"Theatre is life, film is art, TV is furniture"

Swallows and Amazons - Vaudeville Theatre

2012-01-14T16:57:00.000Z

At various points in the past, I have said that four of my favourite performers - Ben Folds, Tim Minchin, Neil Hannon and Rufus Wainwright - should all have a pop at writing a musical.

Wainwright, true to diva form, jumped straight to opera instead, and Folds is too busy having a big old telly career at the moment to concern himself with the stage. But Minchin and Hannon have both followed my sage advice (it may not *all* have been down to me, admittedly) and while the former has a runaway hit on his hands with the superb Matilda, Hannon has quietly busied himself with putting some delightful songs to director Tom Morris's (War Horse) version of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons.

Despite being from Northern Ireland, Hannon does "quintessentially English" remarkably well. We saw that with the brilliant cricket concept album Duckworth Lewis Method (still waiting for you to perform live together again, guys) and here he has provided a charming, decidedly middle-England-tinged score and songs for this story of imagination and adventure. This isn't a fully-fledged jazz-hands musical, but then that wouldn't suit this production, which has a simple, hand-made feel - the band also act as stage-hands, using whatever happens to be lying around as props and scenery. Just like kids do.

And much as I love Hannon's songs, it really is the innovative, make-do-and-mend staging that makes this production such a joy. The first half errs on the slow side - the youngest members of the audience perhaps understandably got a little restless as we reached the 70 minute mark - but the second is a delight. We are increasingly drawn further into the children's games, and particularly the creative Titty's pirate stories, and at times are actually invited to get involved. It takes a little time to get going, but it's easily more than worth it for the moments of magic to be found in the second half.

School Night - New Red Lion Theatre

2012-01-14T16:01:00.001Z

School Night - a new monthly comedy night at the home of #ACMS - has a great idea at its heart, and easily lives up to the potential, with warmth, intelligence and humour to spare. Comedians are invited to perform a set based around their own specialist subject, and, keeping to the theme, there's a tuck shop during the interval offering Double Dips and Rainbow Drops. Education, laughs and, as MC Matthew Crosby (Pappy's) pointed out, a sugar high the likes of which most of the audience hadn't experienced in over a decade. What's not to like?

Nothing, it turns out. The first gig was one of the most entertaining 'mixed-bill' nights of comedy I've been to in ages, and that's thanks in no small part to Crosby who, as a former teacher himself, had some fantastic stories to tell - including responding to a wayward football in the belly with verbal and physical violence in front of an entire Year 7 class.

Steve Pretty gave us a taster of his evolution-of-music Edinburgh show Origin of the Pieces, while the Festival of the Spoken Nerd triumverate Helen Arney (PSHE), Steve Mould (Science) and Matt Parker (maths) were all in their respective elements - I particularly loved Mould's hilarious take on shapes of constant width. But perhaps best of all was seeing Penny Dreadfuls member/alumnus Humphrey Ker fight through illness to bounce around the stage, fizzing with excitement at the chance to deliver his own potted history of Britain 1066-2000. Funny, fascinating and, ultimately, very touching, it was something quite special to witness, actually.

Sam Simmons - Meanwhile, Soho Theatre

2011-12-18T16:43:00.001Z

Since hearing such great things about his Edinburgh show, and watching this properly fascinating, insightful ComComedy interview, it's fair to say I've been pretty excited about the prospect of seeing Australian comic Sam Simmons.

Meanwhile, currently playing at the Soho Theatre, appears to be a mission on Simmons's part to give his audience licence to laugh at the silliest and most surreal things possible - and to feel ok about it. Pine cones dressed up as cowboys, the inherent evilness of ducks, a talking lama, Good King Wenceslas sung to the Star Wars Cantina Band tune - this is joyous, inspired and weird stuff and I loved it.

Some comedy is about shared recognition of the familiar, but Simmons tends to go down the Reeves and Mortimer route of drawing laughs from something genuinely surprising and odd and fun. And the fact that this mixture of child-like silliness and wanking jokes comes with a message attached only makes the show even more appealing to those of us who think that comedy can be the perfect tool with which to say the most important things.

There are so many rules these days, Simmons says in a "I'm mad as hell" finale, that we've lost all innocence and fun, and that's what I reckon he's trying to recreate here - both generally with the whole ethos of the show, and specifically with his show-closing attempt to evoke childhood memories through smashing the Old El Paso taco shells that he used to eat as a kid on his chest. "Confronting" he says, in a Tony Law-style moment of ironic commentary.

In fact, like Law, much of the show is a little trip into Sam Simmons's head, though it's hard to work out whether we should believe what we find there. Does he genuinely not think it's going well tonight, or does saying that just help back up the inner-monologue recordings that reveal Simmons's worries that he's "one step up from a juggler"?

If this all comes across as rather measured, that's only because over-analysing comedy is a favourite past-time of mine, and Simmons's show just begs to be unpacked. But rest assured, the most significant thing about Meanwhile is that it's laugh out loud, heart-warmingly funny. High expectations can be dangerous, sure, but not to be feared in the case of Simmons who, it transpires, is just as funny, inventive and smart as everyone has told me - if slightly more wild-eyed and combative. In a fabulous way.

The Ladykillers, Gielgud Theatre

2011-12-18T12:23:00.000Z

A West End play, based on a classic comedy film, written by Graham "Father Ted and Ralph" Linehan and starring two hugely talented comedy actors Ben Miller and Peter Capaldi. There was always a chance I'd like the new stage adaptation of The Ladykillers, and like it I did.

There have been reviews which say that the staging is the real star of this production, and while that's to overstate things a little, there's no doubting that it's really ruddy good. All of the action takes place in and around sweet old Mrs Wilberforce's house in Kings Cross, which fills the stage, twists to reveal new rooms, leans precariously and shakes violently when a train goes by - sending tables and chairs sliding magically across the floor.

[Spoilers] With the entire criminal gang that stays in this rickety old house to bump off along the way, there's a lot of "stage business" like this throughout the play, and while it is occasionally a little clunky, most of it is inventive, fun and genuinely surprising. Wide-boy Harry (Stephen Wright) gets a bannister spindle through the stomach, One-Round (Clive Rowe) receives a fatal head wound from a cake knife and Eastern European, old-lady-hating Louis (Miller) is dispatched out the window after accidentally stabbing himself. All of this is achieved with real panache, but also all topped, I'm afraid, by a stunning visual gag involving the gang squeezing themselves into a tiny cupboard.

As for the writing, it's a curious mix of broad-as-you-like humour and really quite subtle throwaway lines. Some of the jokes are real groaners, but the running gags all have neat pay-offs and there's something approaching poetry in Professor's (Capaldi) grand speeches. It's perfectly cast - Capaldi is a Lithgow-esque ball of frustration and self-delusion, Miller is delightfully grumpy - and, like the deceptively dumb One-Round, this production may not wear its smarts on its sleeve, but it has them in bucketloads.

The Joy of Sketch, Lyric Theatre

2011-12-17T17:11:00.000Z

Sketch comedy is going through a bit of a lean old time on mainstream TV at moment. Messers Mitchell, Webb, Armstrong and Miller are all doing their own thing, and while it's been great to see pilots from Anna and Katy and Totally Tom, it's all very hit and miss* - and very rarely seen on the flagship channels. And as such, the nominations for the Sketch Show award at last night's British Comedy Awards were pretty uninspired - I'm delighted Horrible Histories won, and This Is Jinsy looks fun (I don't have Sky Atlantic...) but Come Fly With Me and a one-off Ronnie Corbett special? Hmm.

But on the stage, sketch groups are doing rather nicely thank you very much, and - as this new show presented by Time Out and the Pleasance at the Lyric Theatre - showed, what's particularly pleasing is that the genre is such a broad church at the moment.

First up were The Penny Dreadfuls, the Edinburgh Fringe darlings who have said once or twice over the past year that they won't be performing together again... thank goodness they're such damned liars, then, because it'd be awful for them to go their separate ways permanently. Back in Victorian attire, Thom Tuck, David Reed and Humphrey Ker showed that it's easy to find the perfect balance between fine writing and awesome improv. If you happen to be ridiculously talented.

Five-man Late Night Gimp Fight are always at their best when do something just a little bit weird, and their strangely sweet foot puppetry sketch proved as much tonight. Not as in-yer-face as their rap about bestiality, sure, but way cooler. As for Idiots of Ants, I don't think the irony that I'm sure is intended behind their "differences between men and women" sketch really translated, leading to a reaction which hovered between subdued and huffy, but their 'Allo 'Allo meets The Wire sketch is a load of fun. It's Pappy's, however, who are the real masters of Bacchanalian revelry on stage, and so it proved again at this show; a dodgy mic providing the little encouragement they need to go off-script and mess about. Just delightful, and I will never, ever tire of their song about gloves. Ever.

The most unconventional stuff of the night came from the four double acts on show. Pajama Men - whom I have praised enthusiastically on this blog before, but still not enough, in my opinion - probably got the biggest reaction of the night, and it was cool to see that their comedy does translate to a short slot. After two narrative shows, it'd be fascinating to see a proper sketch show from them... Anna and Katy's bizarre sketch in which they play South African men who use their weirdly long arms to fly (I did say it was bizarre) rightly went down a storm, and the charmingly shambling, low-key Two Episodes of Mash were a lovely change of pace.

Topping the bill were Will (iam Andews) and Greg (McHugh) who haven't performed together for a few years, and whom I haven't seen perform together at all. If you go back through my ACMS reviews and tweets, you'll probably get the impression that I'm something of a fan of the hugely inventive and very funny William Andrews - and hey, that impression would be 100% accurate - so it was ace to see him in a double act, and being as brilliant as ever.

All in all, a very high-quality night, and one that would quieten the mind of anyone concerned about the state of British sketch comedy. I wonder if there was anyone from the telly in?

* Annoying that I couldn't get through a piece about sketch shows without this phrase popping up somewhere, but at least it wasn't in the usual context...

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and Fanta Orange reviews

2011-12-10T17:17:00.001Z

Did I not link to these reviews? How remiss of me.

Here's my take on the very lovely, the very funny and the very well-written Danny and the Deep Blue Sea...

...and here's my review of the well-meaning but oddly muddled Fanta Orange.

Both for the ace Exeunt magazine!

Matilda in the West End

2011-11-13T13:54:00.001Z

The excellent RSC production of Matilda has come to the West End (my review of the Stratford show is here), and if you weren't aware of that fact already, you will be next week, as Tim Minchin hits the publicity trail for both his musical and the DVD of his stupendously good Orchestra show (I reviewed that too, here).

I went to see Matlida in its new Cambridge Theatre home last night and, if anything, it's even better on second viewing. Being a long time Minchin admirer (fan), the brilliant complexity of the songs was apparent to me from the off -they are beautiful, hummable and lyrically dense - but this time I also appreciated just how clever, funny and humane the book is. It's simulataneously subtle and full of almost pantomime characters, and draws out the significance of stories - prioritising that over the "magic" element of the novel that the film adaptation relied on. Importantly, the book and songs dovetail perfectly, both packed with jokes and brains and heart.

The imagination of the script and songs has also been reflected in some stunning staging, and the young cast are insanely talented - they've been given some great choreography which is ambitious to say the least, and they give it absolutely everything. Cleo Demetriou, who took the role of Matilda last night, is just a star. Go see it, basically.

Demetri Martin - Leicester Square Theatre, 15th Oct 2011

2011-10-16T14:35:00.002+01:00

It has been far, far too long since Demetri Martin was in the UK.

I first found him a few years ago, along with my ace brother and sister-in-law who are also big fans, and I have lovely memories of listening to his CD with them in the car as we all headed to Leeds festival and laughing so hard at his description of being humilated by that last bit of ice that clings to the bottom of your glass.

So I've watched his TV shows - and adored his cameo in Flight of the Conchords of course - but having been away for over five years, this is the first time I've seen him perform live. And man. Pretty good, eh? Pretty good in the sense that he's without doubt one of the very best comedians I've seen, and probably one of the best comedians working at the moment full stop.

If you haven't seen any of his stuff (quick, YouTube it now, you fool!) he is, in a sense, an observational comedian. But he makes the best observations you've ever heard and never thought of, and distills them into perfect, clever one-liners that mean there must have been a hundred laughs in this 90 minute set. Every line lands.

And what's incredible is that these jokes often have the complexity of a mathematical equation but he disguises all his working with a charm and fun that makes it appear so easy. Take where he goes with the observation that after 'small, medium and large' we got lazy and just went for "extra large, extra extra large" etc. His suggested replacements are "whoa, slow down, stop that." Could not stop laughing.

I knew that there'd be quickfire gags, and I hoped that he'd bring his flipchart, keyboard, guitar and harmonica (he did); but what I hadn't expected was how up for general chat with the audience he'd be - more so even than the audience, in fact. His material is carefully crafted but he's clearly not only a writer - he's a naturally entertaining guy and a great performer.

After the gig - at which it was pretty obvious everyone agreed with this eulogistic assessment - Martin stopped to sign his book or whatever else people had happened to bring along, and so it was a real pleasure to be able to say how long I've waited to see him, and dorkily say "I'm Anna... I know you like your palindromes." He was, unsurprisingly, very lovely and very generous with his time. I just hope he doesn't wait so long to come back.

ACMS, Terrible Advice and Backbeat reviews

2011-10-13T14:45:00.000+01:00

I've had the pleasure of reviewing a few things recently, and if you'll allow me I'd love to point you in the direction of said reviews...

Alternative Memorial Comedy Society - Comedy.org.uk

Terrible Advice - Exeunt

Backbeat - Exeunt

Done and done.

Interesting people talking about comedy. Interestingly.

2011-09-11T19:10:00.001+01:00

Courtesy of ComComedy...

Some thoughts on reviewing

2011-09-10T18:02:00.000+01:00

As all these reviews I've been posting probably attest, I did a bit of reviewing at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer and, being the sort to over-think, I've been pondering the whole process on and off ever since. I wasn't the only one to do so; ace magician and comic Chris Cox wrote a great piece from the performer's point of view about the impact of misinformed and spoilery reviewing, and I read a fair few Twitter conversations about badly-written or inconsistent reviews over the course of the month - as well as links to positive reviews of course, and some nice praise for really good ones.

Chris ends his piece "all any of us ask is that [reviews] are fair", but if anything he's being over-generous to reviewers there. I know that I want the reviews I read to also provide a bit of insight, to point things out that I would have missed, to provide a sense of the overall performance without giving away too many specifics, and to be an entertaining read. That's what great reviews do, and the best ones - written with real care by people who know their stuff and love the field they're writing about -are a joy. My reviews certainly don't do all of this all the time, but am I increasingly conscious that to have any right to pass comment on others, what I write needs to have merit in itself - you can't criticise an act for being unoriginal if you employ a stream of clichés to do so. Hopefully I'm getting there.

One lovely thing to come out of my general musing, though, is that I really bloody love writing about comedy. I absolutely refute the idea that analysing comedy destroys it (the old 'and the frog dies' analogy) - I love looking at comedy from a 'critical analysis' point of view; trying to work why something is funny, why it works. Geek alert, I know, but I reckon a lot of comics are like that too, actually - comedians and critics certainly aren't the polar opposites they're often made out to be, in any case. There's definitely a similarity in mindset. We both think that what we have to say is interesting enough to be put in front of an audience - and both have the self-awareness to sometimes think that that's kinda ridiculous.

Now, if this were a review, I would be looking for a neat and satisfactory way to conclude... good job this was only billed as 'some thoughts', eh?

Daniel Kitson and the Post-Fringe Gala Bash - Invisible Dot @ Union Chapel

2011-09-04T13:26:00.002+01:00

The Invisible Dot's Union Chapel gigs are always glorious. Over the past three years they have provided me with wonderful Saturday night sets from some of my favourite performers including Tim Minchin, David O'Doherty, Tim Key, Mark Watson, Simon Amstell, Noel Fielding, Tom Basden and Kevin Eldon - often combined on bills where every act could easily headline.

It'll be hard to beat last night's line-up though. It was a special 'post-Fringe gala' hastily assembled by the Dot's Simon Pearce and MC Daniel Kitson to showcase some of their favourite acts from the festival - and announced just two days before it took place. Such is the pull of Kitson though, the Union Chapel was (deservedly) full for Comedy Award nominee Nick Helm, Colin Hoult, Sheeps, Dan Antopolski, Tony Law and Neil Hamburger.

Frankly, if I'd had the chance to put together a night featuring my favourite comics from this summer's Fringe, it wouldn't have been much different. Top of my list would have certainly been Tony Law, one of the very few acts I've seen that can physically tire an audience out with laughter (I rather liked his Fringe show, did I tell you?), and Colin Hoult, who is one of the others, wouldn't have been far behind. Also great to have Dan Antopolski there as a representative of Jigsaw - their sketch show was an hour of pure joy - and while I felt Sheeps's show had a few so-so sketches, I was really happy to see them again so soon because they clearly have the potential for such great things.

To start with our host Daniel Kitson, I hardly need say how brilliant he is - there's a reason he's so well-loved and well-respected and it's not just a case of people 'admiring' the fact that he's eschewed TV and celebrity; it's because he's so bloody quick-witted. The MC role is made for him then, able to take any threads provided by the audience and run with them into funny, unexpected places. Like Law, he enjoys a bit of self-analysis - at one point he explains a slightly fluffed line by describing the several joke options that had flashed through his head in under a second and concluding "if I'd been match-fit..."

Book-ending this gig were the two comics that I've not seen live before - Nick Helm and Neil Hamburger. It's awful, I realise, to admit I've not seen Helm but it's not been through want of trying; just bad luck. A couple of times I've been scheduled to see him, only to have my plans thwarted, and seeing as though I'd really enjoyed what I'd seen of him on telly and YouTube, it was getting distinctly irritating. Worth the wait though. One-liners, poems and songs all combine for a torrent of high-energy, voice-shredding self-deprecation. And audience-deprecation. He'll be shouting abuse into an audience-member's face one moment, asking them to hold him the next - he's terrifying and adorable all at the same time. I loved it.

Neil Hamburger split the room, but I suspect that's par for the course for this comic (aka character comedian Gregg Turkington) - Kitson came onto the stage after his set giggling about the fact that he can make some people "so angry". A shambling, old-fashioned gent with a Southern drawl who does bad-taste cracker jokes about celebrities, Hamburger is an intriguing character. Why is he so full of vitriol? And why does telling his vitriolic gags apparently fill him with so much sadness? Set-up-and-punchline comedy is usually perfect for a short set, but I think I need longer than twenty minutes to work out who this character really is...

Colin Hoult performed as Eddie, the Saint Germain obsessive who transforms from laughable to sympathetic as we realise that he only fills his life with jiving to the dull, repetitive strains of nu-jazz because his wife died and he feels he hasn't made anything of himself. This set has reduced me to tears in the past (of laughter, but it's pretty devastating when he reveals his backstory, too) but it isn't shown at its best in such a huge room. He's still something pretty special, though.

And as for Sheeps - they stormed it. They got big laughs for their musical version of Oliver Twist ("we saw a gap in the market..") and particularly for a sketch where members of Abba and the Bee Gees prompt a dear old lady to sing about the ghost in her house - thus providing them with a number one melody. A bizarre premise, but they're great when they're bizarre.

After three acts big on energy - Helm, Hoult and Sheeps - the laid-back Dan Antopolski was a lovely change of pace (not that he's always so mellow, of course; his rap about the joys of owning a laser is upbeat brilliance). A superb wordsmith, inventive and just hugely likeable, he's the sort of comic that makes you feel utterly at ease, and happy to sit back and listen for as long as he's willing to keep the jokes coming.

The phrase "the phrase 'genius' is over-used" is over-used, but I defend my right to use it in reference to Tony Law. What he does these days in annotating his own material, second-guessing the audience's thoughts and undercutting comedy conventions is so technical, and yet it's performed with such joy and chutzpah. You shouldn't be able to destroy a 700-seater by saying the name 'Gok Wan' over and over again in a range of accents. You just shouldn't. But he did.

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Casual Violence - Choose Death

2011-08-25T17:00:00.001+01:00

Stark strip lighting, the head of a mannequin spinning on a record player pumping out the Bee Gees on repeat and a clown nursing a bottle of vodka. It's an utterly disorienting sight to be greeted with on entering the venue for Choose Death, but it certainly sets the tone.

Sometimes, a show delivers precisely what its title suggests and - as you might have gathered - the rather macabre-sounding Casual Violence's Choose Death is certainly one of them. If you've come looking for the twisted side of life, you've got it in one; this is dark, weird and bold stuff that, brilliantly, doesn't forget to be funny.

At the top of the show, we are informed by our host - who also offers several musical interludes - that we will bear witness to six grisly deaths over the course of the night, so while there's no real narrative, we follow a small set of characters as they hurtle towards their fate. Big on neat writing and excellent comic acting, we're closer to the off-beat world of character comedian Colin Hoult here than most of the knockabout sketch troupes to be found on the Fringe.

Casual Violence's 'comedy collective' sensibility means this is great ensemble work, and each performer treats the audience to a stand-out moment somewhere along the way, while providing assured support when it's someone else's turn in the spotlight.

Greg Cranness, for example, displays heart-breaking sincerity as that poor clown who wordlessly tells us that he has lost his sweetheart, and James Hamilton offers some of the biggest laughs as a crotchety, creepy old man obsessed with taking his final breaths in the perfect death bed. Luke Booys's main character Bad Legs - an armless criminal with a penchant for knocking off dear old ladies - is as funny as he is terrifying.

The only slight problem with all of this is that there is no let up. It's very tightly choreographed and the performances are incredibly intense, to the extent that when the audience caught the glimmer of a corpse from one of the actors, their laughter had something of relief about it. Perhaps a chink of light might be good to counter the darkness then, but in the main, this is massively enjoyable comedy - twisted, smart and unique.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Nadia Kamil and John-Luke Roberts - The Behemoth

2011-08-24T22:01:00.003+01:00

On leaving this show, I doubt it's unusual for audience members to find themselves considering the following: just what is The Behemoth? Cerebral and high-brow? Unadulterated silliness? It's certainly not bland enough to be considered something in-between... so it must be all these things.

In the nicest possible way, Nadia Kamil and John-Luke Roberts do have wonderfully warped minds. Their sketches are bizarre, but this certainly isn't just weirdness for its sake - in fact, there's often an odd sort of logic going on in the background. The shorter sketches in particular go some way to reconciling that clever/silly dichotomy, as what ends up being utterly odd often has a single genius concept at its heart.

