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

[Tiggles]

Not bad, I think a lot in the crowd were very well-disposed to like him. He didn't bomb imo but he didn't have a show packed with rollicking laughs either.

I do remember thinking that it was a brave choice to do that kind of material with a big crowd on a mixed bill, so fair play to him for sticking to his guns.

And it was that material you mention, yes, with a kind of "choose your own adventure/ utterly pointless tangent" element to it.

[Tiggles]

Laughterama – Sunday afternoon

A threatening day weather-wise resolved into a fine drizzle (apparently the evening show got a thorough drenching). Not entirely sold on an outside festival in Manchester in the autumn, although the Castlefield Bowl is a fine venue and there is something inherently amusing about sitting in the rain getting damper while a parade of comedians do their thing in front of you.

Anyway, the compere was John Robins and he was pretty great. I've seen him compere before and he's got a fine mix of crowd-baiting and prepared material to draw on. He managed the drunk over-conversationalist in the front with good grace. The afternoon opened with Thanyia Moore, who I enjoyed in an "a bit edgy for the mainstream" kind of way with a shaggy dog story about hanging out with swingers in Atlanta. Next was Kemah Bob, with an enjoyably (for me) over-extended musing on salt, which I've heard before but still found funny. The crowd didn't really respond to her, but she was really fighting it as this is when the dampness started seeping in. Then a short set from Ray Badran, who had some very fine observational material related to adapting to British weather but I was distracted by how much his cadence is borrowing from his fellow Australian comedian who followed him. Sam Campbell was sharing the headline spot, and he did one of the best sets I've seen from him on a mixed bill. He drew heavily on the Wobservations material, with a few new bits scattered in there for good measure. He kicked off by walking on stage with a bunch of flowers for John Robins, who was genuinely surprised, and his "jumping off stage to chase a member of the audience leaving for the toilet" bit was even funnier with a radio mike that still had range at that distance. The second headliner was Dylan Moran who provided a 180-degree flip of energy from Cambo. It looks like he's still developing the show he did (badly) here a couple of years ago – as his life develops, I guess. It's a personal show with relationships with people as the main theme, with the meandering jazz piano/ singing bit leaving things loose for him. He did acknowledge that booze is back in his life, but also mentioned he has a new partner who is helping him to keep things sensible. He also rightly berated those who were very obviously filming him. His prepared material was sharp and silly and poetic, but I'm not sure how I feel about the jazzy bit. Anyway he was clearly fully in control of himself this time and I enjoyed it a lot more than 2022.

Still not entirely convinced by Laughterama, from the name to the open-air venue to the highly-changeable-after-tickets-have-been-sold lineups. I also wonder whether being so close to the end of Fringe is the best timing for comedians who may well just be a bit knackered (or end up pulling out and doing a London run instead); in 2022 this wasn't so much of an issue, as people were still wary of doing a Fringe run. I'm glad we've got it, mind.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Zoë Coombs Marr: Every Single Thing in My Whole Entire Life at the Soho Theatre- I really like Coombs Marr's previous show The Opener which she performed as the character Dave and was an attack on the horrific behaviour of many comedians, but this is a more conventional hour where she's put together a spreadsheet of all of her important / interesting memories, and slowly works through them, giving the audience an occasional chance to pick one. The problem is that these are mildly funny at best, there's nothing bad here but the stories are the sort of anecdotes you might expect to hear from friends down the pub on a drunken night out, they're mostly interesting but a lot of the time ended on a fairly limp punchline, while some were just plain dull. 1.75/5

[itf]

Still not entirely convinced by Laughterama, from the name to the open-air venue to the highly-changeable-after-tickets-have-been-sold lineups. I also wonder whether being so close to the end of Fringe is the best timing for comedians who may well just be a bit knackered (or end up pulling out and doing a London run instead); in 2022 this wasn't so much of an issue, as people were still wary of doing a Fringe run. I'm glad we've got it, mind.

I broadly really like Laughterama and have been to probably 70% of the shows across the three years, but I think they need a bit more variety in who they book. FWIW I thought Dylan Moran was woeful but have never really seen him or been into him and from my vantage point in the dry bit at the back, a few leaving early. Broadly I view it as £150 to see about 30 comedians and decide who I'd like to see do a full show at some point, and I quite like the venue if the weather plays ball. I bottled the Sunday eve show in the end despite having a ticket, seeing Stewart Lee next year and not too enthused by rest of the bill.

