Sam Simmons: Spaghetti For Breakfast, London
Sometimes, the Edinburgh comedy award goes to an emerging talent who is clearly destined for great things. At other times, it’s gone to a more established name in recognition of a consistently high-quality body of work. Like his fellow Australian and award laureate Brendon Burns, this year’s winner Sam Simmons belongs to the latter camp. While he’s been brilliant for years, it’s hard to imagine him becoming a household name: he’s simply too odd. When you go to see a Simmons show, you’re ushered into his own private universe, a world of surreal whimsy, abrupt shifts of tone, splashes of eccentric music and gobsmacking physical comedy. It all makes for a package that is as weird as it is uncompromising; like Simon Munnery or Tony Law, Simmons marches to the beat of his own drum and is not going to water down what he does to broaden his appeal. And like them, while the results are not going to be for everyone, they’ve brought him a cult following who hang on his every word. He’s back in the UK following sell-out seasons across his home country.
Soho Theatre, W1, Sat, Wed to Fri, to 10 Oct; The Phoenix, W1, Sun
Mark Thomas: Trespass, On tour
For years, comics such as Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel and Mark Thomas have been railing against capitalism and wishing the world could be reorganised in accordance with their ideals. Now that Jeremy Corbyn is Labour leader, it must feel like their dreams could come true; but are they in danger of losing their edge? Thomas’s latest show sees him continuing the direct-action antics he’s employed since the 90s. A few years back, he wrote a book about a rambling holiday in Israel’s occupied territories. Trespass sees the rambling continue, but in a domestic setting. It’s about reclaiming the spaces in which we live, and challenging the rights of corporations and private individuals to take over our towns and cities.
Comedy Couplets, London
Comic poetry always seemed irredeemably naff. It either meant a kind of cosy Pam Ayres-y tweeness, or a smug clever-cleverness that typified the worst habits of Radio 4. These days, the genre has a lot more critical cachet, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Tim Key. For the last decade, he’s been performing incredibly silly poems, and it’s netted him an Edinburgh comedy award, book deals and regular radio and TV exposure. Comedy Couplets puts Key’s daft output into the wonderfully inappropriate highbrow setting of the Festival Hall, and teams him with a number of other comic poets. They include Mark Watson, for whom writing poetry is just one of a number of accomplishments (he’s also an eco-activist, charity fundraiser, stand-up and novelist), and fast-rising-star Sara Pascoe, whom you’ll have seen in W1A.
