Thanks for the tip re Marcel Lucont, Dan. I popped in here hoping to get a recommendation for Edinburgh. Going up for the opening weekend - never been before. So much choice, didn't know where to start!

No probs. Recently I've seen the following that I believe are at Edinburgh this year. Most I've commented on in this thread if you want more in-depth thoughts, but I would recommend the following:

Alun Cochrane
Andrew Lawrence
Simon Munnery
Henning Wehn (seen the warm-up show -- excellent)
Shappi Khorsandi (superb. Much better than I was expecting)
John Richardson (looks like his Edinburgh show is the same as the current tour that I saw a couple of weeks back. Again, excellent)
Dave Gorman is always entertaining but haven't seen this show. However, seen all his other ones and they're always good and will go see this on tour in October.
Phil Nichol is mental but always entertaining.
Richard Herring -- not seen this show but seen the last four live and have all the others on DVD. Cannot recommend enough.

Russell Kane my sister says is the best stand-up she's ever seen.

Daniel Kitson is not planning to go up but he may make a very late decision. If he does go and see both his stand-up and whatever 'artsy' thing he's doing (cos they'll both be very funny).

And Stewart Lee, if he's about.

I'm going to see Edinburgh warm up shows for five out of the next six weeks, so will let you know of any gems.

Dan

Quote: clueless @ June 9 2011, 5:51 PM BST

Thanks for the tip re Marcel Lucont, Dan. I popped in here hoping to get a recommendation for Edinburgh. Going up for the opening weekend - never been before. So much choice, didn't know where to start!

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Go see Colin Hoult, he was amazing last year and has a new show on.

Thanks for the recommendations, Dan and Matthew. Appreciated! I wish I was there for a week - although no doubt my liver is ecstatic that I won't be.

Saw Russell Howard's Right Here, Right Now DVD record last night at Hammersmith Apollo.

<disclaimer> Please take into account that everything I say here has been brought down by at least one star (probably two) because I was sat next to a 14-year-old girl who SHRIEKED with a one-note HAAAAAAAAAAA! every single time Russell said 'cock', 'bum', 'dildo' or any euphemism for fanny, regardless of context. She was just laughing at the rude words.

And here is Russell's problem. There were 4000+ people here, and a lot of them laughed and applauded at a lot of his stuff. And this makes him very popular and rich. However, his material seems to be genuinely nudging much, much better stuff (for the comedy snob, such as myself) and there is me willing him to just edge over that line to the clever stand-up he appears to want to be (where I will laugh riotously, yet entirely alone among the 4000), yet is too scared of losing that mainstream audience (and money) if he does tread there (or more likely skip, and then skip back quickly).

Aside from shrieky girl, who made me more determined not to laugh and frankly ruined the gig for me, he is a very good stand-up. Though, as with Tom Deacon earlier in this thread, I'm not particularly interested in how embarrassing previous sexual encounters are. Not prudish, just feel everything funny anyone's ever said on the subject has been said and it all feels a bit derivative now.

That said, I find him a likeable bloke, and am willing to laugh at his stuff (or would be, sans teenager). It's good stuff, and he did do over two hours in total, which I thought was good value.

Better than I thought it would be, but a crowd far too mainstream for my tastes. Why can't they stay home and watch Eastenders?

Apologies for reviewing the girl more than the act.

Dan

I'm going to see Bo Burnham next weekend (think it's next weekend) really looking forward to that.

Oh I'd love to see Bo Burnham! Jealous.

I'm going to see Mandy Knight, Rob Collins, and Carey Marx on Friday on Watford. I've read a up a bit on all of them and it looks like I'm in for a good night!

Edinburgh previews last night were Howard Read (and Little Howard) and maniac Terry Alderton.

As far as I understand both were going through their first run-throughs of their Edinburgh shows. Howard Read was very rough around the edges and Little Howard needed some extra animating in a lot of places (he admitted this before we started). He was good, though. I've seen them before, in an Edinburgh preview show also, so I suspect I will only ever seen this act in 'rough' form. Little Howard is good fun though, and if you haven't seen the act, it'll be worth seeing up in Edinburgh.

There was a group of army-types in on a night out who were a little boisterous. I suspect early run-throughs and test material of shows is not ideal for a night out of comedy, so there was a little tension at times (in both acts) where neither the acts nor the audience were fully prepared.

Terry Alderton was exceptionally funny, despite it being rough around the edges. He can deal with mistakes, ill-preparedness and routines flopping superbly well and make that funny. I was crying with laughter at one point very early on. The guy is utterly bonkers and doesn't seem to have 'intelligent routines' as such (probably unfair, but I can't really think of a word for it), but runs around the stage with such gusto doing impressions, funny accents and jokes that it hardly matters. He's up for a fight with the army, which seems in equal parts brave and stupid and brave again. Some bits are oh-so-wrong but ludicrously funny.