[edwardfog]

I'll be on my holidays unfortunately but this looks very cool: https://ticketlab.co.uk/event/id/27877#/

Related: anyone going to Alan Resnick or Anna Seregina at Moth Club this week/next week?

[Tiggles]

I'm seeing Alan Resnick in Manc on Tuesday and will most likely go to All Is Joy as well as I think I'll be in London that day. Will report back.

[itf]

Jason Manford (WIP)

At the risk of being thrown out of these rarefied circles, I thought this was a really decent hour - it's gentle, relatable family life type stuff but he had decent chat with the crowd, explained about the WIP process and did a brief Q&A afterwards (he's been asked to do Taskmaster but couldn't because of his schedule but may do it in the future for anyone who cares). I wouldn't see it in an arena but some of the smaller rooms like Stockport Plaza I think this will work great. Head and shoulders about the Peter Kay arena show which I thought was excruciating. Contains far more content about

Spoiler alert

Dion Dublin's cock

[close]

than you might imagine.

[Pink Gregory]

I don't think Manford's ever really courted any kind of opprobrium around here.  If anything for a very broad, mainstream comic he's always been quietly very good.

[itf]

I don't think Manford's ever really courted any kind of opprobrium around here.  If anything for a very broad, mainstream comic he's always been quietly very good.

I think I've said this before but when a promoter ran away with the money on a mixed bill, he was the only comedian who did anything for the bookers - gave us free tickets to his arena show.

[edwardfog]

Nothing against Manford. I think he's supposed to be a really nice guy and I'm not surprised he's a good comic. A lot of those big name guys are pretty good; McIntyre's another one - comedy stays meritocratic longer than most art forms I think

[Tiggles]

Manford was good fun when rocking up to XS Malarkey a few months ago. And he also supports the growth of live comedy through his "Manford's Comedy Club" venture.

McIntyre is also very good and you know you'd have a good night out going to see him.

Arenas aren't really for me as venues, so I'm unlikely to go to see either of them in that space, but you can't deny that they work hard and have skills.

[itf]

McIntyre is also very good and you know you'd have a good night out going to see him.

I saw McIntyre at the Comedy Store on a mixed bill a few times when he was starting out, he was always head and shoulders above everyone else.

[Tiggles]

Spencer Jones @ Fairfield Social Club, Manchester

Very close to non-stop laughs. If you like the inane, idiocy, perfect comic timing and finding anthropomorphic cleaning tools funny (I do) you will love this. I did.

Spencer did his own warm-up, with a dense selection of his greatest hits involving fake eyes/ puppetry/ fake teeth/ a looping machine (which features heavily throughout both parts of the show). Luxuriant lunacy.

The main show, which I think has been touring for a bit, was a story about him going loopy in lockdown, loneliness, and the nemesis of a cockerel. As he said, not as densely funny as the warm-up but still rammed with simple stupid genius and all his tricks. There's something irresistible about Spencer Jones and his ridiculously creative clown mind: he turns me into a baby giggling helplessly at funny faces and unexpected noises.

Another great booking from the folks at A Lovely Time and a wonderful way to end the weekend.

[Tiggles]

Alan Resnick: One Funny Hour @ Cultplex, Manchester

Simultaneously brilliant and horrific. The tricksiness kicked in from the get-go, with Anna Seregina's stylish opening routine immediately warning you not to believe a thing. Then the main show was launched on us, and for legal and spoiler reasons I'm not going to say anything more other than I'm going to be thinking about it for a while as well as trying to scrub my mind clean of what he showed us.

A smart exploration on art and value and AI. I am looking forward even more to the Q&A session in London on Sunday, although I don't know if I can order my thoughts well enough to come out with a coherent question.

Did anyone else see it/ is anyone going to see it?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Alan Resnick: One Funny Hour @ Cultplex, Manchester

Simultaneously brilliant and horrific. The tricksiness kicked in from the get-go, with Anna Seregina's stylish opening routine immediately warning you not to believe a thing. Then the main show was launched on us, and for legal and spoiler reasons I'm not going to say anything more other than I'm going to be thinking about it for a while as well as trying to scrub my mind clean of what he showed us.

A smart exploration on art and value and AI. I am looking forward even more to the Q&A session in London on Sunday, although I don't know if I can order my thoughts well enough to come out with a coherent question.

Did anyone else see it/ is anyone going to see it?

