British Comedy Guide

Andy Zaltzman, Abby Wambaugh, Jack Skipper, Kate Cheka, Two Hearts - Mark Muldoon's Comedy Diary

Andy Zaltzman

Andy Zaltzman has been on the Bloomsbury Theatre stage for less than two minutes before he starts attempting to passionately convince us of the merits of cricket. "Give the people what some of them partially want", he would later joke.

Reassuring, perhaps, for anybody worrying that a profile-boosting stint on Taskmaster might tempt him to realign his comic persona at all. No, this is a show in which Radio 4 regular Zaltzman continues to make (as he'll readily admit) Radio 4-style jokes to a now larger, yet still Radio 4-skewing audience.

It's an accomplished version of Radio 4 humour, though. The first half of the show has something of a pace to it, as he tackles the world in its current state. He manages to find well-attuned laughs within the thorny but vital subject of Palestine. In a show that stretches over the two hour mark, it's fair to say said pace dissipates after the interval, as the show largely centres around a couple of good set pieces that are nevertheless dragged out for too long - in the case of the one based on classroom subjects, to an almost painful extent.

It's perhaps telling that an unusually high number of the audience start checking their (annoyingly bright) phones in the second half. Are Radio 4 listeners becoming more badly behaved at comedy gigs? If British Comedy Guide did clickbait that would likely be the headline of this article. Realistically though, tightening up the back end of this show would probably resolve the problem just fine.

Abby Wambaugh. Credit: Marie Hald

The title, and indeed premise, of Abby Wambaugh's debut show is The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows. They immediately take advantage: once the sedate opening section handbrake turns into a full-throttle extended vacuum cleaner impression, the room is instantly smitten.

Indeed, at first the sillier ideas amongst the 17 featured are easily the most popular here, though gradually, appreciation levels even out. A pregnancy test story is a highlight. It's a clever, self-mocking hour, which - on our night - also benefited from an audience all too willing to contribute to the magic.

The show fuses neatly together at the end far better than you'd expect - the name of the show perhaps misdirecting you into thinking it would be 17 unrelated three minute segments. In part this is thanks to a throughline of emotion that is also deftly mined for the comic potential it can offer.

Jack Skipper

This column is forever banging on about how it's getting harder for people from less well-off backgrounds to get into comedy. A pleasure, then, when a new, great working class voice pops up on the scene. Enter Jack Skipper, "that bloke from TikTok" who has amassed 479k followers over there, alongside a not-too-shabby 380k on Instagram.

Both he and Abby Wambaugh were nominated for Best Newcomer in Edinburgh last year, and it's easy to see why, despite both cutting quite different comedy cloths. We're prepped not to expect big themes - "you'll walk out of here thicker than you walked in".

The show, Skint, will hold particular appeal for your 35-45 year old market. Sure, Skipper isn't exactly the first comedian to discuss how younger generations are more boring nowadays - but it still works in the context of this show, alongside observations such as how nightclubs used to not let you in if you were wearing trainers. One section on taking baths in order to relax perhaps isn't his finest material, though he has the good sense to quickly follow it up with an emoji-based observation that ranks amongst his most fun. An extensive tour kicks off in May. Fans of Russell Howard and Ed Byrne may wish to pop along.

Kate Cheka

Kate Cheka won the prestigious Funny Women competition in 2023. At the final, the winner is decided after all the comics have performed a short set. It's a prize that acts can potentially win, therefore, before they've pulled together all that much material.

Cheka's debut show landed at the Fringe less than a year after she won said award, but you can understand her confidence: she's lived a life that's blessed her with good stories, meaning she can be more honest telling them than most comedians usually bother to be. Elsewhere, she has a pleasingly sharp-tongued line of humour on a few celebrity names. Given her socialist ideology, it's also fun to hear her admit that she wouldn't have minded her politician father being corrupt, in order to reap some of the financial benefits herself.

The show could do with more gold like that. Many, many comics have presented comedy about self-checkouts over the last 15-ish years. Even so, you do occasionally see comedians still successfully finding a fresh angle on the subject. Cheka can't, regretfully, count herself amongst them. The same could be argued for her observations on Harry & Meghan, or on the Noah's Ark story. A dalliance in musical comedy, meanwhile, is substantially off the pace available elsewhere in today's rich comedy scene.

The good people at Funny Women did not get their decision wrong. You're still unquestionably struck by Cheka's potential. She has charm to burn, a well-angled world view, and clear joke-writing ability. You look forward to seeing how all these coalesce in future.

Two Hearts. Image shows from L to R: Joseph Moore, Laura Daniel. Copyright: Andi Crown

Finally, Two Hearts, a double act featuring real-life married comedians Laura Daniel (who took a key role in the phenomenal second series of Taskmaster New Zealand) and Joseph Moore. If the laughs in the show can occasionally feel a little, as they would say, mid (the song about going out without a coat on, for example), just as often they hit upon something fantastic (neat twists on songs about holidays and being childfree). Besides, they throw so much else into the mix you're distracted enough to not be fussed about any lulls: they've got the biggest budget-per-audience-member ratio I've ever witnessed, as glossy videos, genuinely catchy songs, technical trickery, several costume changes, handsome staging (and presumably return flights from NZ) combine in what you have to assume is a colossal loss making venture. They're certainly a unique proposition in comedy. This was the penultimate performance of the show, Til Death Do Us Hearts. Here's hoping there's more to come.

You can read recent editions of this column here, featuring Taskmaster: The Live Experience, The Rest is Entertainment Live and the top 50 comedy shows of 2024.

Mark Muldoon is also available on Instagram, Threads and Bluesky, He's now considering the potential clickbaity future of this column. "You won't BELIEVE which foreign couple are singing about their SMUG childless lives in a LGBT-inclusive Soho basement", perhaps.


Read previous editions of this column, featuring Taskmaster: The Live Experience, The Rest is Entertainment Live and the top 50 comedy shows of 2024.

Mark Muldoon is also available on Instagram, Threads and Bluesky. He's now considering the potential clickbaity future of this column. "You won't BELIEVE which foreign couple are singing about their SMUG childless lives in a LGBT-inclusive Soho basement", perhaps.

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