Comedy
The Manchester Review

Phil Wang, The Lowry, reviewed by David Firth

Phil Wang, The Lowry, 7 October 2017. With a last name like Wang, it’s likely that most comedians would find it hard to resist a few penis jokes. Phil Wang is no exception, starting the Salford leg of his fourth solo show tour with a heady array of wang-and-wank-related gags. The audience gagged plenty on […]

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The Manchester Review

Josie Long at The Dancehouse Theatre, reviewed by Carl Sheever

Photo by Idil Sukan

Josie Long, ‘Something Better’, The Dancehouse Theatre, February 24 2017. Josie Long, in some ways, had a pretty good 2016. She wrote and starred in her own Radio 4 sitcom, for example (‘Romance and Adventure’); on the other hand, Brexit. It is the latter that fills the bulk of this tour show. Rather than simply […]

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The Manchester Review

Adam Buxton at Manchester Opera House, reviewed by Ed Chapman

Live at the Opera House – with Adam Buxton, Manchester Opera House; May 25 2016. This event promised one of those hard-to-believe, all-star line-ups that only ever happen in London. And so it proved, with three-quarters of the bill changing. While the reconfigured line-up may not have had quite the star power originally offered, this […]

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The Manchester Review

Dara O’Briain at The Lowry, reviewed by Emma Rhys

Dara O’Briain, Crowd Tickler, The Lowry, May 11-13 2015 If you’re going to book a night to catch a Dara O’Briain stand-up show make it a Monday! As he kept asking us – what are yous doing out on a Monday night?! Yous can snooze if you like… – it became increasingly clear snoozing was […]

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The Manchester Review

Dylan Moran at The Lowry, reviewed by Fran Slater

Dylan Moran, The Lowry, Manchester, March 15 2015 Observational comedy has taken a bit of a battering in recent years. Ever since Michael McIntyre appeared on the scene, like a Peter Kay tribute act with jokes that mostly revolve around how babies can’t yet speak, some of the big names in stand-up have been turning […]

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The Manchester Review

Stewart Lee at The Lowry, reviewed by Peter Wild

Stewart Lee, The Lowry, February 13 2015 John Coltrane performing ‘My favourite things’ (his take on The Sound of Music classic), is not one of my favourite things. John Coltrane performing the full 13 minute and 47 second version of ‘My favourite things’ is very definitely not one of my favourite things. John Coltrane’s 13 […]

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The Manchester Review

Susan Calman at The Lowry, reviewed by Sarah Jane Vespertine

Susan Calman, The Lowry, February 22 2015 In ‘Lady Like’, Susan Calman proves that she’s an old school stand up with a carefully honed performance, making much of frequently addressing the audience as ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ and working with no distractions on stage, simply herself and a microphone. It’s such an assured and professional set […]

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The Manchester Review

Ross Noble at The Lowry, reviewed by Sarah Jane Vespertine

Ross Noble, The Lowry, February 21 2015 Ross Noble’s new tour is called ‘Tangentleman’, and there are few more appropriate titles for a performance that veers off in so many directions that neither Noble nor his audience are quite sure how they got to any given point. He summed up his own style beautifully when […]

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The Manchester Review

Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, The Lowry, reviewed by Peter Wild

Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense,  The Lowry, November 4-8 2014 What-ho! Welcome to this review of Perfect Nonsense, a play(full!) adaptation of PG Wodehouse’s third Jeeves and Wooster novel, The Code of the Woosters, that draws attention to itself as a manufactured entertainment for a large audience as seriously as anything Bertolt Brecht ever […]

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The Manchester Review

James Acaster, Recognise The Lowry, reviewed by Jonny Rodgers

James Acaster, ‘Recognise’ (with support from Stuart Laws), The Lowry, September 21 2014 At first, the flyer for James Acaster’s new show ‘Recognise’ unnerved me. From his solemn look you could be forgiven for mistaking him for a brooding solo musician rather than a stand-up. Aren’t successful comics supposed to smile on their flyers or […]

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The Manchester Review

Rhys Darby at The Lowry, reviewed by Peter Wild

Rhys Darby, The Lowry, July 18 2014 Still best known as Murray from Flight of the Conchords, Rhys Darby has, in recent years, been making something of a name for himself outside of Australia as a stand-up – and his comedy is as affable, as gentle, as cosy and warm as you suspect Rhys himself […]

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