I've just got a ticket now on the strength of your review, there's quite a few different shows I was tempted to go to on Sunday but I really like Resnick's Adult Swim stuff, and Sam Campbell's also involved with the night, so I reckon it should be pretty fantastic.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

This seems as good a place to ask as any, has anyone seen Jake Roche? Normally the son of Shane Richie and Coleen Nolan would be anathema to me but comedians I like seem to be keen on him

[edwardfog]

I've just got a ticket now on the strength of your review, there's quite a few different shows I was tempted to go to on Sunday but I really like Resnick's Adult Swim stuff, and Sam Campbell's also involved with the night, so I reckon it should be pretty fantastic.

So you're going to the Q&A rather than the show?

@Tiggles I was at the show at Moth Club on Monday. Complicated feelings about it if I'm being honest. It kind of only has one joke. The first 30 mins is all setup with no laughs and the second 30 mins hits the same beat over and over again until the end. And I can't tell if it's really pro AI or secretly really anti. I laughed a lot in the middle and it was certainly interesting but I ended up kind of hating it

It was complicated in our show by an extra 30 mins in the middle where Resnick's laptop broke and Anna had to come back on and vamp with a strange story about accidentally smoking pcp and giving her neighbour's dog a haircut. I spent ages thinking it was another trick but I think it was actually genuine tech problems. Probably the best part of the evening tho imo

I saw Anna's solo show the night before which was also pretty odd

Did you have someone called David do a first support slot about being 50 years old? I really recognised our guy (and he was in the audience at Anna's show) but I don't know who he was

[Tiggles]

Did you have someone called David do a first support slot about being 50 years old? I really recognised our guy (and he was in the audience at Anna's show) but I don't know who he was

No David, just Anna (and I liked what she did, although it was very arch).

I liked how complicated my feelings were about Alan's show. I agree on the long set up/ single payoff, and it definitely wasn't a proper comedy show. I also didn't know how much was AI generated or just him pissing about, but I kind of think that is part of what is going on.

You could say in many ways he is simply continuing a conversation about art that has been going on for ever around value, mass production, commercialisation and meaning but on the other hand it could just have been an opportunity to show hundreds of pics of varying levels of upsettingness.

There was definitely an air of current-era Fielder to the trustworthiness of the thing, and of not knowing exactly who is the butt of the joke.

[Small Man Big Horse]

So you're going to the Q&A rather than the show?

I clicked the link in your post above, so it's a screening of the films and then Sam Campbell hosting a Q&A.
Edit: Ah, I see it's quite different to the shows you've mentioned, but I don't mind either way as Sunday sounds like it should still be a lot of fun.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Quantum Leopard - James Ross's mixed bill night had way too many comedians on to comment on them all, so I'll stick with the ones I really liked:
Laura Davis - Has been someone I've wanted to see for years but I've never quite managed it. The wait was worth it though, suffering from a very sore throat she admitted her delivery was slightly different than usual, but it didn't stop her being very, very funny throughout.
Nick Elleray - I saw him pre-pandemic and thought he was fine but little more than that, but his 20 minute set was really strong, his softly spoken voice works really well with some smart, unpredictable punchlines, and now he's on the list of people I'd like to see a full hour from again.
Hasan Al-Habib - A previous Quantum Leopard competition winner, his ten minute set was superb, and I love it when I see a comedian with a perspective I've not witnessed before (in this case the relationship between his and his father, as the latter grew up in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power), but all his material in general was fantastic.

The rest were really good too, apart from one of the five minute open mic spots (which are always filled by people who have done at least one Edinburgh show, so I find him calling them open mic-er's dubious) who was so awful I don't have the words. But I'm trying to avoid giving people bad reviews unless their material's actively hateful, and this was just five minutes that rubbed me up the wrong way so I won't say anything more.

[Tiggles]

@Small Man Big Horse I ended up not going to London after all and giving my Resnick/ Campbell ticket away to someone who enjoyed the evening. What did you make of it?

[Small Man Big Horse]

@Small Man Big Horse I ended up not going to London after all and giving my Resnick/ Campbell ticket away to someone who enjoyed the evening. What did you make of it?

I enjoyed the vast majority of it though in total the videos ran for two hours, and towards the end there was one quite long video which only starred Resnick in one location that I struggled with. Resnick was very self-deprecating in the Q&A though, and spoke about how they'd never really done a public screening of all his shorts like this and that he found the one I didn't like overly long, and was very aware that there are some themes he's clearly quite obsessed with. Campbell called him out over the use of A.I. and he essentially agreed with him, said it's something he finds interesting but that he's fully aware of is largely bad, so I'll be interested if he uses it again in the future.

