December 2007 Archives

SO farewell, then, Extras.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s award-winning series came to an end last night in a self-congratulatory flurry of celeb-baiting and pleb-mocking, but plenty of amusement all the same.

THE arts editor asked for my two cents with the old end of year entertainment round up yesterday, and I had a little think about what had rocked the world o’ comedy this year. It mainly consisted of the usual suspects – John Hegley brought Uncut Confetti back to the city, Daniel Kitson proved himself a truly unmissable talent with It’s the Fireworks Talking, and Lee Mack flew the flag for the ‘local hero’ award.

But one man’s onslaught on the city of Liverpool over the past 12 months deserves proper “honorary Scouser� kudos, and that’s Russell Brand. I can’t even be bothered being balanced about this anymore – the man is incredible at what he does and just keeps getting better.

IN with a bullet to the fickle affections of this blog, it’s Seth Rogan, star of Knocked Up, a film about a loveable loser, and writer and star of Superbad, a film about a gang of loveable losers. This guy:

IT was the last night of Lee Mack’s latest extensive tour, and, somewhat genuinely it seemed, one for him to remember…

Al Murray shows are a curious thing to approach, purely because his audience are not really your usual comedy fans. In fact, they’re generally an audience of real-life Al Murrays, which can make for a surreal evening – us laughing at him laughing at them laughing at him not realising he’s laughing at them laughing at him laughing at the French… Or something like that…