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The new "What Stand Up Have You Seen Lately?" thread

Started by Small Man Big Horse, July 16, 2016, 08:16:30 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

MortSahlFan

The Other Side of Hope - 8/10  - Very good, touching movie. I wish it would have went on a little longer, because it was good, but also for resolve.
Lights in the Dusk - 6.5/10 - Kaurismaki usually has a positive to all the conflict, so this was quite a departure, and hence, probably my least favorite drama out of the 15 I've seen of his.
Le Havre - 7.5/10 - I wish there was more connecting, between Marcel/wife, and Marcel/Idrissa, but I loved the inner warmth, and the warmth to those around them, even if it wasn't "professional" (I hate that word so much - which is usually a euphemism and an excuse to be "do-nothing" type of person)
Man Without A Past - 7.5/10
Drifting Clouds - 7.5/10


Saw Jordan Brookes at Soho Theatre last night, was great and not probably not even his best show. Ended up thinking about the first time I saw him solo in 2015 at the Museum of Comedy and mentioned the person from Soho he gave comps to hadn't turned up, now he's selling out the main room as Perrier winner, cool.

Small Man Big Horse

Courtney Pauroso - Gutterplum - Another bit of insane clowning which was produced by Dr Brown, some have criticised it for not having as much depth as Natalie Palamides' Nate but I think that's a bit unfair, yes it's not as complex (or quite as good) but it's still a beautifully funny hour of comedy and one that made me laugh a huge amount.

TheDHolford

Not "stand up" really. But saw Brydon, Mack and Mitchell last night. Was as good as expected.

Perhaps not quite perfect due to this being their first night and them needing to find their feet. Some of the elements from the first half felt a little rehearsed and bog standard jokes, but once it got going into the audience participation and dilemma solving, the comedy really upped a notch. Brydon was a nice, if not typical host type as usual, Mack was his funny and witty self and easily the stand out for me, while Mitchell had a few angry outbursts, or corrected the other two.

Overall very funny!

Small Man Big Horse

I went to a mixed bill last night where the following performed:

James Dowdeswell - Who may just be the worst MC I've ever seen, all he did was ask people what jobs they did, but then responded with "That sound interesting" or "That sounds alright", he mistook a guy with a long hair in the front row for a woman and then kept on going on and on about how funny that was, and then had material about his rescue dog which didn't even have a punch line, it was just a story about a man who now has a dog. I always try to laugh if I can but I didn't once, and by the end was actively glaring at him.

Glenn Moore - I've slagged him off a fair bit in the past but was actually pretty impressed, his gag rate is high and though the odd pun is weak a lot of his material made me laugh.

Stella Graham - Not bad, not great, but some of her material was amusing.

Dave Bibby - Who appears to be the "LadBible" website personified. One song set to the Only Fools And Horses theme was horrendous, but a character who phones up a Man Utd themed sex line made me laugh a few times, and then he ended his set with a quiz involving two members of the audience where all the answers were "Banter" related, ie "Banter Claus", or "The Archbishop of Banterbury". So kind of terrible, but the audience members made it funnier than it had any right to be.

Ivo Graham - Really impressive. This was the first time I saw him and even though he did 10 minutes of new material at the start (while commenting on what a poor decision this was) he made me laugh a great deal, and his prepared stuff about his new daughter and how he went to Eton was really great, and I definitely plan to see him again.

Small Man Big Horse

Off Book - A live podcast recording, they put together an improvised musical each episode and I thought it was bloody superb stuff, and far better than the majority of scripted musicals.

Michael Legge - The Idiot - His latest Edinburgh show, it's an angry rant that made me laugh hard throughout and received a lot of applause as well, for me this was easily his best work yet and a 4 and a half star show.

Tony Law and Phil Nichol: Virtue Chamber Echo - In which Law and Nichol piss about on stage for an hour, sometimes singing, sometimes rambling away, at times it was inspired yet at other points it wasn't, I'm really fond of both comedians but this was a show I just quite liked rather than loved.

Small Man Big Horse

Sooz Kempner - Mega Drive - In which Kempner talks about the games she used to love as a kid, and if it were this alone it'd be a great show as her observations about these games (mostly Sonic and it's sequels, but also Alex Kidd, Mortal Kombat and a few others) are really, really funny. But she also adds a personal aspect and makes it about her parents and also how life often goes wrong for her as an adult, and a lot of the segments don't really link that well together. She's undoubtedly a skilled comedian but this would have been a lot better if streamlined, and without the inevitable "emotional element" too many comedians shove in to their shows these days. 3 and a half stars.

