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Tim Minchin: ‘Songs The World Will Never Hear’ review – ‘immense affection and pure showmanship’
Tim Minchin came to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 for the first time with his debut show ‘Dark Side’, which was nominated for and then won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. Winning this for your debut show is the kind of wildest fantasy for aspiring comedians that is so vanishingly rare, such a golden ticket
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‘Ewins Some You Lose Some’ at the Wells Comedy Festival review – ‘brilliantly specific and immediately funny’
Another year, another Wells Comedy Festival. It is dusk on Friday evening, the first night of the festival, and we have just sped from Bristol through the cowslips and lush greenery of the summer Somerset countryside to Mat Ewins’ 9.30pm show. Flicking through the programme, I was pleased to see that there were only two
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‘Pull My Goldfinger’ at the Alma Tavern review: ‘some genuinely inventive moments’
Carlos Sandin’s one-man show Pull My Goldfinger starts before the lights go down, as he lightly commentates on the incoming audience, warning several in jumpers and coats to take them off and promising to restart if someone comes in late. We are here for a one-man show about James Bond – hence the title –
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‘Kool Story Bro’ at the Bristol Old Vic review: ‘a glut of talent and skill’
I sprinted into the theatre with seconds to spare to watch ‘Kool Story Bro: Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Friends,’ mainly because we were – literally – running late, and also because I was very excited. It was the first night of their UK tour, having previously performed it for a 3-day run at the Edinburgh Fringe
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Review: Melanie Bracewell at the Hen & Chicken – ‘inventive, solid gags and big laughs’
NZ Taskmaster winner Melanie Bracewell comes to south Bristol on the brink of what reports are suggesting could be spring, specifically to the Hen and Chicken studio on the heels of a successful UK tour in 2024. This time around, she’s touring her sold-out Edinburgh Fringe show Attack of the Melanie Bracewell. After a ten minute
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‘Wicked’ review: ‘an interesting riff on a stage classic’
This review is riddled with spoilers. On a dark autumn evening many moons ago, I walked into a local pub to attend a freshers’ social for my university’s musical theatre society. I bought a drink from the bar and sat down at one of the tables where the group was gathered. Finishing his conversation, an
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Review: ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ at the Dominion Theatre – ‘fun and flashy but ultimately disappointing’
A sequel to The Devil Wears Prada may be inching its way back to screens, as I wrote about here, but in the meantime a musical has made its way to the stage. An initial 2019 version was delayed several times due to the production needing more time and the pandemic, and following a poorly-reviewed
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Review: ‘Nish Don’t Kill My Vibe’ at the Bristol Beacon – ‘exhaustingly funny onslaught of rage’
It had been so long since I’d been to the Bristol Beacon that they’ve had a full refurbishment, which lasted many years and cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds. A vermin removal service even partially blamed it for our student flat’s mice problem in 2018, claiming the works were disturbing the long-entrenched mice communities
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Review: ‘I Gave You Milk to Drink’ at the Bristol Old Vic – ‘knowing wit and cynicism’
Last time I saw Fern Brady perform, I was livid. I’d just paid £6 for a Mr Whippy – with a flake – at the Bristol Comedy Garden and was feeling suffused with rage at the absurd con that is food stalls at events where attendees can’t leave and come back in. And at there
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Review: ‘Why Are You Laughing?’ at the Alma Tavern – ‘sardonic and weary’
Pierre Novellie comes onstage at the Alma Tavern Theatre with no support act and minimal warning. Stand-ups aren’t known for their extravagant onstage fashion – why bother when you’re performing as yourself in the back of a pub – and in black jeans and hoodie, for a second Novellie could be mistaken for a put-upon
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