NetflixRather than explore the blind spots within modern gender and racial thinking, the comedian’s latest special triples down on the phobia‘I’m going all the way,” is Dave Chappelle’s refrain through this last in his run of Netflix specials. It’s a b…
Olga Koch review – uproarious, gleefully obscene comedy
Soho theatre, LondonThe Russian-born comic racks up the punchlines as she auditions to be a Bond girl, considers British quirks and recalls her schooldaysThe comedian from far afield, observing British idiosyncrasies for the delight of British audience…
Simon Amstell review – shame, self-analysis and great gags
Soho theatre, LondonThe comedian flops in a New York hotel room, sheds his inhibitions at an ayahuasca ceremony and visits a Berlin sex club as he explores his midlife crisisNo one zeroes in on the human comedy, the gulf dividing who we wish to be from…
Clowntime review – it’s a crime not to be funny in John Feffer’s dystopia
Online@theSpaceUKGuileless hero Christopher Blank is ‘born without a single funny bone in his body’ in a one-man play that paints a near future US in broad brushstrokesComedians becoming politicians and pundits. Politicians playing the lovable buffoon….
Joe Thomas: the post-Inbetweeners comedown
The ex-Inbetweener’s new work-in-progress standup show, about breaking beyond being typecast, has a self-lacerating characterThe maladroit comic parlaying their anxiety into humour is as old as standup itself. But it’s a highwire act: other people’s ne…
Phil Wang review – standup’s Netflix special skewers PC panic, Covid racism and himself
NetflixWang studs his special with memorable one-liners that dissect his feminist pretensions, the fear of ageing and UK perceptions of east AsiaFrom the other side of a global pandemic, here comes Phil Wang’s maiden Netflix special. Due for a spring 2…
West End producer David Pugh: ‘My guiding principle was always: will mum like it?’
He turned Art and The Play What I Wrote into smashes. Now he’s handing out flyers for Charlie and Stan. But will pandemic-shy audiences come and see it? Reports of the death of the stereotypical West End producer have been exaggerated. I’m in Bath, sat…
Gagging order: is it ever OK to heckle a comedian?
A set-ruining act of boorishness, or a vital rite of passage for standups? Often it depends on who’s doing the hecklingIn the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and set…