'Party bee' encapsulates this - though to explain any further would ruin the joke - and stool rodeo (yup, bucking bronco on a motionless stool) is just an inherently funny idea. I also loved the dour horse sparring with a sparkly unicorn, and the robots who aren't finding robo-revolutionary Earth quite as technologically advanced as they'd hoped.

We only really see any classic 'straight-man vs class clown' action when we get glimpses of what appears to be the real Nadia and John-Luke, as they read out an exchange of letters between a Victorian gent and the lady he intends to marry. Nadia keeps adding little ad-libbed embellishments onto the end of hers, while an increasingly exasperated John-Luke frets about the next act needing the room. They're canny comedy performers, these two, so whether this is actually just another layer of their on-stage personas, we don't know. But as it's funny it hardly matters.

Some rather long sketches unbalance things a tad, but there are some lovely touches that keep the energy up and the show moving along - slides in the background, songs, even fully choreographed inter-sketch dance routines. What is the Behemoth? It's certainly clever, and it's certainly absurd, but it's also a whole heap of fun.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Jigsaw

2011-08-24T21:52:00.002+01:00

If a jigsaw is put together with painstaking care, the result (hopefully) is something sigh-enducingly satisfying. This sketch act is well-named, then, as that description could also be accurately ascribed to this hugely enjoyable show from three great stand-up comics in their own right - Nat Luurtsema, Dan Antopolski and Tom Craine. A whole lot of work has been put into creating dozens of stand-alone sketches, and it pays off in the form of a very funny and consistently high-quality show.

This act's chosen name lends itself to analogies so hopefully you'll allow me one more, in pointing out how perfectly these three performers fit together. Their rapport is natural and infectious, and an hour spent in their company is a properly cockle-warming one.

But just as important as being utterly lovely, this show is also packed with gags. We get straight into the jokes without intructions or set-up and, with sketches lasting more than a minute a rarity, the pace rarely lets up. Considering this show is such fun, there's a distinct lack of messing around here - props, costume changes, audience-work, corpsing and even running gags are all kept to a minimum in the name of cramming in more quick-fire sketches. If anything, it might be nice for one or two to be left to develop.

Perhaps reflecting the three different comedy minds that make up this new act, the sketches display lots of different types of comedy too. Some are visual one-liners, some showcase great physical humour, some rely on clever word-play, (and some on stupid word-play), some are all about the absurdity of the idea. My favourites included a terrible hostage negotiator, a woman engineering unusual situations in which to find love, and the corny-as-hell punchline to a wandering minstrel sketch. It's often silly, but the writing is very smart indeed.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Sheeps

2011-08-20T17:14:00.000+01:00

Three-man sketch group Sheeps has come to Edinburgh with a show which has lots of lovely ideas, and which is performed with a huge amount of energy and a heck of a lot of acting nous, but which varies in quality quite considerably.

My favourite sketch by some way is one in which an incredibly creepy lighthouse keeper decides to build his son a friend using the slowly decomposing body parts of dead people... if anything, it's even darker than that makes it sound, but it's also really funny and brilliantly performed.

The longer sketches like this which rely on great dialogue are the ones which tend to work well overall, in fact, so these three gents are clearly talented writers. I also really enjoyed a sketch involving two lesser-known members of the Black Eyed Peas complaining about Fergie, and just listening to them give out about her in a highly passive-aggressive way is a lot of fun.

But then at the other end of the spectrum there are one or two notable mis-steps, particularly a sketch about the cliches that footballers use, which seems a bit of an easy laugh. Plus, there are a couple of sketch group 'conventions' used here - there's the suggestion that one of the guys is meant to be the 'dumb' one, and another leaves the group temporarily for a glamorous life on the French Riviera - and I just don't think Sheeps need to stay so safe; in fact, they're at their strongest the odder they go.

Then again, another of the really enjoyable sketches is simply a pitch-perfect parody of inane television game shows... So perhaps the key word here is just 'potential'. There's bucket-loads on show, in both writing and performing, and there's little doubt over time Sheeps will get better and better as they really focus in on what they do well.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Henry Paker - Cabin Fever

2011-08-15T17:10:00.002+01:00

Following on from his great turn in the hugely charming and very funny sketch group Superclump (along with the likes of Elis James and Nat Luurtsema) in 2009, and his other great turn in the inventive and, well, again, very funny play The Golden Lizard (with the fab Mike Wozniak) last year, we've finally got a full hour of non-stop, solo Henry Paker. And you know what? Turns out he's charming, inventive and very funny all on his own too.

For his show Cabin Fever he's holed up in the Pleasance's rather cramped and hot Hut venue - "should have called it 'Portacabin Fever'" he half-quips, half-sighs - and frankly, the small space barely holds him. He's a tall man and he loves to fill the room, striding up and down to act out his stories.

But the room does fit with the Cabin Fever theme which, however loosely, ties together his anecdotes and observations under the umbrella of 'things we would talk about if we were stuck halfway up a mountain.'

Turns out we would talk about pretty day-to-day stuff like technology gripes and dating, and there are moments when you worry we're heading into prosaic comedy territory - in particular one section about the pointlessness of the 'Insert' key on your keyboard. Needn't have worried. What's great about Paker is that he can push seemingly everyday observations into bizarre and unexpected places, and it's that creativity and slight oddness that makes this show so enjoyable.

Watch out for the great set piece, too, in which Paker demonstrates how he can pretend to have read a potential lady-friend's favourite book in order to impress her. To see him hanging onto every word to gather crumbs of information that will help the charade, with ever-increasing desperation, is a real treat.

Cabin Fever does get off to a rather sedate start, but for the most part this is a hugely entertaining show with just the right level of silly, delivered by a confident and engaging comic.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Tom Bell Forever

2011-08-13T11:11:00.001+01:00

The small Leicestershire village of Kegworth may not seem like the natural breeding ground of comic book heroes, but in this funny, lo-fi show at the Tron, we discover that it was indeed the birthplace of one such Dark Knight: Tom Bell, the indier half of ace sketch double act Tommy and the Weeks, who here offers us a "gritty" retelling of his life. Think Christian Bale, not Adam West.
Well, maybe. In reality, Bell is an endearing, upbeat sort of comic, and the Hollywood reboot simply a nice peg on which to hang true stories from his life, via the odd (in both senses) character and even a song or two.

There's a 'one that got away' theme running through the show, too. Whether he's taking on his Batman persona and discussing a childhood sweetheart (who's supposed to be being played by Jennifer Aniston if she'd ever turn up) or performing in the guise of a misogynistic Aussie comic, the heartbreak of having loved-and-lost is never far away...

And between the backstory and character skits - look out for a serious message about the dangers of over-fishing delivered direct from Neptune himself - we get little glimpses into the world of Love It! magazine. This is a rag which features such exclamation-marked coverlines as "Raped by an evil clown!", and with which Bell has become somewhat obsessed.

The magazine could, you suspect, provide a whole hour's worth of material in itself, such is the absurd delight it apparently takes in horrific tales of unusual illness and domestic abuse, but Bell doesn't lean too heavily on it and neither does he need to. He has a great, off-beat turn of phrase and this show may be on the shambolic side, but it's also endlessly inventive, with a really sweet ending.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Tony Law - Go, Mr Tony, Go!

2011-08-10T21:03:00.003+01:00

To start a review with the line: "Tony Law's show is a painful experience" would be hugely dangerous. In fact, this show is so brilliant I fear I'll run out of superlatives for it before I finish, but - in my case at least - the cheek-and-stomach ache induced by laughing at Law's comedy does make the line completely true, if rather recklessly misleading. But then, in going for the dangerous option I am only following Law's own lead.

For one, Go, Mr Tony, Go! is taking place at The Stand 2, away from the main Assembly-Pleasance hub of the comedy Fringe, and at midday - dangerously early for the notoriously tardy Fringe-going public. "What are you all doing here?" Law asks his sell-out audience at the top of the show.

But more than that, a large portion of the show concentrates on Law demonstrating just how dangerous a character he is with examples of the low-level hazardous situations he knowingly puts himself in. This is such a feature of the show that in one of the many instances of Law vocalising what he imagines is going on in his audience members' heads he says: "we get it Tone, you're dangerous, that's probably enough examples." In a super-rare case of Law being off the mark, that certainly wasn't what I was thinking. I could listen all day.

Silliness abounds then - an imagined encounter with a panda bear prostitute certainly falls under that category - but a lot of this show is actually about comedy itself, with Law often referencing the fact that he has taken a rather different path from those comics that "notice things". And he's constantly self-analysing, reacting out loud to whether a line has gone down well or not - you can often hear the cogs in that comedy brain of his whirring away.

On one level, Go, Mr Tony, Go! is a an hour-long stream of joyous nonsense - and that would probably be sufficient. But in fact the show is a whole lot more; a little chinese puzzle waiting to be unpacked, full of lengthy surreal digressions, throwaway lines that other comics would kill for, and subtle little callbacks that it takes the audience a couple of moments to dredge up from their memory banks.

In this small, circular room, Law's force of character dominates, and he regularly manages to get the punters to that lovely point of still giggling about the previous joke when he's already moved onto the next. With the show starting at noon, you could easily go on to see another five or six shows on the same day, but you're unlikely to see a better one. As clever as it is loud, ridiculous and hilarious, Go, Mr Tony, Go! is, ultimately, a gem.

Written for British Comedy Guide.

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: Marcel Lucont etc.

2011-08-10T21:01:00.002+01:00

Marcel Lucont, the French laid-back lothario never to be seen without a glass of decent red on the go - and the creation of talented comic Alexis Dubus - would normally come to Edinburgh with his own solo show, ready to wow the crowds with dirty verse and cod-philosophy. This year, though, he's been busy writing a book - "so" he says with a shrug "here we are." And where we are is a chat show format, with two guest comedians taking questions from him about their own shows and whatever else springs to mind.

Josh Howie was the first guest, who gave us a little preview of his show I Am A Dick with stories of his own shambolic - but unintentional - dickishness. For whatever reason, the conversation was a bit stilted - prickly even - but things were definitely livened up by Howie demonstrating his 'party piece' of yo-yoing... with a roll of gaffer tape. Very funny. Zoe Lyons came next and was her usual charming self, veering from angry tirades at motorists that won't let you in, to laughing at how - having met her girlfriend on Lesbos - she feels she's slowly turning into a lesbian stereotype.

The audience were surprisingly subdued audience for a Saturday night - Lucont quickly realised that getting the crowd to ask questions was a bit of a cul de sac - but did provide one of the odder moments of the night. Each guest must undertake a staring content with their host (of course), and when asked how long Howie had managed, a guy on the front row responded with the enigmatic "twenty-two to forty-seven..." The confused ranting this prompted from Lucont was a definite highlight.

The reason the format works, and could get better over the course of the festival, I reckon, is that Dubus has been playing Lucont for so long now that the character is completely fully formed. Dubus knows exactly what Lucont would say in any given situation - something that highlights his own virility, for example, or berates the English.

The fact is, though, while the chats are enjoyable, for me they are far out-stripped by the short snippets of stand-up we get from Marcel. His "50 actual ways to leave your lover" is a truly wonderful set-piece that gets funnier as it gets more absurd, and as for his poetry: pure filth. But great. Did I have fun? Very much so. Would I rather just see a full show from the brilliant Monsieur Lucont? Probably...

Written for British Comedy Guide

Edinburgh Fringe 2011: How To Be Awesome - An Introduction - Lou Sanders

2011-08-10T20:57:00.002+01:00

When Lou Sanders tells us early on that the name of her show doesn't necessarily fit the content, she quickly turns that potential disappointment on its head to reveal that it was actually just one of her rather brilliant pranks. In reality, she was probably right the first time, as - self-help fans beware - this show may be a lot of fun, but it certainly doesn't offer too many cast-iron tips on how to be awesome.

But that's no matter. 55 minutes spent with Lou Sanders is 55 minutes ram packed with lovely little ideas and a whole heap of different styles of comedy - a bit of odd whimsy here, and a neat one-liner there.

The only issue with this is that Sanders crams so many ideas into her show that not many have time to really progress. Her new-on-the-comedy-circuit alter ego Kerry P, for instance, with her painfully - and, purposefully on Sanders's part of course - obvious and banal observation comedy is a hoot, and it'd be fun to see more than a couple of minutes from her. And a member of the audience is treated to a This Is Your Life moment complete with lots of wonderful made-up facts ("he likes a bath... he's a bath man!") which I would have happily listened to for much longer.

There are rare moments when Sanders strays into more traditional story-teller mode, but she is absolutely at her best when she's at her most bizarre - talking to a toy pigeon named Doctor Spinky particularly springs to mind, for instance, or predicting audience members' futures with the aid of a flimsy cardboard 'Destiny Wheel'.

The loose theme of the show means Sanders has to act as if she thinks she's thoroughly marvellous - you've got to be an expert in awesomeness to instil it in others of course. It's hard to make arrogance charming, but when it's nicely played with a wink throughout, as it is here, Sanders proves it's possible. A bit haphazard, then, but hugely enjoyably so.

Written for British Comedy Guide

Pulp, Wireless Festival @ Hyde Park

2011-07-04T20:43:00.005+01:00

Seeing as though I was 9 years old back when Do You Remember The First Time? came out, well, I don't. Not really. His 'n' Hers rather passed me by, but just a year later I had, apparently, acquired something of a taste for intelligent indie pop, and bought (was bought?) both The Boo Radleys' Wake Up! and Pulp's Different Class. Who could have guessed that I'd go on to be a Divine Comedy/Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright fan, eh..?

Fast forward sixteen years and I properly discovered Do You Remember The First Time? for the first time on a balmy July evening in Hyde Park. (I'll stop doing these weird puns now.) It was Pulp's opening song at the Wireless Festival, and I don't think I've ever seen such a happy, excited crowd as the moment when the chorus kicked in, and streamers exploded out into the audience.

It was pretty beautiful. The whole set was pretty beautiful, in fact, and - while I'm sure the aficionados pledge their allegiances to guitarist/violinist Russell or keyboard player Candida - to me I'm afraid most of that was down to Jarvis Cocker. Jarv is one hell of a front man; funny, generous, great singer and a freaky mover, he climbs over every inch of the stage and you can't take your eyes off him. You pay for a musician and you get a raconteur and dancer too. Not bad going.

And yes, the songs aren't half bad too. ....First Time really was a highlight, but the singalong quality of many of their tracks means they're a perfect festival band. Sorted For E's and Wizz is, of course made for festivals (and I'd forgotten how much I adored it when it came out), and This Is Hardcore and F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E are just stunning live.

Plus, I can't help but have a little soft spot for Common People - when I was feeling a little homesick during my first week at uni, it was shouting "watching roaches climb the wall" with the rest of Indie Soc that persuaded me everything was going to be ok. I'll probably always remember that - and I'll probably always remember singing it with my friends and a few thousand others this weekend too.

Pajama Men - In The Middle of No One, Soho Theatre

2011-07-03T11:13:00.001+01:00

I wrote this gushy little review for the British Comedy Guide...

A Pajama Men show is one of life's unadulterated joys. This is the second show I've seen by the flannel PJ-clad double act Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen, and - just as with the first - I left the theatre on a glorious high, quickly rifling through my diary to see when I could fit in a second viewing.

The set-up is similar to their previous show, Last Stand To Reason, too. In In The Middle Of No One, Chavez and Allen again present a chronologically-skewed tale in which they play all the characters, with the aid of nothing but two chairs, a wonderful musician, and their own comedy genius; constantly and effortlessly jumping back and forth in time and between roles.

Some scenes drive the plot forward - when Chavez stumbles over his words near the start of the show, Allen shouts "get the exposition out!" with gleeful encouragement - some are just silly vignettes that allow these performers to show off. The story involves a very formal adventurer, child services, aliens and a time-travelling fraud, but frankly you're more concerned with the cutsie girlfriends chatting about their love lives and the rare bird with a 'come hither' call.

Sometimes the comedy is based on clever word play and an obvious love of messing with language ("I'll see your wife and raise... your children"). Sometimes it's all about their superb mime and physicality, with the two playing at being marionettes, or getting ridiculously up close and personal. Sometimes you just find yourself guffawing embarrassingly loudly at the phrase "sideways decanter".

Chavez and Allen appeared in particularly giggly mood this evening but is all that corpsing for real? I don't know, and because I don't know, I don't care - it felt special to us, and if it feels special every night then so much the better.

It's funny, but it's more than that. It's clever and sweet and you actually care about the multitude of characters you meet in this twisted tale. If this all sounds hyperbolic, it isn't - the Pajama Men are simply this good. I'd never say kill for a ticket (how hackneyed), but do what you can within the bounds of the law and common decency to get your hands on one.

The Government Inspector - Young Vic (preview)

2011-06-05T11:28:00.002+01:00

Like many, I assume, I was particularly drawn to the Young Vic's new production and indeed version of Gogol's The Government Inspector thanks the canny casting of Mighty Boosher Julian Barratt in the (co-)lead role of the Mayor. And I'm very glad I was - this has its problems (some of which may be ironed out by opening night), but it sure is a lot of fun.

Described by Nabokov as "Russia's greatest comedy" (no quips about the level of competition, please), the premise is simple - the inept and corrupt Mayor of a small provincial town hears that a Government inspector is on the way, and mistakes a gambling conman, Khlestavkov for said official. Driven half-mad by the idea that he might be hauled to St Petersburg - or worse, Siberia - the Mayor and his equally questionable town 'elders' shower an increasingly ecstatic Khlestakov with money and compliments.

The best scene by far is when the Mayor and Khlestakov first meet - the former terrified by the power he assumes the inspector has; the latter assuming his debts have finally caught up with him. They eye each other suspiciously, are constantly talking at crossed purposes, and both are desperate to keep the other on side. It's awkward, odd, and very, very funny - and Klestakov's slow realisation that he might just be able to play this to his huge advantage is the first suggestion that the man who plays him - Kyle Soller - is going to be very good indeed.

And he really is. His Klestakov is an urbane dandy dressed in St Petersburg's finest (every garment conned out of some poor tailor, you assume), obsessed with fashion and fame and able to talk his way out of the most dire of situations. Think Blackadder's Percy, but with charisma and confidence. Soller's part is very dense, but - just like the gathered townspeople - you hang on every word, and this is combined with a lovely physical performance that director Richard Jones demands of all his actors here.

Barratt's Mayor is in some ways the polar opposite of his visitor - big, coarse, angry and dishevelled - on the other hand he's flying by the seat of his pants just the same, ducking and weaving as well as he can to avoid the inspector discovering, for example, that they never did build that church that the town was given hundreds of roubles for. Unsurprisingly, Barratt is most at home with the more outright comic elements of his part, delivering lines with the wonderful offbeat timing that makes him such a great comedian, but he does trip over a few words too and he could go even further with his breakdown. But in the main this is a pretty excellent first foray into 'straight' theatre - you certainly wouldn't know it.

When I tweeted my quick just-out-of-the-theatre response to this production I called it an "assault on the eyes", and that was a reference to the decision to style the sets and costumes as gaudily as possible - all big 70s prints, purple, sequins, turquoise and copious gold braiding. The Mayor's wife, Anna (the brilliant Doon Makichan having a whale of a time) usually manages to combine all of this into a single, insane, four-foot-wide dress. Quite why the stage and actors have been dressed this way I can't entirely work out, except perhaps from having the effect of making this ragtag bunch of bumbling fools appear even more ridiculous.

Any serious political subtext to Gogol's original is not particularly evident here - the aim is to garner big laughs and, thanks especially to the lead performances, it succeeds, with Soller as the shining star. One to watch, I'd say.

2x theatre reviews...

2011-05-29T15:16:00.002+01:00

Two! I know. Amazing.

I've written a couple of things for Exeunt Magazine recently, and you may be interested in reading them. I couldn't possibly comment.

Prisoner of Windsor at the Leicester Square Theatre (not great) and Play It Again, Sam at the Gate House Theatre, Highgate (very good).

Thoughts on Attack The Block

2011-05-14T10:38:00.002+01:00

Like any fan of the Saturday morning-brightening Adam and Joe (although full disclosure: I've come to them shamefully late) I've been looking forward to old Cornballs' first directorial outing Attack The Block for some time now; though I would have dug the premise - a gang of South London kids defend Earth from an alien invasion - even without Joe Cornish's involvement. Who doesn't love a film that can be summed up in so few words? It's all about high concept.

Being directed and written by someone so well-liked, and coupled with the promotion (which has been pretty relentless over the last couple of weeks), Attack The Block has had a hell of a lot of attention - mostly very positive, but in a few isolated but notable exceptions, well not so much. Being a proper student of film, though, you'd imagine that the most notable exception for Cornish is Mark Kermode, who blogged an 'immediate reaction' review to ATB a few weeks ago and essentially summed it up with "well, it's not Shaun of the Dead."

This was no doubt a big disappointment for Joe, but it did give rise to some of the best radio I've heard in a long time when, yesterday, he appeared on Kermode and Mayo's Film Review and called DrK out on his review. He was a bit defensive, DrK was on the back foot, they both clearly respected each other but didn't want to back down, it was prickly, awkward, intelligent, respectful... an amazing listen, really, so I encourage you to iPlayer it if you missed it.

So to the film - and I thoroughly enjoyed it. What's particularly impressive is that, in a film by a first time director and plenty of just-about first time actors, it it absolutely the direction and performances which are its best elements. This may not be a deep or intellectual response to the film, but it just looks insanely cool throughout - the council block being attacked from all sides by creatures from another planet is lit and shot like some monolithical space station, with the interiors all stark and other-worldly and the walkways used for hugely exciting chase scenes. As much as I enjoyed watching ATB, I also enjoyed just looking at it.

As for the young actors playing the bunch of hoodies who turn their attentions from car jackings and playing FIFA to the more pressing issue of alien invasion - they are all superb. The film opens with them mugging a young nurse on her way home, and they deal with the transition from unlikeable to our heroes with subtlety and aplomb; particularly John Boyega as central character Moses and Alex Esmail as his hugely loyal right-hand man Pest. In front of our eyes they transform from a gang with all its negative connotations to a gang in the most positive, Scooby-Doo-slash-Goonies sense; but without their previous crimes ever being forgotten. They are fun, fascinating and believable.

There are, I think, a couple of missteps - the middle-class white kid (played by Luke Treadaway) who's trying ingratiate himself with the cooler kids from the block is probably too broadly drawn, and while the gore level is pitched just right, it could do with being jumpier. But these issues barely detract from the enjoyment of a film which pushes all the sci-fi geek buttons that you need it to (starting with a starry sky and panning down, anyone?), has characters you care about and - call me shallow if you like - above all is just freaking stunning to look at.

