Brian Logan
- Journalist and reviewer
Press clippings Page 72
Latitude comedy review: stand-up takes over festival
Huge crowds for sets by Tim Key, Dylan Moran and others show how popular comedy is at music festivals; no wonder standup was spilling out all over the site this year.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 22nd July 2013Jason Manford - review
The quality isn't always high: the first half is scrappy, and there's much generic mockery of local towns, as well as duff gags like the one about his brother's reaction to Manford's hypochondria. But at its best, this is expert observational comedy, ensuring that, if the heart sinks at another everyday situation that's been joked about a hundred times before, it'll soar soon at some bright new Manford-patented detail.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 22nd July 2013Reece Shearsmith: I'm very unsure of myself as a person
Starring in a new film and two sitcoms, the fourth member of The League of Gentlemen is about to become a lot more visible. Not that he wants to.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 10th July 2013Judah Friedlander - review
Soon enough, the bragging gets wearisome, and gives Friedlander nowhere to go - except back to the audience, seeking prompts for more absurd claims to superheroism. The world champion isn't a credible or fleshed-out character.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 5th June 2013Can a hologram Les Dawson tell 'em like he used to?
The deceased Dawson - and his gags - are being resurrected for a last show. But a hologram can't compare to the real thing.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 31st May 2013Wil Anderson - review
I ended up craving some shade alongside the light, a glimpse of what Wil Anderson is like when he stops radiating self-satisfied good humour.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 29th May 2013Robert Newman - review
"I know what you're thinking," says Rob Newman, introducing another riff on genetics, social Darwinism and the high-water mark of free-market capitalism: "Rob, if we'd wanted that, we'd go to Jongleurs."
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 23rd May 2013Daniel Kitson - review
The phrasemaking, the ridiculous overthinking, the absence of cliche, the hypnotic intensity - this is gripping stuff.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 20th May 2013Phill Jupitus - review
When you are comfortably established in comedy's club class, no one expects you to innovate. It is to Phill Jupitus's immense credit, then, that this touring show is genuinely experimental and unlike anything else on the circuit. What it isn't, alas, is successful.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 19th May 2013Eddie Pepitone - review
At his best, Eddie Pepitone lays into modern living with the kind of irony available only to those with nothing left to lose.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 15th May 2013