LIVE AT THE APOLLO 4.1 – Michael McIntyre, Rich Hall & Rhod Gilbert

Return of the stand-up comedy series, once again guest-hosted after Jack Dee bowed out for series 3. MICHAEL MCINTYRE compered for this opening episode, proving once again that he's easily one of the best comedians on the circuit today. Joyously enthusiastic, he skips around the stage, merrily dispensing his gags with an endearing child-like glee. It's very easy to relax whenever he's on-stage and he has some excellent material – from the awfulness of shopping at Argos ("it's like bingo, but you win what you've already paid for"), Geordie linguistics (all vowels sound like "euh"), the cleanliness of a Geneva toilet, the joy of being the lottery's "voice of the balls" in real life (at a petrol station: "pump number seven -- that’s the fourteenth time I've used pump number seven this year!"), the search for a pen when taking someone's number on the phone, etc. Superb.

The first guest was American stand-up RICH HALL, who lives in London and is an award-winning regular at the Edinburgh Festival. For me, and many other people, he's more familiar as a regular panellist on Have I Got News For You? and QI. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from Rich, as he's never really tickled my funnybone on TV before, but he was actually a pleasant surprise. His deadpan delivery and insight into British attitudes as a foreigner were very enjoyable ("when a Brit snaps, you don't even know they've snapped"), while I always like comedians who tell stories -- and Rich had an amusing tale about being "commanded" to Buckingham Palace for an event. He also interacted with the audience quite well, and you could tell his set had been polished over time. It's something of a cliché for an American stand-up to poke fun at the War On Terror, but Rich had some funny lines and ideas – likening Osama Bin Laden to Lex Luthor or Colonel Sanders in the minds of Americans.

Finally, Welsh comedian RHOD GILBERT took to the stage, and his incongruent delivery was difficult to adjust to after the endearing McIntyre and the nonchalant Hall. Gilbert's gargling Welsh accent and sledgehammer style was often too grating. Mind you, he did have some fun ideas: the ridiculousness of a torch with the power of a million candles, the difficulty in buying a duvet because of unfamiliarity with the Tog-rating system, and his real-life experience of flying into Kabul for a gig and being unable to use his phone because the Taliban might hack his contact list and call his mum. Unfortunately, Rhod had a tendency to bludgeon his good ideas to death, so they sometimes went past the point of comedy and into irritation.


28 November 2008
BBC1, 10.35pm

LIVE AT THE APOLLO 3.5 – Dara O'Briain, Stephen K. Amos & Frankie Boyle

The final part of this stand-up comedy mix was hosted by Irish comedian Dara O'Briain, best known in the UK for his presenting of satirical panel show Mock The Week...

Dara O'Briain


The affable Irishman has a calm and confident approach, although his act didn't get enough time to build and was generally hobbled by obvious gags that seemed outdated (are we still amused by Brokeback Mountain jokes?) The best stuff revolved around the Irish being terrible SCUBA divers and Englishmen's sneery attitude to the Eurostar. His patter about IT job titles was amusing, too -- but overall this was an average performance from a comedian I know can do better.


Stephen K. Amos


Stephen's not a familiar face to most people -- but was his recent appearance on Have I Got News For You timed to coincide with this? Anyway, Stephen has some great material, and a similar style to Omid Djalili (in that he starts the show with as a broad foreign sterotype, before settling into his natural British brogue).

He was pleasantly self-deprecating ("I'm in the shit stage of an afro...") and picked on audience members without taking it too far, and making them uncomfortable (a pet hate of mine.) A lot of his material was constructed around racism (Coon cheese, accent difficulties in the US, "nig nog"), but also tapped more universal truths (vest and pants in P.E, business class on planes, twin sister myths.)

Overall, I was impressed with Stephen K. Amos, as he's not a stand-up I've seen very much of. He had a good conversational style and was easy to listen to, and definitely had that all-important ability to make you empathize with him...


Frankie Boyle


The final act was Dara's Mock The Week co-star, Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle. The somewhat gawky Scot has made a name for himself in recent years, for being quite fearless in his scathing approach to comedy. To his credit, he had an abundance of material (much of it one-liners), that both shocked and impressed.

Scottish-based jokes about Braveheart, the Glasgow terrorist attack and the insanity of sending pale ginger Scotsmen to war in Iraq, quickly gave way to more general targeting: London Olympics, Spice Girls reunion, geriatric mothers, anaesthetic condoms, train toilets, ID cards, and gay dads. The jokes came thick and fast, although I'd heard many of them before – in previous stand-up shows featuring Frankie, or on the aforementioned Mock The Week.