Things that have distracted me from work this morning

2011-05-08T11:38:00.003+01:00

1) Doctor Who characters as inhabitants of Springfield.

2) Dudes with beards with cats.

I <3 the internetz.

Article announcement #4: The Comedy Crawl

2011-05-03T13:55:00.002+01:00

Yo! If you're at all interested, please make your way quickly but carefully to the British Comedy Guide where I have written up my experiences of the first ever Comedy Crawl. Thank you. Message ends!

The Best of Karaoke Circus - Leicester Square Theatre

2011-04-24T10:56:00.002+01:00

That's me and Rob Sedgebeer holding up a stage-diving Dave Gorman, that is. It's the sort of thing you only get at Karaoke Circus.

The other sort of thing you only get from Karaoke Circus is Martin White and Danielle Ward indulging their love for Masterchef by getting cult hero from this series Tim to headline, singing Beck's Sexx Laws. I mean, that's pretty darn cool. You just knew he'd like Beck, didn't you?

This was a 'Best of' night in aid of Shelterbox, so we got some reprises of 'classic' performances, including the excellent Tony Gardner keeping a straight face during Wheatus's Teenage Dirtbag, Thom Tuck donning ace aviator's for Cee-Lo Green's F*** You, and Laurence and Gus's frankly astonishing rendition of 7 Seconds. Excitingly for me - as I missed his first performance of the song back at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe - Mr Simon Amstell also released his inner stage-school kid to sing Enrique Iglesias' Hero. Quite a sight to behold.

With The Baron - usually the 'good cop' in the judging team - away, it was up to Dan Maier and Dan Tetsell to take turns going against type and shouting superlatives in praise of every brave singer. They soon tired of that though, of course, both preferring instead to expertly tear each performance to pieces in the most satisfying, accurate and funny way possible without actually leaving anyone in tears.

Between the comics were, as ever, members of the audience who have the freaking cahoonas to get up on stage and sing, and there was a great, expanded KC band/mini-Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra backing the performers. Rarely will you have a room filled with more lovely and talented people, I'd say.

Josie Long and Friends, Bush Hall

2011-04-23T10:03:00.001+01:00

Written for the British Comedy Guide.

Dotted all across London, there are gorgeous little venues hidden behind various unconvincing-looking facades. That's certainly the case with Shepherd Bush's Bush Hall - nestled between 24 hour supermarkets, you'd never suspect that once you've made your way through the buzzer entry system you'll find a rather opulent ballroom, complete with chandeliers.

Bush Hall is the occasional home of Show + Tell, purveyors of fine comedy, poetry and storytelling, and the outfit behind some great recent shows including Terry Saunders's 6 And A Half Loves and Edward Aczel's lengthily-named Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. And Show + Tell's latest offering there was Josie Long And Friends, a predictably (from the title) lovely night with an excellent line-up.

You often get added extras when Josie Long (pictured) is involved, so as well as introducing her fellow acts and kicking off the night with a short set herself, there were also competitions, a play about the Bronte sisters and a taste test of several different cheap 'n' cheerful nutrition drinks. It has been much discussed that Josie's comedy has taken on a harder edge as she gets increasingly angry with the decisions of our newish government, but ultimately, I'm still a fan of the hand-made, all-in-it-together style that has served her so well in the past. So it was great to see that even in this Clegg and Cameron era, a mood of positivity outweighed the glimmers of frustration that occasionally broke through when Long was on stage.

The lovely atmosphere created by our host was carried through by first act James Acaster, who has recently supported Long on tour. An observational comic, what's really striking about Acaster is that his subject matter is so everyday, that in other hands the comedy could be everyday too. He talks about the fact that, an unadventurous man, he's only every used one side of the cheese grater, and spins a great yarn about the proper way to hold a surprise birthday party - these are simple ideas, but such is Acaster's gift for a neat turn of phrase and physical comedy that the set is turned into something way more impressive than the sum of its parts.

John-Luke Roberts came after the first break, and I've never really seen his club set achieve anything less than a room-slaying (in a good way). That record was maintained tonight, with the crowd quickly adapting from Long and Acaster's fun stories to Roberts's quick-fire one-liners and - his centre-piece - generic insults aimed at each member of the audience, read off pre-written cards so as not to cause too much offence. A real student of comedy, his gags are precision-made, he builds up to a fantastic crescendo, and there is one particular line about Where's Wally which is pretty much perfect. Brilliant stuff.

The one-liners continued with Arnab Chanda (pictured) but the pace considerably calmed, with Chanda reading his generally quite dark puns from a little black book (the body count in his set is surprisingly high). There's a lovely, clever logic to his jokes, and he has a great, Demetri Martin-style knack of taking an ostensibly simple bit of observational comedy and whittling it down into a perfectly formed gag of just a few words. And with Arnab, you get a Back To The Future reference thrown in with the comedy. Which is always a bonus.

Finally, musical comedian Tom Basden headlined; one of those sickeningly talented people who can also act and write plays as well as perform stand-up and play numerous musical instruments. His short songs, as ever, went down a storm, but it was also great see Basden interact with the crowd a bit more than I've seen in the past, talking to a lovely couple and stating: "I really can't stress enough the fact that my parents are in" after a particularly smutty track. Best of all though, were the excerpts from his deliberately genre-hopping, over-explained and rather tortuously-written novel Hot Moon. His descriptions of a character "cutting himself from his woolly prison", and complicated use of footnotes are all inspired and elicit big, proper, belly laughs - I'll be first in line when this mini-masterpiece makes it into all good bookshops.

Wayne's World 2011

2011-04-16T13:55:00.002+01:00

Who neglected to tell me that Wayne and Garth did a new Saturday Night Live sketch THIS YEAR? Own up.

Still, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey together on the tellybox, looking just as they did 20 years ago; still very funny, still very sweet. Take a look:

Article announcement #3: Feature Spot's Big Sketch Bash

2011-03-26T09:51:00.002Z

My review of the very excellent Feature Spot's Big Sketch Bash, featuring the likes of The Penny Dreadfuls, Pappy's and Anna and Katy can be found over at British Comedy Guide...

Alternative Comedy Memorial Society - "a noble failure!"

2011-03-09T18:59:00.010Z

It pains me to call the (breathe) Alternative Comedy Memorial Society (incorporating The Captain Planet Repertory Theatre Company) a "noble failure" when it was, undoubtedly, a success. But that was the tagline for the evening, and who am I to deviate from the numerous guidelines set down by our comperes, John-Luke Roberts and Thom Tuck, who also gave us pre-approved heckles including "I appreciate what you're trying to do."

While I plugged ACMS in a (semi) professional role for British Comedy Guide, I certainly didn't attend in that capacity - I went because *any* comedy fan would be giddy at the prospect of a line-up that included William Andrews, Terry Saunders, David McNeill, Nadia Kamil and headliner Tony Law, in addition to Messers Tuck and Roberts. But hey, my enthusiasm does have a tendency to transmit to my typing hand, so here are the inevitable few words in celebration of this new comedy night.

The idea behind the club is to be deliberately off-kilter, giving comics the chance to try out new material and unusual ideas - for instance, John-Luke and Nadia are not allowed to perform together as they're an established double-act and "that would be cheating." There are bonus features too, from a "jingle monkey" providing musical interludes to food testing (this week: salted chocolate ice-cream) and all the acts coming together to perform an episode of Captain Planet.

Then there's the more conventional fare of comedians doing stand-up, and that was all rather brilliant too. Nat Luurtsema, Thomas Craine and Dan Antopolski have a great thing going as sketch group Jigsaw and William Andrews (in his regular "Has A Thing On His Head" spot) was, as ever to be honest, inspired. Kudos also to Tom Bell, who did his bit for International Women's Day by offering pieces of "not-for-girls" Yorkie bars to the women in the audience. And Tony Law - well he just makes you ache from laughing.

It was, all in all, pretty special, singular stuff - luckily there are lots more chances to attend.

Article Announcement #2: The Wizard of Oz review for Exeunt

2011-03-06T16:53:00.003Z

A review of the new production of The Wizard of Oz. It's not that great.

Article Announcement #1: John-Luke Roberts and Thom Tuck interview on BCG

2011-03-06T16:47:00.003Z

An interview with the uber-talented Thom Tuck and John-Luke Roberts about their new comedy night "The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society (or, The Captain Planet Repertory Theatre Company)" - featuring this exchange:

Anything else to declare...?

I have torn my trousers while showing off. (There will be much showing off).

Julian Barratt in The Government Inspector

2011-03-05T15:58:00.002Z

Couldn't be more excited about seeing stupendous comic actor and all-round cool guy Julian Barratt appearing in the Young Vic's Government Inspector, along with Doon MacKichan. Tickets well and truly booked.

A lovely week

2011-02-24T15:45:00.004Z

I had, as the title suggest A Lovely Week, last week, seeing as I did rather too much fun and interesting stuff to blog about each individually. So here's my "quick" round-up (I'm hedging my bets with those quotation marks, as I bet it ends up being anything but...)

Monday: Kevin Eldon Is Titting About

Kevin Eldon is a *hugely* beloved comedy performer, and when you consider the fact that he's been in (and been consistently brilliant in) Spaced, Big Train, Nighty Night, Lee and Herring, Brass Eye, Black Books and lots, lots more, it's not really surprising. Neither was it surprising that his first solo Edinburgh show was such a hit last year, and so it was great to have another chance to see it, at the excellent Soho Theatre. Not just stand up, but also character comedy, sketches, songs and - in the guise of the pretentious, hilarious Paul Hamilton - poetry, this show is constantly inventive, and the section in which he talks about deciding what sort of comedy he should do (surreal, confessional, observational) gives him the chance to show that he really can do them all.

Tuesday: Jersey Boys

First, thanks to Scott for the rather fancy tickets at the front of the stalls - it's the only way to see a show, dahling. Second, this is a genuinely fun, engaging musical. The star is undoubtedly the Four Seasons back catalogue - I am astonished that the same man wrote Sherry, You're Just Too Good To Be True, Begging AND Oh What A Night (I mean that's just insane) - but there's also a great story here. In particular 'band leader' Tommy's involvement with the Jersey mafia - and the band's willingness to bail him out despite the general whirlwind of chaos that surrounded him - was fascinating. It's a safe bet, but that's meant in the kindest way possible.

Thursday: Karaoke Circus

A new venue offers a new excuse to bang on about how great Karaoke Circus is, so thank goodness this bi-monthly night relocated to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern last week. That's not the only reason to be happy about the move though - it's also just a wonderful venue, all curves, mirrors, booths and pillars, like a mini-spiegeltent. Perfect. And hey, the performers were pretty good too; among many others we had Margaret Cabourn-Smith channelling Beyonce for Crazy In Love (with partner and guest judge Dan Tetsell on Jay-Z duties), Andrew Collins performing a Carter USM song in front of Mr JimBob himself, Thom Tuck getting us dancing with Cee-Lo's F*ck You, and Pappy's covering the first few rows in glitter during It's Raining Men. Utterly, utterly joy-making.

Friday: David Reed and Thom Tuck work-in-progress

The Pleasance in Islington is very much the place for early versions of Edinburgh shows at this time of the year, and each of the wonderful Penny Dreadfuls is using the upstairs space to try out his own material. Which is pretty exciting. On Friday, non-Dreadful Tom Price chatted about The Youth Of Today and doing warm-up for Loose Women in his lovely support slot, before David Reed gave us three new characters. The first - a kid (or, er, slow adult) reading out his awful-brilliant sci-fi story featuring a gun called Kelly Brook - and third - a terribly posh Doctor suffering from amnesia - were both fab. The second was much odder... dead Spaniard in a sombrero presenting a doughnut who's only dream is to be an acrobat, anyone? Bizarre. But a whole lot of fun. Thom Tuck's show, I think it's fair to say, is further down the development track, and promises to be really ruddy great. Ostensibly about Disney's straight-to-DVD films, Thom weaves little tales of heartbreak between intellectual readings of the likes of Little Mermaid III: Arial's Beginning. Admittedly, having a passing interest (and preferably affection for) Disney helps, but thanks to Thom's ability to make, I suspect, pretty much anything entertaining, it certainly isn't essential - I'll look forward to seeing the full thing this Summer.

Saturday PM: Frankenstein

As you might expect from a production directed by classy Danny Boyle and led by classy Benedict Cumberbatch and classy Johnny Lee Miller, this new production from the National Theatre doesn't go down the schlocky horror route, featuring a groaning dullard with a bolt through his neck. Instead, the Creature (I saw Miller in this role, meaning, excitingly, I got to see Cumberbatch flounce about in a fitted coat as Dr F.) is a sensitively soul - if he has one, which is kinda the point - delighted by learning and logic, and obsessed with the pursuit of true love. The script, unfortunately, lets this production down on occasion, and the pace slows when the Creature spends time with a kindly farmer who teaches him to speak, read and think, but the two main performances are flawless and there are some incredibly powerful, disturbing and atmospheric scenes along the way.

Saturday evening: Colin Hoult - Enemy of the World

Probably the best character comic around at the moment, Colin Hoult is clearly as good an actor as he is a stand-up, and this show is the perfect showcase for his general ace-ness. The longest section comes courtesy of Andy Parker, an ex-army man from Nottin'um who spends his time selling little drawings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and acting out his own movie script - and while I've seen this character many times (it being his club set regular), Andy's turn of phrase never fails to make me giggle. Then there's the divorced dad desperate to impress his kid with ridiculous promises he can't possibly keep, luvvie actress Anna Mann, and a bullied boy who we see grow up and take grisly revenge over the course of the show. The sketches are linked by songs and little skits from Hoult's supporting cast, and overall it's an incredibly skillful and creative show.

Sunday: Ben Folds, Lonely Avenue Tour

Well kids, we've made it. We've finally got to Sunday; and what a wonderful way to round off the week. I'm a big fan of Folds's collaboration with Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue is his best album since Rockin' The Suburbs, probably - and so it was great to see him with four other musicians, all doing full justice to the multi-instrumental approach Ben took to these songs. If you were at the Hammersmith Apollo for old Ben Folds Five stuff, you may have been disappointed (though we did get Kate, Underground, Army and - wonderfully - Mess) but this show proved that Ben's built up a great back catalogue since going solo. He was in really playful mood - goofing around for the photographers, who he invited up on stage - and his set lasted a good two and a half hours. It's just a shame you know it'll probably be another couple of years before he's back in the UK...

Why producers should be fighting over Gutted: The Musical

2011-02-04T17:11:00.002Z

One of Edward Moore's frankly stunning photos.

I have to admit that I'm not sure whether Gutted creators Danielle Ward (book and lyrics) and Martin White (music) actually want big shot producers to be sticking their hands in their pockets for a West End run or worldwide tour of Gutted - and if not, let's pretend this article is called 'Why Gutted Rocks'. But hey, personally nothing would please me more than to see this superlative comic musical run and run, so here are my reasons why some big impresario should be writing cheques to keep it on the stage...

The book is consistently funny

Often, such focus is placed on the songs in a comedy musical (understandably, I know) that the script can be overlooked. It's either just plain weak, or packed with obvious jokes and terrible puns that have you wishing for the band to strike up again. Not so here. The set-up is that Sorrow marries her parents' killer so that she can then murder his own family, and so make him suffer as she has done - don't worry, it's not as depressing as that makes it sound. And thanks to Ward's sharp wit and evident love of the macabre, this story (plus a love interest, Greek chorus and lesbian side-plot) is a constant joy, mixing silliness with darkness and OTT gags with throwaway winners.

The songs are instantly hummable

Anyone familiar with Martin White's work with the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra, or who has seen his previous musical Psister Psycho, will know that he is one uber-talented songwriter and orchestrator - but Gutted could well be his masterpiece. I have only heard these songs twice - once during the show's run in Edinburgh, and again during the wonderful concert staging that prompted this plea for backers - but I could hum you the tunes to most of the songs right now. I won't, you wouldn't hear it, but I could. My personal favourites are the Elvis (Mud?)-inspired first dance Ballad of Rancid Mortimer, power ballad Don't Need No-One, the Victoriana music-hall of In We Should Trust and slow-jam Lost Years - but frankly, they're all instant classic in my eyes.

The cast is to die for

Yes, the way I see it, the entire cast will stay when Gutted transfers to a massive Shaftesbury Avenue theatre. Why change a thing when you have the Penny Dreadfuls as Sorrow's twisted subconscious, bickering over Thom Tuck milking his big moment? Or Michael Legge as the Vicar, adlibbing lines like "Everytime you sin, God bums your Mum and puts the footage on YouTube"? Or Doc Brown, or Margaret Cabourn-Smith? How about Sara Pascoe, JimBob or Lizzie Roper? No, exactly, you would keep them all and be overjoyed about it too. Then there's our leads. In Edinburgh, Sorrow was played by Helen George who brought an angelic innocence to the little psycho, while in the semi-staged version Isy Suttie was brilliantly bitter - both are fantastic. And stealing many scenes as not only Mr Bewlay but four members of his family, the excellent Colin Hoult is hilarious and, quite simply, irreplaceable.

It's cool as hell

Let's face it, musicals aren't always cool - they can be cheesy, quickly outdated or just a bit too jazz-hands. Gutted, on the other hand, keeps all the things that make the best musicals great (catchy songs and zippy dialogue) while adding a streak of joyous bloodlust and a hugely talented ensemble. And that's pretty darn cool.

I wrote this love-letter to Gutted for British Comedy Guide...

Knock2Bag comedy - 19th Jan

2011-01-28T19:12:00.003Z

It's a heartening comment on the thirst for comedy in the capital at the moment that a gig held in the middle of the week on a freezing January evening would find the sort of audience that its admittedly brilliant line-up deserved. Shepherd Bush's basement Bar FM was the venue for last week's Knock2Bag night, and it was pleasingly packed for MC Colin Hoult and headliner Paul Foot.

I've not seen Colin Hoult MC a club night before, but - as a committed fan of his genuinely excellent character comedy - it was great to see him compere as both the self-absorbed luvvie actress Anna Man and the Alien (and Aliens, and Predator, and Aliens v Predator...) loving ex-army man Andy Parker; giving the audience a sneak preview of his full-length show (playing at the Soho Theatre next month) across the course of the night.

First on the bill was young Norwegian comic Daniel Simonsen, who won round an originally luke-warm crowd with his increasingly revealing stories about being a quiet, easily-embarrassed guy. He starts by saying, uncontroversially, that it's annoying that flatshare adverts are always looking for 'outgoing' people, but the theme elicited more laughs as it developed and got darker, particularly a section about dwelling on cringey moments for years, and culminating in an irritating little voice in his head asking "why can't we be somebody else?"

The hugely-liked sketch duo Cardinal Burns provided a truly odd ten minutes as their eastern European mini-cab drivers, telling each other apparently filthy stories involving animals without using a word of English, before the sister act (sorry) Toby took to the stage. Comprising of siblings Sarah (overbearing) and Lizzie (downtrodden), this duo might look all sweetness and light but their act managed to cover paedophilia, murder and even bestiality in the blink of an eye. Cute they ain't. But the mix of that surprising edge and the fact that, as sisters, they're willing to be pretty rotten to each other in the pursuit of a laugh, does mean that they're very entertaining indeed.

Character comic Neil Dagley was up next, and he probably got the biggest reaction of the night for his lovely twenty minute set as German skiing champion Flange Krammer. A womanising athlete who finishes his bad jokes with the line "Eat my powder!" may not seem like ground for intelligent comedy but actually this is very clever stuff. When Flange gets two ladies from the audience up on stage for a round of Blind Date, it has the potential be quite uncomfortable, but Dagley manages to create a really warm atmosphere - corpsing little and often certainly helps. Fun stuff.

Much of Tom and Tom aka, er, Totally Tom's set was taken up with sketches featuring a thigh-slapping, mead-quaffing king and his advisor but in fact their best was the first, in which a lady tries to explain what happened during a pretty run of the mill crime in the face of a policeman obsessed with the sort of glamourised violence he's seen in Hollywood action movies. These are very assured comic actors on which eyes should be kept.

The night finished up with Paul Foot being as bizarre as ever, stomping across the stage as he delivered a really great skit about the pitfalls of "van sunglasses" (glasses which help you avoid seeing vans, of course) as if it's traditional "what's with that?" observational comedy. All in all, a high quality night among many high quality nights that Knock2Bag manages to pull together on a frighteningly regular basis.

Written for the new Live section over at British Comedy Guide.

What's the most powerful moment in film?

2011-01-26T09:30:00.002Z

It's not often I plug something from work here on my blog, but thought you might be interested in a poll we're currently running on FILMCLUB, to find out what people think is the most powerful moment in film. We're not talking 'shocking' necessarily, but the moments that get you 'right there' - whether it's cathartic, weepy, joyful or anger-inducing.

For me, there are a couple that spring immediately to mind - that moment when the toys hold hands in Toy Story 3 is on the FILMCLUB shortlist (they're just suggestions, you can vote for anything) and features highly for me, and I remember balling my eyes out at the point when Alice (in Wonderland) sits down to cry because a dog has brushed away the path meaning she can't find her way home. Not a classic, I realise, but I think the fear of being lost taps into something quite primal.

The list also includes the Odessa Steps massacre from Battleship Potemkin (which I watched for the first time recently and was completely disturbed by), E.T. finally going home, Jimmy Stewart taking a stand in Mr Smith Goes To Washington and *sniff* the death of Bambi's mother; but it'd be great to know what you think. We're collecting votes from anywhere and everywhere, so feel free to leave a comment here, or email me on anna [at] filmclub [dot] org. Thanks!

10 O'Clock Live - A quick review now the dust has settled

2011-01-21T18:57:00.005Z

As Stu Heritage has astutely pointed out over on The Guardian, Twitter isn't really the best platform for considered, balanced reviews. He says it's "bad" at that, but it's more that it's just not really the point - Twitter's for spur of the moment reactions: "OMG - BEST THING EVER" or "OMG - WORST THING EVER." There are exceptions of course, some clever Tweeters can shape the sum total of their complex thoughts into a single beautiful Tweet, but a lot of it is knee-jerk, as-it-happens stuff. And from a lot of people, the knee-jerk, as-it-happens reaction to Channel 4's 10 O'Clock Live was not a particularly good one. "It's too bright"; "the audience are too loud", "right, you've had twenty minutes, I'm switching off."

But over the course of today, the multitude of little complaints have coalesced into just a few key gripes, really - and they were all expertly skewered by my very own mum in an email earlier...

"It needs to slow down a bit.": Totally. This is absolutely the main thing that needs to be sorted, but luckily it's an easy one to tackle. The interviews especially felt rushed; David Mitchell was just getting into his rather impressive stride when he had to wrap things up. Fewer items will make this a much, much better show.