Philip Simon - Who's The Daddy Pig? - Simon played Pepper Pig's Dad in a stage show for 18 months and he flips between tales of his life during the time with stories about his son, while also making a good few jokes about the nature of the Pepper Pig tv series. I was enjoying it a fair deal (despite their only being 8 people in the audience, many of whom didn't seem to be liking it at all) but then he does a big speech towards the end about how amazing being a Dad is, and how all that matters in his life is son, before launching in to a ranty preachy bit at the end about the difficulties of parenting which was tiresome and annoying. A shame as before that it had been a decent enough show, but the ending did spoil it a bit. So it's also a 3 and a 1/2 star show too.

Small Man Big Horse

Mark Dean Quinn Knits: A Comedy Show - A likeable hour but one which felt frustrating as it was his birthday and so he spent a good while fucking about and not getting the show going, and in general he kept on commenting on what the show's normally like compared to what we got today. It was still gently funny stuff, but not quite as good as it could have been.

Ross Smith - Crying/Shame - A very decent hour from Smith supposedly about his inability to cry, though mostly it was the story of him ghosting his former girlfriend and his relationship with his parents. He has a high gag rate and in general I liked this a lot, and for once even the emotional bit at the end didn't irritate me.

Tom Ward - The Experiment - In which Ward brought his friend Rich Hardisty on stage and interviewed him for 50 minutes. Hardisty has an interesting backstory (he's a sometime comedian, model, actor and writer) who also suffers from being bi-polar, but at times it felt a bit awkward and I wish there was more to it than just the two men having a quiet chat, even though that's the point of this (and forthcoming) shows.

Ari Eldjárn - Eagle Fire Iron - Very very likeable Icelandic comedian who spends the hour talking about his native country, and what it was like to grow up there. Not everything lands and it's not exactly ground breaking comedy, but it's engaging and appealing and I was very fond of it in general.

Small Man Big Horse

The Comedy Auction - Where Tony Law acted as an auctioneer and Edward Aczel and Alice Fraser introduced the various lots, which this time around included a 50p coin, a Face from The A-Team action figure,  a 12" vinyl copy of Sabrina's Boys, a £1 coin, a pair of leather trousers, 2 books with Dave in the title and a t-shirt with Dave written on it, a weird little doll, a mostly working guitar, and probably some other things which I've forgotten. It's a great little show which for some reason attracted a lot of families, and so amusingly saw kids bidding against their parents / siblings and there was one very funny tantrum from one girl who was outraged that she'd had to share her item with her sister. All the comedians involved were on top form too, there's a nicely chaotic feel to the whole thing, and as it takes place fairly regularly I'll definitely go back again at some point.

The Maydays - Happy Never After - A horror themed improvised comedy musical about two girls who are forced to live with their creepy Uncle after their parents died, this was very funny stuff, the songs were nearly all extremely likeable, and it impressed me a great deal in general.

DrGreggles


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 13, 2019, 10:42:31 PM
Comedy Auction sounds fun.
Where was it?

It's at The Taproom at Highbury and Islington / Angel, and seems to be on every two weeks - http://www.thetaprooms.co.uk/listings.php

DrGreggles

Not sure it counts as stand up, but I've just been at Tim Minchin's new show and it's really fucking good.

Small Man Big Horse

Nick Elleray - Big Nick Energy - In which this Australian comedian talks about his love for the Rolling Stones, growing up with six brothers, and his Doctor's attempts to put him on anti-depressants for Gastroenteritis, it started strongly but tailed off towards the end, and certain stances of his I disagreed with meaning for me it was only a 3 star show.

Lucy Pearman - Baggage - Which I went to see after reading the reviews of it in the Edinburgh thread and I'm so glad I did, it's a madcap bit of clowning with lots of absurd madness and very silly bits which I enjoyed a huge amount.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 15, 2019, 10:21:18 PM
Not sure it counts as stand up, but I've just been at Tim Minchin's new show and it's really fucking good.

I've only seen him once but did like him a lot, I just have a slight issue with finding him to be a bit smug in real life - did that come across in the show? And was it new stuff, a best of show, or a mixture of the two?

DrGreggles

I don't find him smug at all. In fact I think he heavily underplays how good a musician and songwriter he is.

Mostly new stuff, but there were a few old songs that were re-imagined (I won't spoiler how).
Long set too. Started at 7:30, finished at 10:10 (with a 15-20 minute break).

