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Jim Tavare – ‘Last Comic Standing’ (Paramount channel)

It is so good to see an English comic doing well in America. Not an easy place for us UK comics to do well in. I saw Jim Tavare on the semi-final of ‘Last Comic Standing’ on the Paramount Channel. I thought he was great. I knew him from ‘The Sketch Show’ and he played the Innkeeper in the Harry Potter film, but I didn’t know how funny he was.

Arthur Davis

Marcus Brigstocke – ‘The Late Edition’ BBC 4

This Marcus Brigstocke does not seem to be off the tele. Caught the ‘Late Edition’ the other day. Really good up to date stuff. Does he write it all himself ?

Fred Davis

Simon Evans – Komedia (Brighton)

Simon Evans walks onto the stage with all the self confidence of a public school swot, then proceeds to tell his audience ‘You probably recognise the accent … Educated’. This is received with howls of laughter. Evans, a club comic for over 12 years, commands the stage from a static position. His material is clean, to the point and clever. The audience quickly grasps where Simon’s comedy is coming from in his routines on McDonalds, ….leaving them roaring into their plates of burger & chips. While still a favourite in comedy clubs, Evans is surely better suited to the demands of the corporate after-dinner circuit where he freely admits his act works even better.

A comic of words he plays little attention to any strong movement or banter with the audience. His pose and material is delivered with an Eton educated accent without the associated snobbery, which is appreciated by all and crosses any class barrier.

Matthew Willetts

Tim Vine – Bury St Edmonds

Tim Vine’s tour promotes the fact he has broken the world record for the most jokes told in one hour. The king of the one liners certainly packs them in both joke wise and audience numbers. He does not stop, with his rapid word play material. Tim entered the stage with a hamper full of props, and promptly used them to illustrate his clever one liners. Vine is a brilliant family entertainer that has the ability to make Christmas cracker jokes sound funny.

Chris Tyron

Andy Parsons – Farnham Maltings

Parsons has one of the most distinctive - and funniest - voices on the comedy circuit. He uses it uniquely to point several rhetorical questions to his audience. Life, relationships and politics are all subjects posed for questioning. He then answers the questions in his own way with his absurdist observations and unique delivery.

Too much use of the word unique here. Delete the first one. He cannot be the only person in the world to pose questions to the audience. Put instead:
He uses it to pose a number of rhetorical questions to his audience – questions relating to life, relationships and politics which are then answered in his own way with absurdist observations and an unique style of delivery.

He gives a masterclass of timing with his strong estuary accent and the stilted, stylised rhythm and with its unnatural pauses and weird inflections which initially seem annoying. But it soon emerges that this is a hugely effective way to ensure even the weakest gags get a great reception, knocking the audience's expectations of the tempo of a joke for six.

Parson’s solo tour has been a major success with packed houses up and down the country. This reflects the admiration he has received from the popular TV comedy show ‘Mock the Week’ where Parson’s improvisational skills are further tested. For many years his major media work has been in a double act ‘Parsons & Naylor’ which all though not diseased is in temporary retirement mainly due to Parsons ability in showing he needs no one else apart from an audience to entertain.

David Bleach

Jason Manford – Edinburgh festival August 2007

Having heard much about Jason Manford, I entered the packed theatre full of anticipation and hope. I was not disappointed. He’s at ease in front of an audience chatting to them as if they were sitting on the couch in the living room moving majestically from fireplace to shelving unit. Keeping us all engrossed with his stories and routines.

Manford has experienced success as a panelist on Channel 4’s ‘8 Out Of 10 Cats’, and throughout his performance stayed true to the amiable, down-to-earth style of humour that he always possessed. His material could not be described as cutting edge – some of his jokes tackle very well-worn subjects such as footballers, Ryanair and how your dad drove when you were a kid, but Manford has an innate ability to take even the most obvious observations and make them seem fresh and still incredibly funny. He uses his Manchester childhood as a basis for some of his work and without any strong language draws a picture in our minds that leaves us in fits of laughter. Although everything about him and his style is constantly and proudly Mancunian, from Oasis as his intro’ music to gags about the late Bernard Manning and his Embassy club, Manford’s success lies in playing the role of the recognisable ‘funny bloke down the pub’ that all British people know and love.

Matthew Willetts

Stephen Grant – Theatre Royal Brighton

Playing your home town cannot be an easy gig, especially if it’s the Theatre Royal Brighton. A beautiful Victorian theatre that would compare favorably to any of its West End rivals for architecture and ambiance. Indeed Stephen Grant lives up to the traditions of the theatre by giving a compelling performance. Better known for his skilled compere work on the circuit and corporate shows, Grant shows us he is more than capable in holding his own in a two hour solo show. Some cleverly written material mixed in with an audio visual display of foods and the various sell-by dates has everyone in stitches. He further sprinkles his stage time with some real life amusing anecdotes of the business, sometimes better served up in some after dinner speech. However no one notices and some are just hilarious such as his audition for the TV programme ‘Top Gear’. Those that went to hear the story and watch this accomplished and sometimes underrated performer should purchase his latest DVD.

Matthew Willetts