Old Fire Station, Oxford The Drag Race Down Under judge plays an amused, sometimes confused, observer of social foibles through an arch anthropological lensI’m all for standup that feels ahead of the curve. But what to make of Rhys Nicholson, who spend…
Continue ReadingBrighton CentreIn Settling Down, the standup promises more mature work to match his imminent parenthood but the material remains superficialA new comedian struggles to be born in Jack Whitehall’s new show, which itself heralds an imminent birth, that o…
Continue ReadingThe duo’s First Final UK Tour is more amusing than astonishing but demonstrates what drew them to the confounding craft in the first placePenn & Teller’s professional relationship is almost as old as I am. And yet I can remember a time – probably w…
Continue ReadingNineteen years since his first fringe solo show, the comedian returns to riff on punching melons – but this time with a hard-won happinessMy career was transformed when I repeatedly punched a melon with the face of Vernon Kay amateurishly scrawled on i…
Continue ReadingSoho theatre, LondonThe Indian standup’s Unalive show is stronger for its satire on her native country’s super-rich than its mild, middling musings on coronavirus A show of two halves, this one, from Indian standup Aditi Mittal, who rakes over Covid co…
Continue ReadingWhat’s it like to break into television in your 50s? The award-winning standup talks about her new series The Change, her late-blooming career and her issues with TupperwareThere is a photograph of Bridget Christie and her siblings, she says, taken in …
Continue ReadingThe Irish comedian on good gigs, bad gigs, her standup heroes and what makes a good soupHow did you get your start in standup?I did work experience at a radio station when I was in college. The breakfast DJ was Bernard O’Shea, a big comedian in Ireland…
Continue ReadingWe follow our loser hero from tooth fairy credits to funeral debts in a comedy of financial errors exploring money as a transactional link through all relationshipsThe award-winning French author, director and composer David Lescot’s play Dough is all …
Continue ReadingComedians Sophie Duker and Jacob Hawley discuss how to draw revellers away from pop stars while Glastonbury’s Charlotte Lang explains what it takes to win over the cabaret tentYou’re in a massive tent. People are walking in and out, chatting, spilling …
Continue ReadingThe genial face of chatshow TV is back with Queen of the Universe. He discusses the joy of Eurovision, his late start as a novelist – and his even later marriageThe second series of Queen of the Universe, the drag queen singing competition hosted by Gr…
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