Dominic Maxwell

Brassic review

Cartoonish capers give us a break from reality.

Mark Watson interview

Dominic Maxwell talks to the comedian as he prepares for Watsonathon, his live show to lighten the lockdown.

John Robins's show The Darkness Of Robins is new to Netflix, but in 2017 it won him top prize at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. The Darkness Of Robins is not a game-changer but it's a bold and winning hour, inspired by Robins's split from his unnamed girlfriend (actually fellow comedian Sara Pascoe).

Robins's ironic celebration of all his newfound freedoms -- unfettered access to power points at the home they used to share, say -- are a masterclass in stand-up comedy. The show flags when it moves too far away from the split, but it ends with tender wisdom as well as real laughs.

New comedy shows to stream at home now

Lazy Susan: Forgive Me, Mother! (****)
Anna Mann: Sketch Show for Depressives (****)

Sandi Toksvig interview

Sandi Toksvig left The Great British Bake Off to pursue other projects, then lockdown put them on hold. Her response has been to start a daily YouTube show broadcast from her home.

Alexei Sayle review - serrated yet genial comeback

Who is this old Liverpudlian gent with the white goatee, one moment raging with four-letter finesse against Tories and the mainstream media, the next doing milder material about cruise holidays and daytime television?

Simon Evans review

Genially acidic stand-up show with a dynamite twist.

David Baddiel review

Inventive comic has last laugh on the trolls.

Jack Tucker review: anti-comedy feels overfamiliar

Jack Tucker, we can all agree, is a terrible comedian. He comes on full of desperate energy, with wacky sound effects punctuating his every punchline. He spends the next hour spilling his drinks, falling over, eyeing up the ladies, overselling humdrum routines about aeroplane food, loudly celebrating when one gag calls back to an earlier one. With his comically chewy New York accent, he calls a bird a "boid". With his lisp, he makes "sitting down" sound like "shitting down". He's a disaster. A propulsive disaster, occasionally an endearing disaster, but still, deliberately, a disaster.

The right-wing comic standing up for the working class

Geoff Norcott is not Britain's only right-wing, working-class comedian, but it sometimes feels like it. Indeed, so rare is it to hear a comedian suggesting that Leave voters aren't necessarily racist or that increased government spending isn't necessarily the way to tackle social problems that his appearances on The Mash Report, Live At The Apollo or, for that matter, Question Time have often led to criticism or abuse online.