"Why have Lauren Laverne on board and then not use her?": Well, quite. This was a blatant and bizarre error that the producers do need to work on. I've read a couple of times that she's there because she has the most experience of live broadcasting and so will be able to hold things together, but she needs to do more than a few links and one deeply cringey sketch...

"Does it need four presenters?": Probably not, actually, but - like the other regularly-raised issue that it doesn't really need to be live - this isn't something they're likely to change mid-series.

"Not sure about large studio and large audience.": Again, not something that's going to tweaked any time soon, but having the presenters wander a around what appears to be a huge Dan Flavin exhibition was admittedly a bit odd.

The Good Stuff

The two main issues are the pacing and how Laverne is being used, but other than that, anyone after an intelligent, bold and funny comic current affairs programme should surely be feeling pretty optimistic after last night's first episode. Sure they all looked nervous as hell, but it's obvious that that's purely because they really want it to be good, important even, rather than them not being up to it.

Mitchell is clearly going to be an excellent interviewer who asks the sort of things we all like to think we would put to MPs given the chance, and Charlie Brooker is in a league of his own when it comes to ripping dodgy news coverage to shreds. Laverne, given the right role, can be excellent, and while Jimmy Carr gets a lot of stick, he will provide uber-up-to-date gags every week. And he actually delivered one of the lines of the night with his reference to Alan Johnson's resignation: "We thought it was something tragic that we couldn't make jokes about - apparently it's just a man's life crumbling about him, so that's alright."

Arguably (and it's an argument I'd make), the best bits were when the four presenters just sat around and chatted for a bit. They're all naturally funny, clever people - that's the point - so just free up a bit more time for them to show it, and this could turn into something great.

Tate 'n' Tennant in Much Ado About Nothing

2011-01-08T17:16:00.002Z

Exciting, eh? 25th June, I'll be there.

Anna's Twitter-inspired Review of the Year

2010-12-26T13:57:00.011Z

My favourite 'things' of the year, in tweet-sized, 140-character summations...

Play: La Bete

David Hyde Pierce proves himself the king of re-acting during Mark Rylance's achingly funny 25 minute monologue.

Honourable mention: Joseph K

Franz Kafka with laughs, absurdity and lots of menace, in a new adaptation of The Trial

Musical: Matilda

Practically perfect in every way - funny script; sublime, intricate songs and glorious staging. Not just for kids.

Honourable mention: Err...

Didn't really see any others apart from Hair... and I wasn't into it. Sorry, mum.

Album: Tim Minchin and his Orchestra at the 02

Some of his best songs ever (The Fence, Beauty, Thank You God, Rock&Roll Nerd, Not Perfect) made even more stunning by a 55-piece orchestra.

Honourable mentions: Ben Folds and Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue; The Divine Comedy - Bang Goes The Knighthood; Rufus Wainwright - All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu

Each of my three favourite artists bring out superb albums that prove they are still at the top of their respective games.

Music gig: The Divine Comedy at Somerset House

Neil Hannon holds court with nothing but piano & guitar for company in surroundings that suit him & with an audience that knows every word.

Honourable mention: Paul McCartney at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

The Beatles hero keeps rocking for three full hours playing All My Loving, Jet, Lady Madonna and Back in the USSR along the way.

Comedy gig: The Horne Section

Highlights of this wonderful show across the year include Tom Basden's Champagne on the piano, Battleships song& Tim Key singing in Russian.

Honourable mention: Claudia O'Doherty's Monster of the Deep 3D

Aussie comic provides the most magical moment on the Fringe in this funny and splendidly-performed show.

Toy Story 3

Practically perfect in every way (again). Spanish Buzz is inspired, the monkey is terrifying, Barbie's a hero & the ending is heartbreaking.

Honourable mention: Back to the Future

One of the greatest family films of all time looks even better on the big screen.

Book: Eleven - Mark Watson

Complex, humane, funny and engrossing, this inventively-written novel is beautiful from start to shocking finish.

Honourable mention: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman

An audacious and ambitious allegory that doesn't feel like preaching to the (un)converted.

TV drama: Ashes to Ashes

The show's best series comes to a bombastic end with a proper, unequivocal resolution that brought the best out in Hawes, Glenister & Mays.

Honourable mentions: Downton Abbey, Doctor Who

ITV beats BBC at its own game with a fabulous costume drama; and Moffat, Smith & Gillan combine for an inconsistent but enjoyable series.

TV comedy: The Trip

Brydon and Coogan deliver belly-laughs and bromance in the beautiful North West in this clever and stylish comedy.

Honourable mentions: The Armstrong and Miller Show; Bellamy's People

A stupidly strong sketch show bursting with ideas; and an excellent comedy with something to say from Higson and Whitehouse.

TV moment: Jon Stewart calls Obama 'dude'

The Daily Show's champion of moderation tries to cover for Obama's rhetorical error with the greatest of all jovial epithets.

Honourable mention: ITV misses England's first goal at the World Cup

They couldn't do it *again* could they? Oh wait, they just did.

One to watch: Tom Basden

A playwright and comic with a sell-out play (Joseph K) and prime-time series (Armstrong & Miller) to his name. 2011 could be a big one.

Tim Minchin and his Orchestra, Live at the O2

2010-12-18T21:36:00.004Z

When Tim Minchin wrote "Nothing ruins comedy like arenas" he didn't just stumble across the perfect line to open a comedy arena show, but also the perfect line to open any review/blog/bit of writing about it. So, thanks Tim. I'm In A Cage - the song from which this uber-self-aware lyric comes - is an ironic screw you to his audience now that he's 'quite famous' (as he puts it), and sees comedy's rockingest star dance in a cage while singing about hanging out in trendy bars, flogging DVDs, and drinking himself to death in the Four Seasons.

The reason Minchin can do this song without the possibility of being accused of hypocrisy is that he has done everything within his talents and power to make this a show that not only works in an arena, but couldn't work anywhere else. When Ricky Gervais records a 'thank you' message for some British award ceremony saying he's too big to bother coming these days, the joke is undermined by the fact that he genuinely hasn't come - Minchin, on the other hand, has got a 55-piece orchestra on board, and written massive songs that need them. The idea that he doesn't care about his audience any more is laughable.

And despite the fact that Minchin has also written an insanely (but absolutely deservedly) well-reviewed musical in Matilda this year, there are seven new songs in this show. Tim treads his favoured ground in Thank You God, a track which expertly and relentlessly picks apart the idea of the power of prayer, belittling the apparent 'miracle' of a white Australian woman's improved sight through repeating the banal line 'Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam's mum', and contrasting it against the sum total of global human suffering which God seems less anxious to remedy.

Then there's Cont, one of those 'oooh, you're a clever so-and-so' Minchin songs that it would be churlish to reveal too much about (but sounds like it's from the most insane musical ever), and a joyous disco coda to Pope Song; "I don't really know what that's about" he says of the added section, "but it makes me happy". Plus - perhaps to some people's surprise - there's a pop song (with a chorus and everything) in defence of taking a nuanced and ambivalent view of things, and the deceptively gorgeous, waltzing Lullabye about a baby that just won't go to sleep.

And pushing into the 'really not a comedy song at all' territory is Beauty, which seems to be a deeply personal song about the struggle between giving the audience the ire and satire they expect and being seduced by the 'easy lay' of a beautiful melody. The fact that this song just happens to boast one of the most beautiful melodies Minchin has ever written suggests he's perfectly willing to succumb to her charms every once in a while. Of the older songs that feature in this show, it's great to hear Rock 'n' Roll Nerd with the Ben Folds-esque drums and bass for which you suspect it may have been originally conceived, but it is the ballads You Grew On Me and Not Perfect that - with an orchestra behind them - are genuinely better than they've ever been.

Throw in a keytar, eulogies to cheese, perfectly pitched orchestrations and the Ko'ran and you have a show that proves that arenas don't necessarily ruin comedy; in the end, an arena comedy show's success - as with everything in stand-up - depends on one thing and one thing alone, it's all down to guy with the mic. And this guy's pretty darn good.

Christmas Karaoke Circus and Squeeze at the Kentish Town Forum

2010-12-12T16:15:00.006Z

These two are lumped together purely because they happened on consecutive days, but do I suspect that the Karaoke Circus regulars - with their love of a good melody-driven indie pop song - are something of a Squeeze loving crowd in any case...

Thursday was Christmas Karaoke Circus, although the Yuletide theme was not always that apparent, especially when Robin Ince took to the stage to sing the deeply unfestive Mercy Seat by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This was evened out, however, by sketch group Pappy's enveloping themselves in wrapping paper, spraying each other in silly string, handing out party poppers and singing I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by way of a lovely, messy finale. Along the way, we had some big old power ballads - Against All Odds and I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing - from members of the audience, but, as is often the case, the night was well and truly stolen by Kevin Eldon and Chris Addison, who sang I Am The Walrus and the marvellous Centerfold (wouldn't have known the name, certainly knew the tune). Too much fun.

Along with ELO, Blood, Sweat and Tears, The Beatles, several 60s collections and, oddly, Cher, Squeeze regularly featured on the Lowmans' car stereo during long journeys when I was younger, and so it's no wonder that their songs have a rather dear place in my heart. My admiration for the band has only grown over time, however, and so I was pretty darn excited to go and see them at the HMV Forum, a venue that lies literally about 90 seconds' walk from my flat. Nice, too, that The Lightning Seeds were supporting, a band that clearly have a similar philosophy when it comes to songwriting as Messers Difford and Tolbrook, and who were more than happy to do the big singles - Pure, Life of Riley, Sugar Coated Iceberg, and my particular favourite Lucky You.

The main act came on, bizarrely, to a hiphop track, and this theme was picked up a little later when they band performed a little streetdance type thing - I'm guessing it's some in-joke... an in-joke that I'm not in on. Odd choreographed moments aside, this was a set again packed with the big hits. Go on, name one, I bet they played it. Tempted? Yup, closed the main set with it. Black Coffee In Bed? Opened the show. Slap and Tickle, Another Nail In My Heart, Pulling Mussels? All formed the encore. And yes, Cool For Cats, Goodbye Girl and the sublime Up The Junction were all in there too.

It has to be said that these songs are so brilliantly, tightly written that they do not necessarily gain a whole lot from being played live, but that isn't to say that it's not a joy to completely wear your voice out singing along to those fabulous choruses - with Chris Difford's amazing storytelling lyrics and Glenn Tilbrook's wonderful tunes (and still-brilliant voice, of course). The very notable exception is Slap and Tickle though, which saw Tilbrook violently pound a keyboard for those opening chords and has that great, heavy section for 'if you ever change your mind...' It was made to be played live. Otherwise, this was a generous, fun performance that was just another piece of evidence in the file marked 'Squeeze are a brilliant but underrated band.'

Joseph K, The Gate Theatre

2010-12-12T15:20:00.006Z

It might surprise you to hear that a new adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial will make you laugh (a lot), but it's less of a shock when you realise that this version, Joseph K, is written by stand-up, songwriter, playwright and all-round-too-talented-by-half Tom Basden.

Transposing the plot - which I won't pretend to be very familiar with - to a contemporary setting, Basden takes the storyline of a man under arrest for an unknown crime that he, presumably, didn't commit, and mixes in very modern preoccupations such as 24-hour surveillance, office politics, and layers upon layers of impenetrable bureaucracy. And it is very, very funny.

Importantly, Basden fills the script with great comic lines, but a sense of the darkly absurd is maintained throughout, meaning that - like Joseph - you can never really get comfortable. In fact, you are constantly infuriated on his behalf as he comes up against an unfathomable process that won't tell him what he's meant to have done, let alone who is accusing him or how he can defend himself. And which, perhaps most annoyingly of all, couches resistance in terms like "in a sec, amigo" and "mistakes aren't really our vibe".

As Joseph tries to clear his name, he becomes increasingly erratic, to the point that we can't work out whether his hot and cold taps really have swapped round or if he's just cracking under the pressure. Pip Carter plays the part brilliantly - making you empathise with his character without actually liking him - and Basden himself shines in a couple of the more out-and-out comic roles. Overall, it's a very impressive piece, and so it's great to see that it is has been so widely, and positively, reviewed; it's only on until 18th December though, so let's hope for a transfer.

Matilda, Royal Shakespeare Company

2010-12-11T16:08:00.002Z

written for MusicOMH.com

When you consider the elements that make Roald Dahl’s Matilda such a well-loved book – a smart lead who is far from a goody-goody, a monsterish villain (or three) and a touch of magic – it's surprising that the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new version, with a book by Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by comedian Tim Minchin, is its first musical adaptation.

Before the action even starts you are absorbed by the impressive set, which comprises a flood of Scrabble tiles that tumble down from the rafters, bringing to mind 5-year-old Matilda’s passion for books and language – the same passion that means her headteacher Miss Trunchbull, and even her parents, the air-headed Mrs Wormwood and the cheating car-dealer Mr Wormwood, distrust and dislike her. From there, the staging is consistently bold and frequently truly dazzling.

Having Trunchbull keep an eye on dozens of TV screens in her office (some showing her own hammer-throwing successes) gives her the feel of a deranged totalitarian, and set-pieces such as when she swings a little girl around by her pigtails are particularly well done - not to mention very, very funny.

It is the opening scene from the second act that really sticks with you though, when the children ride on swings which are attached to the theatre roof and swing right out into the auditorium. A moment of genuine wonder, this scene is accompanied by one of comedian – and experienced musical composer – Minchin’s finest songs, ‘When I Grow Up’, which tugs at the heartstrings with its innocent, child’s-eye view of what adult life will be like (going to bed late every day and eating sweets on the way to work feature heavily).

This is just one among many sublime songs however – lyrically complex and packed with instantly hummable melodies, the frankly faultless score is by turns funny, tender and clever. ‘Loud’, Mrs Wormwood’s paean to style over substance is a bombastic crowd-pleaser, and acts as a great counterweight to ‘Quiet’, which charts Matilda’s confusion and eventual calm as she discovers her telekinetic powers for the first time, and which was a highlight of a lovely, controlled performance from Adrianna Bertola as Matilda (Josie Griffiths and Kerry Ingram take the role on other nights). Minchin’s trademark ‘how did he ever think of that?’ moment comes in ‘The School Song’ – a track which contains a fantastic lyrical trick that I won’t give away, but had murmurs of admiration rumbling around the audience.

Dahl aficionados will be anxious to learn how closely this musical sticks to the original novel, and thanks to the dark, twisted humour that Kelly and Minchin inject into the show, it is certainly much closer in both content and feel to the novel than the 90s film version without being slavish. Matilda’s ‘magic’ powers, for example, are here given the same importance as they are in the book (ie, not overwhelming) but on the other hand a whole new character is introduced in the form of Mrs Wormwood’s inappropriately bendy dance partner Rudolpho.

The only possible issue is that Trunchbull – played by Bertie Carvel – is too funny to be truly scary. Carvel delivers a massive, consistently scene-stealing performance, but Trunchbull is certainly a figure of fun in this version and some will feel that she is not the terrifying grotesque that she could be. Moments of real menace do come from Paul Kaye as Mr Wormwood, however – and ultimately any child asked would say that a mean father is infinitely more upsetting than a mean headteacher.

This production ticks a multitude of boxes – inventive staging, wonderful songs, humour and heart – and does it all in such a way that enchants the adults in the audience without ever alienating the very people that this novel, and musical, ultimately celebrates: children. A delight.

The Art of Germany and The Trip

2010-12-05T12:25:00.003Z

If you want telly that is as beautiful as form as it is in content, just check out BBC Two's The Trip - which shows off the Lake District in all its bleak, frost-encrusted magnificence, and Andrew Graham-Dixon's The Art of Germany on BBC Four - beautifully shot, it's a little masterpiece in itself and presented with passion and insight. Do have a watch.

The RSC's Matilda - get a taster...

2010-12-02T13:14:00.004Z

With an orchestral tour, DVD and Royal Shakespeare Company musical to promote, you might have seen Tim Minchin quite a bit lately. Always a good thing, eh? If you haven't decided whether you should go see Matilda yet, this clip might help - my review of the show will be on MusicOMH after the press night on the 9th, so stay "tuned"....

The Rivals, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 12/11/10

2010-11-14T12:21:00.004Z

When you book for a period comedy, there is always the worrying chance that it will be funny only in the knowing 'oh yes, that must have been so very clever at the time' kind of way, like when people laugh at the 'fowl/foul' type jokes in Shakespeare. No, people, just no. What a joy, then, for a production of Sheridan's The Rivals to be properly, charmingly laugh-out-loud funny, as the one currently playing in preview at the Theatre Royal Haymarket most certainly is.

Admittedly, the first ten or fifteen minutes are exposition central, so the play does not get a blistering start out of the blocks, but once it hits its stride these performers wring every laugh possible out of every line. In particular, the scene in which country bumpkin Bob Acres unintentionally drives Faulkland to distraction with tales of how happy Julia has been while away from him is sublime. Performed by two actors with impeccable comic timing - Keiron Self as the cuddly, over-enthusiastic Acres and Tony Gardner as the tortured, earnest and slightly haughty Faulkland - these two roles could not be more perfectly cast, and the actors clearly have a ball performing together.

In fact, the over-arching sense of fun is something for which director Peter Hall must be praised. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this production is that the breaking of the fourth wall established in the asides is actually extended to other parts of the play, and by giving the actors licence to riff off the audience reaction, you feel that you are seeing a very unique performance - and for a play that's almost 250 years old, that's quite some feat.

Of course, much of the pre-publicity has concentrated on the fact that Peter Bowles and Penelope Keith (as Sir Anthony Absolute and Mrs Malaprop) are appearing on stage together for the first time since the televisual phenomenon To The Manor Born, but in fact, Bowles here has much more rapport with his on-stage son Tam Williams who plays Captain Absolute as a clever jack-the-lad that you can't help but love. Bowles's performance is bordering on the bizarre but in the most wonderful way - the part could easily be panto, but instead he underplays it, giving Absolute a real sense of menace one moment, and a jokey lightness the next.

Hall's The Rivals is a perfect storm of three huge positives: casting, direction and performance, all of which are brilliantly pitched. Classy and very, very funny.

Ben Folds in the UK!

2010-11-09T19:41:00.002Z

Woo and also hoo people! Benny comes back to the UK in February!

(Sorry for being so absent recently, work has been full on....)

Simon Pegg at Forbidden Planet (and Jess Hynes on Spaced)

2010-10-24T15:54:00.002+01:00

There aren't many people I'd queue up in the freezing cold for, simply to exchange a matter of nine or ten words and get a book signed, but the wonderful Simon Pegg - co-creator of what I maintain is one of the greatest television shows ever, Spaced, not to mention the brilliant Big Train, Shaun of the Dead and a whole host of ridiculously high profile, Hollywood roles - is certainly one of them. And I proved that yesterday when I, well, queued up in the freezing cold just to exchange (etc etc).

The meeting - which, let's face it, I've been waiting about eleven years for - was hardly historic, but I thanked him for the all the laughs he's provided me, and said that Spaced has picked me up countless times when I've felt a bit down; to which he responded "I'm glad, that's what we're here for." Which is lovely.

Of course, with his autobiography Nerd Do Well out, Burke and Hare about to 'hit' cinemas, and the trailer for Paul just having been released, Simon's pretty ubiquitous at the moment, but frankly, I count a Pegg-filled week as a very good one indeed.

As an aside, Jessica Hynes was on Something for the Weekend this morning (again, promoting Burke and Hare) and when Tim Lovejoy asked a viewer's question 'Will there be any more Spaced', I scoffed, expecting the answer to be a blank no. But I was wrong... in fact, Jess said that not only could they write more, but that she would like to because she knows how much people love the characters! Amazing! The inevitable caveat, of course, is that Simon Pegg appears to have little interest in returning to Tim and Daisy. Sigh. If I believed that those two would mess it up, I'd say it's for the best. Unfortunately, I genuinely don't think that'd be the case.

The Special Relationship III @ The Invisible Dot

2010-10-03T16:44:00.004+01:00

Just time for a few words on another night at The Invisible Dot; another little bit of low-fi magic sprinkled in the north Camden area. 'The Special Relationship' is hosted by Tom Basden, and it's rather really lovely to see him centre of attention at the Dot, seeing as though he plays such a downtrodden, low-status character as part of his double act with Tim Key, Freeze. Also integral in the night's success are The American Twins, AKA purveyors of the finest short stories, Jarred McGinnis and Sam Taradash, and together the three presented a transatlantic mix of music, stand-up, story-telling, short films and poetry.

Matthew Robins and his beautiful combination of shadow puppetry and harmonium - truly lovely and inventive - kicked things off, and then there was poetry from Melissa Mann, short stories from the American Twins (both really impressive) a great little play written by Tim Key and performed with Isy Suttie, and the most atmospheric short film I have ever seen: Off Season, by Jonathan van Tulleken. To even tell you its genre is probably to give too much away, but I think it's still doing the rounds at film festivals so if you get the chance to see it - go. Highlight of the evening: extracts from Tom Basden's intentionally confused and over-explained novel 'Hot Moon' (there's a brilliant chapter here). It takes someone with truly fine writing skills to craft something that wonderfully ridiculous and funny - genuinely excellent.

I haven't made it to the two previous 'Special Relationship' nights, but I'll certainly be clearing a space for it in my diary (ok, Google Calendar) from here on in. Next one is 27th October.

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue

2010-10-03T15:28:00.005+01:00

A new Ben Folds album! Ah, it's a thing to cherish, isn't it? And especially intriguing this time, with Nick Hornby on board to provide the lyrics, an aspect of songwriting that Ben has always said is secondary for him - he's all about the tunes, and while that's fine by me, I know his lyrics are a barrier for some.

Lonely Avenue is, after just a couple of listens, already my favourite Ben Folds album since Rockin' The Suburbs. Just like his first solo album there is a wonderful mix of the big and goofy, and the quiet and beautiful - both of which he's a real master at. There are bombastic numbers stuffed with layer upon layer of instrumentation and backing vocals like the frankly insane ode to poet Saskia Hamilton, and the radio-friendly 'From Above' about missed-opportunities ("sure we all have soul-mates but we walk past them everyday"). And then there are the smaller, simpler tracks like 'Belinda' - check out the lyrics to see the callbacks (forward?) to Juliet, Naked - and stand-out number 'Picture Window'; and it's on these tracks in particular that Nick's words and Ben's melodies work together wonderfully well.