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 16, 2019, 05:58:00 PM
I don't find him smug at all. In fact I think he heavily underplays how good a musician and songwriter he is.

Mostly new stuff, but there were a few old songs that were re-imagined (I won't spoiler how).
Long set too. Started at 7:30, finished at 10:10 (with a 15-20 minute break).

The smugness thing was more in interviews than when he was on stage, and it's more than possible I'm being very, very unfair too. I'm glad you had such a good time, anyway, and I definitely hope to see him again at some point.

Small Man Big Horse

Peter Fleming - Aka Tom Burgess, playing a creator of 60's and 70's children's tv shows like Professor Zany's Mad Laboratory, Nicholas The Mischievous Cupboard and Mrs Peregrine's Wingless Birds, this was a very warmhearted, funny hour of bizarre silliness, I enjoyed it a lot and chatting to Tom afterwards he plans to do another show with the character, which pleases. I also asked him about Sam and Tom (who I've never seen but have heard good things about on here) and he said they hadn't split up or anything, but were just doing their own solo thing for a bit so it might be a while before they do another show together again.

Ali Macofsky, Omid Singh, Helen Bauer - What I thought was an hour from Macofsky had two support acts, Bauer was great but I'd seen the set before, while Singh only did 8 minutes and so was hard to judge, but seemed likeable enough. Macofsky was very funny throughout but it was largely sex based jokes, which I like in general but (nearly) a whole set of them got a bit boring towards the end and the gags about fucking her Dad were a bit lazy.

Small Man Big Horse

I went to the Quantum Leopard night last night which is run / hosted by James Ross, who's a great MC, easily one of the best as he pretty much just does strong material and there's no audience interaction. Tom Ward was then the first comic of the night, he's a friend of mine so this might seem biased but I thought the set was really funny, his best yet, and it contained some really great musical bits as well which I really liked. After him were five open mic-er's, all doing five minutes and the quality was varied but mostly good, with one twenty year old guy being weird and strange and though he's not quite there yet I liked the direction he was taking.

Then after a break Richard Todd did about 20 minutes which made me laugh a lot, it's nothing groundbreaking but it is consistently funny, which is of course the main thing. And then there was Lucy Hopkins, who came to the stage covered in gold paint and wearing a gold dress, and, um, well, it was all rather absurdist and avant-garde, which is often my cup of tea and she did make me laugh a few times, with the ending being strong, but I have a feeling it didn't quite suit a mixed bill and would have worked much better in the context of her full length show. Finally Rosie Jones headlined, which was the reason I came to the night after seeing her recommended in the Edinburgh thread, she did about 20 minutes about life with cerebral palsy that was pretty great, with her material about being on an airplane being the strongest, and I'd definitely like to see her do a full show after this.

Also, I met a very nice bloke who lurks on here, and whose name I can't remember as I was quite drunk. But hello! And un-lurk and join in, this place isn't as disturbing as it initially looks! ;)

boxmatt

I too was also at Quantum Leopard on Saturday. I echo the sentiments of @Small Man Big Horse. James Ross puts on a lovely gig.
He was a key part of the Count Dankula documentary from the BBC pitched as the polar opposite of Comedy Unleashed for those curious. I wouldn't be put off by the 'no punching down rule'. As the host highlighted, those that think political correctness is killing comedy don't understand the meaning of the terms 'political correctness','killing' or 'comedy'. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07h0swc/the-nazi-pug-joke-or-hate

The twenty year old guys is Jem Braithewaite. A charmingly odd fellow with a lot of potential for the future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk8CUmzaUdw

I'm also the lurker un-lurking.
I'll be honest I mainly use C&B to find Kitson bootlegs, something I feel deeply guilty about as I know he hates the sharing of un-approved recorded material. The shame.

Small Man Big Horse

As mentioned elsewhere it was a pleasure to meet you, and cheers for the info re: Jem, too.

Paul Currie - Trufficle Musk - An hour of absolutely absurd and surreal madness mostly performed in only his white pants, I loved it a huge amount. It's hard to say too much without spoiling it but it's like a one man sketch show and gloriously funny from start to finish.

billyandthecloneasaurus

YO SMBH, you seen J Morpurgz has announced a W.I.P. show?  Gutted I can't make it.

Small Man Big Horse

#262
Quote from: billyandthecloneasaurus on November 05, 2019, 12:32:27 AM
YO SMBH, you seen J Morpurgz has announced a W.I.P. show?  Gutted I can't make it.

I did, and managed to get tickets for it before it sold out thankfully. It's a shame you can't make it, but hopefully he should finally be doing a lot more shows next year at least.