I'd also say that for me personally "Unedited Footage Of A Bear" is the one I was most impressed by (despite having seen it before), though I did like the others a great deal, and the evening as a whole was something I'm really pleased I attended, I just wish it had been a bit shorter.

[Tiggles]

@Small Man Big Horse thank you, the read-out is much appreciated. I did wonder how it would go.

[lauraxsynthesis]

Got to Happy Mondays in New Cross again. The secret surprise headliner was Judi Love. There was a bit of racial stereotyping in her set - the audience weren't on board with a bit about black women from South London (including herself) being thieves. Apart from this though, she was well funny. I'd be up for seeing an hour from her, particularly in person because she had a great rapport with the audience. Topics included dating after 40, her son being the only black kid in his year now she's moved to Richmond, not being famous enough yet to have a coke habit, and rather a lot about shagging. She seemed to be enjoying herself and a wide range of character voices were effortless and excellent. Incredible she's 44. She looks about 30 and I was a bit captivated by her beauty.

It was a typical HM night with 7 acts and the compere. 4 of the acts were women and it was a rare experience of two black women on the bill. Arielle Souma from France was new to me. Pretty much all her punchlines were brilliant surprises. Currer Ball from Glasgow was also new to me and did lots of audience interaction while perched on one of the tall stools on the stage. He had a vibe I've not seen before and I liked it. Pope Lonergan I had seen before but this time his content was dark. It was a very edgy night overall from most of the acts and in a good way. Lots of sex, addictions, addicts having sex, boobs and vaginas were recurring themes. A night of fun shocks and surprises.

[edwardfog]

Can't remember if I mentioned this already but Foxdog Studios are doing a new Halloween version of Robo Bingo at Moth Club next Friday and it might be my most anticipated show of the year. If you've never seen them you have to check them out, they do things that no other comedy act is doing.

Just make sure you bring your phone with a decent charge and don't let it run out before the gig like my housemate did 😖

[Small Man Big Horse]

@Small Man Big Horse thank you, the read-out is much appreciated. I did wonder how it would go.

So not a problem, it's a shame you couldn't make it but I think most of the films that were screened are online and while when Sam Campbell was interviewing him it was fun, the final ten minutes so questions from the audience which were pretty bad.

Can't remember if I mentioned this already but Foxdog Studios are doing a new Halloween version of Robo Bingo at Moth Club next Friday and it might be my most anticipated show of the year. If you've never seen them you have to check them out, they do things that no other comedy act is doing.

Just make sure you bring your phone with a decent charge and don't let it run out before the gig like my housemate did 😖

It's frustrating as I've a Samsung Galaxy A03 which I only bought at the beginning of 2022, but it was also only a hundred quid and absolutely refused to work when I saw them at The Bill Murray, and I spent about 20 minutes trying to get it to.

[Tiggles]

Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Peacock @ The Royal Exchange, Manchester

This was my first time seeing Kiri and I feel lucky to have done so.

In Peacock Kiri talks about the experience of applying to be a foster parent, giving the context to the decision-making leading up to that. Even though the topic matter is not relatable to me in any way, I walked away feeling uplifted as well as thoroughly entertained. The beautifully-structured show is compassionate, honest, grown-up and funny, but above all it is just very humane.

Mainstream comedy at its best, showing people at their best.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Jackie Fabulous @ The Bill Murray

I didn't know much about Jackie and was pressed into going by Mrs TTT who is a fan. We actually booked the tickets much earlier in the year for a tour which was cancelled due to illness. The tickets were held over so I guess a few folks couldn't make the new date which explains the empty seats. We arrived early for the show and sat in the bar, Mrs TTT was thrilled when Jackie showed up and had a chat with her for a good while which she referenced later in her set.
Turns out she is a semi finalist on America's Got Talent and delivered an accomplished set as you might expect. A lot of the set centred around her being a black woman of a certain age which she made relatable for a wholly white audience. There was a fair bit of crowd work  (including myself) which she handled really well so I warmed to her despite having no knowledge beforehand.
She is only doing three or four UK dates including tonight at  The Top Secret Comedy Club in London. I would definitely see her again and will heed recommendations from Mrs TTT in future.

[imitationleather]

I'm going to see Neil Hamburger at The Bill Murray tonight. Also I dunno what it is but I really fancy eating a burger right now.

[imitationleather]

Neil Hamburger was so very good. Exactly what I needed this evening.