium’s smutty Cinderella. Whatever would she make of Liam Williams and Daran Johnson’s Ricky Whittington and His Cat at the New Diorama: an alt-panto with poo jokes, crude social satire and featuring “fuck London!” as its most spirited refrain? It’s not for the kids, mind you: this Dick Whittington retread is aimed squarely at millennials and comedy fans, and – after two and a half hours of spoof fairytale and gentrification gags delivered by a crack cast of hip young comics – few will leave disappointed.

It’s great fun, in short. The animating idea – that the Dick Whittington story offers a bitterly ironic frame through which to view modern London’s various malaises – proves extremely fruitful, as Williams and Johnson’s show mocks the idea that the capital’s streets might be paved (for the newcomer at least) with anything other than exploitation, penury and angst. In King Rat, they find an easy metaphor for the kind of rapacious developer who wilfully degrades London’s housing stock, the easier to replace it with luxury flats when its occupiers are forced out. Whether, in real life, they do so by luring rats to their properties with cheese – well, you wouldn’t bet against it, would you?

Beyoncé to Black Mirror; the culture that defines 2016

December 30, 2016TheGuardian

How better to make sense of this turbulent year than through the art and literature it has produced? Our critics choose the works that sum up the last 12 months

If there is one film that holds a political key to understanding 2016, it is Ghostbusters: that funny, good-natured, easygoing female remake of the 1980s original. The movie, and the way it was received and viciously attacked online, told us something vital about the hive mind of the US’s reactionary right. It starred Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. Wiig and McCarthy were already well known; McKinnon was the upcoming SNL superstar who was later in the year to become famous for her Hillary Clinton impersonation – but it was the African-American comic Jones who became the particular object of unpleasant abuse, reminiscent of #gamergate vitriol, naturally with a racist slant, though everyone was attacked, and all for daring to remake and allegedly “spoil” the original with a gender switch.

Comedy in 2017: Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and the French Seinfeld

December 30, 2016TheGuardian

The next year promises a wealth of standup, from old favorites and much-buzzed newcomers, and small screen comedies to watch out for

Comedy is hard to predict – young stars arise from nowhere, old favorites fall from grace, and tastes change quicker than a six-second Vine (RIP). With that crucial caveat, here are few comedic things piquing our interest in the new year.

Whether you’re heading out to a show or curling with Netflix, there will be plenty of standup to see in 2017. After his sharp turn at the Oscars last year, Chris Rock is returning to his roots with his first standup tour in nearly a decade. That tour will eventually result in two Netflix specials for anyone who can’t catch him on the road.

Tristram Kenton’s stage photos of the year – in pictures

December 29, 2016TheGuardian

Tristram Kenton captures theatre, dance and comedy performances for the Guardian. Here are some of his best stage shots of 2016, from David Threlfall’s Don Quixote to Gemma Arterton’s Nell Gwynn

‘As long as there are hairbrushes, people will sing’ – the best of 2016’s webchats

December 29, 2016TheGuardian

Jon Bon Jovi’s key change killer, Gemma Arterton’s weep-off with Glenn Close, the weirdest thing that ever happened to Harry Shearer … here are the highlights of 2016’s culture webchats

Have you ever vomited while talking to somebody for a film? (asked by elalpineclub)

Jayde Adams: ‘Absolutely Fabulous hasn’t aged at all’

December 23, 2016TheGuardian

The standup and 2016 Edinburgh best newcomer nominee on what makes her laugh the most, from Brooklyn Nine-Nine to YouTubers

John Sizzle. He’s a drag queen I gig with and he owns a pub called The Glory in Dalston. He’s more than a drag queen. He’s a comedian, but like one who is undercover. He’s also on Netflix in a movie about east London drag queens called Dressed As A Girl.

The 50 funniest films… chosen by comedians

December 18, 2016TheGuardian

For Sarah Millican it’s the Coen brothers, while Stewart Lee laughs out loud at Festen. From the canonical to the controversial, and in no particular order, we asked 10 standups to pick 50 movies that make them giggle…

Why I love… comedian and actor Mo’Nique

December 17, 2016TheGuardian

Her jokes can be uncomfortable, but then they come from uncomfortable situations

Do you remember that TV channel, Trouble? In the late 90s/early 00s, it was a colourful graveyard for American teen and young adult shows of the recent past, repackaged for young British eyes. It brought me TV shows no other channels would have thought to – and is how I came to watch The Parkers, and fall for the comedian and actor Mo’Nique.

The Parkers, a sitcom about a mother and daughter attending college together, was a nice break for Mo’Nique, now 48, but it was hardly her first outing in the business. She was doing stand-up before the siren call of TV, and if you haven’t watched her (filthy, hilarious, repeat: filthy) sets, particularly her turn on The Queens Of Comedy, I urge you to. Her jokes can be uncomfortable, but then they come from uncomfortable situations, and I appreciate that edge; her riff on “skinny bitches” will always make me laugh. Her raspy voice is like a shot of something strong and oaky, and her laugh is contagious, even when you’re semi-scandalised at the joke.

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