Tony Law - Identifies - Much better than "A Lost Show" (or the version I saw of it thanks to GoFasterStripe) it was still a little haphazard and all over the place. Which I know is almost expected when you go and see Tony, and there were parts which made me laugh really hard, but it tailed off towards the end (as he commented himself) which was a bit of a shame. At his best he's fantastic, it's just a shame he's not a bit more consistent.

stephenjwz

I think I might have been at the same show as you SMBH - can't argue with 'all over the place' or 'laugh really hard'. Seen a couple of his shows live, plus the GFS ones, plus listened to his podcast & while it's not like his new show is impenetrable if you haven't already seen him, or that he's just playing the hits, but the sort of continuity of themes/building on stuff show-on-show makes him funnier each time I see him.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: stephenjwz on November 05, 2019, 11:54:53 AM
I think I might have been at the same show as you SMBH - can't argue with 'all over the place' or 'laugh really hard'. Seen a couple of his shows live, plus the GFS ones, plus listened to his podcast & while it's not like his new show is impenetrable if you haven't already seen him, or that he's just playing the hits, but the sort of continuity of themes/building on stuff show-on-show makes him funnier each time I see him.

I saw it last night at the Soho Theatre, and get what you mean abut the continuity side of things, I'm certainly glad I'd seen "A Lost Show" recently thanks to GoFasterStripe as there were quite a few nods to that, and I do wonder what someone who'd never seen him before would make of it.

rasta-spouse

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on November 05, 2019, 02:19:10 PM
I'm certainly glad I'd seen "A Lost Show" recently thanks to GoFasterStripe

I like Tony Law, but I'm really surprised GFS have put up several recent shows where he is rambling and incoherent. They're a tough watch compared to his early work.

What's the Tony Law podcast people speak of? Any chance of an rss link?

WestHill

I saw Identifies at Edinburgh this year and it was astoundingly good. I love Tonezone but having not seen him since 2013 I wasn't expecting it be amazing (maybe I just forgot how good he is?)but it absolutely was. It seems like he leaves a lot of space in the structure so he can stay loose and play with it differently each performance and when the magic happens there are few comics on his level. This was my favourite show this year, narrowly edging Brookes/ Morley/ Roisin & Chiara.

DrGreggles

When Mr Tony connects with the audience it's one of the greatest live experiences you can have.
There was a night in Edinburgh a few years ago where he created actual hysteria in the room. Nothing could fail to land. It was amazing.

Saw Frank Skinner tonight. Still one of the best there is. Just big laughs throughout.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: rasta-spouse on November 05, 2019, 08:25:40 PM
I like Tony Law, but I'm really surprised GFS have put up several recent shows where he is rambling and incoherent. They're a tough watch compared to his early work.

I do agree with you but I guess if Tony wants to put it out they're not going to say no.

Quote from: WestHill on November 05, 2019, 09:28:31 PM
I saw Identifies at Edinburgh this year and it was astoundingly good. I love Tonezone but having not seen him since 2013 I wasn't expecting it be amazing (maybe I just forgot how good he is?)but it absolutely was. It seems like he leaves a lot of space in the structure so he can stay loose and play with it differently each performance and when the magic happens there are few comics on his level. This was my favourite show this year, narrowly edging Brookes/ Morley/ Roisin & Chiara.

Quote from: DrGreggles on November 05, 2019, 10:59:16 PM
When Mr Tony connects with the audience it's one of the greatest live experiences you can have.
There was a night in Edinburgh a few years ago where he created actual hysteria in the room. Nothing could fail to land. It was amazing.

I think that's what frustrates me the most about him as I know he can still be amazing, but he's not particularly consistent and you just never know what you're going to get.

Quote from: DrGreggles on November 05, 2019, 10:59:16 PM
Saw Frank Skinner tonight. Still one of the best there is. Just big laughs throughout.

Glad you had a good night out, I'm a big fan and would like to see him live again, but right now I can't really afford it (with most of the gigs I have seen this year being free as I've reviewed them, or very cheap through the seat filling websites I'm a member of).

Small Man Big Horse

Sean and Eliot Read The Bible - A live podcast recording I went to on Sunday but forgot to mention, this sees Sean McLoughlin and Eliot J. Fallows discuss the death of communism for an hour, and okay, fine, that is of course a massive lie and it is as the title might lead you to believe. But rather than punching down and calling God a nonexistent cunt for an hour they came up with some inspired material, giving out awards for the best bits of the Old Testament, and I liked it a lot.