What ties both types of song together on this album though, is that they are both equally blessed with some of the best choruses Ben has ever written. Perhaps it's because he has been able to work solely on the tunes, he has made them as instantly hummable as he can, and it means that even the tracks that aren't up to the standard of, say, 'Picture Window' still get kickass choruses - especially 'Doc Pomus' and 'Your Dogs.'

Listening to the album again as I type, I'm shamelessly flip-flopping in terms of which is my favourite song. 'Levi Johnston's Blues', written from the point of the view of the Alaskan teen who - as Hornby puts it - "knocked up the VP nominee's daughter" during the last presidential election, is a whole heap of fun, but then 'From Above' has an amazing middle-eight, 'Picture Window' is heartbreaking, and 'Password', about a boyfriend's attempts to hack into his partner's email account, has a real feeling of 'Rockin' The Suburbs' B-side 'Girl' about it - and that's a very good thing indeed. This isn't a new direction for Ben Folds - and if you're not already a fan, it's unlikely to convert you now - but it's a great showcase for what he does best: amazing tunes.

New on Dork Adore - my weekly WWBW column

2010-10-01T16:34:00.003+01:00

What? You don't know what WWBW is? Where have you been?! It's a hashtag and everything!

Ha. Ok, basically it stands for 'What we've been watching' and I'll be doing weekly round-up of precisely that on Dork Adore every Friday for the foreseeable. I'd forgotten how much fun blogging about telly is... Please point your eyes in the direction of the first of hopefully many right here.

Hand-drawn Ben Folds is a bit too cool...

2010-09-30T17:13:00.000+01:00

Review of the new album (wheeee!) this weekend...

Preview: Bill Bailey's Dandelion Mind, Leicester Square Theatre

2010-09-19T10:48:00.004+01:00

When I saw Bill Bailey for the first time in Edinburgh last year, having watched and re-watched my Part Troll and Bewilderness DVDs to death, I had fully expected the show to be a highlight. Like a lot of people I know, however, I found that particular show a bit... flat. Far from bad, and I was glad to have seen him, but nowhere near the level I had - perhaps unfairly - expected of him.

How heartening, then, to go to a preview of his new show Dandylion Mind last night at the Leicester Square Theatre and, to a go a bit Simon Cowell on you, be completely blown away. I'm sure seeing him a smaller venue helped (the main room holds around 250) but I think the show itself generally works better too. There are fewer set-pieces, and more rambling shaggy dog stories that don't seem to have much to do with each other - going to deepest Colombia with Sean Lock armed with nothing but a few biscuits and some weed, for example, and an impassioned rant against Michael Winner - but are actually beautifully tied together in the last moments of the show. In other words, it has all the satisfaction of well thought-out structure with none of the constriction.

There is also fun for fun's sake - we sing California Dreaming for no apparent reason - and are introduced to Bailey's new toy, the Tenori-on, an electronic device that turns any image or pattern you draw into music. There is also a moment of superlative musicianship during his version of Gary Numan's Cars that I won't spoil, but is so impressive and so joyful that it's probably Worth The Ticket Price Alone.

With a bad back and clearly suffering from a nasty cold, Bailey could have been forgiven for being a bit below par, but on the contrary he seemed really up for it, and was clearly bouyed by what was an incredibly appreciative Saturday night audience. An early, random shout of "giddy-up!" from the fourth row became a running joke, and a hearty "THANKS FOR COMING!" near the end also got him giggling - always a delight. (Good heckling should be encouraged at Bill Bailey gigs by the way - his impromptu flights of whimsical fancy are a privilege to be witness to.)

A master of clever, bizarre imagery and, of course, a musical maestro, Dandelion Mind showcases Bailey at his very best. He's at the Wyndham's Theatre throughout November, and I'm already planning on going again. Wonderful stuff.

EDIT: I was planning to use the phrase "This show has more fake-endings than Hampton Court Palace maze" but I forgot. Dammit. Not a complaint, by the way; the show builds brilliantly towards the 'proper' end.

Feature Spot presents... Rufus Hound, Tim Key, Adam Buxton & MC Carl Donnelly

2010-09-18T13:01:00.010+01:00

The ace Carrie Matthews, under the guise of Feature Spot, puts on some of the most stellar comedy nights in London, usually bringing together three or four acts who would all be impressive headliners. Tuesday's night in the West London theatre venue The Tabernacle was a particularly exciting line-up: Rufus Hound, Tim Key, Adam Buxton and MC Carl Donnelly, plus a 'big telly name' who, incidentally, didn't turn up. No matter, though.

It's literally years - well, two and a half - since I last, and first, saw Carl Donnelly, opening for Rhod Gilbert at the Doncaster gig which has since provided the Welsh comic with so much material (he seemingly never got over the fact that we had the temerity to name our airport after Robin Hood, to whom we have precisely no claim). I enjoyed him then, but have never bumped into him since on my comedy travels and, to my retrospective shame, never actively sought him out - that changed after seeing this video of him from the Edinburgh Fringe however. I just found something about his demeanour, turn of phrase and, well, shades so appealing and cool and - despite my well-documented fondness for Mr Key - it was his presence on the bill that finally kicked my ticket-buying arse into gear for this show. Far from the wind-em-up-and-let-em-go style MC, he just hung off him mic, chatted to people on the front row - dealing deftly with one guy who would gave away absolutely nothing - and generally created a lovely atmosphere.

A lovely atmosphere but not, perhaps, an uproarious one, though there were several reasons for that; the Tabernacle is a big old space for one, and the cabaret tables set-up means that the audience are quite spread out. Plus, as my friends and I commented before the gig, it felt more like a theatre crowd than a comedy one, and all this culminated in the fact that when Rufus Hound came to stage, shouting - as is his wont - 'waheeeyy!' no-one joined in.

As such, he did his usual club set about the differences between groups of men and groups of women and the non-existence of God, but deconstructed it - telling us the mechanics behind each joke, and explaining what reaction he would have been getting, were he performing his set in front of 'real' people, as opposed to the lumberjack shirt-clad, iPad-owning, media twits that faced him. Now, performed with tongue firmly wedged in cheek, Hound would have undoubtedly had the audience in the palm of his hand - we *were* a bit reserved and would have been up for being ribbed about it. Performed, as it was, with a straight face it was rather hard to love. Hound has since said on Twitter that it was an experiment that yielded no results but I doubt that's true (the results bit), and it'll be interesting to see if and how the set continues to evolve.

Tim Key was up after the interval, and rather than leaping straight into his poems, he instead followed up one of Carl Donnelly's stories with his own tales of being alone in Asia: "I was travelling, and I'd heard that you made friends with people along the way, at hostels... didn't happen." It's hard to explain just how Key can regularly reduce an audience to literal tears of laughter, as he did at this point, but it's certainly true to say that it's often these off the cuff moments that are the most special. He seems more willing to go off-script at smaller gigs, but he seemed to enjoy this, so hopefully we'll see more of it. Travelling tales done, he got down to poem-reciting business including a good dose of fairly new ones and a couple of longer stand-up skits that have worked their way into his sets of late and a fabulous video I hadn't seen before featuring the lovely Kristen Schaal.

Headliner Adam Buxton has a hugely loyal following thanks to The Adam and Joe Show, both on Channel 4 and now 6Music (they're back in November, he told us), but while I am au fait with Stephenage I can hardly claim to be a massive fan. Luckily for me then, the in-jokes were kept to a minimum, and Buxton is a whole heap of fun. With his laptop screen projected onto the back wall of the stage, he showed us little videos, his rejected ideas for the replacement name for 'Charmin' (including "Luxuriarse" which, you suspect, he's genuinely proud of) and - most brilliant and successfully of all - some choice comments to a couple of his clips on YouTube. Revealed one at a time thanks to the wonder of Photoshop, the comments are by turns wrong-headed, furious, sweet and inspired and it makes for a sublime set-piece.

Feature Spot returned to the 100 Club on Thursday with MC Dan Atkinson, Ginger and Black, Tom Basden, Andrew Lawrence and Russell Howard - again, brilliant. Why did I miss it? No idea. Won't make that mistake again.

*Wonderful photos courtesy of Edward Moore.

Paul Fuzz on the Toy Story trilogy

2010-09-04T18:35:00.002+01:00

By complete coincidence, big brother Paul has just posted a blog about Toy Story too - if you've seen the film (spoilers) go have a read forthwith right here. It's a proper and properly brilliant review.

Dogs Can't Look Up - it's an excellent blog

2010-09-04T17:56:00.006+01:00

I went to Jonny's blog Don't Can't Look Up to give you the link to a lovely post he did for We Are Cardiff - "a voluntary project... collecting the stories of people that live in this fine capital city of Wales." I did that - it's here - but I also spent a good hour browsing through lots of the great things he's posted. You should do the same.

Childhood favourites at Empire Cinema Leicester Square

2010-09-04T16:18:00.007+01:00

To say I work for a company promoting the importance of film and film clubs, and their place in education, I actually get to the cinema very rarely. But in the past month I have been to the same cinema twice and both experiences have been among my best ever in front of the 'frenzy on the wall'.

The Empire Cinema in Leicester Square is, unsurprisingly given its location, a little pricey, but when you're seated in Screen 1, a mammoth auditorium with two tiers and an enormous screen, you can't help but feel it's worth it. It feels special, a proper event just like the glory days of Purple Rose of Cairo-era cinema. It's not arthouse, it's big and brash and I love it.

Of course, what you're watching helps, and the two films I have seen in this screen are Toy Story 3 and Back To The Future. Admittedly, these are films that would gladden the heart when viewed on a stuttery mobile phone. But I've no doubt that it was the surroundings, the extra frisson you get with a truly huge audience, that means I have experienced no fewer than four rounds of applause in a cinema in the last month, having previously never been privy to such a thing. (I did clap in joyous anticipation when the opening credits started rolling on The Phantom Menace but my excitement did not prove infectious and unfortunately one person clapping does not constitute a 'round'.)

But yes, the films are superb. I have been actively waiting for Toy Story 3's release since the moment I came out of the cinema having seen Toy Story 2 ten years ago. I am saying nothing controversial when I suggest that the Toy Story films are among the greatest ever made - CGI or otherwise - but I was lucky enough to have been born at just the right time to both enjoy them as rollicking, very funny adventures, and appreciate the deeper sadness and subtlety that make them so special. There was quite a lot of pressure on the third instalment then (I'm sure director Lee Unkrich and his colleagues felt my expectation keenly) but I was genuinely never that concerned that I would be disappointed. And I wasn't.

I will have to see it again in the rather less atmospheric surroundings of my own bedroom on a small screen to really compare it with 1 and 2, but in the moment, it felt right up there, and probably better than 2. It is, for one thing, downright hilarious - there are moments of inspired physical comedy, Buzz being reset to a Spanish-language version is brilliant, and the introduction of (Barbie's) Ken a masterstroke. And yes, it will have you crying buckets - twice, if you're like me. There is one utterly devastating moment (believe me, you'll know it when you see it) and one bittersweet moment - both handled beautifully by a creative team whose heart and care is evident in every single frame. It's one hell of a film, and received two of those spontaneous rounds of applause; one at the end and one after a particularly brilliant bonus scene which screens during the end credits.

And so to Back To The Future, remastered and back in cinemas for a wide but brief release in October. A colleague managed to wangle me a ticket for this preview, and so the long-held wish to see the film firmly ensconced in my Top 5 list on the big screen was fulfilled. And it was great. Cleaned up but not overworked it looks stunning, and sharing this film with a load of fans was a real joy. It was interesting to see what got the biggest reactions and almost without fail it was performance rather than script that got the big laughs - Glover in particular, but also Doc's eye-rolls as Lorraine gets Marty to ask her to the dance, and Marty's squirming whenever she comes near him. We cheered when George laid out Biff, and gave Marty the big response those 1950s squares don't - that's EXACTLY what I wanted.

Up next: A New Hope, Labyrinth, High Fidelity and The Wizard of Oz. Maybe.

My Comedy Highlights piece for MusicOMH.com

2010-09-01T19:38:00.002+01:00

Having seen only one of the acts nominated for any of the Foster's Comedy Award – the musical talent who turned 20 during the festival, Bo Burnham – I am not, I think it’s safe to say, much of a barometer for what’s been “hot” at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. But such is the scope and scale of the Fringe nowadays, there were of course dozens if not hundreds of outstanding acts which did not make the shortlists, and it’s a pleasure to have the chance to celebrate just a few of them here.

Sketch comedy may not have featured on either of those lists this year, but three sketch acts – all very different - were real highlights of my time in the Scottish capital. First up were the oddly-named Delete The Banjax, a four-man (well, three-man-and-one-woman) troupe who are simply fun incarnate. Great songs, a winning mix of personas, an abundance of silly ideas and an excess of charm, their show is lo-fi joy, and I’ve no doubt they’ll come back with something even stronger next year.
The Penny Dreadfuls –David Reed, Thom Tuck and Humphrey Ker - have been around rather longer, to the extent that they have undergone a major, Madonna-esque reinvention for this year’s show. Their Victorian garb and sketches gone, they’re now decked out all in yellow and black, and have allowed themselves the freedom to write sketches on any topic their imaginations can muster – anything from backstreet wrestling broadcast live on the net to the Twilight saga, as it turns out. These extended skits are brilliantly written but it’s the performances – proper acting chops combined with perfect timing and a lovely rapport – that really put them at the very top of the sketch comedy game.

The three gents also put in scene-stealing turns in Martin White and Danielle Ward’s excellent new musical Gutted – which was no mean feat, considering they were having to do the stealing away from this year’s stand-out character comedian Colin Hoult.

Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson meanwhile are excellent stand-up comics in their own right, but come together as Two Episodes of MASH to deliver sketches which they say ‘tend to peter out’. They do themselves a disservice, however; this show is actually packed full of “proper” set-up and punchline jokes. Unusually for a sketch show, however, this is understated, quiet stuff – a real change of pace and hugely appealing.

Away from the sketch comedy, there are several one-man performances that have emerged from the pack when asked – as I have been dozens of times since returning from Scotland – which was the ‘best’ show I saw. Just like last year, David O’Doherty’s metamorphosis as a performer continues to astound and delight. Now playing in the proper theatre surroundings of Pleasance One – and not, as he says at the top of the show, some STD clinic commandeered by the Fringe – he, Boyle’s Law- like, has grown to fill his surroundings, and elicited the best audience reaction I experienced on the Fringe this year with his songs about Shakira, animal facts and the offer of practical help on bicycle maintenance.

In complete opposite to David O’Doherty’s shaggy dog stories but just as wonderful, another of my favourite shows featured ream upon ream of stunning one-liners. John-Luke Roberts Distracts You From A Murder sees Roberts attempt to keep our mind off the blood-curdling screams emanating from the wings by insulting every member of the audience with pre-written insults which range from “your hair looks like you borrowed it” to my personal favourite “you laugh at adverts in the places they want you to laugh.” A creative concept, genius writing and spot-on delivery means Roberts will have gained legions of fans with this debut solo show – oh, and he certainly wins the as yet non-existent award for best flyer.

Another show I have found myself recommending to anyone expressing even the slightest interest is Terry Saunders’ Six and a Half Loves, a story of perfect and imperfect love between three couples, accompanied by Saunders’ own animations. Simply performed and with some wonderful throwaway lines, this is an engrossing and intelligently written show. Aussie Claudia O’Doherty meanwhile (no relation, although she did co-write 100 Facts About Pandas with David) brought her award-winning show Monster Of The Deep 3D to the Fringe, and what a magical and very funny show it is. She tells the tale of a now-defunct underwater community ‘Aquaplex’ through flashcards, Blue Peter models and verbatim theatre, and there is a lovely twist at the end of the show which kept me beaming for days.

Let's return to those Comedy Awards, won - many would argue deservedly - by Russell Kane after three nominations in a row, while Best Newcomer went to the endearing Roisin Conaty for her meandering but likeable and astute set. Ironically her material hangs around the fact that she felt she wasn't sufficiently successful in life to give advice to anyone younger than herself; now that she's an award winner that will be a harder case to make.

There have been rumblings that Bo Burnham, while unarguably prodigiously talented, did not really do anything beyond the call of duty, as you might expect of the recipient of the Panel Prize for someone who captures the spirit of the Fringe. Personally my opinions on this are mixed with the fact that (whisper it) I didn’t actually enjoy his show that much, despite being hugely impressed by his songwriting, but as an alternative, may I offer comedy production and publishing company The Invisible Dot. As well as bringing several regular shows, they also took around 400 audience members on a magical mystery tour for a show by the sea, hosted an album launch for Tim Key at Avalanche Records, arranged the wonderful ‘Inaugural 3-Sided Football Tournament’ on the Meadows and placed four specially-adapted telephone boxes around Edinburgh in which you could listen to short stories by the likes of DBC Pierre, Will Self and Mark Watson, for free. Beyond the call of duty, I’d say.

[Original article]

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: John-Luke Roberts Distracts You From A Murder

2010-08-26T20:31:00.003+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

The main problem with reviewing John-Luke Roberts' impressive show ...Distracts You From A Murder is that you are constantly tempted to forego critical prose and instead simply quote reams of his one-liners verbatim. While that would undoubtedly make for entertaining reading, though, it wouldn't be especially fair on Roberts, who has clearly lovingly crafted and honed his quips to the distilled state in which they are performed, so (with one exception that I just can't resist) I shall try to keep this spoiler-free.

In ...Distracts You From A Murder Roberts has created for himself a lovely niche that brilliantly shows off his talent for clever one-liner comedy. The puns and word play - much of which takes a good few seconds for the audience to fully digest before laughing - comes in a torrent, but it is all framed within the 'storyline' of the show, which is the grizzly murder mentioned in the title. "It's not a whodunnit" he says, "it's more a whatdidhedo" - the answer to which only becomes clear in the last few minutes of the show.

As he establishes early on, a murderer's observational comedy lacks the universality necessary for its success, so instead Roberts spends much of the show insulting every single member of the audience, in order, using generic put-downs written down on a set of cards. What you get, then, is pot luck, and they are creative, generally very mild insults that range from the wildly convoluted to the pithily concise - my favourite, I think, has to be: "You laugh at adverts in the places they want you to laugh." Ouch. It is an ingenious vehicle for his comedy and while perhaps not every one garners an uproarious response, literally dozens are real winners that keep you giggling long after the show has ended.

Between the insults we also get a public health video, (slightly) longer jokes told from the comfort of an 'Anecdote Chair' and, of course, the murder itself. The calmly calculating character Roberts plays means that there is not much room left for banter or adlibbing here, and while that is understandable given the structure of the show, Roberts is such a confident and distinctive performer that it's also something of a shame. Luckily - for him and us - there will be many more Edinburghs for Roberts to try out different ways of showcasing his obvious talent; which is more than can be said for his poor victim.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: The Invisible Dot bonus features

2010-08-24T11:13:00.008+01:00

As you might cleverly discern from the slew of reviews I just cross-posted here, I've been at the Edinburgh Fringe this last week, and doing some reviews for British Comedy Guide. It's been a brilliant week, and I like to think that the reviews of some of the excellent shows I have seen will translate into one or two more well-deserved bums on seats. Camden's wonderfully enigmatic and creative Invisible Dot Ltd have several 'regular' shows up there - Jonny Sweet's Let's All Just Have Some Fun (and Learn Something For Once), The Horne Section, John-Luke Roberts Distracts You From A Murder (review to come) and Tim Key's The Slutcracker - but, as tends to be the way, they have also graced the Fringe with one or two 'one-off' bonus features.

Way back on 15th August (it feels a long time ago now...), the Dot staged the inaugural Three-Sided Football Tournament, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Three teams play on a pitch with three nets, with the winner being the team which conceded the fewest goals, rather than scoring the most and you know what, the game works really well. What a joy it was to sit on the Meadows on a Sunday afternoon in the blazing sunshine watching comedy's brightest stars display some serious skills - Thomas Craine dancing past the defence(s), Thom Tuck darting between the opposition, Sara Pascoe a safe pair of hands in goal and David O'Doherty the team's talismanic and vociferous leader. Photo by the love Simone:

Five days later came the long-awaited sequel to the original Invisible Dot Club which took place at Proud Galleries in Camden a good 18 months ago and featured a stellar line-up of Tims Key and Minchin, Kevin Eldon, Daniel Kitson, Pippa Evans, Simon Munnery and Arthur Smith. This time, the club relocated to 'a secret location by the sea', a location that was only revealed to the audience on arrival. In a feat of impressive logistics and organisation, a good 300 people were coached out of Edinburgh and into nearby Portobello, taken on an ultimately superfluous but wonderful walk by the sea and guided into Portobello's Town Hall. Unfortunately, headliner Stewart Lee's set was, if not ruined certainly disrupted by an incredibly rude audience member but Kitson was a brilliant host as ever, Eldon mind-bogglingly clever, Colin Hoult a superlative character comedian, Josie Long delightful, and Key typically hilarious. A unique concept, The Invisible Dot Club By The Sea was ambitious and magical.

On 22nd August it was time for Key to take the centre of a very small stage, at the back of uber-cool record shop Avalanche on Cockburn Street. Being a comic, poet and author is clearly not enough for Tim, and so he has recorded an album with a string quartet (obviously), the 'sneaky launch' for which took place in the store packed with friends, fans and fellow comics. The Tim Key Album Launch may have been short - comprising of one sketch with the ace Alex Horne, and one and a quarter poems (cut short by O'Doherty who cited factual inaccuracy, leading Key to stop in his tracks, screw up the paper on which the poem was written, and move on) - but it was perfectly formed. The album itself is a thing of beauty too.

And throughout all this, indeed throughout the entire month of the Fringe, four inconspicuous red telephone boxes, the physical manifestation of The Invisible Dot Communuications Ltd, stood in various locations around Edinburgh. Those who entered had the chance to pick up the receiver and listen to short stories by the likes of Mark Watson, DBC Pierre and Jack Thorne, for free. Ace.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: Claudia O'Doherty - Monster of the Deep 3D

2010-08-24T11:08:00.001+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

Claudia O'Doherty's show Monster of the Deep 3D has been laden with awards over in her native Australia and, if there's any justice, that happy trend will continue here at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The show takes the premise that Claudia is the last surviving inhabitant of a now blown-to-smithereens underwater base 'Aquaplex' which was established in the 1970s by a pan-continental committee in order to ready humankind for the coming apocalypse, whatever shape it may take (assuming it involves some sort of massive flood.) With Aquaplex destroyed, she has now taken it upon herself to explain her former home, its people and culture, through the medium of a one-woman presentation complete with flashcards and a Q&A session she has written herself. It's a 'high concept' show, you might say.

