Category Archives: Comedy

Drawing: Anna Morris in It’s Got To Be Perfect

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Anna Morris

Character comic and writer Anna Morris, star of ITV’s Bad Bridesmaid and the BBC’s Outnumbered, performed some work-in-progress gigs of her new show It’s Got To Be Perfect at the Leicester Square Theatre and Museum of Comedy before taking it to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

It’s an interactive wedding rehearsal featuring Georgina the Bridezilla, from Anna’s viral YouTube series Georgina’s Wedding Blogs, she’s getting married and it’s got to be perfect… or else.

Currently playing to packed houses at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms, EdFringeReview wrote, “not only is it funny, it’s interesting, creative and sweet,”

Speaking of sweet, Anna included a promotional love heart candy, when she returned my signed sketch through the mail, which didn’t help the condition of the artwork through the letterbox but left a nice taste in the mouth.

Drawing: Iliza Shlesinger in Freezing Hot

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iliza s soho

Thirty-two year old Texan Iliza Shlesinger has finally made her UK debut at London’s Soho Theatre, a decade after becoming the only female and youngest winner of the US talent show Last Comic Standing. Her first TV Special War Paint reached Number 1 on the American iTunes chart and her follow-up Netflix Special Freezing Hot received rave reviews. It is the latter that she is performing at the Soho until the end of August, exposing women’s best kept secrets with opinions on things from first date attire, fantasy breakups, the constant pursuit of not being cold while still looking hot to imagining life as a mermaid and the general state of her nation. TimeOut’s Danielle Goldstein wrote, “Dressed from head to toe in black, in jeans tight enough to put the ‘vagina in a chokehold’, Iliza Shlesinger commands the stage…fearlessly delivers embarrassing anecdotes we can all relate to.” ( Note: My sketch does not depict her in black from head to toe…it saves lead and possibly gets me more carbon credits.)

As I have said, laboriously, the Soho can be an awkward venue to nab the sketch subject for a siggy. With three stages, the intimate environs can become overpeopled with patrons toing and froing. In this case, I got a tad lucky. I was seated at a table near the foyer from wence Iliza would hopefully emerge from the downstairs stage. I had planned to finish my Pilsner with a few minutes to spare before strategically positioning myself in, what I call the ‘salmon spawning spot’ (you know, swimming upstream) as the audience emerged.With three sips of my beverage to go, one of the bar staff placed a reserve sign on my table ‘For Iliza, 8.30pm’ it read. Something about Mohammed and the mountain came to mind, but I quickly informed the  barman, as the crowd poured in at 8.31, that I would vacate as soon as she arrived, which she duly did and happily signed my sketch.

Drawing: Richard Herring in Christ on a Bike and Hitler Moustache

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richard herring

“It’s just not for me,” said comedian,writer,blogger and podcaster Richard Herring when he decided not to join the annual mass exodus of comics from London the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Described as “one of the leading hidden masters of modern British Comedy” and dubbed the ‘King of Edinburgh’,performing at 28 of the last Festivals, he has decided to ‘boycott’ it and perform a series of 12 shows at London’s Leicester Square Theatre this month. He told The Independent that the globe’s biggest fringe festival  had “changed so much that it’s unmanageable, exhausting and expensive.” Last year 49,497 artists performed at the event. “It’s overcrowded and over-priced,” he said.

Edinburgh’s loss is our gain. Included in Richard’s dozen at Leicester Square are his classics-Christ On A Bike and Hitler Moustache, ending with the premiere of his new hour-long show Happy Now. Running a little late for Saturday evenings performance of Talking Cock, I managed to grab Richard before he quickly slipped inside, equally quickly scribbling a dedication and his economical sig, saying “Sorry I need to be quick…good,” which could relate to the speed of the task or possibly the sketch.

 

Drawing: Ria Lina in Taboo Raider

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ria lina

Comedian, musician, and writer Ria Lina previewed her new show Taboo Raider at the Museum of Comedy in the Leicester Square Theatre before taking it to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival next month. A regular in stand up for the past 14 years both in the UK and internationally, The Guardian said, “I have no doubt she will hold her own so easily that she’ll have a hand free to hold someone else’s too.” Her shows combine stand up comedy and song.

