stand up
-
‘Chris Grace: 88%’ ― comedic lightness and theatrical sensibility
Chris Grace’s previous show, Sardines (‘a play about death’) is truly one of the most impressive pieces of solo theatre I think I’ve ever seen, and as such I am contractually obliged to see everything he does. His latest show, ‘88%,’ takes on whether you can get on with people you disagree with, starting with a friend’s casual racism as they walk through Stockholm.
-
Josie Long: Now Is The Time of Monsters review – ‘endearingly intimate and vigorously potent’
Josie Long visits the Old Vic with her acclaimed 2025 Fringe show, ‘Now Is The Time of Monsters.’ It’s lovely to see comedy in the Old Vic, as it’s such a beautiful venue, and since winter has apparently arrived in Bristol at 11am today, it feels appropriately cosy to go to the theatre and watch a show on a cold Sunday evening – even if today is the first day its felt remotely cold.
-
Helen Bauer: Bless Her review – ‘effortless charisma and magnetism’
It’s a great night for comedy on North St on this drizzly September Sunday; Ahir Shah is doing a double work-in-progress show at Bar 57, and just ten minutes away, Helen Bauer brings her tour show ‘Bless Her,’ to the Tobacco Factory. I head to the latter, where the usual large stage area has been covered with seats and despite it being a Sunday, the vibe is giddy and excited.
-
‘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 more men in total on the line-up than women, although I didn’t do any sort of calculations as to whether men on average had more prestigious time slots or more shows in the bigger theatres.
-
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 along Colston Street.
-
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 being only one female headliner across nine shows over four days.