Lauren Humphreys is just very, very good at the reviewing lark. The only things missing from her output are, frankly, more comedy reviews. Why is Humphreys putting so much time and effort into cabaret and children’s shows and tuppeny-ha’penny theatre when she could, if she wanted to, shine her light onto comedy? Her description of […]
It is a characteristic of Fest that a show such as George Ryegold can be described as ‘explosive’ – as “deep, deep parody, tearing apart the faux-charity and propriety of the West, along with himself in the process, to challenge and change us” – and then be given three stars. If Ryegold can effect such […]
“Serene, easy-going… delightful in a mellow, ticklish way… Delicate and exceptionally dry, occasionally reaching a curious threshold somewhere between amusement and bemusement”. Is this Jilly Goolden describing a Chilean merlot? No, it’s Andrew Pollard giving a critique of Norman Lovett. You can’t accuse Pollard of being insufficiently descriptive. Not only does he paint a picture […]
In her accompanying photo, Beth Cochrane tries hard to look like Kathy Bates in Misery, but her reviews aren’t entirely horrifying. They’re certainly considered, to the point that Cochrane sometimes seems to be taking 300 words to resolve her own feelings rather than just putting the results on the page. A lot of her sentences […]
Brian Donaldson is Comedy editor at The List and reporter at large for The Scotsman. Apart from his Fringe duties he has written for The Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Saga, Sunday Herald, The Herald, Scotland On Sunday, the London Evening Standard and The Record. As you would expect from such a time-served hack, […]
Suzanne Black supplied a lot of The List’s reviews this year, which is to the magazine’s credit. Unusually for a reviewer Black doesn’t linger too long over any particular detail and gives the performer, the material and the vibe in the room sufficient explanation. Black often goes to some lengths to explain how much she […]
Stuart McKenzie isn’t a bad writer, but his prose is a bit tatty and some of his statements could do with being unpacked. There are missing words, and words that have no real business being in the sentence they find themselves. It’s nothing a good sub-editor wouldn’t sort out for him, but this is Broadway […]
In 2008 Meakin reviewed Rob Deb’s The Dork Knight Returns, giving it one star. In 2009 she reviewed Rob Deb’s Army of Dorkness 2, complaining that it was just as hateful as the show she’d seen the previous year and giving it another one-star review. She didn’t review very much else that year. She doesn’t […]