The word 'whimsy' hangs heavy (well, as heavy as whimsy can hang) in the air and while to me there is no shame in that, for some it has become a rather mockable word. It is a whimsical premise of course, but those allergic to the idea should realise that Claudia is no shrinking violet, whispering her way through the set; instead she is a hugely dynamic, larger than life performer who fills her venue with energy. And the laughs are big and frequent - whether dancing along to Toto's Africa, doing a bit of verbatim theatre or giving us a guided tour of her self-made model of Aquaplex her turn of phrase, physical comedy and attention to the detail of her invented world are consistently funny and impressive.

All aspects of Aquaplegian (yup) life are covered, from the use of virtual reality 'Dream Helmets' to allow those more used to living on land to imagine they are back in a beautiful meadow to 'Emotionas', the underwater version of Christmas, which Claudia only slowly realises may have had previously undetected dark overtones actually during the presentation. The whole show is inventive and fun but there is one moment in particular that I would bravely state must be one of the most magical on the Fringe. To even hint at it would be a travesty - no-one should be denied the sense of wonder it evokes when a complete and beautiful surprise - but rest assured it is something genuinely special. And while you're resting assured, perhaps book a ticket.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: Two Episodes of MASH

2010-08-24T11:07:00.002+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

There are a lot of great sketch shows at the Fringe this year, and Two Episodes of MASH - aka Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson - are right up there. The likes of The Penny Dreadfuls perform expansive sketches which go on for minutes, however, in the main TEofM eschew big characters and storylines in favour of quickfire gags. The press release may say "don't expect any hefty punchlines" but the show is, in fact, full of them; between the punchline-less absurdist situations there are plenty of sketches which are essentially one-liners acted out.

Of course, this type of comedy requires a large store of killer ideas, but that is something Morgan and Wilkinson clearly possess. Like any good one-liner comic, they take you down one path only to flip the situation on its head, and, such is their imagination and creativity, even when you know there is going to be a twist at the end of a sketch, you can never guess what that twist might be. When they do resort to a cheesy, "and then I got off the bus" type-punchline, they ironically exclaim "a proper joke, ladies and gentlemen!" - but in fact the show has jokes in bucket loads.

Luckily, the sketches come so thick and fast that I feel I can indulge you with the details of one or two without ruining it. Favourites included a tortured game of Eye Spy in which Wilkinson can't imagine anything beginning with R other than rats or the roof of his own mouth, and an aggressive couple who turn the air blue while sitting on the front row for a recording of Songs of Praise.

Directed by Stefan Golaszewski of Cowards fame, you see shades of his fellow performers Tim Key and Tom Basden in Wilkinson's nervy mannerisms and brilliant timing, and while Morgan is frequently the 'straight man', her subtle expressions often upstage her comedy partner. The sketches may be silly, but if you want shouting, gesticulating and general running around you will certainly have to look elsewhere. In the main this is a nice change of pace but, call me unsophisticated, I couldn't help hoping to see a little giggle - something of the real Wilkinson and Morgan beneath their considered performances which might add a touch of warmth to their otherwise excellent sketches.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: The Penny Dreadfuls

2010-08-24T11:06:00.002+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

Thoroughly rebranded from bleak Victoriana to bright yellow and black, The Penny Dreadfuls - Thom Tuck, Humphrey Ker and David Reed - have broken away from their traditionally 19th-century themed sketches into new exciting territory. Now unconstrained by corsets and breeches, the world is their oyster and the Dreadfuls are clearly having a ball - and judging from the whoops and cheers emitted from the audience during this performance, so are they.

Of course what works so well, and what has always worked in the Dreadful's favour, is that they are all such wonderful performers who draw out the very best in each other, each bringing something different to the sketches. Thom Tuck's fantastic physical comedy is called upon throughout the show, but showed off particularly well in a sketch in which he plays a wrestler, keen - for some reason - to take on a Gulf War veteran. David's finest Yorkshire-accented moment comes in a recurring sketch about a car race with the keys to a Honda Jazz at stake, while Humphrey's genuinely great acting skills - and floppy hair - are put to excellent use in an angst-ridden parody of the Twilight series.

There were technical issues with this show meaning that the Dreadfuls were plunged into darkness on a couple of occasions, something which only added to David's rather charming tendency towards barely-concealed corpsing. Of course, it also gave them the chance to ad-lib a little - always a joy for an audience - and it gave rise to a great line at the end of the show: "if you want your money back, just go to the box office and remember, we've been Pappy's Fun Club."

In the main, the sketches are given plenty of time to develop, and they do not exist in isolation but frequently reference each other, with characters and ideas cropping up time and again. As such this is superlative sketch comedy, created with care and performed with real flair by super-talented comics.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: Nat Luurtsema - In My Head I'm A Hero

2010-08-24T11:02:00.002+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

Nat Luurtsema came to many people's attention in the fantastic sketch show Superclump at last year's Fringe where she performed alongside the likes of Mike Wozniak and Henry Paker, and it's fantastic to see that she is back in Edinburgh, striking out on her own in this accomplished solo debut.

"This is dangerously close to conversation" she says at the top of the show, referencing the few empty stools, but in fact 'conversation' is precisely what Luurtsema does best - it is one-sided conversation admittedly, but her style is so comfortable, so chatty and informal that, despite our lack of involvement it does feel like a good old chinwag with a close and very funny friend. The title of the show In My Head I'm A Hero comes from Nat's assertion that she spends most of her time daydreaming about coming to the aid of dozens in some huge disaster, just like in the movies - but the nearest she's actually come to fulfilling the dream is doing something approaching triage after seeing a bus very slowly career into a wall, resulting in precisely no casualties.

These opening discussions are enjoyable but not especially laugh-out-loud hilarious and it takes some time for the show to really kick into gear. Eventually though, we move away from Nat's current daydreams and back into her childhood, and it's here that the laughs really come - it's just a shame we do not get to this fertile territory sooner. Because fertile it is; Nat was a lonely child and to prove the point, she brings along her 'By Myself Book' outlining the rather sad activities that a young nerdy girl can go do on her own - and spins an excellent routine around it. She also gets great stuff from having been sent to a Freemasons school, where she took part in 'drill', aka rather spooky formation marching reminiscent of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on a severe budget. And yes, we are treated to a mini live performance.

Surprisingly, the story takes a rather serious turn, and we discover that while Luurtsema is forever fantasising about raging fires and kids trapped down a well, she was actually at the centre of a very personal crisis at the age of just twelve. The revelation sneaks up on you and gives the narrative a real edge - but again, the show might benefit from it coming a little earlier. Overall, though, this is a hugely enjoyable hour performed by a warm, witty comic with a vivid imagination, some lovely lines, and, you suspect, much more to come.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: Terry Saunders - Six and a Half Loves

2010-08-24T11:00:00.001+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

Terry Saunders is a comic, animator and storyteller and while all three of these bow-strings are in evidence in his new show, Six And A Half Loves, it is without doubt his genius for storytelling - and, of course, writing - which shines the brightest.

The show comprises the tale of three perfect couples; six people who are absolutely meant to be together, and how they love and lose each other, and fall into the arms of others. There are fewer than a hundred of these perfect couples in the world, we are told at the very start, but even these do not always end up together in happy ever afters - life, circumstance and the odd stupid decision can often get in the way. Saunders tells us their stories as his animations scroll through on the big screen, and the names of the three main men involved - Sean, Nigel and Lenny - are projected onto his white t-shirt (which he sports with white trousers, for the sartorially-minded).

For the first twenty minutes, the stories of three couples - I won't divulge whether these are actually the 'perfect' couples or not - are quite distinct. There's Sean quietly simpering after best friend Natalie, poor Nigel who has made his flat a shrine to ex-girlfriend Sue, and Lenny and Kim, the comfy couple who've simply grown apart. As the story unfolds though, their lives intertwine in all sorts of ways, from passionate one night stands which somehow last for months, to brief meetings in bars and stations. The strands are deftly and impressively woven together, but even more brilliant are the tiny motifs - songs, tears, even milk - that subtly crop up at key moments to remind you of previous scenes and situations. In fact, I felt I'd like to have been handed a script at the end, just to go back and check I hadn't missed any clever little connections.

This may not be a show to make you consistently laugh out loud, but the laughs are certainly there if you keep your wits about you; lines such as "the weekends were long, and the weeks even longer" are delivered with a sparkle in the eye but could easily be missed. The only slight issue with this show then is that the animations - while providing some nice visual gags along the way and always lovely to look at - do not add as much to the story as one might hope. Luckily, the story is so finely conceived and beautifully written, very little needs adding.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: The Golden Lizard

2010-08-24T10:58:00.001+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

Following on from the big success of the Pajama Men's excellent two-man theatre-slash-sketch comedy show Last Stand To Reason comes this excellent two-man theatre-slash-sketch comedy show The Golden Lizard starring two comics who are celebrated in their own right: Mike Wozniak and Henry Paker.

With the aid of just one chair, a pair of clip-on spectacles, some Aviators and a visor, the two comics play out the tale of Roy - a lowly librarian trainee with a fear of ladders, but a prodigious genius for alphabetising. If only he could overcome his irrational ladder phobia, he would be the greatest librarian there ever was; as it is, he is destined to a dull, ground-level-bound life among the As, Bs and Cs, silently lusting after his mentor Susan, who, for whatever reason, speaks with a manly southern drawl. It is only when a menacing stranger with, what else, a German accent comes into the library requesting The Golden Lizard by Floyd Vernon, that his life takes a more exciting turn.

The story is essentially a series of very physical, very silly, but hugely funny vignettes that give Wozniak and Paker the chance to give full flight to their clearly expansive imaginations and precise comic timing. Throughout the show, the professor and author of the all-important book, Floyd Vernon pops up - played by whichever of the two happens to have the spectacles - to give us one of his latest theories; be it the fact that we only really need five numbers, whether a tree that falls when no-one's around really does make a sound, or working out the average name of the audience (it's as convoluted a process as you would expect). These moments are among the most creative and funniest of the whole show.

Between the mini-lectures the story unfolds, and we travel from the library - by plane, ship and Emperor Goose - to Bolivia in search of the book, with the performers taking the roles of assorted, generally mad men and women along the way. It is a little slow to get off the ground and ends abruptly, but in between there is a massive amount of fun to be had here and importantly, both Wozniak and Paker are really engaging performers - Paker clearly loves a bit of verbal invention, ad libbing his way through some killer throwaway lines, while Wozniak is a brilliant physical performer who is a constant joy to watch.

Edinburgh Fringe 2010: Chris Addison

2010-08-17T10:01:00.005+01:00

[Original British Comedy Guide review here]

One of the really lovely things about the recent renaissance in comedy on television - stoked by a plethora of panel shows and the re-emergence of stand-up in primetime slots - is that its stars seem keener than their predecessors to keep their live work central to what they do. So, while Chris Addison regularly appears on - and generally brings something very different to - the likes of Mock The Week and Have I Got News For You, we still have the chance to see him in his natural environment on a very regular basis.

And thank goodness. Despite his oft-mentioned youthful looks, Addison has been in comedy for fifteen years now, and in that time he has simply got better - angrier, maybe, more frustrated at the world around him, but definitely better. His stand-up is frequently described as 'cerebral', and his frenetic bounciness around the stage often praised, and while both of these are eminently valid observations, the most important thing to say about this show is simply that it packs in a frankly astonishing number of laughs per minute. The afternoon leading up to the show had seen Addison in A&E having torn a ligament, but he still delivered a storming set; the evident pain only knocking him off his stride in the literal sense.

The thrust of this impressive show is that while the West in the early 21st century is the very best place and time to be alive, we can't help but spend all our time complaining about it. The world is filled with miracles, he tells us - a civilisation's worth of information is beamed straight to our laptops 'through the dust of our living rooms', as he says in one of his lovelier lines - and yet we love nothing more than a good moan.

Not that Addison is immune from this modern affliction of course, and his thesis gives him the opportunity to wax lyrical on his own pet hates, which include Ugg boots, the BNP, golfers, the UK's inability to deal with snow and the phrase "the thing about me is..." All are discussed and decried with a glorious accuracy and the rants are punctuated by proper, quotable jokes that elicit belly laughs between the general beaming and nodding-in-agreement that his observations provoke.

Chris Addison is unashamedly middle class - that injury was caused by jumping down the stairs in a desperate bid to catch the Sainsbury's delivery man - and here he has distilled middle class anxieties, annoyances and preoccupations into a fine and assured show driven by an obviously genuine passion for the things he talks about, and delivered by a comic at the top of his game.

My Edinburgh Fringe debut

2010-08-04T20:16:00.003+01:00

Yes, it's Preview #1 for a lot of acts today, so now seems as good a time as any to let you know that I will actually be making my Edinburgh Fringe debut this year. Kind of. Pop along to John-Luke Roberts Distracts You From A Murder, and you'll catch a very, very brief glimpse of me in the background of a video being shown; filmed at the Invisible Dot last month. Though really, you should pop along to John-Luke Roberts's Distracts You From A Murder show because it's

very good, but you can consider me a bonus.

In other Ed Fringe news, I'll be reviewing a few shows of British Comedy Guide, and cannot wait to get up there in ten days' time...

A good week for telly

2010-08-01T11:20:00.001+01:00

Doctor Who holds such an unusually dominant position in the telly-lover's mind that when a series comes to an end, it always feels like, urrgggh, there's just nothing good on TV any more. And for a few weeks, to be fair, that was probably pretty much the case.

Last week, however, was a noticeably good one. Twitter went slightly mental for Sherlock, of course. It would have been a big telly event in any case, but in that particular sphere the excitement was almost certainly heightened by the fact that co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss themselves had recently joined the Twitterati. It took me until yesterday to catch up with the opener, in fact but, perhaps predictably given the talent both behind and in front of the camera, it was well worth the wait. The updating, importantly, worked brilliantly thanks to some nifty direction (the on-screen text a particularly nice touch), and the dialogue zipped along at a fantastic pace. Not that Stevie comes out of this with an entirely blemish-free copy book; for a sociopathic genius, Sherlock wasn't half-thick in one notable instance. Luckily, when you have Benedict Cumberbatch on such sparkling, exciting form, Martin Freeman showing Watson coming alive so very well, and Stevie and Gatiss having such fun (check Gatiss's BBC TV blog to see just how much), you are prepared to excuse much.

I also caught up on Alex Horne's The Games That Time Forgot yesterday, a documentary about as BBC Four as it is possible for a show to be. Not only was We Need Answers's Powerpoint maestro Horne at the helm, his question-master co-host and good friend Tim Key also popped up. The hour long programme was about sports that have failed to stay the course - notably Quintain (jousting without a horse), which he attempts to rebrand and cricket on horseback, a game which was once mentioned in a 19th century newspaper and has caught Horne's imagination. Some of it was, let's face it, an excuse for Horne to mess around a bit, but that's not to say it wasn't fun to watch, and the culmination of the programme - a full (if reduced-overs) game of Cricket on horseback - was genuinely quite moving. Surely any game that involves the phrase "horse before wicket" deserves to be played on a much more regular basis than once every 150 years...

Last in my iPlayer marathon - and, like The Games That Time Forgot, part of BBC Four's The Call Of The Wild strand - was new sitcom The Great Outdoors. The fact that it's written by Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil (who have written for the likes of Big Train, Black Books, Armstrong and Miller) meant it was always going to be worth a look, but it's also got a strong cast, led by Ruth Jones, Katherine Parkinson and the ever-wonderful Mark Heap. Filmed entirely in the rather beautiful-looking English countryside, it follows a group of ramblers, and while it started off rather slowly, the last ten minutes had me laughing out loud a couple of times, and the people involved mean it's going to be worth sticking with.

Educating Rita, Trafalgar Studios

2010-08-01T10:56:00.002+01:00

In recent times it has become the accepted norm that, at any given time, there will be at least one successful Menier Chocolate Factory production running in the West End.

At the moment there are two in the same building in fact – this, Educating Rita, and the one-woman-showShirley Valentine starring Meera Syal, which together form the Trafalgar Studios’ Willy Russell Season.

The story of Educating Rita is, thanks to the film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters, fairly well-known, though here the minor characters are only talked about, not seen, and all of the action takes place in just one room. Frank is a sixty-something university professor of English who spends his days – and the whole play – holed up in his comfy but care-worn office-come-library (lovingly designed by Peter McKintosh), tired of the same routine, bored of intellectual pretensions and very often drunk. Rita is forty years his junior and his first ever Open University student – a brash hairdresser steeped in Liverpool working class culture but, like her new tutor, bored to tears by her current lot.

The great strength of Willy Russell’s play is the relationship between the nurturing, funny university don and his new passionate student, hungry, as she puts it, to learn and experience more than her life, friends and circumstances have thus far allowed. The relationship is endearing in its simplicity –they are just genuinely good people who find much to like in one other right from the off, despite their differences, and who look forward to their tutorials as a highlight of the week.

Their mutual, though very different, quick-wittedness makes for some very funny banter, and you just enjoy watching this process of learning unfold in front of you. It is a process, of course, that is clearly beneficial to both parties; from the moment Rita bursts into the office for her first lesson and immediately makes Frank look differently at a painting he has had hanging on his wall for decades, it is evident that he won’t be the only one doing the teaching.

A two-hander, the play is hugely reliant on engaging performances that make it obvious why these two characters get on so well; it is nothing without chemistry. Tim Piggot-Smith, straight from the excellent Enron, and relative newcomer Laura Dos Santos are perfectly cast in that not only are their individual performances very good but, crucially, they bounce off each other wonderfully. When Frank is explaining the theatrical meaning of ‘tragedy’ or Rita declaring her hatred of Howards Way, the other often just beams. Dos Santos does get a special mention, though, for portraying such a sincere and deep-rooted desire for education, the physicality of her performance showing that the longing comes from her very gut.

Educating Rita is undoubtedly about the important role that learning and knowledge can play in providing people with choices in life. This production in particular, however, also demonstrates how much a friendship – perhaps especially one found in unlikely quarters – can be equally vital, nourishing, and freeing.

Written for MusicOMH.com

Burn The Floor - Shaftesbury Theatre

2010-07-24T15:04:00.004+01:00

Like Scott, I headed to Burn The Floor on Wednesday, but unlike him, it has taken me four days to actually getting around to writing about it...

Despite spending a ridiculous amount of my formative years in dance classes or at festivals and competitions held in various northern seaside resorts, I don't actually go to see much dance these days, something this show certainly persuaded me to rectify. Although it's Strictly Come Dancing's Brian Fortuna and Ali Bastian's faces which are emblazoned across the posters, the stars of this show are the large chorus of dancers, made up of couples from the across the world (they were all introduced by name in the finale, a nice touch). As Scott said, Fortuna and Bastian have rather little stage-time and Bastian, while a good dancer, does suffer from being showcased among professionals at the top of their game.

The dances - a good mix of solos, duets, small groups and whole company - are on the whole thematically unrelated, but they flow from one to another with really impressive and inventive ease. Many are driven solely by the fantastic percussionist and drummer who feature on stage throughout the show, meaning the majority are Latin; especially samba and jive and their variations. Understandably so - the talent for those dances in particular on show here is massive. It does mean, though, that pure ballroom is rather under-represented here, and the two big group ballroom dances are not well served by the music: Knights in White Satin and another power ballad I couldn't place. Impressive, then, that one of the most enjoyable and memorable dances of the night is a classic, and un-showy Viennese Waltz.

The best thing about this show, though, (creeping in just ahead of the astonishing energy on display from start to finish) is definitely the choreography. It's hugely creative and shows off individual talent and the magic that comes from a perfectly honed group dance equally well. Burn The Floor has a couple of cheesy moments, but overall it's a lot of fun, the dancing is top notch, and the live music and singing lift the show to a level that makes it deserving of the big audiences that the Strictly faces on the posters will provide.

The Divine Comedy - Somerset House... again

2010-07-18T21:06:00.000+01:00

Back in 2006 (when, it seems from a casual glance through the posts, I blogged little and often - the pre-Twitter age, y'see - making me feel very guilty) I went to see The Divine Comedy at Somerset House. Then, in 2010, I went to see The Divine Comedy at Somerset House. Again. How far I've come. Now, I rather waxed lyrical about the gig last time, and, surprise surprise, I rather waxed lyrical about the Tabernacle gig too, so I'm desperate not to simply bang on about how wonderful Neil Hannon is. But the fact is he just doesn't leave me any choice.

In terms of the songs, the new album Bang Goes The Knighthood boasts some instant classics (notably Down In The Street Below, When A Man Cries and I Like, which several audience members actually shouted out for) and, as everything 'required' for these new tracks is there in the piano, at these solo gigs we are hearing them just as they were written. As Neil said himself, this was also a 'Promenade-fest', with Geronimo, Don't Look Down, and, of course, Tonight We Fly all appearing, along with the sublime Our Mutual Friend and Your Daddy's Car. There were nice touches particular to this gig too, like an extended segue into Blue Monday during At The Indie Disco ("we probably don't have a licence for this!"). And in terms of showmanship, Neil clearly revels being alone with the audience - drawing enjoyment and enthusiasm from his fans, who here happily harmonised and provided backing vocals on the likes of Songs of Love and Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count.

Two PSs to this: 1) I went to this gig with lovely Momma Waits (the original Divine Comedy fan in the family), and we both passed Neil in Leicester Square a few hours before the gig, much to our repressed excitement and 2) Concert Live recorded the gig, and if you preordered a CD, you could pick it up the moment the last note was played. So I did. Which is nice.

Edinburgh Previews - Alex Horne and Jonny Sweet

2010-07-18T20:31:00.002+01:00

Unlike my last tenuous effort, these shows were genuine Edinburgh Previews; they were advertised as such and everything. And we even got a BBQ in between so win, win... win.

I've seen Alex Horne on We Need Answers (lots and lots), doing a teeny club set at Gloom Aid, and I loved The Horne Section a few weeks back, but I've never actually seen a full show from him before. He tells us right at the start of his Edinburgh show Odds that it only contains three jokes - when someone shuffles in 10 minutes late, he has to inform them that they've already missed 33% of them - but they're good ones (read: delightfully groany) and in any case, Odds is more about the story and its telling. Accompanied by his trusty Powerpoint and clicker, Horne takes us through his genuine bet that he would make a hole in one - on a "proper golf course", as the betting slip stated - before his 32nd birthday. During the show he discusses his favourite bets (he really does have them) and even manages to explain a Stephen Hawkins theory in a way that makes complete sense. The show is beautifully paced, has a wonderful story arc and, a month ahead of the Fringe, already pretty much fully-formed.

