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Critic's Choice: Comedy
By Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard 31.08.06
A quip for any occasion: Alan Carr
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Brilliantly bitchy stand-up from Alan Carr, laddish behaviour from doctor comic Simon Brodkin and some fine yarn-spinning from Owen O'Neill all make Bruce Dessau's top comedy picks.
Alan Carr, Lloyd Langford
Laughing Boy @ The AKA, WC1
As viewers of C4's The Friday Night Project will already know, northern comic Alan Carr is a brilliantly bitchy stand-up with a quip for any occasion. And onstage, without overexcitable television co-host Justin Lee Collins butting in he is even better. Here is an increasingly rare chance to catch him in an intimate venue as he warms up for his imminent national tour. (020 7836 0110). Tonight, 7.15pm.
Simon Brodkin, Paul Chowdry
Omni Comedy, Industry Bar, EC2
One of the breakthrough acts strangely overlooked by the judges at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year was Simon Brodkin, who is a doctor by day and an impressive character comic by night. Brodkin has a range of well-observed creations but he's here solely in the guise of Lee Nelson, his patriotic, laddish George flag-sporting-distant cousin of Al Murray's Pub Landlord. Plus sharp, snappy gagsmith Paul Chowdry. (020 7422 0958). Tonight, 7pm.
Owen O'Neill, Parrot, Mike Gunn
Headliners, W4
This west London club celebrates its fourth birthday this weekend with a strong line-up and the distinct possibility of a special guest popping in. Perrier-nominated Irishman Owen O'Neill is a veritable renaissance man and is a playwright and a poet as well as a fine yarn-spinning comic. Plus laid-back stand-up Parrot and lugubrious deadpan merchant Mike Gunn. (020 8566 4067). Fri 1 & Sat 2 Sept, 8.15pm.
Andrew Maxwell, Hal Cruttenden, Mark Maier, Pierre Hollins
The Bedford, Banana Cabaret, SW12
A fine bill is headed by Maxwell, who was on top form in Edinburgh this summer. If he does his vivid tale about being mugged by street urchins in South Africa you are in for a real treat. Plus sensitive new man of comedy Cruttenden, seasoned stand-up Maier and veteran Hollins, whose career stretches back to the very dawn of alternative comedy. (020 8673 8904). Fri 1 & Sat 2 Sept, 9pm.
Paul Zerdin, Simon Munnery, Shappi Khorsandi
Chuckle Club, WC2
It is not every day you get a ventriloquist, a surrealist and an Iranian who had to go into hiding because of assassination attempts on her satirist father on the same bill. Zerdin is a wonderfully subversive puppeteer whose grand finale involves turning an audience member into a human dummy, Munnery is eccentric comic genius incarnate, while Khorsandi has really found her comedic voice recently by talking about her intriguing childhood. (020 7476 1672). Sat 2 Sept, 8.45pm.
Reader views (4)
Dr Simon Brodkin is vaguely funny in a way that my dad is: thinks he's funny, sometimes hits upon something, but generally is someone you want to humour (is that a pun?) and smile at nicely to be polite. I quite like his 'Lee Nelson' sketch, but he's not as good as Al Murray, even though he thinks he is.
- Iain, Tooting
I like Alan Carr! He is funny on the Friday Night Project, but pant-wettingly hilarious on stage - you really need to see him live before you get the measure of him as a stand up!
- Ellie, Richmond
I agree, Alan Carr frightens me and the cat.
- Carl Buttigieg, London
I hate Alan Carr! Everything about him is put on, whiny, meloramatic - he's a man for god's sake, not a school girl! I hate the gay bitchy act that several comedians trade on, and as a gay man I think comdians like this give gay men a bad name. We can be funny without exploiting our sexuality.
- Thom, Bucks
