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Andrew Lawrence – Too Ugly For Television gig

yetanotherdave — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:48:34 +0000

Not this one. This one.

A bit of a last minute gig, I bought the ticket about a week before hand, but he almost filled the Hen and Chicken, my local alternative comedy venue, which gets much bigger names than Jongleurs ever gets. Good.

Andrew Lawrence is probably on the verge of big things. He recently had a short Radio 4 show (“What to do if you’re not like everyone else”), and was the only act worth seeing on the recent Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. He has a fast pace and a vicious edge, despite that there’s a like ability about him that comes from his more self deprecating material.

At the moment I think the only thing holding him back might be a lack of new material. Despite only having seen him do brief 5 minute sets before, I felt like I already knew most of the routine’s. He’s gigging heavily at the moment, I’m sure when he gets a break, he’ll come back with new fresh material.

He said he was recording the show I was at, and that he would make it available as a free download on his website. I have no idea of a timeframe for this, as the gig was last week. If it does indeed see the light of day, it’ll be available at andrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk.

Here’s a 5 minute comedy store set, enjoy.

Filed under: Blog, reviews, Standup Tagged: Andrew Lawrence, comedy, comedy gig, gig, review, stand up, standup, too ugly for television, what to do if you're not like everyone else

Stewart Lee – Vegetable Stew

yetanotherdave — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:00:15 +0000

“Stuart ‘man of the people’Lee is nothing but a fringe alternative comedy act who wouldn’t stand a chance at a real comedy club like Jongleurs.” Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com. (more reviews here)

When reviewing a gig it’s always a good idea to go to the last show of the tour. So that’s what I did. This review is therefore useless to anyone planing on going to see the gig, as you can’t. It’s your own fault. I’ve gone on about how great Stewart Lee is before. See? I’m not lying!
I had tickets for the gig 5 months ago, so it’s not my fault. The gig was postponed for personal reasons. Stewart Lee’s, not mine.

Vegetable Stew

Kevin Eldon opened up the gig, with a tight twenty minutes of poetry. I’d seen him in Big Train, Brass Eye, Black Books, other programs beginning with B, and, you know, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, before, but never knew he did stand up. But stand up he does, and very well. He did it as his character from Fist of Fun, Islington poet Paul Hamilton. He is just on the right side of sinister, and very funny.
Then Stewart Lee took to the stage. The act was split into two distinct halves, punctuated cleverly by an interval, and marked by the presence of a guitar in the second half.
What was unusual for Stewart Lee is that the two halves were actually separate. As in they could both be seen in isolation from each other, and you wouldn’t miss anything. This is probably to do with the new series of Comedy Vehicle that he filmed last month, which will be a series of 6 half hour self contained sets. It’s an unusual departure for him in the full 90 minute set format, but the show didn’t suffer for it.
Another difference I saw was that he seemed to be more relaxed than usual. He is a very measured performer, he knows exactly what he’s going to say and when, but this time, while retaining the same usual cadence, and structure, also had a different flow. This could well be down to the fact that it’s now right at the end of the run of this show, and the TV series is taped and done. At one point in the show he said, something along the lines of “this is clearly material that is ready to be discarded”. So, maybe it was the end of the run, the pressure being off with the TV taping done, the familiarity of the material. Possibly it’s because it’s a larger venue that I’ve ever seen him perform before, on TV or live, a chance in his personal style, or the addition of that guitar.
My recommendation, make a time machine, go back a month or two to when he was still touring, and see it. If you are really fast there’s about 3 dates left to go. 5 star, aces 10+.
With the new TV series coming up, I’m not sure if there’s going to be a DVD of this tour. But just in case and he’s undecided and happens to read this. Yes please. I’ll have it on pre-order just as soon as you let me.

Click here to read my wife’s review of the audience. Short version, they were sub par, long version, CLICK.

StewartLee.co.uk

P.s. St Davids Hall lighting people
Some audience members were distracting, but not as much as the lighting that made it look like Stew had green eyeshadow
It made him look a little like Ming the Merciless on casual clothes friday.

Filed under: reviews, Standup Tagged: comedy, gig, review, stand up

Marcus Brigstocke: God Collar

yetanotherdave — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:41:35 +0000

Tonight I was lucky enough (due to only finding out about the gig via a pre-gig twitter post two days ago) to be able to go and see Marcus Brigstocke perform his show “God Collar’at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. The venue was bigger than I expected, probably around 400 seats, and the fact that it sold out 3 days in a row is comforting, that there’s 1200 people in Bristol, or indeed anywhere, who will take the time, money and effort to go and see challenging comedy like this.

Wow, just wow. If you’ve ever heard Marcus rant on The Now Show you’ll be familiar with the intensity, insight and pace of his act. You’d expect him to let up while doing a two hour set, you’d be wrong. From start to finish he careers from angry, impassioned, laugh out loud funny and insightful and doesn’t let up for an instant. Whoever you are, and whatever you believe in, he will challenge you on it. Great comedy makes you think as well as laugh. This delivers all that.

This was easily one of the best comedy gigs I’ve ever been to, I laughed till my face hurt. If you get a chance you really should go.

Posted in Blog, reviews, Standup Tagged: comedy, gig, god, Marcus Brisgtocke, religion, review, stand up, Tobacco Factory