Another Powerpoint aficionado is last year's Comedy Awards Best Newcomer Jonny Sweet, and his new show has an even odder premise than his winning one - a one hour talk on the merits and eventual fall from grace of HMS Nottingham, from crew to, er, plumbing. Again, he plays a nerdier, egotistical and slightly unhinged version of himself, but to say any more would, I'm afraid to be giving rather a lot away. Suffice to say it has a VERY big twist that I am sure will have Edinburgh tongues a-wagging come August.

Meeting Niles Crane

2010-07-04T17:01:00.003+01:00

What I forgot to include in my review - but is probably best kept separate in any case - was the fact that we hung around the Stage Door after the show with around forty others. Well, David Hyde Pierce is the co-creator of one of the best comedy characters ever to appear on television so he's worth a twenty minute wait, I reckon.

Joanna Lumley, of course, also got a huge reception, and spent a good quarter of an hour talking, signing and posing for photos. She didn't exactly pose for this one, but it's quite nice...

When David came out, I moved with more purpose towards the throng, and he was kind enough to sign my programme. Whenever I meet people I admire, I'm always anxious to take the opportunity to not just compliment but thank. It makes you sound a bit of an tool, but he responded to my lame line "That was a brilliant performance... and, er, thanks for the years of laughter" with "thank you, I appreciate that" which is good enough for me.

La Bête - Comedy Theatre

2010-07-04T12:28:00.005+01:00

There are some performers in all fields that just seem special; the ones that you can't help but think will genuinely be remembered beyond their lifetime as one of the best. David Hyde Pierce - Niles Crane to you and me, and physical comedian extraordinaire to US theatre-lovers - has to be one those performers, right? A master of comic timing, but also blessed with the capacity to create moments of heart-rending drama, his 11-year turn in Frasier was, pretty much, a succession of genius looks, phrasing and pratfalls. I am, you might have worked out, something of a fan.

It's a love very much fostered by my dad, so we dutifully bought tickets for his West End debut as soon as they were released - a decision made easier by the fact that his chosen production, La Bête, would also star the superlative Mark Rylance who gave that barnstorming performance in Jerusalem last year.

You wouldn't know it from the publicity shots, but this play, though only twenty years old, is written in rhyming verse and set in 17th century (or somewhere thereabouts) France. As Elomire, Pierce is a passionate, serious and rather self-important playwright working under the patronage of the nameless 'Princess' (Joanna Lumley) who tells him that - to keep her support - he must admit a popular street clown into his troupe of players.

Where Elomire is wedded to innovation, aesthetic virtue and above all ideas and integrity, Valere (Rylance) is a shameless populist - as well as egocentric, immune to criticism and verbose to the point of verbal diarrhoea. In fact, verbal diarrhoea doesn't really cover it; the fact that Rylance has to remember a twenty-five minute uninterrupted speech probably does. Just. The two stars are undoubtedly superbly cast - Rylance has the chance to be huge, crude and ridiculously over the top, and Pierce channels a little of that Cranian pomposity and incredulity while Valere rambles on (and on and on) about himself, how loved he is, and how he is the great literary genius of the age.

Pierce's brilliance is such that, even while Rylance is stomping around chewing up the scenery, you always keep one eye on him to make sure you don't miss any exasperated reactions. And it's a good job, because his role, perhaps inevitably, is sometimes overwhelmed by Rylance's. Perhaps nothing could ever really compete with an expansive and consistently funny near-half hour speech, but when Elomire's repost - though cutting - finally comes, it rather pales into insignificance, when what you really want is something majestic, operatic in its criticism and in proportion.

All in all, La Bête is something of a Problem Play; both in the sense that it has its problems, and that it literally shares with the likes of The Winter's Tale a propensity to veer from the broadest comedy to moments of real ambiguity and awkwardness. There is, for example, a rather heavy-handed moment when the audience is meant to consider whether it really is Valere who is 'the beast', but then the ending (which I won't give away) seems to drag the audience in one particular direction. And the beauty and brilliance of that long speech - both in the dense imagery of the writing and mesmeric performance - means that the play is top-heavy.

It must be admitted, though, that these problems only really reveal themselves, and indeed intensify, on reflection, far from the auditorium, and some of the uncomfortable moments are certainly intended. While in your seat, you are simply rapt by the central performances and that speech - and Pierce's mute response - has to be one of the most fun 25 minutes to be found in the West End at the moment. An oddity, yes; flawed, certainly; but entertaining? Hugely.

Short blog #3: Karaoke Circus @ The 100 Club (with full orchestra)

2010-07-03T20:09:00.004+01:00

It's Karaoke Circus time again, but just a quick snapshot I assure you. The nomadic night found itself back in The 100 Club this time round, complete with Martin White's mammoth Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra and, as ever, its wonderful atmosphere means that it is probably best seen rather than described... So first up, here's the great Tony Gardner putting the imaginary R into Sha(r)ft - a tune which it's an absolute joy to hear played live:

And here's Karaoke Circus deity (oh yes) Chris Addison matching up to a frankly majestic orchestral backing on Pet Shop Boys's Left To My Own Devices:

Also on show among many others were Tim Vine making his KC debut (quite the crooner), Robin Ince bringing a tear to the eye (maybe) with Two Little Boys, Andrew Collins (secret) dancing his way through Uptown Top Ranking, Lizzie Roper blasting out Call Me and assorted plucky punters attempting the likes of Bat Out Of Hell, Design For Life, These Boots Are Made For Walking and - in the winning performance - Take Me Out.

NB. I have not written anything for ten minutes. Instead I have been reliving my first Karaoke Circus experience (Albany, April 2009) by singing along to a karaoke version of Tiny Dancer on YouTube. This is the power or Karaoke Circus people. Embrace it.

Short blog #2: Doctor Who - The Big Bang

2010-07-03T19:31:00.005+01:00

Ah a Doctor Who finale - what a wonderful thing. And what a *different* thing in this case; both from last week's wham-bam-thank-you-mam-throw-in-everything-including-the-Tardis-sink episode, and from anything RTD ever gave us. No "I *sniff* love *sniff* you" through rivers of tears here, not even a monster really (half-baked Dalek doesn't count) - just lots and lots of the timey-wimey stuff that Moffat so utterly loves. (For the differences - good and bad - between how RTD would have handled the plot and Moffat's treatment, see Rob's excellent blog, by the way.)

It was complex and fast-paced and my lord I certainly got a lot more out of it during my second watch. And "It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool" is one of my favourite lines ever, of course. True, I'm an emotion-above-art kinda gal at heart and so missed being shamelessly emotionally manipulated, but this was quality, clever stuff, and in a series that veered wildly from the sublime (The Eleventh Hour) to the fun (Vampires in Venice) to the ridiculous (I've still not got over the 'walk like you can see' debacle) it certainly sits firmly on the sublime end of the scale.

A word on Matt Smith - he's ace. I love him. I love his alienness and the fact that he was the most consistent thing about this series. He can stay.

Short blog #1: Paul McCartney, Cardiff Millennium Stadium

2010-07-03T19:13:00.005+01:00

All families have stories that are wheeled out at any available opportunity, and the one that is most frequently repeated in the Lowman household is that young Lesley Harrison (mum) went to see The Beatles at the Nelson Imperial Ballroom in '63, stood in the balcony because she wasn't really old enough to be there, and was waved at by none other than Macca.

Skip forward 47 years, and Lesley now Lowman got to see her favourite Beatle, this time with her husband and the kids in whom she had instilled a huge love for him. Yes, me and Paul (the big bro one) spend a not inconsiderable proportion of our lives standing up for Macca against those who say he's cheesy, over the hill, or simply not as talented as John.

Legend is a big word, but you don't get bigger than a Beatle, and McCartney seems anxious to live up to his status, and to his fans' expectations; this gig was three hours long and packed with all the songs you would expect, and several you wouldn't.

So yes, there were the songs that you now simply think of as 'Paul McCartney songs' - like Hey Jude, Yesterday, The Long and Winding Road, even Jet and Live and Let Die - but there were also songs which are undeniably Beatles songs. And there we were, seeing and hearing a Beatle perform them. Incredible - and, in the case of second number All My Loving, really quite emotional for me. Pure, joyful, early Beatles. And dancing along to Back in the USSR and that - as Neil Hannon would have it - divine Beatles bassline of Lady Madonna? Truly magical.

There will now follow a series of short blogs...

2010-07-03T18:55:00.003+01:00

...it's been a bit of a topsy-turvy week with genuine highs - provided by some wonderful gigs, theatre and TV - and lows in the form of an emotional farewell to my kind and much-loved auntie. That all means I'm a bit behind, so I will catch up with a series of short blogs starting with a few words on a Beatle...

Edinburgh Previews - Russell Howard & David O'Doherty

2010-06-21T20:22:00.003+01:00

Ok, so Russell Howard isn't even going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year, and this wasn't even strictly an preview for DO'D (or at least not advertised as such), but hey I've set a precedent with the Horne Section/John-Luke Roberts blog so I'm sticking with it.

This gig was at Up The Creek in Greenwich - a new one for me, mainly because I'm spoiled with lots of good comedy in North London and have therefore rarely made the effort to venture south of the river, let alone east of Canary Wharf. But with David O'Doherty's headlining gig at Union Chapel on Saturday cancelled (also featuring Tom Wrigglesworth who I was really looking forward to), I was delighted to see he'd been added to the bill at Greenwich, so I happily trundled along the DLR for the gig.

Kiwi Al Pitcher was MCing, and a fine MC he was too, despite getting a matter of a few minutes at the start of each half. Great at audience banter, he got the crowd suitably warmed up, though many were clearly excited to be seeing Russell Howard off't'telly in any case. I have to say, while I like Howard on Mock The Week and the like, I've never been massively convinced that I'd be enjoy a full show - the proof of the pudding is in the eating though (the proof is NOT in the pudding - why does that bother me so much?) and he was much more enjoyable than I'd imagined. A real ball of energy on stage, and quite a surprisingly exasperated, if not angry, one, he has some new ideas on reducing the deficit (pimping out Robert Pattinson) and a real way with bizarre imagery. Funny stuff.

And so to David O'Doherty, a comedian who - and I know I've said this before, and it's getting boring, but it's said with complete honesty - just gets better every time I see him. This hour-long set saw DO'D start with him embellishing a little bit of older material, (an extended rant on the modern tendency towards ridiculously strong and polarised opinions was particularly fun) but he quickly moved on to brand new stuff in readiness for the Fringe. There's a great couple of new songs - one on human failings and another listing David's awesome qualities ("This might make me a bad person", he says by introduction) and a fab story about taking his crappy plastic Yamaha on the train. His performance gets bigger, his confidence stronger and yet, the sense that he would be the bestest best mate - ultimately his point of difference - remains unabashed. Quite a trick to pull, that.

Doctor Who - The Pandorica Opens

2010-06-19T19:47:00.003+01:00

....and unleashes a stunner of an episode complete with dense plotting, surprises, humanity, Rory, hot Italians, iPod Daleks, Amy's happy tears, the under-henge, River not being annoying, Churchill, scary Cyber-tentacles and one hell of a twist. Is it 26-06-10 yet?

Edinburgh Previews - The Horne Section & John-Luke Roberts

2010-06-19T11:15:00.003+01:00

Despite my Edinburgh programme STILL not coming through (grr) I'm already looking Fringe-wards, and, of course, particularly anticipating the shows produced by Invisible Dot. As well as the return of Tim Key with a short midnight run of his Comedy Award winning show The Slutcracker, and Best Newcomer Jonny Sweet, there are some other rather intriguing prospects happening under the illustrious Invisible Dot banner, details of which are yet to be released: "The Invisible Dot by the Sea" (meet at Assembly and see how it goes), the 3-sided football competition (obviously), Tim Key's album launch (!) and Invisible Dot Communications Ltd (no venue, no time, bring it on).

In addition, Alex Horne presents the Horne Section, and John-Luke Roberts Distracts (us) From A Murder - two shows which previewed in Camden this week. Tuesday saw We Need Answers's Alex Horne, a drummer, keyboardist, bassist, trumpet player, saxophone player and even a few audience members fit into the office for a night which mixed comedy and music - boldly claimed by Horne to be the first time such a feat had been attempted. Unsurprisingly, it's a real joy of a show; Horne is lightening quick so the improvisation and audience participation, of which there's plenty, works brilliantly - especially the live-action game of Battleships complete with an ear-worm of a theme tune.

Then on Thursday, John-Luke got distracting us from that murder, but - quite rightly - kept the 'big reveal' a surprise for Edinburgh. I've never seen Roberts perform before, but he has the charm, the 'watchability' that ties together all the acts that the Invisible Dot produces. His show comprises one-liners that rely on imaginative punnery, mildy and creatively insulting every member of audience and quick anecdotes, accompanied by anecdote music and told in an anedote chair. For what was not only a preview, but a completely free one at that, the show was 80% there (just missing some videos in which I might briefly appear in the background, it having been shot after The Horne Section....), and silly, charming and funny enough to make me look forward to seeing the whole 100% very much indeed.

Want to know what I thought of Vincent and the Doctor?

2010-06-07T18:52:00.002+01:00

Then read Rob's review. He says it all. The point on direction deserves underlining though - HUGE props to Jonny Campbell who framed every shot with an artist's eye...

Hay Festival 2010 - Sunday: Making Hay while... the skies threatened, actually

2010-06-07T17:43:00.007+01:00

Yes, the clouds which drifted over the valley on Sunday were a rather more ominous slate-grey colour but, rather amazingly, not a single drop of rain fell. The day started with what would turn out to be one of the funniest things I heard all festival, and it wasn't even from one of the speakers, but some young guy sat next to us. Here's the conversation as I remember it...

Him: "Are you going in for Richard Herring?"
Me: "Is that who's guesting on The Early Edition? Then, yes, I guess."
Him: "I saw him in Newport, it was a grotty place but he was great."
Me: "That's the lot of the touring comedian, I think, playing grotty places."
Him: "Are you in stand up then, that sounds like the voice of experience."
Me: "Oh no, that just seems to be the way for them."
Him: "I'm in a double act actually."
Me: "Oh have you been to the Edinburgh Fringe then?"
Him: "God no, never been north of York. Can't see the point."
Me: "......"

Brilliant.

We hadn't actually pre-booked anything for the Sunday, but enjoying the ambiance (and, it has to be said, catering, of which there's lots) we got tickets for the final Early Edition before leaving on Saturday. It wasn't so early on Sunday, in fact - 2.30pm - but when you're on holiday that's no bad thing. The show, which has grown out of the cancelled Late Edition but since flourished in live form at Edinburgh, is hosted by Marcus Brigstocke (here sporting a rather dashing goatee for his role as King Arthur in Spamalot) and Andre Vincent, and they were joined by Carrie Quinlan and, er... well I forget actually, but definitely not Richard Herring, as it turned out. In a week dominated by events in Cumbria, it may not have been a classic time to spin comedy gold from current affairs, but luckily Brigstocke's nemesis Peter Hitchens had written a column with the headline "Actually, the Israelis weren't tough enough"; a piece which elicited the most wonderful use of the phrase "shit the bed" to denote incredulity I have ever heard.

We then caught the little shuttle bus into the centre of Hay, and while the bookshops were great (they're why the festival is where it is, of course), none were as wonderful to me as Mostly Maps, a shop which does as described. Not just any old maps though of course, but really old, really beautiful maps, and all original. Some from the 17th century! As I said rather grandly on Twitter: "my cup runneth over, my pockets alas do(th) not." Some of the maps weren't so expensive - ones from the 19th century were often under £30 - but the really evocative ones from 1650 and earlier could set you back the best part of a grand.

Tucked away in the Hay Fever (kids') tent was a brilliant exhibition curated by House of Illustration, who'll soon open their doors as the country's leading museum of illustrations. They'd asked the very top illustrators to create a picture containing all of their favourite things - book, place, animal, comfort etc - and it provoked some really beautiful pictures, sketches and collages. Unfortunately, I suspect its positioning meant that not as many people saw it as it deserved...

And that was Hay. Or, a very small portion of it, but a lovely first time that is unlikely to be my last. Hearing Charlie Higson talk about writing, about reworking and improving and beautifying did actually spark a little interest in me of trying to write fiction again which isn't something I've done for, well, probably about ten years actually, so at least in a very small way I think Hay can feel it has done its job pretty successfully.

Hay Festival 2010 - Saturday: Making Hay while... oh you know the rest

2010-06-07T16:33:00.009+01:00

I finally got to the Hay literary festival last weekend after several years' hankering. Nestled in the Wye valley it really does inhabit the most beautiful spot (one way into the town requires you to pay a lady 80p to go over a bridge, which is fun if a little random; I'm sure I've been over several bridges where I *haven't* had to pay a lady 80p) and it's just at the stage where it's bustling as opposed to sardine-like.

I'd quite like this sculpture if anyone has a few grand they'd like to throw my way...

One big draw had actually been Philip Pullman, who was set to talk about The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (which I'd read in preparation: formal syntax makes it hard to get into at first but Pullman quickly drags you in) on the Saturday evening. Unfortunately, ill-health kept him away, but Hay and his publishers were more than generous, giving full refunds and a free audio version of the book for every ticket bought. A disappointment nonetheless of course; no-one rewrites the life story of Jesus without rather a lot of interesting things to say on the subject.

Awful photo, sorry chaps...

I was also booked to see Mark Kermode interview Charlie Higson about his latest children's novel The Enemy though, and seeing as I pretty much love them both, I still had something exciting to look forward to... The Fast Show was and remains one of my favourite TV shows - a programme that can run the gamut from Cheesy Peas to a wordless sketch which encapsulates the heartbreak of unrequited love (that'd be the Ted and Ralph, here) is alright by me, and I always held a special place for Mr Higson particularly. The talk was huge fun as expected; as The Enemy is a zombie horror in which everyone above 15 becomes a member of the undead, Kermode was clearly in his element. Higson was open about his writing process, such as pushing the fright factor further and further until his youngest son - to whom he read his work-in-process every night - came running into his room scared half to death by a zombie-filled nightmare ("At last!"). He also said that gore is easy - scaring, and more importantly surprising your reader, is much more difficult. [He covers many of the main points he made during the talk in this Guardian podcast.]

And this was something repeated during our second talk, with Tom Thorne writer Mark Billingham and the man who is to play the heavy-hearted detective, David Morrissey. Literally repeated, in fact - he said that anyone can write a grizzly murder, but keeping your audience guessing is the trickier part. And even trickier, as they both said, on screen, where avoiding revealing the killer is that much harder, but Billingham was at pains to make it clear that he didn't mind the writers doing what was necessary to his stories to make them fit the format; indeed he wished he'd come up with some of their ideas in the first place. Both Morrissey and Billingham were great speakers, and it was nice to hear that the wonderful Dave had had a real say in the whole process of the forthcoming Sky productions. The talk, with Marcel Berlins who knew an awful lot about the genre, is going to be on Sky Arts at some point soon.

There's a lovely post-script to Day 1. I tweeted in the evening that it was real pleasure to see "@monstroso" talk earlier in the day (that'd be Charlie) and that I'd have loved to ask a question but it felt a bit wrong to stick my hand up when there were lots of excited kids wanting to hear from their favourite author. I was clearly fishing for a "thanks for coming" type response, but actually got a much nicer reply: "ask me one now." The question I had wanted to ask was whether the act of writing a novel and a sketch or show is entirely different or requires a similar mindset, and while I'm loath to repeat the answer verbatim as it came in a Direct (non-public) Message, Charlie did find space even in a 140-character message to say that he likes to write comedy with someone else, "ideally Paul." Which is kinda sweet.

Flight of the Conchords, Wembley Arena

2010-05-27T21:06:00.003+01:00

When Flight of the Conchords last appeared live in the UK, they were a cultish if celebrated musical comedy duo playing relatively modest rooms to those in the Edinburgh Fringe know. A few years later, with two HBO series behind them (admittedly tucked away on BBC Four), a few dates at the Hammersmith Apollo couldn’t meet demand in the capital – only Wembley Arena can hold them now.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie aren’t really the type of bombastic rockers or
big-production pop stars that normally fill this space though – they’re resolutely and charmingly lo-fi. There was one costume change - glittery cat-suits were unleashed for Bowie’s In Space and Demon Woman - some nifty lighting for the Daft Punk-esque stomper Too Many Dicks On The Dancefloor and the addition, for a few songs, of cello, drums and piano-playing Nigel (introduced as the travel size version of the New Zealand National Orchestra) but apart from that, it was just the two of them, sitting on stools, singing songs.

But what songs. Without many distractions, even in a barn like Wembley you got to really concentrate on the quality of the lyrics and the brilliance of the musicianship; FotC might be known as a comedy duo, but here they were a proper band. With Bret’s intricate guitar on The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room (a triumph in back-handed compliments), Inner City Pressure’s stunning synths and rhymes like “They call me the Hiphop-apotamus cause I got flows that glow like phosphorous”, these are finely crafted and consistently hilarious songs which, performed live, really get their chance to shine.

All of the tracks which have appeared in the TV show were rapturously received, especially Jemaine’s sublime Barry White slow-jam Business Time (complete with recorder solo) which was a real highlight, and most were dotted with different and extra lines to provide new laughs – the best being the introduction of “You could be a plus-size model” to The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room. But other songs which haven’t had the same exposure clearly won over the newer fans too. Jenny, a favourite from the Conchords’ pre-telly days about an awkward case of mistaken identity brought belly-laughs, and a song set in 1353 got one of the best reactions of the night.

Between the songs, it has to be said that Jemaine gives more of himself than laid-back Bret and as such gets more in return – the bulk of the protestations of love from the audience are aimed his way. But as is the case with all great double-acts, the magic lies in the chemistry and it’s the rapport based on years of obvious friendship that makes the banter (or ‘professional talking’ as they put it) such fun – most memorably a brilliant extended riff on the duo’s attempts to resist going down the slippery slope of rock and roll excess by accepting a free muffin.

When the inevitable calls for "Series three!" came, Jemaine made the good point that another series would mean not being able to come out on the road, and on this evidence that would be a real travesty. This gig was a showcase for the duo’s superlative songwriting skills, and the sooner they can return to the stage – where they are so clearly at home – with new material, the better.

Written for MusicOMH, where I couldn't really write OMG CONCHORDS WERE AS GREAT AS I'D HOPED. But I can here. Because they were.

Shambolic footy shenanigans with Mark - and Paul - Watson

2010-05-24T20:37:00.006+01:00

NB this is riddled with errors (the worst being a reference to Mark Watson's "23 hour shows") for reasons which become clear in the first proper line of this entry. Huge apologies, and I'll be sure to sort them soon...