Frankie has an enjoyable danger to his material and delights in taking things right to the edge of decency, or grossing out the audience with clever descriptions (like a pregnant old woman's baby essentially bungee jumping whenever she went to the toilet.)

If you've not seen much of Frankie, chances are you'll bust a gut laughing, although I personally found 70% of the act to be reheated off-cuts.


And that concluded this third run of Live At The Apollo, which has been a welcome treat for Monday nights. Only a few of the dozen comedians really disappointed, with most of the acts reminding TV audiences what their "proper job" is – as we tend to think half these people are paid to sit on comedy panel shows.

But, please, enough with the Jack Dee jokes! We know he used to be the host of the show previously, and Dara even told a joke about someone texting him to ask "where's Jack Dee?" -- for about the third time this series.


17 December 2007
BBC1, 10.35 pm

LIVE AT THE APOLLO 3.4 – Joan Rivers & Patrick Kielty

James Nesbitt was one of the celebrities in the audience this week, and I'm certain he was present a few weeks ago, too. Maybe they film 2 episodes on the same night – a 180-minute live show with 4 comedians? Anyway...

Joan Rivers


The veteran American comedienne was our host (dragging a stool on to never use it), and performed her usual spiteful routine, poking fun at the rich and famous. She didn't seem able to judge the audience, seriously asking them "do you know Angelina Jolie?" This is Hammersmith, love -- not a Beverly Hills shindig!

I've never liked Rivers, but I must admit she had a few nice jokes up her sleeve; such as Katie Holmes' SOS blinking and how her droopy vagina became a bunny slipper! Her material focused on women, health, beauty and fame -- so there wasn't much for me to relate to. Rivers is clearly adept after so many years in the business, but she's not very warm and resembled a stick-thin sex-doll someone had dragged through Versace's wardrobe.


Patrick Kielty


The main act was Irish comedian/presenter Patrick Kielty, most famous in the UK for fronting bad reality TV shows like Fame Academy and Celebrity Love Island... but he's a pretty solid stand-up. Opening with a Fame Academy jibe to settle any pre-judgments, Kielty continued with some topical gags (TV fakery, Amy Winehouse), before moving on to more conventional topics, such as binge-drinking and Irish workers being undercut by the Polish.

Despite his tendency to annoyingly wander up and down the stage, the material was strong enough to get lost in, particularly once he captured the audience's full attention with his "battle of the sexes" section (with gags about male decision-making and the truth behind Pretty Woman/Dirty Dancing.)

With the audience now comfortable, Kielty drew to a close with more biting commentary on hot potato issues like Al Qaeda, suicide bombers, the Glasgow airport attack, a terrorist's career plan, and the inevitable IRA jokes ("a better class of terrorist.")

It wasn't a blistering performance, but it was consistently amusing and well-delivered, and the terrorism section was a highlight. I wasn't so keen on the "hip-hop" portion of the show, which dragged for too long and wasn't particularly fun, but otherwise this was good stuff.

LIVE AT THE APOLLO 3.3 – Lee Mack & Sean Lock

Lee Mack

Mack is quite old-school in some respects, with the kind of material that plays nicely to all generations, and he has some amusing ideas. He opened with a nice gag about his Franz Ferdinand entrance music (the band named after the Austrian instigator of both World Wars, lest we forget), and continued at a pleasant pace...

His movements around the stage were a bit annoying at times, as you wish he'd just settle down instead of prancing around, but fortunately his jokes were strong enough to gloss over that. Riverdance cheap seats (so you can only see the dancers' upper bodies), pretending to be asleep in a car, predictive text/talking/Tourettes, South African accents being like backwards playing records -- all were memorable.

There were some dull spots, but the audience seemed quite forgiving because of his cheeky style and obvious enthusiasm on-stage. So, while this wasn't a great stand-up turn... it was pretty good, and I certainly laughed.


Sean Lock


I remember hating Sean Lock when he first appeared on the scene, because his act was a clear copy of Harry Hill's (complete with comically-enlarged shirt collars). These days, he still deals with the surreal most of the time, but his act has become less stylized. His stand-up performance wasn't particularly great here, but there were some funny gags sprinkled around: the British cheering broken plates, 'flu sex, crazy golf, whale food, an annoying neighbour and torturing a budgie.

But inbetween those highlights, his material was quite thin and not particularly memorable. A diversion about Wembley Stadium was a real dud, as was a joke about "the stupidest man in America" Michael Flatley. Lock's style is very laconic, and I personally prefer more enthusiasm from comedians dealing with surreal/bizarre jokes. Ultimately, Lock's performance did nothing to change my opinion that he's a better writer/panel show guest than an actual stand-up comedian..

