Andrew Lawrence (I)

Having recently come back from the Fringe this week I thought to myself: "Do you know what I need? To watch some more stand-up comedy."

BBC Three has been broadcasting a selection of Fringe programmes. One of these is Edinburgh Comedy Fest, hosted by Jon Richardson, featuring a selection of stand-up comedians and musical comedians performing at the Fringe.

Alongside Richardson were Josh Widdicombe, Neil Delamere, Abandoman, Seann Walsh, Mark Watson, Russell Kane, David O'Doherty, Andrew Lawrence, Ron Vaudey, Jimeoin, Tom Stade, Ed Byrne and Shappi Khorsandi. I don't know about you, but to me that seems a bit too much.

This programme only lasted an hour, and there were 14 different acts. On average they performed less than 5 minutes each. Also, as far as I know, Vaudey isn't even performing at the Fringe. What's more, it was not exactly that diverse. Granted there were comedians from abroad (Canadian, Irish, Iranian), but there was only one woman performing and one non-white person performing - and that was the same person.

In this short format, some comedians did come across better than others. Widdicombe, Delamere and O'Doherty got the laughs, while Vaudey seemed to be a bit flat. I think it would've been a better show if there were more episodes that were of a shorter length. And more variety in terms of style of performers and their backgrounds would be nice, too.

Comedy review selection

Reviews of Benet Brandreth, Seann Walsh, Andrew Maxwell, The Rob Deering Experience and Andrew Lawrence.

Andrew Lawrence's comic partner swapped Fringe for folk

Surreal comedy's loss was the folky Fence Collective's gain. But I was the better singer.

This new show's format of host comedians revisiting their hometowns as a preamble to the stand-up is already being subverted, with young Jack Whitehall sending up the riches-to-riches story of his own rise to TV fame. He also continues in the tradition of mocking poor old Dave itself, a privilege unavailable to most of its caught-on-repeat inhabitants. He's joined at the Theatre Royal by the worryingly pallid but effective Andrew Lawrence and the musical David O'Doherty, whose targets include YouTube comments and dumbstruck fans of The Wire.

The voiceover man from The X Factor gives a bellowing introduction to Michael McIntyre and the latter skips onto the blazingly lit stage to a hysterical welcome from the people of Dublin. And that's the pitch it stays at throughout - bright lights, big laughs and constant reminders from McIntyre that what we're seeing is "Brilliant! Fantastic! Well done! Brilliant!" Which it certainly will be for anyone who likes jokes about Irishness. Keith Farnan riffs on the Irish fondness for drink, arguing that "If Irish men didn't drink we'd be Italian", and their rubbish dancing (ah, Riverdance jokes - remember them?), while Tommy Tiernan jokes about the Irish economic boom: "We found out when times were good that money doesn't suit Irish people." But it's the sheer strangeness of Andrew Lawrence's act that may stay in the mind longest. It's hard to improve on his way of describing himself: "Ginger hair, creepy face and voice like a sex offender." But funny, too.

This new series of small screen stand-up kicks off with a superb performance from Mark Watson, a rising star on the British comedy circuit. As a new dad, Mark's got plenty of material to work with and does an admirable job of warming up the crowd for his comedy cohorts Andrew Lawrence and Alun Cochrane.

Andrew Lawrence: The Too Ugly For Television Tour 2010

Too Ugly For Television is the title of funny man Andrew Lawrence's 2010 Fringe show, so does this mean that he has a face for radio, he muses...

Now in its eighth year, the annual Brighton Comedy Festival has a line-up that reads like a Who's Who of contemporary comedy talent. Here Russell Kane introduces some of the hottest young acts who haven't quite made it to household name status yet, including Andrew Lawrence, Ava Vidal, Micky Flanagan and Andrew Maxwell.