review
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The Brunswick Open Mic in Brighton is a Very Good Open Mic
i start on a salty note: this open mic isn’t an open mic in the most important of ways. I don’t mean “anyone who turns up on the night gets a slot” – I understand why even open mics would like to operate some form of quality control – it’s also a good way of… Read more
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The Magnetic Fields play 69 Love Songs at Brighton Dome
In the future, will there be nostalgia shows? Or will we run out of past to celebrate? Thoughts such as these always go through my mind when I battle myself over whether I want to see a band sing songs from back when bands could still have careers. You can’t see anyone as spectacularly weird… Read more
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REVIEW: Proud of Yourself Comedy – The Colonel Fawcett, Camden
Stand-up comedy is in a funny place. The most successful proponents are fairly trad, liberal acts, many not wanting to upset the political apple cart lest they get banned from Live At The Apollo. There is also a whole new roster of extreme right wing comedians grifting and griping about being “cancelled” while punching down… Read more
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REVIEW: Brighton Fringe – Alex Franklin: Gurl Code
Everything is everywhere all at once in Alex Franklin’s brain, an ADHD explosion of infinite possibility in which no logical cul-de-sac can be left unexplored. A British, half-Chinese and trans stand-up comedian, Franklin has put together a beautiful, proud, intersectional hour. It bounces around ideas about family, identity, and belonging, and hangs off a subtle… Read more
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REVIEW: Brighton Fringe – The Mayor & His Daughter: A Genuine Appreciation Of Comedy
Some artists meet you halfway, with a trail of reassuring breadcrumbs luring you to darker forests. Sketch duo The Mayor And His Daughter, on the other hand, are more likely to ward you off with empty crisp packets and beer cans. If you ever make it to their metaphorical comedy clearing, curiosity getting the better… Read more
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Review: Sketch-Off 2025 Final, Leicester Square Theatre
Despite the crisis in the arts, the UK has a never ending supply of fresh weirdos. Some come straight from their university improv clubs, and some are doing their recovery in public after a year of being brutalised at infamous French clowning school Gaulier. And some are here because their anarchic spirit allows them to… Read more
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Review: Julia Masli, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, Soho Theatre
This article first appeared in the Morning Star newspaper. Can clowns save the world? This probably wasn’t what Julia Masli, an Estonian performer trained by the notorious Parisian pedagogue Philippe Gaulier, had set out to achieve with her latest. Still, you never know. Masli always aims high, with seemingly limitless reserves of care, poise, and… Read more
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The Ace Doctor Who Podcast Returns
I’m very happy to say we’ve brought our Who podcast back, and parachuted in a third host to boot. Welcome, Kamal! We reviewed The Star Beast, first of the 60th anniversary specials, and will have more episodes to come. Please return to us, o listeners, I promise we are still good podcast company. Here is… Read more
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Jim Bob review: Chalk, Brighton 19th November 2023
Jim Bob, former Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine frontman and professional rabble rouser, is on stage in sunglasses and a particularly sparkly jacket. This is a rearranged gig from the summer, postponed when the hotel next to the venue burned down just before showtime. The singer addresses the walrus in the room. “We were gonna… Read more
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