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

[Memorex MP3]

, I can't believe he's still doing the "Jesus is the answer" bit (twice!) - material which Kitson was already calling "old gash" over 10 years ago.

I think it was considered that by the time Fist of Fun was on tbh, I think that's always kind of been the point for him to just endlessly revisit one of his earliest bits so I can kind of forgive that one.


On the whole agree with you though, I think it's somewhat inevitable for comics but there is something a bit frustrating about Lee in particular being so uninteresting. Maybe 15 years ago I had an expectation as he'd get older he'd either veer into being a full on eccentric or something more like Alexei Sayle; both of which would have largely been me projecting onto him than anything else though.
When has he last properly set himself up somewhere that there was a risk of failure too? Been doing that cycle with the big long run in Leicester Square over and over since the tv series ended with little decision hasnt he?

[BritishHobo]

It's a shame to hear that. I struggled a bit with Snowflake/Tornado (had the same feeling, which the last Comedy Vehicle gave me, where empty repetition meant there was barely any material, and without a clever veneer to explain why), but was hopeful for Basic Lee. Some of his shticks have been far more overplayed than Peter Kay shouting 'garlic bread!'

[edwardfog]

I think it was considered that by the time Fist of Fun was on tbh, I think that's always kind of been the point for him to just endlessly revisit one of his earliest bits so I can kind of forgive that one.

Yeah, he hangs a very sizeable lantern on that context by doing it twice in one show, my question is just whether that knowingness makes it funny or worthwhile at all to sit through it again. At this point I'm not finding the audacity funny and I'm certainly bored to death with the material

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Seeing Basic Lee next week. First time I've seen Stew live in, I think, 6 years. Was hoping the break would make things more tolerable because I was deathly bored of him by then, not too optimistic about that now

[Small Man Big Horse]

I think I'm definitely going to give this one a miss given the response here, the price had already put me off, but I've seen him do the Jesus routing too many times as it is (for a while whenever he was doing a benefit gig it appeared to be the only routine he was interested in doing), plus with Lee it seems certain* that all of his shows will be filmed so I'll catch it then.


*Well I say that, but is there any sign of Virus being released?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Caught Tom Walker at the Soho Theatre and liked it on the whole, but it was a bit patchy and didn't really hang together as a show.  When it hits it hits, but I didn't see it as better (or worse) than the other shows of his I've seen.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I was at the Soho Theatre last night too CG, but sadly our eyes never met across a crowded room and we didn't fall madly in love with each other.

Glamrou: From Quran to Queen at the Soho Theatre - A really fascinating story of what it was like growing up gay in Iraq before moving to the UK and attending Eton, all the while struggling with their relationship with god, punctuated by songs, some amusing, some deliberately emotional. I found the whole thing captivating, the performance they give is extremely nuanced and the story told in inventive ways, perhaps its more theatre than stand up, but I thought it was funny enough to deserve a place in this thread. 4.5/5

Emmy Blotnick: The 30 Fragrances of Jennifer Lopez at the Soho Theatre -
Two shows in one where she discusses the insanity of a world where J-Lo has released 30 types of perfume, along with the story of her relationship with her mother and brother, the former being a Trump fan and the

Spoiler alert

latter having recently been sentenced to 51 months in prison for fraudulently claiming 5 million dollars worth of support for non-existent companies from the government during the pandemic

[close]

. I really loved this, though I did notice that I seemed to be laughing more than a lot of people, but for me she's a fantastic, assured performer with the material to back it up and then some. 4.25/5

[edwardfog]

Ah that's too bad I had a couple of free tickets to that Emmy Blotnick show but chose to hightail it to Kent instead

[Memorex MP3]

Dr Brown - Befrdfgth

Bit of a bizarre show to be on I think? He's in the middle of doing WIPs these days and has this one off performance of his fringe winning show from 2012.
Was pretty great, wasn't in the mood at all but still spent a big chunk of it laughing. it overran and we didn't get the last bit (was doing a self crucifixion and had to abruptly cut it? Was there much past that?)

In a bit of a different context it probably would have been right up there with my favorite shows, but it was still very solid in a shit mood by myself with a bad seat, which is impressive in itself!