I'm writing this on my phone as my housemates watch the last ever Lost. I could go in there and get my laptop, but if someone had blocked my view even for a moment during the Ashes to Ashes finale, someone would have got hurt, so I'm doing the honourable thing.

Trying to write on here is a nightmare - typo per word ratio is currently 1:1 til I go back and edit - so I'll keep this brief. But last night's Mark Watson's Football Shambles, and the cause it was raising modest amounts of money for, is worth a few words. Mark Watson will be known to most of you (through me if not the ads he's appeared in, or through being a superb author and comedian) but he comes from what appears to be a sickeningly talented and uber-motivated family. His brother Paul is, astonishingly, the world's youngest international football manager - the recognised coach of the 'worlds worst football team': Pohnpei.

For him, as it would be for most people (including big bro) it is quite literally a dream come true. But this is not simply a case of a man picking a tiny team through whom he can live out his fantasy - Paul is making real changes at the Micronesian island, including getting formal physical activity on the curriculum in a country where obesity and diabetes are rife, and opportunities are scarce. He's making his players heroes and leaders. The next stage for the team is to get dome funding from Fifa, but in a "them that got are them that gets" type scenario, they need to go to Guam to play a friendly to do so, and that requires funds in the first place.

Which is where Mark comes in, doing what he does best; which is bringing out the very best in people. Like getting someone to pay £50 for a football signed by the Soccer AM team (fiver, tops), or the star of a hit TV show (Simon Bird, The Inbetweeners) to bumble off into the West End in the hope of bringing a professional footballer back (he, along with Jim Rosenthal's son actually found a few). All this occurred at last night's Football Shambles show at the Leicester Square Theatre plus a few actual stand up turns from the likes of Matt Forde and Chris Martin and a rather il thought out attempt to do a live e-Bay auction; if you're wondering how that works, well, it doesn't really. With the challenges and a tiny bit of singing (Three Lions, of couse) it was meant to have the feel of a 23 hour show in a 6th of the time, and that was the case - shambolic yes, but then that was in the title of the show.

I can't imagine masses amounts of money were raised, but it was pretty bizarre and pretty beautiful and it was great to see the two Watsons up there working together to push a shared dream even further, while doing a whole lot of good. You can follow Paul's travels and travails at the link below, and even throw a couple of quid Pohnpei's way should the mood take you.

http://backofthenet.markwatsonthecomedian.com/category/soccermen/

Hang around The Inkwell

2010-05-17T20:32:00.002+01:00

Dear readers, big bro Paul Fuzz and I require your knowledge, opinions and five minutes of your time, if you please!

Paul's in the process of setting up a rockin' coffee, gifts and records store in York - The Inkwell (name that reference) - and you are such a discerning lot that we think your views are not just welcome but imperative, dammit. There's a survey here and it really doesn't take long to fill in, but the feedback will be genuinely valued, and genuinely listened to.

Many thanks!

Mark Watson + Basden, Epithemiou & Hughes at Live At The Chapel

2010-05-16T12:32:00.001+01:00

Written for the British Comedy Guide

Those of us who live in the capital may have to shell out 90% of our income on rent, but the upside is a plethora of amazing comedy. One of the very best regular comedy nights, unsurprisingly arranged by The Invisible Dot's head honcho Simon Pearce, is the monthly Live at the Chapel - three or four really top comics MC'd by, well, another top comic in Islington's stunning Union Chapel. In the past, the likes of Noel Fielding, Tim Minchin, Daniel Kitson and Simon Amstell have all headlined, with the wonderful David O'Doherty up next, and the most recent night featured Arthur Smith introducing Tom Basden, Angelos Epithemiou, Sean Hughes and Mark Watson.

Basden - who won the Edinburgh Comedy Award (if.comedy? Perrier?) back in 2007 for his Tom Basden Won't Say Anything show - actually says quite a lot these days. Short, beautiful, and messed up songs about the cast of Neighbours and stalking Paula Radcliffe are still his main stock in trade (aspiring guitarists should see him for a lesson in fingerpicking) and he still gets the overhead projector out on occasion to display his witty cartoons, but he has now added one more string to his ever-growing bow: reading extracts from his unfinished novel. Deliberately awful, tonally inconsistent and written in the wrong order, Hot Moon is a bad novel, but among the best material Basden has ever written - hopefully it will become an important and permanent element of his act.

Most will know Angelos Epithemiou from his regular appearances on Shooting Stars - the apparently random member of the public who didn't much want to be there, and certainly didn't have time for the general 'messing about' that the show revels in. In reality, of course, he's the creation of Dutch Elm Conservatoire's Renton Skinner. As Angelos, he's a comic who only has three jokes - so it's lucky that Skinner is such a great physical comic that his character is funny without saying a word. And who could possibly not enjoy an act that finishes with a dance routine, complete with costume change?

Sean Hughes, meanwhile, is in a grumpy mood, and has been so ever since he heroically overcame a heavy smoking habit, only to find that he was rewarded with "a fat face." Another Perrier award winner, age has not so much mellowed Hughes as made his already dark humour even more pointed.

I suspect that a 10 minute club set is not really the best showcase for Hughes's comedy, but this truncated tirade showed that middle age may bring its problems, but it also provides great fodder for a comedian who loves to rant.

Headliner Mark Watson is often trailed as one of the 'best-reviewed comics of the 21sts century', and I'm happy to have contributed in a small way to the veracity of that impressive claim. Watson, intelligent and frenetic in equal parts, is simply one of our greatest comics and, perhaps perversely, it's a particular joy to see him trying out new material, as here - it means that you get to see the cogs whirring; a proper comedy brain in action.

As a new dad, much of Watson's new material is based on the change in priorities that such responsibility brings, and the fears that must cross the mind of many young fathers: 1) how do I keep this little thing alive and 2) how do I avoid screwing him up? He also covered the unresolved political situation, the joy of chasing people and, thanks to an extraordinary sneeze from the balcony, a fine bit of improv about his father-in-law's own remarkable sternutation. Watson is doing a full run at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, and on this evidence things bode very well indeed for a superlative show.

The Divine Comedy - The Tabernacle, 12/05/10

2010-05-15T12:30:00.003+01:00

'Everybody Knows' and 'I Like', at The Tabernacle

Something rarer than hens' teeth and blue moons happened on Wednesday: at a gig in a residential corner of West London, the new songs were highlights. But then, the man performing those songs, Neil Hannon, is in himself rarer than hens' teeth and blue moons, so it figures.

This week, The Divine Comedy - as Neil Hannon only - played The Tabernacle, and while it's beautiful from the outside, (and has a delightful foyer, no complaints there) the auditorium itself does alas have the feel of a school hall. The stage is raised barely a foot off the ground and when the only performer is sitting at a piano most of the time, and therefore at chest height of the audience, well, that's not especially great except for those literally right at the front. "Chairs would have been a good idea" our host said, apologetically.

Luckily, Hannon is a warm, witty, and winning kinda guy, and the logistical problems were quickly forgotten, as he got the crowd onside with opener 'The Complete Banker' (no need to explain what that one's about), from the as-yet-unreleased Bang Goes The Knighthood. Funny and sniping, it set a high benchmark for the new songs to emulate, but in fact was out-shone by most: 'Down In The Street Below' is an atmospheric, story-telling track reminiscent of Promenade's 'When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe', and 'Have You Ever Been In Love' touching and heart-felt.

None, however, quite match the hedonistic power-pop that is 'I Like' - written, he told us, as a response to 'Everybody Knows' because he now considers its narrator 'a dick' for not just being honest with his lady-love. It has, I think, the most hummable, heart-squeezing, smile-inducing chorus Hannon has ever written, and that's saying something.

Dotted between the new songs, every album The Divine Comedy have/has released was represented, from Liberation's 'Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count', through 'Becoming More Like Alfie' and 'Mastermind' right up to 'A Lady Of A Certain Age'. Personally, it was a delight as ever to see 'Our Mutual Friend' performed live, (stripped down to piano-only it loses none of its grandeur), and 'Songs Of Love' and 'A Drinking Song' were augmented by hearty audience participation.

Hannon is a great orchestrator, but this solo show meant losing those layers of sound that help make his songs so great in order to gain space to really concentrate on the lyrics, and time for him to be a funny and charming raconteur - and that's a trade that more than paid off. Truly beautiful stuff.

Big thanks to Dean who bagged the tickets, by the way, for which I am ever-thankful; I'm sure he'll have a gig review up on his blog in due course...

Ashes To Ashes - what the 2-part finale must tell us...!

2010-05-15T11:00:00.004+01:00

Yes, it would have been handy to get this cross-posted from Dork Adore *before* the first part aired, but.... well, I didn't. No questions were properly answered though, so apart from the fact that Chris has had his Life On Mars moment and is now seeing stars, *most* of this holds true. Most.

When Ashes To Ashes came to our screens in 2008, there was a general ‘meh’ reaction, with the odd ‘really angry’ thrown in there for good measure. Most were simply annoyed that it wasn’t just like Life On Mars, while others really disliked our new hero, Alex Drake. But me, I loved it. I saw that it has its problems, but I loved that Alex wasn’t actually that different to Gene, I loved the addition of fearless Shaz, I loved Chris’s new hair, dammit, I loved the opening credits. And now, the facts have caught up with me, and it’s genuinely, consistently good as well! I knew it would get there eventually. Unfortunately, it’s got there just as the series comes to a decisive end, with just one double-parter left to air… and so many strands are still left unresolved! Here are the five questions that must be answered for those of us who have stuck with this fun, inventive series right to the bitter end…

1) What happened to Sam Tyler?

The heart of this season is the growing suspicion that Sam Tyler’s death in Gene-land (that’s what we all call this version of the past right? Just me then?) was not the simple car-accident it was made out to be. And, more than that, that Gene actually killed him. We know – or at least hope – that the latter can’t be true, but if not him, who? Enticingly, the resolution of this storyline is ripe for some returning characters – perhaps Annie has some information to add, perhaps Simm will have filmed something new for a flashback (a girl can hope), perhaps Sam isn’t dead at all and he’ll walk into Fenchurch East Police station!

2) Who is the young policeman haunting Alex?

A young Gene? My other, rather far-fetched theory is that this is someone Sam Tyler killed, leading Gene to help Sam fake his own death…

3) Why are Shaz, Ray and Alex seeing stars?

Over the course of series three, Alex, Shaz and Ray have all looked out into the night sky and seen stars – not just one or two defying the light pollution, but thousands, millions even, as if looking straight into the heart of the Milky Way. Why, and why them in particular?

4) What are the ‘Life On Mars’ moments?

When Shaz was granted what she had always wanted – to properly join the team in civvies – she stared straight at the camera, everything around her faded to black, and we heard a short snatch of Life On Mars. Similarly, when Ray was granted his greatest wish – to hear those three little words ‘well done Ray’ – the same thing happened. What does it all mean?! Again, Chris is notable by his exclusion in these moments… Doesn’t look good for him, I have to say.

5) Who really is Jim Keats?

One of the greatest additions to this series is Daniel Mays as the modernising Jim Keats – part charming, part loathsome, he’s the antagonist that will surely provide many of the answers. Importantly, he has held two cops who have ‘betrayed’ the force as they lay dying, and his apparent comfort provokes something like blind fear on their faces. The Devil incarnate? The idea that Gene-land is some sort of purgatory becomes more and more plausible, but are the religious references, which are coming thick and fast now, the answer, or the language being used to describe something else entirely?

Well, there’s only 120 minutes left for these questions to be answered; 120 minutes of what I genuinely think is the best thing on television at the moment. But for now – let the speculation run riot!

Holding The Man - Trafalgar Studios

2010-05-12T11:34:00.002+01:00

Written for MusicOMH.com

Adapted from the Australian dramatist Tim Conigrave’s memoirs of the same name, Holding The Man has a few gimmicks up its sleeve but is fundamentally a simple but ultimately tragic love story. So while the posters advertising this production may all bear the image of celebrated Kath and Kim writer/performer Jane Turner, its success in fact depends on the two male leads who play out that relationship from faltering first kiss to eventual heartbreak.

Here, there can be no complaints. The play follows Tim and John Caleo, two lads from Western Australia who fall in love very young during the 1970s.
They face parental disapproval (John more so than Tim) and a general ignorance, but more often than not prejudice is put to one side simply because they are hugely likable - and importantly that warmth of personality comes across in waves thanks to actors Guy Edmonds and Matt Zemeres who excel as Tim and John respectively. Nice guys do not have to be dull, and this story is engrossing precisely because Edmonds and Zemeres make you care for them and the relationship; you laugh along when they playfully tease each other at the start of their relationship, and the audience audibly groan with disappointment when Tim later admits he has played away.

This being a play about a gay couple during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, it follows a grimly predictable path – both Tim and John are diagnosed HIV positive in 1985 – so while the whole production is imbued with Tim’s wonderful sense of humour, the second act does not seek to offer the same level of laughs as the first. Some scenes lack the emotional punch they strive for, notably when Tim tells his parents of his illness, but others are heartbreaking in their simplicity; a romantic meal in which the two men calmly discuss their greatest regrets and achievements is particularly affecting.

Writer Tommy Murphy has ensured that the stage production of Holding The Man retains the sense of the memoir in that it everything is seen through the eyes of Tim himself – in fact Edmonds never leaves the stage. Tim’s own love of the theatre (he trained at Australia’s respected National Institute of Dramatic Art and wrote and devised several original pieces) opens the door for overt theatricality in the play and this is one of its great strengths. The lighting, all based on the idea of individual bulbs around a dressing room mirror, is consistently inventive, and puppetry appears throughout and to great effect, especially when a gaunt puppet stands in place of the ailing John. Plus, costume changes regularly occur on stage, giving the excellent supporting cast the chance to show off their dramatic range, in particular Turner who gets many of the biggest laughs, and Simon Burke who plays everything from a homosexual, politicised hippie student to an uptight 70-something.

This play may have nothing new to say about AIDS or homophobia, but then politics is not at its heart. What is important to the production is what was clearly most important to Tim and John, and so it is simply a love story, but one that is genuinely funny, impressively performed and imaginatively staged.

Doctor Who - The Vampires of Venice

2010-05-09T15:46:00.011+01:00

"They're not vampires, they're aliens!" "Classic."

"We're not her boys." "Yeah, we are." "Yeah...."

I know I'm a lost cause but that's what I want from Doctor Who. Hapless but not unintelligent boyfriend changing the dynamic, great one-liners, no obvious WTF moments, wonderful interplay between our heroes, good direction and Helen McCrory being brilliant. It wasn't complicated and I've read that it lacked menace but I'm sick of everything being "it's the end of the world!" anyway. Personally, I sat there having a whale of a time for the full 45 minutes, and I can see myself watching it time and again. I know that Stephen Moffat is massively clever, and moments that felt odd during the Weeping Angels story will undoubtedly pay off beautifully later on but hey, I'm impatient.

As for the newbie, I know Marie's not a fan, but I do love the beatnik physicality of Matt Smith's Doctor and the fact that, as has been widely noted, he's a lot less human than Ten. Can't hear a word he says at times, of course... that really needs to be sorted.

Next week - creepy dreamworld. Can't wait.

EDIT: Does the Doctor break the fourth wall in this episode by the way? When he says that asking the baddies to reveal the whole plan will work one time, it feels like he catches the eye of the viewer ...

A Circus of Karaokeness

2010-04-27T21:25:00.005+01:00

I wasn't going to do a blog about this Karaoke Circus because I genuinely do worry that you're all sick of reading about its mind-blowing brilliance. But, Mum has asked for one (and who can turn down a mum) and this one *was* particularly notable for several reasons. For brevity, I shall bullet point them...

- The Venue: KC's nomadic nature meant we regulars headed West to Ginglik, an underground bar on Shepherd's Bush Green (literally in the middle of it) converted from the gents public toilets. Surprisingly sanitary despite this.

- Dan Maier Sings: "Fresh" from an umpteen-hour flight from Australia which was delayed by that blasted volcano, Dan didn't feel up to judging - but took to the stage and sang 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It' with Robin Ince instead. Brilliant!

- Singing In French: In what was probably my favourite performance of the night, Radio 4 regulars Laurence & Gus's did a stunning rendition of 7 Seconds; yes, complete with the French verses, in full, learned word for word.

- Surprise Tim Minchin: It's always a delight to see our Aussie maestro, even more so when it's a bonus. Last night he bounced his way through the Wannadies' The You And Me Song.

Highlights in visual form (thanks to Mr Paul Bailey):

Dan Maier and Robin Ince

Laurence and Gus

Tim Minchin

And lest we forget those brave, hardy audience members who stick their name on the list to sing (thanks to Mr Rob Sedgebeer):

Seb Patrick performs National Express

Karaoke winners Victoria and Andy perform Stan

A Wainwright Week - Prima Donna and All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu

2010-04-18T10:34:00.005+01:00

I've had the chance to indulge my love of all things Rufus Wainwright this week, thanks to a the triple-whammy of the new production of his opera Prima Donna at Sadler's Wells, the new album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, and finally his latest live show.

Let's start with that opera. The first thing to make clear is that it's my first, and I can't claim to know anything about the artform - as such, I'm simply having to analyse it like I would a musical, which would probably send a shiver down the spine of any purist. But on the basis of the elements on which I can offer an opinion - story, character, lyrics - I can tentatively come to the conclusion that this is far from a 'great' opera. The story follows a day in the life of a once-celebrated opera singer on the eve of her come-back performance, all of the anxiety and memory that that evokes, and how she is pushed, pulled and advised by an ambitious butler, fawning journalist and empathetic maid.

The beautiful music portrays all of this angst, but what is disappointing - especially for a Rufus Wainwright fan who has long been in awe of his imagery and complexity of language - is the lack of invention in the lyrics. I was prepared for the "would you like a cup of coffee" type lines that often get a bashing from opera-haters, but there was such scope for the emotion and clever imagery that make Wainwright such a brilliant songwriter. These lyrics though were, it pains me to say, often on the prosaic side, and that meant that it was hard to get swept away with the story. The stunning soprano who plays the maid - Rebecca Botton - positively outshines her leading lady, and is well-served by a beautiful, witty solo which reminds you of the genius behind this opera, but overall I felt that the production was a little 'under-cooked'. And believe me, that is not something I thought I would ever say about a piece that has emerged from Rufus's mind.

Of course, if it's angst you want then you really need look no further than his latest LP - All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu. Written during his late (great) mother Kate McGarrigle's illness, this piano-and-voice album is thoughtful, sombre and elegaic. Not all of the songs are as openly about Rufus's fear and grief as Martha, in which he asks his sister whether she has been to see Kate or their father, or Zebulon where he literally talks about his mother being in hospital, but sadness pervades the album completely. It's a very different beast to his earlier works then, and not immediately accessible - but the musicianship, especially on the majestic The Dream is sublime and you get the feeling that its beauty will be revealed through repeated listens.

Rufus performs the album in full as the first half of his new live show, following an announcement that he would like the audience to refrain from applause until he has left the stage. The idea, he tells us in the second half, is to give a pop audience the chance to experience the atmosphere of a classical concert, but combined with his funereal black lace-and-feathers outfit, it's clear that it is also meant to be respectful tribute to Kate. Just as she is ever-present in the album, the second half - still just him and the grand piano - starts with Beauty Mark, and ends with Kate's own The Walking Song.

In between there is a little more levity - though the lack of a band means that the bombast of I Don't Know What It Is and 14th Street are missing - and Rufus's usual cheekiness comes out as he celebrates the plethora of "pretty boys" Sheffield has to offer. This style of show means that some of Rufus's most beautiful piano-led songs - Poses, The Art Teacher, Going To A Town and the heartbreaking Dinner At Eight - get a live airing, while this version of Grey Gardens, normally laden with vocals and orchestration, only serves to further highlight its brilliance.

Of course, Rufus's over the top campery is part of what makes him so wonderful, and so you might think that this show would be lacking in some way. But 50 minutes of applause-less music is actually pure theatre and the songs in the second half - their craft laid bare - shine brighter than ever.

An Event Of Some Kind's Birthday Bash

2010-04-05T12:16:00.004+01:00

Poet, front-man and Tweeter-extraordinaire, H Anthony (AKA Junior Ministers) has been hosting An Event Of Some Kind for a year now - a wonderful, heart-warming South London night of music and funniness, often combined. So, last Friday it was time to get back some of the top acts and bring in a couple of talented first-timers.

The back room of a pretty standard pub in a residential area may not sound like the most exciting venue, but spaces are very often transformed into something more beautiful by what happens within them, and that's certainly the case at The Cavendish Arms in Stockwell every time An Event Of Sometime occurs.

At this birthday party, the night got off to an encouragingly great start with Pippa Evans, whose drunk, messed-up singer-songwriter character Loretta Maine just goes from strength to strength. There was more straight stand-up in this set than I've seen from her before, and, combined with the fabulous songs, it's clear that Loretta could easily carry a great hour-long show on her own - I hope that's the case come Edinburgh.

Aussie songstress Emi Green came next - a Sheila Nicholls-y songwriter who has a lovely voice and a real talent for storytelling lyrics - and closing both halves of the night were the utterly fabulous 6 Day Riot. A fun, folky five-piece complete with double bass, violin and two types of ukulele (standard and bass, of course), they rocked AEOSK back in June. There's a slightly different line-up now, but the ethos of big, thumping, sing-a-long songs remains, and led by the talented Tamara, I can only see genuinely big things for them - they're the perfect festival band, so check them out this summer if you can.

The final guest of the evening was a certain Mr Tim Minchin, and I'm not saying H Anthony is guilty of nepotism to get him on the bill, but let's just say they're good friends and leave it at that. I jest of course, it was a real joy to have Minchin at the birthday bash - I've not seen him perform since the Ready For This? tour back in October, and the intimacy of this gig meant he could go off script. As such we got an uber-silly Easter song - prefaced with the threat that he would track down anyone who posted it on YouTube - the fabulous Good Book and Mitsubishi Colt backed by double bass and drums courtesy of 6 Day Riot. This beat poem may not be as celebrated as the ode to rationalism Storm, but it is just as tricksy, and one of my favourites (Tim Minchin songs, I mean, not beat poems. I can't claim to be an authority on them, really).

Top off the night with an everybody-on-stage version of the Junior Ministers anthem Bounce, and you've got something pretty wonderful. Perhaps the way forward from here is to go just a little bigger - Karaoke Circus's successful move from teeny Albany to the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club has proved that you can allow more people to share in the fun without losing any of the atmosphere that makes a night special.

Tim Minchin fan, by the way? Check out this video, hot off the presses: