Steve Bennett (I)
- Journalist and reviewer
Press clippings Page 53
Review - Alfie Brown: Imagination
Maybe if you need your comedy to have a punchline every 30 seconds, this isn't for you. But if you want thoughtful, absorbing insight into the human state, as seen through a wry comic lens, Brown delivers.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 29th January 2020Police Cops - Badass Be Thy Name review
It's not nuanced or clever - deliberately so - and not always as original as what the creators achieve in their best moments. Yet for all this, they make it a blast. Sound.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 28th January 2020Rob Delaney: Jackie review
He's a charismatic, naturally funny, teller of tales, whose self-deprecating, and counterintuitively life-affirming, anecdotes will lighten up the hour you spend with him.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 21st January 2020Tom Basden: Sorry Thank You Please review
The compelling tales are interspersed with wry songs with Basden earnestly delivering twists with credibility and a dry irony.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 17th January 2020Review: Son Of A Silverback by Russell Kane
For his first memoirs, Russell Kane has returned to the subject that has most won him acclaim in his stand-up: the relationship with his overbearing, alpha-male father.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 15th January 2020King Gary review
Despite there already being a pilot last Christmas, this first of six new episodes still feels like a sitcom trying to find its feet - drawn between being big, bold and lowish-common-denominator with more imaginative moments and not quite achieving either, despite some winning casting.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 10th January 2020Ken Dodd: Happiness and Tears by Louis Barfe review
While Happiness And Tears isn't as substantial a book as it looks - a good third is devoted to a 'Doddography' listing his appearances which is for completists only - it offers a brisk, yet comprehensive and meticulously researched, account of this unique comic's untroubled rise, and at least hints at the man beneath.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 6th January 2020Miranda: My Such Fun Celebration review
Like a middle-class Mrs Brown's Boys, Miranda Hart's self-titled sitcom is usually considered a love-it-or-hate-it affair. And this ten-year Such Fun Celebration is only likely to entrench opinions.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 1st January 2020The most memorable comedy gigs of the 2010s
Here Chortle editor Steve Bennett recalls the shows that had the biggest personal impact since 2010.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 31st December 2019The top ten comedy gigs of 2019
As is tradition, here's my look back at the ten most memorable comedy gigs of the last 12 months. There are bound to be omissions - the 300 or so shows I see each year are but a scratch on the volume of work the UK's industrious comedy scene produce - and the emphasis is on the 'memorable' not necessarily the funniest or the most game-changing, even if these qualities are so often interlinked.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 30th December 2019