Simon Munnery

Interview: Simon Munnery

Here, Munnery talks candidly to Edy Hurst about his career - from the early days in the Footlights to TV comedy, the 'new' alternative scene, the Edinburgh Fringe, stealing Daniel Kitson's hat, his role on The Alternative Comedy Experience, his dislike of comedy clubs and more...

Preview: Pigeon Hole Comedy

On the same night as the first Giggle Beats Comedy Quiz (Monday 6 May), Pigeon Hole Comedy are bringing Simon Munnery to Leeds - and tickets are only two quid. Yeah, you heard.

Udderbelly Festival 2013: the top ten comedy shows

This year's Udderbelly three-month programme offers over 40 chuckle-inducing shows. Time Out picks Tony Law, Ardal O'Hanlon, The Boy with Tape on His Face, Susan Calman, Doc Brown, Austentatious, Glenn Wool, Nick Helm and Simon Munnery.

What is it with the name Kevin and connections? In the film world it is Kevin Bacon who is separated from all other actors by six degrees or fewer. In the British comedy world it is Kevin Eldon. Though you probably don't know his name, his face is familiar from Big Train, Nighty Night, Fist of Fun, Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, and so on. He is, in other words, part of that Armando Iannucci-Chris Morris-Stewart Lee set; but until now he has always been in the background, performing cameos.

His own TV show It's Kevin (Sunday, BBC Two) seemed fresh, unpredictable, and, more importantly, funny, especially the opening number in which he sings about the show's title. I had a sneak preview of the second episode, because I enjoyed the first so much, and was pleased to see he sings a different variation on this each week. I was also glad to see the return of a sketch from episode one which imagined what "Naughty German Adolf Hitler" would be like if he spoke as plummily as Beatles producer Sir George Martin.

This was in the tradition of surreal juxtaposition favoured by Monty Python. Another sketch, about a man with a strange medical condition called Soundtrackitis (which meant that his every utterance was accompanied by a relevant clip of music), also felt Pythonesque. And the way Eldon linked sketches by addressing the audience directly from a sofa on a white set reminded you of the John Cleese links in And Now For Something Completely Different.

While all this may suggest that, actually, it is almost impossible to be completely different in comedy, I felt Eldon had a good stab at it. Confident and imaginative, the sense of humour reminded me of another unsung comedy stalwart Simon Munnery, and when I saw Munnery popping up in odd sketches it made sense that they would be friends.

The sketches were a bit uneven and felt a bit student fringe-like at times. But I liked Eldon's take-it-or-leave swagger. And some of the throwaway lines such as "Queuing is a great British tradition, like the Proms and dogging" made me laugh out loud.

Simon Munnery: Clever, imaginative and thrilling

Simon Munnery doesn't stand on stage at all during this latest show, Fylm-Makker, though his presence looms large.

Review: Simon Munnery, Leicester Square Theatre

The show gets into trickier water elsewhere, but for every bad gag there are five good ones.

Simon Munnery - review

It's only the sub-Paper Cinema animations that fully utilise Munnery's "fylm" format, and even these feel underdeveloped.

Simon Munnery - focused on fylm

Fylm-Makker is no ordinary show, but then Simon Munnery has never been an ordinary comic. LiF had a chinwag with him to ask some pretty searching questions.

Stuart Goldsmith on his comedy heroes

The kipper-juggling comic idolises Simon Munnery, Anthony Livingspace and Harry Hill.

My festival: Simon Munnery, comedian

Simon Munnery's selection of Fringe shows.