I kind of feel glad it was a preview show as it felt like I wouldn't have seen this show up in Edinburgh. I'd go see him again though. Just brilliant. Heartily recommended.

Dan

Saw American comic Bo Burnham last night, really was terrific. He did two full sets, with a break between. He seems quite unique, he's constantly jumping from bit to bit; from one liners, to songs on guitar, or piano, to Haiku, to rap, to dance bits and physical theatre, it's constantly moving. And it's constantly funny, too. I can't quite believe that he's only about twenty years old; go and see him if you get the chance. Though this was the last night of his current UK tour, so you may have to wait a while. Or fly to America (The U.S.A).

Edinburgh previews from Naz Osmanoglu and Vikki Stone at Guildford's You Must Be Stoking yesterday evening.

Naz has a lot of gusto and stage presence. He's extremely energetic and the performance part is obviously not a problem for him. His audience interaction is stronger than his material, I think. He did seem pretty nervous, in a seemingly 'first-time-I've-tried-this-stuff' way and it was still pretty rough around the edges. There is some very funny stuff in there and good jokes, but occasionally his energy kills the joke. One joke in particular (his favourite, he said) is a good joke and seemed disappointed people didn't get it, but fact is it's a bit rushed by the time he gets there and you don't realise what he's said. It would've worked if he'd just given it time to breathe in the run up.

His links are a bit clunky so a couple of jokes to hide those a bit more would be beneficial.

Obviously by Edinburgh it'll be a lot tighter.

He told a story which didn't seem that original to my wife but I was laughing like a drain. Turns out I went to a stag do in Amsterdam and visited exactly the same sex club he went to...

Vikki Stone is an excellent singer; brilliant voice. Her act is mainly spoof songs which are very funny and I found myself laughing a lot despite how scatalogical they became. Superb Chicago spoof and an excellent set parody Abba songs perfectly parodied in a parody medley!

Both acts were a bit coarse I thought; a lot of sex stuff, poo stuff, wanking. I think I'm getting too old for that sort of stuff. It would be nice to have a bit more cerebral stuff.

Big props to Paul Kerensa's dad, who had to step in as Krenz was taken to hospital. Get well soon, Paul! You don't realise what a gap there is until there is no compere keeping the stuff together

Dan

The Real MacGuffins did an Edinburgh warm-up before Radio Rejects last night. Excellent stuff and thoroughly recommended if you're up there. Though be warned: they do like a pun.

Dan

Last two Edinburgh preview shows last night, featuring Josh Widdicombe and Matt Forde.

DISCLAIMER: We gave both of them a lift back to Guildford station so the below is probably tainted by both of them being thoroughly nice blokes.

Josh I wanted to see as he's always superb (genuinely) on best-radio-show-in-the-world Fighting Talk. He admitted he'd moved everything around in the show order that morning, so seemed a bit concerned about stuff there. I don't know what order it was in to start with as it seemed fine to me. Lots of laughs. A few bits fell flat, but he was acutely aware of those and, on the whole, the show is pretty solid and will be very entertaining come August.

He seemed more comfortable bantering with and bouncing off the audience (as with Naz Osmanoglu a couple of weeks ago), particularly the 21st birthday boy, Charlie, and my and wifey's early 'how we met' stories and my stag do.

Really nice bloke to talk to and seemed genuinely interested in the comedy writing I've done so far, which was nice.

Matt Forde does some spot-on impressions of celebrities and tells us quite a few anecdotes from his life so far. It's funny (very funny) in places but there are a lot of times where we were waiting a long time for another laugh, and he seems to be aiming for the big laugh at the end of the story. Could be easily remedied with a few one-liners along the way, in my opinion. Also, he started with some football-based stuff which is pretty dangerous I thought, as even the word can turn people. I mean, I get it: I love football, but a lot of people in a comedy audience don't and, even with it not being specifically about the game itself, I felt him lose a lot of people. Might be better starting with the early political stuff and easing them in, if only to show it's not solely footy-based. That's probably dependent on crowd.

He seemed quite nervous, to be honest, but that might be because of going with his Labour Party stories in a Conservative stronghold

Again, really nice bloke and easy to get on with. Most ironic bit of the night: Matt Forde recognising my mate from the audience. 'I know you, don't I?'. What world is this we live in?

Dan

Saw Dylan Moran last night, he was brilliant; he's got a great way with odd images.

I haven't been to see any stand up in over a year. Must go again soon.