At last years’s festival Ria’s show School of Riason received award nominations and plaudits alike and a commission for BBC Radio 4. A mother of three, Ria based the comedy routine on home schooling her children.

Taboo Raider looks at modern taboos – racism, sexism and discrimination – “not for the faint of humour” warned the show’s publicity material.

With a BSc in Experimental Pathology from St Andrews University, a Masters in Forensic Science and a PhD in Viral Bioinformatics from UCL… it owudld be fair to say Ria’s Creative juices are fuelled by potent cerebral content.

Did I think I’d be a stand up comic? No, I kinda fell into that but it’s been a surprisingly good fit” Ria said in a recent interview with The New Current.

When asked what she wants her audiences to take away from her shows she says “hopefully buy the CD”. Ria signed this sketch at the Leicester Square Theatre. You can vote for Ria’s Taboo Raider poster in the Edinburgh Comedy Poster Awards, or if you’re lucky enough to be in Edinburgh, catch the show.

Drawing: Jo Burke in iScream at the Leicester Square Theatre

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jo burke

Comedian and writer Jo Burke is a popular regular on the UK stand-up and Cabaret circuit as herself or her alter-ego characters, ‘Mary Magdalene’ and ‘Pie Shop Pat’. She previewed her new show ‘i Scream’ for the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival at London’s Leicester Square on Saturday evening. It’s a brutally honest account of her Edinburgh ‘mini-meltdown’ last year when she performed not one, but two shows. In spite of the exhausting stint both pieces received four-star reviews as has this one, so fingers crossed for a less stressful,  but equally successful Festival this time round. I really liked her ‘iScream’ poster and based my sketch on it, which is inspired by the CARRIE film because “I love dark humour and my shows are always dark”, she said.

Drawing: Juliette Burton in Look At Me at the Leicester Square Theatre

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Juliette Burton

Award-winning performer and writer Juliette Burton’s solo show LOOK AT ME is an uplifting docu-comedy celebrating body confidence and beauty diversity. It received 5 star reviews from the national press at last years Edinburgh Fringe Festival, following on from her acclaimed debut show WHEN I GROW UP in 2013.The publicity blurb stated that ‘Juliette’s appearance has changed over the years-she’s been a size 4 and a size 20 and just about everything in between”. As an ex-BBC broadcast journalist before switching to comedy,her material is based on exhaustive research. The show incorporates footage of Juliette walking around London in various disguises, including a man, an obese person, an elderly person, dressed-up in alluring attire and in a hijab to test how appearance changes perceptions. Can changing our outsides change who we are on the inside? Is what we appear to be who we really are?

‘Perception is a funny thing…and ‘funny’ is a strange thing to perceive”, wrote Juliette. “As a comedy writer and performer I like making fun of things that I feel angered or frightened by”.

Fellow comedian and comedy writer Mathilda Gregory reviewed the show for the Edinburgh Fringe Guru website and said, “This show succeeds ( and oh, it does succeed) on Burton’s infectious charm. Her performance is totally delightful. I didn’t want to say goodbye to her at the end of the show and it’s her charm, alongside her brutal honesty in revealing her own body battles that make this  show truly remarkable”.

Juliette works closely with a number of organisations, including the facial disfigurement charity Changing Faces,the body image group B.O.D.Y,the eating disorder charity B-eat and she is a spokesperson for the Be Real-Body Confidence for Everyone campaign.

LOOK AT ME  ran for two nights last week at the Leicester Square Theatre in London, where I left this drawing, which Juliette returned, signed and inscribed. She’s appearing at various places around the UK, so go  ‘look at her’ at a venue near you.

 

Drawing: Rich Hall

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Rich Hall

A master of a absurdist irony and rapid-fire wit, American comedian and musician Rich Hall mosied into London town last week and set up his stable at the Leicester Square Theatre for a few nights with his virtuoso musical mates.

