A poor comedy offering from Paul Gannon and his ghostly obsession

A strong end-of-year presentation by the WitTank boys, who display a strong grasp of the key concepts of sketch comedy

This year, Boyd, Cooper-Jones and Osmanoglu have applied themselves well, particularly in the area of sketch comedy. Their presentation “The School” showed them to be extremely able performers. They engaged with all aspects of public school life, focusing on the people who attend, be they staff or pupils, and poking fun at them for comical purposes. They have been diligent in their researching of these aspects in preparation for skewering, such as the losing of pupils’ surnames and bombastic school anthem. They have benefited from having a focused subject, whereas in previous terms they have let their mind wander.

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Paul Gannon – Edinburgh Fringe review

A poor comedy offering from Paul Gannon and his ghostly obsession

Paul Gannon is a man possessed. Not in the head-spinning, Linda Blair of The Exorcist-style sense of possession, but in the way his show is devoted to one idea – ghosts. From the film Ghostbusters, which he watched again and again during his early years, to an adulthood spent searching for spirits in crumbling houses and ageing regional theatres, Gannon is on one long ghost-hunt.

But this is not a grim or morbid show. It is Gannon’s gentle story of “chasing things that don’t exist” and the friends, fools and frauds he encounters on his journey.

Liam Williams – Edinburgh Fringe review

A gloriously gloomy start from debutant Liam Williams

Downbeat anti-lad Liam Williams has honed and nearly perfected the art of the angst-ridden young man. And he is actually funny as well. His lo-fi blend of puns, put-downs and pained anecdotes sends-up the stereotype of the tortured soul and belies the fact that he is just 25 years old.

“Ok here’s the first joke. I hope you enjoy it”, begins the lethargic Williams. “The universe implodes. No matter.”

The Spotlight on… Tiffany Stevenson

First to be profiled on London is Funny is Old Rope compere and actor-turned-comic Tiffany Stevenson.

Name: Tiffany Stevenson

Where do you live (roughly):Highgate and roughly

How long have you been gigging for?: Nearly four years

What do you do?: Tell jokes and hope people laugh, I have been described as laconic and deadpan. I disagree with both those descriptions and have taken to skipping around the stage with whimsical tales of drunkenness, religious fanatics and Austrians. I like talking about wine, women and spiders. I co-host Old Rope (The Phoenix, every Monday) with the if.comedy winner Phil Nichol

The Rant – Robin Ince

Welcome to The Rant, the place where comedians let rip about the things that have been getting right on their wick.

And who better to be the inaugural LiF ranter than Robin Ince? Here, he responds to the criticism he has received for organising a secular, Christmas-time celebration.

 

In quiet moments, which I try to limit by taking on more work than I can manage and living in constant fear of deadlines, I come up with dumb ideas that I think might be fun.

This year’s second dumb idea* was to put on a show entitled Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, a rational celebration for Christmastime. It takes place at the lovely Bloomsbury Theatre and the bill includes some brilliant comics – Stewart Lee, Josie Long and Mark Thomas – the singer-songwriter, Robyn Hitchcock; writer and documentary-maker, Simon Singh; writer of the Guardian’s Bad Science column, Ben Goldacre and acclaimed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

A Welcome

Two hundred-odd venues, a couple of thousand operating comedians, but not one website dedicated to the London comedy scene? Why not? Because the world’s a crazy, crazy place, my friends.

This where LondonisFunny comes in. Solely about comedy, solely about London. And in late noughties, if the bank manager doesn’t get you, the increasingly pissed off Mother Nature will – folks, we need some serious cheering up.