Steve Bennett (I)
- Journalist and reviewer
Press clippings Page 101
Morgana Robinson's The Agency preview
It seems simplistic to call The Agency an impressions show. For Morgana Robinson is less a straightforward mimic than she is a caricaturist, creating exaggerated characters only loosely based on celebrities' real personalities. And this is a fine format for her talents.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 26th September 2016Review - Miles Jupp: Songs Of Freedom
When his exasperated rage - at targets deserving or not - breaks through the crippling politeness, Jupp really shines.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 24th September 2016Luke Benson's Big Night Out (In the Afternoon) review
'Anyone here drinking tonight?' Luke Benson starts his show with the same audience-wrangling line every comedian deploys when faced with a rowdy club room - although at 7pm on a Wednesday in a museum, the response is hardly lairy.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 22nd September 2016The 1996 Edinburgh Fringe
Clearing out this week, I unearthed the 1996 Edinburgh Fringe programme and some flyers So for no other reason than nostalgia, here's how the festival has changed in 20 years.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 21st September 2016Review: Rob Carter is Christopher Bliss
There's a sweetness to the spoof, and Bliss's awkwardness is well-judged. Carter portrays his lisping creation with tight precision, making him credible despite the ridiculous script.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 16th September 2016Red Dwarf XI, episode one review
As always with Dwarf, the jokes are a mix of the smart and the dumb, with quips about quantum mechanics tempered with daft jokes about Kryten's nipple attachments of banter aimed at the uptight Rimmer. Odds are, you already know if you like the Dwarf brand of humour or not, and this is unlikely to change minds either way, but the pace of the narrative keeps things interested.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 15th September 2016Holly Burn: I Am Special review
'I'm not special,' says the woman in the spotlight, all chairs pointed at her, in a glamorous art deco bar in Central London. We're not expected to believe her, and she doesn't really believe it herself.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 14th September 2016Unspun with Matt Forde review
A bold commission from what was once the home of the repeat, an ultra-topical political show recorded the night before transmission.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 14th September 2016Comedy Feed: JPD review
JPD is the only one of this year's batch of Comedy Feeds that's a sketch format, rather than a sitcom pilot befitting the BBC's current celebration of the narrative genre.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 9th September 2016Comedy Feeds: Man Like Mobeen review
Man Like Mobeen starts imposingly, with Guz Khan's alter-ego delivering a direct-to-camera missive about the 'neo-conservatives' illegal war' on brown people as a voiceover reiterates the views of Fox News terrorism 'expert' Steven Emerson that Birmingham was a 'no-go' city for non-Muslims, patrolled by religious police. But it quickly becomes clear this is a silly mockery not only of the rhetoric of cultures at loggerheads, but also of the Muslim rude-boy culture.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 7th September 2016