Frank Skinner

Opinion: Reviewing the situation - or not in this case

I've been going to comedy gigs for as long as I can remember and reviewing them for nearly as long, but last night there was a first. I was sitting in an aisle seat about eight rows back from the stage at Frank Skinner's opening show at the Leicester Square Theatre. During his set there was a tap on my shoulder. It was one of the ushers: "Please do not take notes." "Why?" I asked. "It's policy."

Review: Frank Skinner, Leicester Square Theatre

There was plenty to smile about beyond the filth - after seven years away from stand-up, Skinner's act now includes haikus and references to Plato.

Frank Skinner interview

Fatherhood has changed him, so has his radio show. But not completely ...

Frank Skinner: My family values

The comedian talks about how his MA in English literature changed him more than becoming famous, and what kind of father he hopes to be for his son.

'Im dead tired,' says dad Frank Skinner

Comedian Frank Skinner has opened up about the highs and lows of first-time fatherhood at 56.

Frank Skinner declined Benefits Street narrator role

Frank Skinner has revealed that he turned down an offer to narrate Channel 4's controversial show Benefits Street.

Frank Skinner: I turned down Benefits Street voiceover

Comedian says he didn't want to be involved in a programme that criticised his native Birmingham.

There's a long and troubled tradition of stand-up comics turning their hand to sitcom and Jason Byrne's Father Figure - with its poo jokes, 'bumbling husband' clichés and dodgy slapstick - was undoubtedly the worst example of the form since Frank Skinner's Shane.

Months have passed since I Love My Country stopped being on television, but it doesn't feel that way. The thing has seeped into my bones. It exclusively forms the basis of all my anxiety dreams now. I'm trapped in a Technicolor poundland full of teapots and warped Keep Calm and Carry On paraphernalia. Gaby Logan is dancing madly in front of me, as if she's trying to shake off a spider's web, while Jamelia jerks and spasms around, screaming an atonal oompah version of Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen as she punches herself in the head. "Stop dancing," I scream at her. "I can't!" she screams back through a rictus grin. She's crying now. Meanwhile, Frank Skinner holds a Yorkshire pudding aloft as a sacrificial offering to the godhead Nigel Farrage, and everyone in the studio audience clutches their belly and rolls around in a mechanically mirthless approximation of laughter. It never ends. It never ends.

If the thought of doing stand-up leaves you with clammy hands, then the premise for Set List will give you night terrors. Three stand-up comedians, in this case TJ Miller, Richard Herring and Frank Skinner, undertake the daunting task of doing an ad-libbed set based on topics which appear on a screen behind them. With no preparation and no trusted material to fall back on, what results is a nerve-wracking, frequently funny but ultimately inconsistent half-hour of comedy.

Much inevitably depends on the quality of the material they're given and some comedians are more at ease with the format than others (one imagines the likes of Robin Williams, Ross Noble and Greg Proops will flourish), but each of the comedians on display here manages to shine at times, most notably Miller. Watching seasoned comedy performers squirm under the stage lights as they rack their brains for funny ideas is strangely satisfying, though.