LIVE AT THE APOLLO 3.2 – Jo Brand & Michael McIntyre

Okay, I see. Instead of directly replacing Jack Dee with someone, they're just going to have guest hosts bookend each episode. This time it's Jo Brand on compere duty...

Jo Brand


Back in the 90s, Jo Brand's routine consisted of variations on ugliness and gluttony. That material made the former-psychiatric nurse a popular stand-up for awhile -- but there are only so many fat jokes, aren't there? More recently, Brand has kept her profile alive by appearing on comedy panel shows and reality TV (Trinny & Susannah and Fame Academy for Comic Relief).

But now she's back and, while her new routine touched on fresh areas, it was essentially more of the same. Jokes about obesity, vaginal surgery, exercise regimes, eating biscuits, and the NHS -- most of which you could see coming a mile off, or conformed to basic joke-telling templates.

I have no axe to grind with the self-deprecating Brand herself, but I never liked her during her 90s hey-day, and I still can't warm to her now. Her material just doesn’t speak to me (maybe because men aren't really her target audience), and her dreary voice sends me to sleep after 10 minutes. There were one or two good jokes, but I was very disappointed...

Michael McIntyre


McIntyre was the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award's "Best Newcomer" back in 2003, although his TV work has only stretched to panel shows (Have I Got News For You?, Mock The Week) and occasional guest appearances on talk shows. I was aware of him as a comedian, but had never seen his stand-up work -- so colour me impressed...

He has huge charisma on-stage and you could feel the vibe leap up several notches after monotonous Jo Brand left the stage. McIntyre prowled the Apollo, acting out comic scenarios with gusto (a man stuck in automatic doors on a train, self-propelled walking, etc.) Above all, he just had some funny ideas, and could expand simple gags into hilarity (Scottish money, body malfunctions, phonetic alphabet.)

McIntyre also manages to giggle at his own gags without it looking rehearsed or self-congratulatory. He just looked to be having real fun soaking up the audience's laughter. There were a few lulls (baby talk, skipping), and the opening London-centic stuff might not strike a chord with most people, but it was always amusing and often inspired (weather records, the clocks going back, a walking bus).

For me, he proved himself a great live performer with enviable command of the room, whose comedy should appeal to anyone who likes to see their behaviour and innermost thoughts reflected on-stage. "Woo-hoo!", as McIntyre might put it...


27 November 2007
BBC1, 10.30 pm

LIVE AT THE APOLLO 3.1: Jimmy Carr & Alan Carr

So begins a new run of the stand-up comedy series, showcasing two comedians at Hammersmith's Apollo Theatre. Host Jack Dee is absent this time, with Jimmy Carr taking over as compere -- and stealing Dee's mobile phone gimmick, where members of the audience are encouraged to text in question which he humorously answers at the end...

Jimmy Carr


Carr may still be overexposed on television, but his omnipresence on panel shows (hosting 8 Out Of 10 Cats, guesting on QI, etc.) hasn't encouraged a backlash against him. Why? Well, he's a consummate stand-up performer -- blessed with enviable comic timing, exact patter, and the ability to hone gags to precision. His set here was a mix of old material available on his best-selling Live DVDs, but there was an equal amount of fresh stuff.

What I like about Carr is that you get your money's worth. His gags are usually one-liners, so even a 20-minute set is packed will more laughs than most comedians manage in an hour. Any duds are quickly forgotten about, and Carr's delight in shocking audiences with near-the-knuckle material about sick children and sex means there's a pleasant mix of gasp and giggle to his comedy.

Alan Carr


Most people only know Alan Carr from his co-presenting of The Friday Night Project, but he's actually an accomplished stand-up comic. With his podgy body, thick black glasses, receding hairline, Snagglepuss teeth, tombstone teeth, and Zippy-style voice -- Carr was perhaps destined to become a funnyman -- and he uses his unique look to his advantage.

As a gay man, his humour mines predictable territory of sexual double entendres, bitchy comments, and acidic ripostes. He's not afraid to be self-deprecating either, which makes him endearing, and he engages well with the audience. His style is very conversational and warm-hearted behind withering glares over his glasses, and his material had a surprisingly hight hit-rate. It also helped that his stand-up persona is quite new to television audiences, so while I'm sure his jokes were plundered from many live gigs, the majority of them were new to my ears...

Next Time: Jo Brand and Michael McIntyre.


19 November 2007
BBC1, 10.35 pm