Will def try to see one of the WIPs

[CaledonianGonzo]

In its original form IIRC it ended with

Spoiler alert

a punter picked from the crowd having to mime repeat the entire show to prompts from Dr B and the rest of the audience

[close]

. I've maybe not remembered it correctly cos a) 10 years ago and b) laughing so much but it's honestly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[Memorex MP3]

Ahhh! He ran a bit early then because there was about 3-4 minutes after that.

Was really confused by how he managed to pull someone so aware of it all up, was genuinely impressive how much they managed to remember on the spot. Kind of wish he picked someone who struggled with it all a bit more but that might have been really awkward.


Either way, strongly recommend the show if he's gonna be doing it again.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Seeing Basic Lee next week. First time I've seen Stew live in, I think, 6 years. Was hoping the break would make things more tolerable because I was deathly bored of him by then, not too optimistic about that now

It was actually a lot of fun and a lot sillier than I expected. The Jesus is the answer bit actually served a thematic purpose in this one.

Spoiler alert

he even does some silly Tory voices which I wasn't expecting at all

[close]

I fully expect him to have ruthlessly ground any joy out of it by the time it tours, but y'know

[edwardfog]

Dr Brown - Befrdfgth

Bit of a bizarre show to be on I think? He's in the middle of doing WIPs these days and has this one off performance of his fringe winning show from 2012.
Was pretty great, wasn't in the mood at all but still spent a big chunk of it laughing. it overran and we didn't get the last bit (was doing a self crucifixion and had to abruptly cut it? Was there much past that?)

In a bit of a different context it probably would have been right up there with my favorite shows, but it was still very solid in a shit mood by myself with a bad seat, which is impressive in itself!

Will def try to see one of the WIPs

I was alone at this show too (as well as Kim Noble I mean). Memorex should you and I hang out intentionally?

I was really happy to get to see it although it didn't grab me quite as much as it did you, probably just because I've seen so many post-2012 clowning shows that draw so heavily from it, it no longer seems so fresh.

[edwardfog]

Weirdos are doing three more nights of The Envelopes at the Museum of Comedy over Halloween. Highly recommended if you're in the market for something very raucous and fun

[Small Man Big Horse]

Weirdos are doing three more nights of The Envelopes at the Museum of Comedy over Halloween. Highly recommended if you're in the market for something very raucous and fun

I noticed that as well as was tempted, but I'm already fairly busy that weekend (Elf Lyons on the Saturday, celebrating a friend's birthday the next day) but am tempted, if I'm not too exhausted I might see if there are still tickets going for the Sunday evening performance.

[dissolute ocelot]

I went to Isy Suttie's Jackpot at the Stand in Edinburgh. Pleasant hour of anecdotes about her childhood obsession with ouija boards and other more modern stories about being a mum/the Civil Nuclear Constabulary/eavesdropping in public toilets. A couple of songs at the end but definitely focused more on the stand-up which she does in a nice conversational way. Didn't tie together too strongly, and not at quite the same level as her Radio 4 show Love Letters which I loved, but entertaining.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I went to Isy Suttie's Jackpot at the Stand in Edinburgh. Pleasant hour of anecdotes about her childhood obsession with ouija boards and other more modern stories about being a mum/the Civil Nuclear Constabulary/eavesdropping in public toilets. A couple of songs at the end but definitely focused more on the stand-up which she does in a nice conversational way. Didn't tie together too strongly, and not at quite the same level as her Radio 4 show Love Letters which I loved, but entertaining.

I almost went to a preview of that as I saw Isy years ago headline a mixed bill and was impressed, but saw something else instead which I regret a little now, and I'll try and seek her out if it's not too expensive.

[edwardfog]

Jordan Gray - Is it a Bird?
This was a very bold, upbeat and confident show from a comedian clearly taking a step into the big leagues. She blasts the crowd with energy, songs and an excellent Jeff Goldblum impression for the regulation 40 minutes before things get intimate. I understand why Soho Theatre feels a need to issue content warnings, but it's a shame that it spoils the gambit at the end. I couldn't say it's top tier for me, just because some of it felt a little hacky, especially the long song that plays off the old "Jesus was a zombie" joke, but otherwise she deserves the attention. I hope she takes her rightful place as the non-evil Russell Brand.

