Rob, Rambling - A lot of things interest me...

doctornecessiter asked: What are your favorite UK comedy television shows of all time? I know and love several, but I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what's available to me, and I'm always looking to expand my horizons. Advise and suggest!

Ooh, great question. I watch far too much TV, and I tend to watch a lot of comedy shows more than any other genre. Thankfully, British TV history is full of some fantastically funny programmes.

Probably my all-time favourite, which I know you know all about, is Peep Show. For those that haven’t seen it, it’s a tale of two early 30-something guys living together, but the twist is that the point of view is always first-person, with that person’s thoughts making up the narration. There’s usually a nice sarcasm between the guy’s thoughts and what he says out loud.

There’s a little-known show called Nighty Night which had a couple of series a few years ago. It’s darker than dark, with a gloriously disturbing main character. The supporting cast are great too, understated in performance and letting the writing speak for itself.

The Thick Of It is a wicked political satire, the series from which the film In The Loop was spawned. If you liked that, you’ll love this. It really does make you think that government operates like this.

Speaking of satire, both The Day Today and Brass Eye are incredibly cutting, almost vicious in the way they tear apart the media and British culture. The Brass Eye paedophile edition is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Surrealism had its prime-time appearance too, in the shape of The League Of Gentlemen, which is utterly fucked up and far too funny. Admittedly, it became a little too reliant on catchphrases by the third series, but the first two are great.

We have a bit of a thing here for comedy news quizzes, usually highly topical and news-related. The best of the bunch is Have I Got News For You, particularly as one of the panellists is the editor of Private Eye magazine. I have a soft spot for 8 Out Of 10 Cats, whilst Mock The Week is more of an outright comedy show with the merest hint of news.

Harking back to the 80s, Blackadder is utter genius, although you’ll probably need to be up on your British history to get all of the jokes. Other classic comedy shows from that era include The Young Ones and Red Dwarf.

Oh, and one final suggestion is Marion & Geoff. It’s a one-man monologue show, but so clever and dark in its premise, barely revealing any details and forcing you to figure it out for yourself.

Ask me anything.

There’s a whole load of cabaret shows in Edinburgh during the festival, usually different every night and showcasing some of the lesser-known performers across a whole range of fields. They’re boozy, raucous, and a lot of fun.

We hit one on the Friday night called Bongo Club, in the eponymous venue, and I had a really good time. Yes, I’d already had a few beers in me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it after being a little apprehensive at first.

The compère was simply magnificent, from whipping the crowd into a frenzy for each act to his off the cuff jokes here and there. And his own masterpiece, an improvised 12 Days of Christmas reworked into a 12 Days of the Fringe, was really funny to boot. The other acts were:

• The Evangenitals, a spoof folk/rock band from the US, played a couple of really energetic numbers that got the crowd going straight from the off. They have a couple of Bez-esque dancers, one of whom I swear is an actor that I’ve seen do a few things on American TV before, and the sound they create really is a wall of noise. Operatic wailing over pounding basslines, banjo-speed guitar riffs, everything. And a funny name to boot.

• The next two acts were a bit iffy. A young femme fatale lounge singer in the style of Marlene Dietrich didn’t really do all that much, although she had a good voice. And then there was a little burlesque routine, which again didn’t really hit the spot, even though I saw my first (and last) nipple tassles of the weekend.

• That was followed by a contortionist, a young Geordie guy, who did a few excerpts from his main show. The girlfriend wasn’t thrilled with this, but I was hooked. It’s all a bit gruesome to watch, but that’s the main attraction. He dislocated his own shoulder, and then flopped it around in all directions before eventually popping it back in. Fucking awesome stuff.

• But the best act of the night was Frisky And Mannish, a guy-girl musical twosome who rip apart the pop songs that you know and love, before putting them back together in a smorgasbord of fun, creativity and musical genius. Their centrepiece was starting off with the Destiny’s Child track Independent Women, but then using the “Question!” lyric to launch off into other questions from other songs, such as “D’ya know what I mean?” from Oasis, and so on. Somehow, it worked beautifully, and was funny as hell because certain questions were juxtaposed against each other in sequence. It was genuinely amazing, and I’m really disappointed that we couldn’t make it to their own hour-long show later that weekend.

This was my first real cabaret show, and I’ll definitely be going back for more next year. The sheer variety of performances on stage was incredible, and with it being late-night the crowd is usually vocal and well-oiled. Brilliant stuff.

Ridiculously sweary and funny Australian comedian Jim Jeffries has just announced a short run in London at the end of November, doing six nights at the Leicester Square Theatre. I was really disappointed to miss him up in Edinburgh last weekend (he was playing the week after I was there), so am determined to see him this time round.

And because I’m sad and get on these things early, I’m now in possession of a booking for two front row, dead-centre seats. Score!

It’s on the first Thursday of December, and I’m half-planning to make it into a long weekend and go for a city break somewhere in Europe. I’d love to go to the Christmas markets in Cologne, and it’d be cool to see some friends in Strasbourg too. Maybe a double-header?

Definitely in my top three of the whole weekend was One Man Lord Of The Rings, which is exactly what it says in the title: all three films, acted out by one man in less than an hour.

