Mostly stand-up comedy, partly personal anecdote, ‘All Daily Mail Writers Must Die’ is an unashamed and self professed vehicle for Smith’s personal and political points of view. (In his own words: “To combat bigotry with humor”) Although a relatively new-comer to stand up, Smith excels in interacting with his audience, something which the small and [...]

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Performing on a separate plane from anything remotely connected with that black cloud of topical controversy, the eloquent Lederer’s set forms two distinct, intertwined parts: He delves verbally – and physically – into the sparse audience like the lonely, intelligent party drunk and recounts rather flat stories with star names that seem grossly out of [...]

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Sidling onstage like a drunken, slimy Woody Allen in Phillip Schofield’s wardrobe comes Arnold Brown. His subject matter (terrorism, celebrity, being Jewish) is timeless and accessible but his shambling delivery grates from the opening mumble about anti-Semitism, and is liable to make your skin want to eat itself. (I purposefully stopped to browse the gents’ [...]

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A roasting summer evening creates a ‘makeshift’ (one of his favourite words and his funniest moment) sauna in the Gilded Balloon’s Billiard Room where Alun Cochrane ably melds his passion for lexical favorites with some of the activities of his past. Despite the inherent risk of falling into an elitist trap, it all turns out [...]

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Hal Cruttenden, as his name suggests – and by his own admission – is an upper-middle class wimp. He also happens to sound exactly like Tony Blair, but don’t let that put you off, because unless our Perma-smile PM also has an uncontrollable fear of mice, that’s where the similarity ends.
There’s no paucity of high-quality [...]

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From the outset, Brendan Riley goes to great lengths to make it clear that his show, Comedy Sushi, is ‘one big happy family’. It wasn’t necessary for you to grab that seat at the back: He’s not picking on anyone tonight. As a unit the crowd is encouraged to rehearse Brucey’s Bonus-style catchphrases for recurring [...]

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