EVERYTHING WRITTEN BY: Billy Coconuts


Jane Beeston August 20th, 2018 by

“Words, words, words – Jane has always been obsessed with them, those written, spoken and performed!” So begins Jane Beeston’s BB Biog. And she’s not wrong. She does like her words. She likes them so much that often she cannot decide which of them to invite round to her paragraph and so has all of […]


Yasmin Hackett August 20th, 2018 by

Yasmin Hackett is not the most entertaining reviewer. There is something to be said for just turning up and saying what you see, but at times it seems as if Hackett is making a police statement that may be used in court, possibly of a crime she didn’t find very exciting. At best her reviews […]


Frodo Allan August 27th, 2017 by

You know that bit in the Fisher King… (yes I know nobody watches the serious Robin Williams films anymore but you MUST have seen this one)… you know that bit where the lonely office worker lady says to Robin “Are you real?” because he’s being the sort of lovely, dreamy boyfriend everyone wants. On top […]


Eva Hibbs August 8th, 2017 by

We were beginning to think that the art of the reviewer brainfart was passed, so thank all that’s holy for Eva Hibbs. Her small stack of reviews so far provide some of the most perplexing and intractable sentences yet committed to the canon. Hibbs has reviewed some shows with very out-there conceits, which in itself […]


Mark Parker August 22nd, 2016 by

As ever when venturing into the undergrowth of Mumbledonia, we have to ask ourselves “Is this a real person, or just another one of Mark ‘Divine’ Calvert’s aliases?” Not that MDC actually exists either. But there is a person, somewhere, at the website that calls itself Mumble Comedy, because there isn’t yet a computer program […]


Simon Fearn August 16th, 2016 by

Reading a Simon Fearn review puts one in mind of one of those QVC infomercials where they have 20 minutes to fill and only a set of Tupperware beakers to talk about. Fearn covers every angle, in the most plodding way, almost as if he’s got one eye on the word count to see if […]


Alun Evans August 28th, 2015 by

At first it seems that Alun Evans’ reviews are not very good. They seem like very matter-of-fact, unexceptional and literal pieces of prose. And then you remember that this is exactly what reviews are supposed to be like, and that you (and probably everyone else) has been ruined by the review-as-self-expression. The creative writing approach […]


Sarah Gough August 24th, 2015 by

I’m sure that, if I could get over the pony club tone to Sarah Gough’s reviews, I’d find her to be a perfectly adequate reviewer. So I’m going to say that she’s a perfectly adequate reviewer. I’m sure the non-ironic and shameless use of the phrase “cheeky chappy” to describe Rhys Nicholson is annoying only […]


Izzie Fernandes August 21st, 2015 by

I don’t know how YOU review Fringe reviewers, but I do it like this: I make a document of all their reviews so far and go through it with a highlighter: yellow for things I would question, red for bits that I like. But the reviews of Izzie Fernandes were so streaked with yellow you […]


Joseph McAulay August 19th, 2015 by

Joseph McAulay concerns himself with theatre in the main, and makes only occasional sorties into comedy. While a thesp overview of comedy is sometimes helpful and revealing, McAulay gives the overall impression of someone who wishes the comedy he’s watching could be a bit more – well, theatre-y. It’s clear that he sees the driving […]


Louise Mason August 11th, 2015 by

Oh Mumble Comedy, must we play this game again? Oh fine. Here we go then. Louise Mason is a real person who actually went to review things. The fact that she writes exactly like all the other Mumble Comedy reviewers, who in turn write exactly like Damo Bullen (and we know he exists because he […]


Dawn Kofie August 9th, 2015 by

There is the occasional nice bit of phrasing in Dawn Kofie’s reviews. They occur when she is just saying what she sees. Stuff like “there’s a weirdly lyrical description of [Rob Delaney] taking a Peeping Tom role when his friend’s neighbour has an S&M party.” This, at least, makes me want to see Delaney’s show. […]


Tony Challis August 7th, 2014 by

Tony Challis is so terrible at what he does that his reviews must be interpreted a line at a time, sort of like the lethal Monty Python joke. I will attempt it now with his review of Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall’s Alasdair Lists Everything, but be warned: this is weapon-strength stuff. “Alasdair has a show which does […]


Geoff July 25th, 2014 by

Good old Geoff. You can rely on Geoff. There’s no double-talk, no arty conceits. Not even a surname. Well, it’s Geoff Evans, but he likes to keep it informal and we should respect that. So… Geoff. Just Geoff, taking himself down the comedy and then writing to tell us whether or not he had a […]


Gavin Leech July 17th, 2014 by

Gavin Leech is a theatre reviewer who only drifts into a comedy show once per Fringe, it seems. In 2013 he reviewed Jim Higo’s Free Fringe show That’s Not How You Spell Pedantic, and back in 2011 he had a look at Kev Orkian. “Punk poet and grammar-nazi Jim Higo has a list of language […]


Jessica Cropper July 17th, 2014 by

Jessica Cropper is a reviewer of the Phil Space school; her short reviews are all padded out with “if-this-is-your-sort-of-thing-you-won’t-be-disappointed”-isms. Basically, if you like yada yada yada, then this is a good choice. It reaches a head with Jessica Fostekew, of whom she says “So if you fancy comedy you can just relax to instead of […]


Jess Duxbury July 17th, 2014 by

It’s passing strange that, at the 2013 Fringe, the comedian Sarah Campbell was reviewed in two different publications by reviewers who didn’t go on to review a single other comedy thing that year. What happened? Was there a conspiracy? Did Campbell have them killed? Did Campbell pose as a reviewer to review herself? This could […]


Sean Bell July 17th, 2014 by

Just how hard is it to please Sean Bell? Well, take his review for Jonny and the Baptists: “None [of the songs] fall flat, but the band’s strengths are also their weaknesses, since they demonstrate just how indebted they are to acts like Flight of the Concords and Tenacious D, two painfully obvious influences.” In […]


Shiv Das July 17th, 2014 by

Oh for fuck’s fucking sake. Shiv Das gives five stars to almost everything. While it’s all well and good to enjoy your job, a good review doesn’t mean that the reviewer can just cut and paste the PR spiel, or excuse themselves from the niceties of critical analysis, punctuation and grammar. I’m sure no act […]


Sam Bradley July 17th, 2014 by

Sam Bradley commits some of the usual sins of the BB coterie, not least frequent slips of grammar and baggy prose. Of the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society he drones “…for the discerning comedy fans mulling over the current crop of comedians populating this year’s Fringe catalogue [continues ad infinitum]”. At one point Bradley forgets that he’s […]


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