BBC III’s Stand Up For Live Comedy showcased some excellent emerging comedians
BBC 3’s Stand Up for Live Comedy presented some excellent new comedians, some who are already pretty well established and one or two who will need a lot better material to succeed in this difficult and competitive field.
The series filmed in advance in front of a socially distanced audience in outside locations was a mini Live at the Apollo and it proved that there is no substitute for live stand-up. Shows were filmed in Bristol, Belfast, Birmingham Glasgow, Margate (which was supposed to be in Wales but was switched due to their blanket lockdown) and London. Reviews of latest TV comedy
Each show was compared by an establish comedian, I was however not enamoured with Jamali Maddix’s, London knife crime routine and neither, I think, were the audience. However the acts that followed were excellent and I will give a particular shout-out to Helen Bauer, who is destined for great things, probably as Britain’s answer to Rebel Wilson (as was).
I’ve only seen Rachel Fairburn once before when she supported Stewart Francis on h
is ‘Last Ever Tour’ Tour in Nottingham. She was excellent then and was excellent on the Belfast show even though she is a Mancunian living in London. She is also one half of All Killa No Filla with the host of the Margate show Kiri Pritchard-McClean.
All of the 18 acts had their own unique style and personality and all grasped their opportunity well. As part of his set, Andy Field used some material from 2017 Edinburgh Fringe show about a line from the Exorcist which went on far too long. Toussaint Douglass had fun embarrassing a young lady in the audience about race – she, her friends and the rest of the audience enjoyed it as well.
Eighteen acts is too many to mention all of them individually so if you missed the series catch up on the BBC iplayer do some talent spotting for yourself.
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