Mike Wozniak: One Man Dad Cat Band, On tour
He might not be engaging in elaborate French-influenced physical clowning or offering Stewart Lee-esque deconstructions of the art of telling jokes, but there are few people doing anything cleverer with live comedy than Mike Wozniak. Part of this former doctor’s brilliance is the fact that he’s smart enough not to take stand-up too seriously. Rather than worrying about what his audience might like, he follows his own muse, creating shows that are full of delightful turns of phrase and soft-pedalled, big intellectual ideas, which often seem more like inspired piss-takes rather than big artistic statements. His last solo show Take The Hit saw an hour of set-ups leading to a single punchline – and it worked. This show takes a similar course, telling the tale of his inadvertent abduction of a cat and attempts to reunite it with its owner.
The Invisible Dot Ltd, N1, Sat; Royal Albert Hall: Elgar Room, SW7, Fri; touring to 26 Nov
Daniel Sloss: Dark, On tour
Young male Scottish comedians have a lot in common with young male Argentinian footballers. Whatever their personal merits, people are always asking whether they can inherit the mantle of the legend that has gone before: for the Argentinians, Maradona, for the Scots, Billy Connolly. Daniel Sloss is the latest to bear the burden of the “next Connolly” tag, but he’ll be looking to carve out a career on his own terms (so, to stretch the analogy to breaking point, he wants to be Lionel Messi). Despite his youth, Sloss has a brutal sense of humour that makes him more like the offspring of Frankie Boyle than the Big Yin. But whereas Boyle comes across like a nihilist howling at the moon, Sloss is more a joyfully uninhibited schoolboy who’s suddenly been allowed to be as obscene as he wants. His stand-up is a warts-and-all explication of the young adult experience. He may well be the voice of his generation; already backed by a following north of the border, this tour will only help him to extend his appeal.
Komedia, Brighton, Thu; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri; touring to 5 Dec
Fern Brady: People Are Idiots, London & Doncaster
There are a lot of stand-ups who come across like they want to be your friend. Which means it’s refreshing to meet someone such as Fern Brady, who makes it clear from the outset that she’s got a nasty streak, and that if you don’t want to be her mate, she would neither blame you nor care. Brady has a confessional style, putting intimate details of her life – including struggles with mental illness, self-esteem issues and her dysfunctional romantic relationships – on public display. Yet there’s no sense of taking the audience on a rosy emotional journey. She presents this information boldly and challenges the audience to deal with what she’s telling them; after all, she has to, so why shouldn’t they? The result is a cascade of glacial bitchiness, in the line of Joan Rivers or Katherine Ryan, but with the playfulness of those performers replaced by out-and-out cynicism.