[sevendaughters]

just got back from Jordan Brookes at Hen and Chicken in Bristol. The Death Hilarious opened with some sketches that had some good wordplay and throwaway observations but didn't seem to stand up narratively. Both good performers, but I felt the writing needed someone to come in and change the beats up a bit. I don't know. I warmed to them, which I think is a start. Headline act was good - I had to pass up a ticket to see him in his pre-COVID critical darling stage and it is interesting to see how his act is developing into more physical, more almost demented mime (him sucking Captain Tom off is the image that won't leave my head), but there are traditional gags in there when you peel the layers of performance and multiple personae. It's interesting that him and John Kearns, another award-winning intelligent bloke, both do slightly meta 'persona' comedy as a way of distilling their own normalcy and sadness and over-active self-criticality. But maybe it's a dead end, being clever and a bit weird. I dunno. Good show.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Jordan Gray - Is it a Bird?
This was a very bold, upbeat and confident show from a comedian clearly taking a step into the big leagues. She blasts the crowd with energy, songs and an excellent Jeff Goldblum impression for the regulation 40 minutes before things get intimate. I understand why Soho Theatre feels a need to issue content warnings, but it's a shame that it spoils the gambit at the end. I couldn't say it's top tier for me, just because some of it felt a little hacky, especially the long song that plays off the old "Jesus was a zombie" joke, but otherwise she deserves the attention. I hope she takes her rightful place as the non-evil Russell Brand.

I saw this tonight and afterwards bumped in to a friend, and both of us felt the Jesus Was A Zombie joke/song was weak, and to me it felt like she delivered it as if no one had ever thought of the idea before, though maybe that was meant to part of the joke. But even when it becomes about Jesus being a vampire / werewolf while I liked the song well enough it still felt hacky, and the Batman material wasn't all that either. Which is a shame because I really loved every other element of it, the personal stories and the other songs were all fantastic, and even though I knew about the ending after reading abut it in the Edinburgh thread, it was still a lovely moment if only because the whole crowd were so supportive, and that last song is superb. So yeah, if she cut about ten minutes from it I'd give it 5 stars, but as it was a bit bitty, my head is making say it's a 4.25/5 show.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Marc Jennings: Marc in Progress - Apparently the first work in progress show for next year's Edinburgh Fringe, for a show which cost £8 this was pretty shoddy, and only one in three jokes landed with me, and there were a couple of routines which I hope he drops as they were so insipid including some jokes about the royal family and dating which you'd wince at on the open mic circuit. It was odd, as he did have the odd inspired one liner or a routine that was consistently funny, but it wasn't long before something tedious came along again and he's an act I doubt I'll see again unless he gets really positive reviews, and if that happens I imagine it'll be in a good few years time. A generous 2/5

Sara and Steen's Baby Jokes (new, not about the baby) - Married couple Sara Pascoe and Steen Raskopoulos split an hour and it couldn't be more different. Steen's half hour was full of weird little sketches, audience interaction, improv and sound clips and a bit of miming, and I absolutely loved it, while Sara's was traditional stand up, except this is Sara Pascoe I'm talking about so it was damn great. She did seem a little jittery, which surprised, but I think that's due to not having been on stage recently / having a child which won't let either of them sleep, but that didn't stop her delivering a set which made me laugh out loud over and over again. 4.75/5 for both.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Not worth a thread in its own right, but I thought this was (quite) interesting for anyone who wondered what had happened to the sketch duo Moon:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/divine-comedy-standup-double-act-who-turned-to-priesthood-christianity

[edwardfog]

Wow that's so interesting. I saw their last show and thought it was pretty good. I had wondered a couple of times what happened to them over the last few years - assumed they'd just done a Bisha K Ali and gotten writing jobs on Marvel shows. Whodathunkit

[Small Man Big Horse]

