Josephine Lacey: Autism Mama, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

The straight-talking Josephine Lacey’s debut stand-up hour is fresh from this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. The new grandmother from London, focuses on the subject of her raising her son, with him having Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder. Though this is not a natural subject for comedy, Lacey manages to put together an entertaining show from such a serious topic.

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Anirban Dasgupta: Polite Provocation, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

Over the last few years, the Soho Theatre has been making a concerted effort to bring over and showcase comedians from India’s burgeoning stand-up scene. Coming back to the UK for the third time, Mumbai based Anirban Dasgupta, one of the continent’s brightest comedy hopefuls, is selling out rooms here in Britain.

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Sophie Duker: But Daddy I Love Her, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

Former winner of Taskmaster and Celebrity Mastermind, and following regular appearances on Frankie Boyle’s New World Order and The Last Leg, Sophie Duker tours her new show to London this month. This is the sequel to her award-nominated 2019 debut, But Daddy I Loved Her, a play on the trademark phrase from Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, is a loud, brash and electric show from Duker.

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A Little Killing Hurts No One, Brighton Fringe

by Luisa De la Concha Montes

Mustafa Algiyadi’s stand-up comedy show is a breath of fresh air. He knows better than to try to convince his audience that the stereotypes they hold about Arabs are wrong. So instead, he does the unexpected, turning the show around, making his listeners the victims of his jokes.

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In the Sh*t, Brighton Fringe

by Luisa De la Concha Montes

This stand-up comedy double-act features Jamie Lerner and Mariah Girouard, two Americans living in Barcelona. The act starts with Mariah, who tells us about her disastrous dating experiences, her crack-ridden town in the US, and how cats and women have more in common that we may think. Her delivery is confident, balancing dark jokes with silly remarks in natural way.

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Emily Wilson: Fixed, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

After previous runs at the Soho Theatre in the upstairs space and at Edinburgh Fringe, this American comedian returns to the to the bigger cabaret space for her most recent, hour-long set. This is the story of Emily Wilson’s starring role in the first X-Factor USA, first as part of a duo and then later in an ill-advised, 10 kid group.

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Chloe Petts: Transience, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

by Laura Kressly

As “the man she always wanted to be”, Chloe Petts is a devoted Crystal Palace football fan who embraces and is (mostly) embraced by lad culture. Her fellow season ticket holders who sit nearby, all very manly men, accept her as one of their own but she has issues when she goes to the loo. Over the course of this low-key hour Petts considers the effects of whether she is perceived as a woman or a man by those around her, and how this relates to the right-wing instigated culture war about trans people. It’s a pointed, provocative and very funny debut with heaps of promise.

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Saturday Night Live from the Stand, The Stand Comedy Club

Image result for the stand comedy club

by Dora Bodrogi

Lockdown-schmockdown, the show must go on! While live shows and immediate feedback are usually at the heart of stand-up, comedians have had great successes through DVD sales and streaming services such as Netflix or YouTube. Edinburgh’s The Stand Comedy Club is still standing even without a live audience, as yesterday’s broadcast has shown, one of the first of its kind. Live comedy in the time of COVID-19. Can it work?

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