Bear with me.

From the moment the actor strides on stage, pauses, and sings/hums the title of the film, you’re hooked. He does pretty much every voice pitch-perfect (save for Aragorn), and his Gandalf in particular is utterly fantastic. Likewise, he is able to capture Gollum’s movements as well as his voice.

It’s a whistle-stop tour through the three films, rather than the book, with the main plot points used but loads more discarded. In fact, the opening lines are a little tongue-in-cheek, refusing to go over the back story for anyone who doesn’t already know, and instead launching into Bilbo’s birthday party.

And there are these constant references/in-jokes which make the show a lot more entertaining than a mere run-through of the films. Every time Legolas says anything, reference is made to his looks: “You have my bow … and my hair!” There are jokes about Frodo and Sam’s relationship, which pretty much every LOTR fan has made at some point.

Yes, it’s self-indulgent for the audience, which was made up almost entirely of people who had seen the films and/or read the books. In the slight pause between films, the actor asked for a show of hands for who had not done either, and one solitary person raised their hand. They must’ve been utterly fucking confused.

The show never felt like it dragged, and the hour flew by. It was a miracle and masterpiece how he was able to condense it into this ultra-quick performance, but he made it work. I was utterly amazed and impressed, and I highly recommend it to anyone who can do so to check it out.

After reading a couple of positive reviews in the week before going up to Edinburgh, Matt Green was next on my list, as an early comedy appetiser on Friday evening. This was in a tiny little venue at the Pleasance that swiftly became a sweatbox, and everyone was already damp from the rain pissing down outside. Not the ideal way for a gig to take place.

Matt has acknowledged on his Twitter that Friday’s gig was a tough one, and I couldn’t agree more. It was a really bad crowd, with a couple of drunks and loads of latecomers, but he did his best to battle through it.

He’s got some good material, although a couple of the jokes are a little long-winded with underwhelming punchlines. And that’s when the punchlines themselves aren’t given away during the build-up, as in the “carrot and stick” routine.

Having said that, there were some good jokes in there, and his sheer enthusiasm shined through despite the almost complete lack of audience participation. Maybe the structure needs a little bit of work: he had a poster up of themes, which I initially thought was a leftover from a previous gig and that each night was random, but it turned out to be his subjects each night, just in a slightly different order.

The close was a real joy, because there is something genuinely funny about seeing a white guy rap, and his lyrics were really inventive.

I hate to be overly critical, and the guy does have some genuine talent, but Friday was evidently not him at his best. This was mostly down to the really, really bad crowd, but as I said I think some of his material is a touch weak overall.

I’m off to the Edinburgh Festival with the girlfriend tomorrow, and am already in holiday mode. We’re only there for a long weekend, like we did last year, but it looks like it’s going to be pretty hectic.

Since the festival started last week, we’ve been keeping track of reviews and the general buzz on places like Twitter, and put together a little list of things we’d like to see if we can. Unfortunately, with us being idiots, we didn’t get round to actually booking a few things until today, so a couple were already sold out. We might be able to get some last-minute tickets at the venue, if we’re lucky.

Last year, we did a hell of a lot of comedy shows, so this year we’re leaning a bit more towards some theatre. But I’ve still managed to squeeze in a few comedians too.

As it happens, the money I get refunded from my Michael Jackson tickets is actually paying for all of these shows, so I get an entire weekend’s worth of entertainment rather than a couple of hours. Win!

Anyways, these are the shows I’ll be seeing in the evenings over this weekend. I figured that we’d find other stuff during the day, ideally as part of the Free Festival.

• Friday

• Beachy Head - A play about a pathologist who examines the bodies of people who jump from the notorious suicide hotspot. It got a solid review in the Guardian this week.

• Matt Green - A comedian, seemed to be getting half-decent ratings on Twitter, and I think I read a review elsewhere too.

• One Man Lord Of The Rings - A play, I suppose, probably similar to the Reduced Shakespeare Company. I’m just about finished reading the book, so it took my fancy.

• Bongo Club Cabaret - I’ve got absolutely no idea about this one; the girlfriend put it at the top of her list.

• Saturday

• Wil Hodgson - A comedian who comes from the same part of the world as me. I meant to go see him last year but never got round to it.

• Dan Atkinson - Another stand-up, pretty mad but very funny. Saw him last year.

• Sunday

• Brian Gittins - He’s doing a character comedy piece that picked up solid reviews on the opening weekend.

• Lucy Porter - I hear very good things about her, and in her brief TV appearances she’s pretty funny.

• Stephen K Amos - One of my favourite comedians, and I’m really looking forward to this. He was great last year.

• The Improverts - Sketch comedy, got good reviews all week long. Doesn’t start until after midnight, so I’m sure we and the rest of the audience will be well-oiled…

The rest of the time, we’ll be playing it by ear, picking random things and seeing what just falls into our laps. Some of the best stuff last year was chosen entirely at random, and was dirt cheap too. And I’m sure we’ll see some rubbish too; it’s inevitable that some things will be pretty crap. Such is the way of the festival!