stand up – and so she thinks

Stewart Lee – Snowflake/Tornado at Marlowe Theatre

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 18:28:25 +0000

Tonight’s show is sold out. The room is a third full (ever the optimist). Coronavirus has swept the nation, and two hours ago we were told to avoid all public places, including theatres. A few stupid souls, hardy individuals, and committed comedy lovers have come out to support their local theatre (The Marlowe, Canterbury) and see Stewart Lee: Snowflake/Tornado. A double-bill of two new hour long ish minute sets from ‘the world’s greatest living stand-up’ according to The Times, and a fact we are reminded about repeatedly.

He doesn’t want to be here. He wants to be at home, away from potential viruses.

But that doesn’t stop him being witty and charming. Both shows are fun and vibrant, with a joke a minute, each one being quickly set up and smashed down.

There’s a few things that always happen in a Stewart Lee gig. He always slurs other comedians – this time it’s Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Pheobe Waller-Bridge – apparently Fleabag isn’t the first time ever that the fourth wall has been broken, who knew. There’s a lengthy bit about Alan Bennett, and Dave Chapelle doesn’t fair too well.

As a self professed fat, balding, deaf, man in his fifties with poor eyesight and diabetes, he doesn’t look like your typical snowflake. And he’s not. He’s just very culturally and socially aware, and believes strongly in political correctness. He has centre left politics, and isn’t afraid to share them.

It’s not intellectual comedy, but it is cerebral. It’s not deadpan, but it is laidback. He takes you on a journey, but there’s no conclusion. You don’t need those things with Lee. You feel comfortable, even as he challenges you, and the crowd are roaring with laughter throughout.

Is he the world’s greatest living stand-up? I’ve not seen enough to answer that. But as a man to spend my last day of freedom with, he’ll do pretty well.

Happiness is a Cup of Tea

admin — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 21:15:51 +0000

Written and performed by Annie McKenzie and directed by Michael Tonkin-Jones
Judging a book by its cover, or a play by its name, is a risky thing. Happiness is a Cup of Tea, a one-woman play written and performed by Annie McKenzie is not a whimsical look at the little things in life, but centred around central character Beth’s return home to Beachyhead to write her mother’s eulogy.
Running at this year’s Vault Festival, the bare walls of the cold tunnels make for an ideal setting on which to place the stark stage on which only a phonebox, lone bench and windy blows are set. At times the pathetic fallacy weights down heavy, but let’s not forget that this is Beachyhead, the UK’s most notorious suicide spot.
The conversational monologue is immediately identifiable. At least for me, someone who also as a child would creep into my parents’ bedroom to check their breathing and make sure they were still alive and would worry about death but not know what I was worrying about. We know that the ‘d’ word happens, indeed to all of us, but there’s a pervasive cultural fear of talking about it. It’s a brave topic to tackle, and the family stories, the moments where Fiona smells her hands to remember the scent of oranges on her mother’s or munches on a Kit Kat to try to find herself back in the space of her childhood are the highlights. However, the interludes of poetry and references to being ‘particles of stars returning to burn in the aftermath’ jar with the deeply intimate scene created and feel too try hard.
It’s a deep and dense subject to explore, and one where the personal story sometimes feels loose – we know she lost her father at a young age, but when and how is never explained; we know she’s been away, but again why and where remains a mystery. As a meditation on what happens when you can no longer hear the laughter of a loved one, or how ‘life goes on, even when it doesn’t’ Happiness is A Cup of Tea is a brave piece of work. However, it meanders a little too much, and whilst the narrative does reflect the fact that memories are unreliable and the past filled with merging dreams and realities, it does feel a little unsatisfying. Endearing and charming, McKenzie’s youthful face captures the audience, but her performance does also feel a little childlike.
McKenzie is hoping to take the hour long piece to Edinburgh Festival later this year, and with a little more honing and direction it could do very well. The content is there, the emotion available (it is part-autobiography) but currently the structure feels more to serve the performer than the audience. Leave it to brew a little longer however, and things could be very different.

My Stories, Your Emails

admin — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 09:37:40 +0000

So I wasn’t expecting to see a minge. Oh yeah, spoiler alert there. In fact, I hadn’t read the blurb. Keen to investigate the Wellington Arts Scene and aware that the New Zealand capital’s annual festival was on, I signed up for tickets for the first thing that sounded as though it might be about words.
Ursula Martinez first performed her two part short show back in 2010 in London. It was a response to the response of her strip tease being filmed and going viral; a challenge to the privacy of the internet (there’s a question mark as to how concerned you can be about privacy when whipping your kit off in front of thousands of people, but hey ho).
Tales of childhood and growing up in Hackney, honest reflections on family life and the trials and tribulations of a Spanish mother in the UK, responses to her video, graphic images and observations are all regaled with deadpan and wry humour in a series of one liners. An hour long, it’s a quick and brief exposition of a mind and a mediation on privacy that results on some smiles, some squirms and some satisfaction.
As always though, it’s the reaction and comments from the audience that is both the most revelatory and entertaining.
‘It must be a London thing.’ – in response to feeding a cat Space Dust
‘I don’t get it.’ – after Ursula recounts a conversation in a lift in an East London council estate, complete with accents
‘We are not trying that.’ – a woman pushing 70 to her husband after Ursula posted a picture of a rather gymnastic and acrobatic sexual position.
My Stories, Your Emails
Wellington Festival

Susie Soho – Twelve Twenty Seven

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:54:05 +0000

Released 25 Nov 2011

Reviewed by Michael Huggins

You may be forgiven for believing that I love rock music above all other genres, and partly yes I do, but I have a justified reason. Rock makes everything better, especially if it’s British or Irish. But anyway onto the review, I’ve been listening to the EP of Susie Soho, an Irish-based alternative group who, with cunning ease, are rocketing into the limelight they deserve. After being nominated for a Meteor award (Ireland’s equivalent of the Brits) and playing Oxygen, a festival I’m sure you’re all more than aware of, they have released their EP Twelve Twenty Seven, a four track preview that, as soon as I started playing it, caught my attention.
This is British Rock at its absolute stellar best.
A subtle blend of soft lyrics reminiscent of Snow Patrol and riffs and beats that echo the sounds of U2 capture you and drown your senses in melodies that could entrance you for hours. The first track Your Way or Not At All is a perfect opener to any EP and it’s no wonder that it is also their first video. It is a song that hails from the heart of these performers and is projected from them to the listeners with ease. Stand Up, the second song shows an American influence on the band and this casually blends into the clearly British track, Making Taste.
Eye for an Eye rounds off this EP and delivers a calming, yet bewitching, blow of traditional British rock lulling you into listening over and over again. Listening to this EP restores some of my lost faith in our home-grown music, and I think we should all look towards our Gaelic cousins and how Susie Soho, as a band, are carving their names into our world, whether we like it or not. Well done guys, I look forward to the next dose of your masterfully crafted music and I challenge anybody to listen to this group only once. Believe me, you WILL want seconds.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/29674033 w=400&h=225]
Susie Soho – Your Way or Not At All from NiallC on Vimeo.