Nearing the end of a UK Tour, Rich Hall’s Hoedown was described as a, “mash up of music, comedy and gratuitous coloration”.

This coincided with his other ‘West End’ show, 3:10 to Humour, which Rich performed during the month at various venues. Time Out’s description was “a mix of music, comedy, liquor and spent dreams with Richa Hall and his talented band. Tremendous fun”.

The Sun has called him “a comedy phenomenon”. Winner of the 2000 Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in the guise of his own uncle and red neck alter ego, Otis Lee Crenshaw, a much convicted comedy music singer.

Rich is well known for his TV and radio work, in shows such as QI, Live at the Apollo and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. When not in the UK, Rich goes back to his Montana ranch to write documentaries for BBC4.

With perfect timing, I came out of Leicester Square Station, walked the short distance to the theatre and who should be coming in the other direction? Yes, the man himself. He stopped for the obligatory selfie with a couple, then looked at my sketch and said, “you drew that? Jeez!”. Guilty. I assumed he liked it because he signed it and thanked me.

Drawing: David Baddiel in Fame: Not the Musical

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david baddiel

Based on our celebrity-obsessed age, British comedian and writer David Baddiel’s solo show Fame: Not The Musical is a two hour show on the perks and perils of fame at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory last summer.

He charts celebrity’s daily experience in what The Guardian’s Brian Logan called the “unglamorous no man’s land between name-in-the-lights self-fulfilment and rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights self-destruction”.

After a 15 year absence from stand up David was tempted back by the absurdity of fame. The show stared life at the Soho Theatre as a ‘work-in-progress’ in March 2013, before taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe, various other venues and ending up at the Menier.

“Stand up is a frightening thing to do if you don’t do it for a long time, but the more you do it, the less you feel the fear” he said.

I met David last week when he returned to the Soho for a four date residency in the upstairs stage with some more intimate work-in-progress material. I said to him, “one of the absurdities of being famous is that people recognise you, draw you and ask you to sign it.” He laughed and said “obviously” and happily complied with my request. I’m not sure if it was a perk or a peril of the fame game.

Drawing: Jim Dale

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Jim Dale

English actor, lyricist, singer and comedian James Smith, better known as Jim Dale is currently playing to packed houses in Just Jim Dale.

Known for his appearance in eleven Carry On films, the 79 year old returned to the London stage this month for his one man (and a pianist, Mark York) show that runs until 20 June. The Guardian’s Michael Billington summarises “the unfairly talented actor recalls a career that has taken him from Olivier’s National to British film comedies and Broadway in this exuberant solo show”.

Jim has received two Grammy Awards for narrating the Harry Potter audiobook series. He was the lyricist for the film theme Georgy Girl, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966. The song was performed by The Seekers and reached number 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling over seven million records.

On the stage he has been nominated for five Tony Awards, winning one for Barnum in 1980. He has also won four Drama Desk awards. In 1970 Sir Laurence Olivier invited Jim to join the National Theatre Company, based at the Old Vic.

The very affable entertainer met fans at The Vaudeville stage door after his matinée performance, including yours truly with this simple sketch. “All your own work?” he asked, “yes, like you,” I replied, as he wrote a very nice big siggy and dedication.

Drawing: Bill Bailey

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bill bailey

English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author and the latest person to ‘graph one of my sketches, Bill Bailey has just finished doing some work in progress shows at London’s Leicester Square Theatre.

Listed in 2003 by The Observer as one of the 50 Funniest Acts in British Comedy, Bill was also voted the 7th greatest standup comic on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Stand Ups. As patron of International Animal Rescue, his pet project was the campaign to rescue dancing bears. For his conservation work he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. He also has a a plant named after him – Nepenthes X Bill Bailey.

Due to the usual number of diversions and delays associated with multiple stage door stalking, on his final night I missed Bill. It would have also helped if I had got the time right. Those 24 hour clock times always get me… So I thought I’d just send it to him.

It said on his website to allow a month for a reply. I think I got home from posting it and the item was sitting in my post box! Slight exaggeration for comic effect, but he was quick.