Tim Harding

1 month ago | chortle.co.uk | Tim Harding

The Musical Comedy Awards feels like a pretty grand occasion, in a good way. Taking place on the huge stage of the Bloomsbury Theatre, it certainly boasts the largest audience that most of the young competitors have played to. But as an event it’s not without its issues. Many of the finalists at Saturday night’s show had jokes that were lost to a slightly muddy sound system, and unfortunately, regular host Nick Horseman had a bit of a rough gig.

1 month ago | chortle.co.uk | Tim Harding

The finals of Sketch Off! – the UK’s premier competition for sketch and character comedy – makes for a lovely occasion to see a whole line-up’s worth of sketch. And despite the way that the genre is usually deployed as a kind of palate cleanser on a mixed bill, a full evening of it goes down very smoothly indeed.

Dec 30, 2024 | chortle.co.uk | Tim Harding

That blip of winning Strictly aside, not much changes in the world of Bill Bailey, who landed on his formula of stand-up and musical comedy skits long ago and has been steadily harvesting the rewards ever since at sensible intervals. His new show is the first since he shaved off his iconic hairy wisps (the poster has now been photoshopped to take this into account), and it lends him a sleeker look.

Nov 29, 2024 | chortle.co.uk | Tim Harding

Nick Mohammed’s character Mr Swallow embodies some of the same contradictions as Tommy Cooper. His giddy, erratic demeanour on stage conceals a high-performance machine, in full view when he pulls off complicated magic tricks, feats of mentalism and even daring escapes, as in his 2016 show Houdini. You could say something similar about Mohammed’s tremendously scatty new West End Christmas show: uneven and unfocused, it still cannily hits all the beats required of a satisfying festive smash.

Aug 25, 2024 | chortle.co.uk | Jason Byrne |Tim Harding

If you’re spending most of your Fringe seeing polished, machine-tooled shows that are being buffed up for touring or a run at the Soho Theatre, it’s sometimes beneficial to introduce some roughage to your diet in the form of an extremely chaotic late-night mixed bill. One of the better examples of that this year was Late Night With Terry Wogan, a ludic chat show hosted by Benjamin Alborough and featuring a line-up of comedians being interviewed in character as celebrities from the past.