Venue

The Bill Murray

I’ve seen just shy of 50 shows at The Bill Murray this year and hands down it’s my favourite place to see comedy.

Shows

• Natasia Demetriou and Ellie White are Gettin’ Big

  

  I love Tash and Ellie, and any chance I have to see them live I’ll try and take. When the initial run of three shows was announced I immediately book for two, then the third. When a fourth was put up for sale I booked for that as well.
  I love Tash and Ellie.

• Róisín & Chiara: Back to Back

  

  Róisín & Chiara are the sort of high energy fun that the miserable git in me could easily hate. I don’t though, they’re great. They make me laugh, and when I’m not making me laugh they also make me smile.

  Fun. Laughter. Marshmallows.

• Gein’s Family Giftshop: Volume 3

  

  I’d seen Gein’s Family Giftshop as part of a showcase and they were good but I wasn’t really convinced. I then saw my first Suspiciously Cheap Comedy and immediately booked for the Soho Theatre run. A sign of how much I enjoyed this show is that on the train home from seeing it the first time I booked to see it again the following night.

• Tony Law: A Lost Show

  

  Tony Law is one of those people who is a must book for me whenever there’s a new show. I’ve seen this half a dozen times at various point of development and whilst the raw materials were the same they were almost entirely different shows each time. Joyous nonsense, a comedy master.

• The Pin: Backstage

  

  I first saw this in January – relatively early on in the cycle of people developing shows for Edinburgh – and as well as being funny it just blew me away with how fully formed it was right from the start. Seeing it again in November in a finished state it was probably 90-95% the same as the original version, but the changes that The Pin made were perfect. Jokes were added, slight inconsistencies in the structure were ironed out, sound cues and staging had been finalised. I loved it.

• Lazy Susan: Forgive Me, Mother!

  

  I really wanted to keep this to five shows (exceptions below aside), and as of initially putting this list together I’d only seen previews and as great as they were I could rationalise not putting it on the list. I’ve since seen the finished show and, well, here we are. I loved this. All the final music cues, lighting, and little tweaks to the material are a joy.

• 

  Notable mention should go to James Acaster: Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999. I didn’t see it as a “finished” show, but I did see loads of Work in Progress shows, including one the night before his first West End run. It’ll definitely be in any list next year. It’s possible it will be the list – it’s that good.

Tour Shows

This list is a bit of a cheat. These are so great they could easily make it into the favourite show list, but if I do that it’d be a top 8 9, and if it’s a top 8 9 why not making it a top 10? These are all shows that I first saw in 2017, admittedly some of the shows above were from 2017 as well, this is my list.

• Stewart Lee: Content Provider

• Tim Key: Megadate

• John Kearns: Don’t Worry They’re Here

Regular Nights

• The Paddock

• 110% John Kearns and Pat Cahill

I love these shows, they’re exactly what I want from live comedy.

I particularly like The Paddock because of the format. It usually has a lot of people on, but doesn’t have a host so it’s just act after act and then done with everything moving along at a decent pace. I get to sit alone in the dark enjoying some of my favourite comedians, and discovering some new ones, and I just get lost in comedy. Absolutely wonderful.

John Kearns was a favourite from the very first moment I saw him and I just regret that I didn’t discover this earlier, but now it’s just an automatic booking. Kearns is brilliant, as is Cahill, and together it’s just a really great time.
It should also be noted that no show will ever equal the sight of a pint being dropped and landing upside down trapping half of the liquid in the glass.

Favourite Comedian

Daniel Kitson

No comedy list is complete without mention of Daniel Kitson. The man’s a genius.

New (to me) Comedians

• 

  Cam Spence

  I first saw Cam Spence at The Paddock and instantly I wanted to see more of her. What I’ve seen has been weird, but the sort of weird that I love. I’m really looking forward to her first full show.

• 

  Sooz Kempner

  Aside from the quality material, there’s a comedic sensibility to Sooz as a performer that I really enjoy and that makes me want to see more.

• 

  Sam Campbell

  The room wasn’t full (it being close to midnight), I was sitting at the back (like one of the cool kids), and I loved it.

Favourite Event/One Off Show

50 Greatest Films in 50 Acts

This was insanely ambitious and unsurprisingly went on for what I’d normally consider a ridiculous amount of time. It was brilliant and I loved every second.