Paul Sinha, Stockton-On-Tees & London
Comedians get hired to do all sorts of unlikely jobs these days. Paul Sinha alternates his nocturnal stand-up career with a daytime gig on ITV’s The Chase, where he has the task of outsmarting members of the public and preventing them from walking off with the prize money. It’s not such strange casting in one sense, since Sinha is an enormous trivia buff and serial pub quiz champion. But such lightweight fare is a big contrast to Sinha’s live work, where he specialises in an erudite form of quiet indignation about the state of this country, particularly concerning race. Unlike many topical comics who deliver their material as scandalised observers, Sinha’s best stuff takes the form of brilliantly honed stories about the bizarre situations he’s found himself in, like debating with the BNP on national radio, or being described as an “Indian poof” by no less an authority than Jim Davidson. His latest show – Postcards From The Z List – is a work in progress destined for the Edinburgh fringe, and sees him tackling new issues caused by his rise to minor quiz show fame.
ARC, Stockton On Tees, Sat; The Comedy Store, SW1, Tue; Backyard Bar & Kitchen, E2, Fri
Kevin Bridges: A Whole Different Story, On tour
There’s a familiar complaint about footballers rushing out autobiographies while they’re still in their 20s. Kevin Bridges is only 28, and he’s already brought out his own doorstop of a book telling of his rise to stardom. But Bridges has more than enough material to fill the pages, having managed to pack more success into his brief career than many comics twice his age. Such is his popularity – especially in his native Scotland – that it’s become a cliche to compare him to his fellow countryman Billy Connolly. In truth, they’re quite different propositions: while Connolly’s a loud and colourful force of nature, Bridges is a creature of vivid monochrome. He really lives up to national stereotypes about dourness, with a gravelly deadpan manner that makes him seem wise beyond his years.
William Aston Hall, Wrexham, Sat; Grand Theatre, Leeds, Sun; Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Mon & Tue
Zoe Lyons: Mustard Cutter, London
You often see male comics (usually around the time of impending fatherhood) musing gloomily onstage about the onset of early middle age and the prospect of their own mortality. Zoe Lyons proves this is yet another thing that the girls can do just as well. She’s only in her early 40, but in many ways Lyons is old before her time, preferring a night in at home to spending time with her friends, and finding herself increasingly at odds with the behaviour and motivations of young people. Fortunately, any imagined physical decline is not accompanied by a withering of her comic imagination, which is as sparkling as ever. Lyons isn’t a comedian who dwells on any one subject for too long; instead, her rapid-fire delivery allows her to shoot from one great comic nugget to the next, perhaps reflecting the scattergun impulses of her own mind.
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