Comedy

Riches lives up to his name with comedy prize

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Veronica Lee: A show of 'barely controlled chaos' wins the £10,000 award – and guaranteed fame – for Adam Riches at the Edinburgh Festival.

Benet Brandreth, Gilded Balloon
Seann Walsh, Pleasance
Andrew Maxwell, Assembly, George Square
The Rob Deering Experience, Pleasance, Baby Grand
Andrew Lawrence, Pleasance, Cabaret Bar

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Brandreth the Younger has daddy's diction – but not his jumpers, thankfully

The Diary: Daniel Kitson; One Day tour; National Museum of Scotland; Stuart 'The Brand' Baggs; www.fakefringe.com

Friday, 26 August 2011

The Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards: the Nominees, Various venues, Edinburgh

Friday, 26 August 2011

The shortlist meeting for the awards this year was record-breakingly lengthy and no wonder, what with a rather unwieldy list of eight newcomer nominees. Many of the buzz acts made the cut, and of the main six nominees (Adam Riches, Andrew Maxwell, Chris Ramsey, Josie Long, Nick Helm and Sam Simmons), four have already been reviewed on this page and Simmons is covered below.

Sam Simmons: Meanwhile, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh (Rated 2/ 5 )

Friday, 26 August 2011

Before coming to Edinburgh, I caught up with Simmons's last Fringe show, Fail, in London. Unfortunately, that title and this show are interchangeable. Essentially, Meanwhile is Simmons's home-made Twitter feed with two devices at work. Simmons attempts to answer questions put to him through various mediums while a female voice interjects with an activity going on simultaneously somewhere else in the world. At this point, Simmons jumps around to act out someone in Germany getting annoyed with their flatmate – or some other scenario.

My Edinburgh: Andi Osho, comedian

Friday, 26 August 2011

This year my Edinburgh show is drastically overrunning, sometimes by as much as 60 minutes. One night it ran from 6.40pm until midnight. Let me explain. At the end of every show, I try to get an audience member to go on a date with me and whilst I don't think of the date as a part of the show, the beady eyes spying on me and my "quarry" suggest otherwise.

The 'best' joke at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, according to 3,000 fans

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Adam Sherwin: He is a vitriolic stand-up who screams at his audiences – and today he has something to shout about after winning the best joke award at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival.

My Edinburgh: Tom Rosenthal, Comedian

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Edinburgh can be a hard and wet place. Honestly I’ve found myself to be far happier just staying inside my brand new student apartment marvelling at the lights which turn on and off without a switch (motion sensor). But if I had to recommend somewhere to go it would be Tesco. It has such a fine assortment of products to buy, everything from vegetables to cleaning utensils. An amazing place, really.

My Edinburgh: Simon Munnery, comedian

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Returning T' Edinburgh fer Ye Twenty-Fife Yer. It's good to be back "They say you play here twice in your career. Once on the way up. Once on the way down. Great to be back." So runs Ian Macpherson's most famous joke, so famous it has almost entered the ether and lost its author and would do were it not for its author's tiger-like resolve. I think part of its sublime power rests in that simple, concise, well-worn yet still mysterious phrase. Is it good to be back? Is it? To come back you must have been away; there must have been some reason why you left; perhaps you were looking for something, perhaps you went to get some sugar. Did you find it? Did you bring any back with you? We're completely out. Or is life like a merry-go-round, where you keep leaving and returning to the same spot without volition over and over again? Perhaps there was volition once, but now just habit.

Political Animal, The Stand, Edinburgh (Rated 4/ 5 )

Thursday, 25 August 2011

They co-operate from opposite sides of the Atlantic with their weekly podcast, The Bugle, but Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver have not appeared on the same stage for more than five years – in that time, Oliver has become an Emmy-winning addition to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.