Rachel Fairburn - Can I be Awful at 21 Soho - Fiona Ridgewell opened with a 15 minute set largely about how she lives with her mother and grandmother, and it feels like material from a debut hour, not terrible but not particularly great and a few jokes are plain weak. 2.75/5 - After an unneeded twenty minute break Fairburn then performed her Edinburgh show and it starts brilliantly, she handles the audience perfectly and has strong gag after strong gag and I thought I was going to be writing a rave review, but around the 40 minute mark it starts to peter out a bit, there's still some laugh out loud jokes but they're much less frequent, I feel a bit shit complaining about the final twenty minutes as the first two thirds were so strong, but overall it's very uneven, so although I look forward to seeing what she does next I'd only rate this 3.75/5

[edwardfog]

Crybabies are bringing their show to Soho Theatre in January. Highly highly recommended, one of the funniest and certainly most crowd pleasing shows I've seen this year

[DrGreggles]

Yes, Crybabies was one of the best things at the Fringe.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Crybabies are bringing their show to Soho Theatre in January. Highly highly recommended, one of the funniest and certainly most crowd pleasing shows I've seen this year

Thanks for the heads up, I've just bought a ticket for them and also Amy Gledhill who's on earlier that evening.

I noticed that Mike Wozniak is there in early January too, I've only seem him as part of the fast fringe in 2009, so am really looking forward to seeing a whole show from him.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Got a spare for Elf Lyons's Raven today at the Edinburgh Stand going begging if anyone is in the mix.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Leah MacRae Weighs In at Soho Theatre - The worst hour of comedy I've ever seen, I'm normally pretty easy to please but I didn't laugh a single time. At one point she jokes "Who remembers white dog poo?" but there's no follow up, it's just a random comment and she does that a few times during the set. Right at the start asks the audience how we enjoyed the lockdown and makes comments about everyone making banana bread, and yeesh, that didn't bode well and it was downhill after that that too, after some attempts at jokes about how she just sat and ate chocolate throughout the pandemic, with her friend supporting and then chastising her, she tries to persuade everyone there tonight that they're perfect, and sings a song about it which doesn't even seem to attempt to be funny. She also has a routine about road rage and when she asks "Who else has road rage?" and the audience is silent she admonishes us, suggesting that we're all lying, that everyone does, it's completely normal, before launching in to a weirdly unfunny bit about helping an old woman called Maureen at the supermarket but going mad like Begbie from Trainspotting if she sees her on the road, and not one bit of it is even close to amusing. Later on there's another song about men being scared of buying tampons and other sanitary products which is cliché city, and almost everything else she says feels horribly hacky, material that might have raised a smile thirty years ago maybe, but the worst thing is she delivers a lot of the jokes in an arrogantly patronising manner, suggesting she's the first to ever do material on, say, mental health, and I can only guess that she hasn't actually watched any other stand up comedy, as otherwise she would have known that the material she performed tonight would have been considered embarrassingly shit decades ago. 0/5

[DrGreggles]

Leah MacRae Weighs In at Soho Theatre - The worst hour of comedy I've ever seen, I'm normally pretty easy to please but I didn't laugh a single time. At one point she jokes "Who remembers white dog poo?" but there's no follow up, it's just a random comment and she does that a few times during the set. Right at the start asks the audience how we enjoyed the lockdown and makes comments about everyone making banana bread, and yeesh, that didn't bode well and it was downhill after that that too, after some attempts at jokes about how she just sat and ate chocolate throughout the pandemic, with her friend supporting and then chastising her, she tries to persuade everyone there tonight that they're perfect, and sings a song about it which doesn't even seem to attempt to be funny. She also has a routine about road rage and when she asks "Who else has road rage?" and the audience is silent she admonishes us, suggesting that we're all lying, that everyone does, it's completely normal, before launching in to a weirdly unfunny bit about helping an old woman called Maureen at the supermarket but going mad like Begbie from Trainspotting if she sees her on the road, and not one bit of it is even close to amusing. Later on there's another song about men being scared of buying tampons and other sanitary products which is cliché city, and almost everything else she says feels horribly hacky, material that might have raised a smile thirty years ago maybe, but the worst thing is she delivers a lot of the jokes in an arrogantly patronising manner, suggesting she's the first to ever do material on, say, mental health, and I can only guess that she hasn't actually watched any other stand up comedy, as otherwise she would have known that the material she performed tonight would have been considered embarrassingly shit decades ago. 0/5

Like when I hear about a really bad film, I want to see this now.