Mark Monahan
- Journalist and reviewer
Press clippings
Adam Riches and John Kearns ARE Ball & Boe review
The single funniest hour I've spent in a theatre all year.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 19th December 2024Pierre Novellie review
A young stand-up with a refreshingly snooty slant on life.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 31st January 2023Jazz Emu review
British talent Archie Henderson fuses surreal inventiveness with astonishing one-man-band performing skills.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 15th December 2022Bridget Christie: Who Am I? review
A sly, sparkling celebration of the menopause.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 15th December 2021Praise of the pratfall: why slapstick can be high art
Any surprise at Buster Keaton's painstaking preparation hints, I think, at a widespread misconception. Namely, that physical comedy - despite having its roots in the 16th-century Commedia dell'arte and being, at its best, the finest and funniest kind of comedy full stop - is somehow inherently inferior to the more obviously "clever" verbal kind; that it is, as the Edinburgh Fringe favourite Adam Riches suggests, someone "just pratting about and being a fool".
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 7th June 2020A sublimely excruciating return for Alan Partridge
This Time is a terrific title for the BBC-comeback show of Steve Coogan's magnificent comic creation, Alan Partridge. Gently mocking the sort of meaningless names given to "magazine" shows on telly, it also reeks of that most Partridgean of qualities: desperation.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 26th February 2019Dinner for One: British skit that conquered Europe
The wobbly British comedy skit that conquered Europe.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 23rd November 201810 reasons why Alan Partridge is the perfect life-coach
Hard as it is to believe, it was 25 years ago that Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge first aired on Radio 4.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 28th November 2017Comedy Awards: 'an impressive but lumbering list'
The point is that the shorter the list, the more kudos a nomination has. As last year's panel chair, I was frustrated to wind up with a main list of seven, as opposed to the usual and far tauter five. Eight, however, feels like pushing it, and it devalues the award: the panel should have been harder on themselves, though I know all too well how tricky the whittling-down can be.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 26th August 2015Edinburgh Fringe 2015: 10 top tips for survival
The Edinburgh Fringe is wonderful, maddening and exhilarating, says Mark Monahan, but be sure to keep your wits about you.
Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 4th August 2015