> “Bounding on stage for his first ever solo show at Edinburgh, Imran Yusuf isn’t your stereotypical stand-up. For one thing, he’s a Muslim, though he barely refers to this fact. He is also full of positive energy, happiness and joie de vivre.

He’s no doom merchant lamenting his lack of luck with the ladies but a man so full of fun that the audience can’t fail to not only warm to him, but feel positively fired up by his infectious personality. He has the feel good factor on tap.

He’s no oil painting with his scrawny build, large nose and irregular teeth, but his smile lights up the room and the sound of his laughter peppers his material. Born in Kenya, he moved to England at an early age but was educated in the USA and it is from here that he draws the inspiration for most of his material.

His stories of going to school it the States were told in faultless American accents and delighted the bunch of Americans in the audience who, by coincidence, came from the same town.

The comedy drew on his experience of being ridiculed by the Americans for his English accent, but his cultural comparisons are seen from a totally different perspective as he subverts the traditional UK-USA dissonance.

By not focussing on the obvious racial stereotypes, he wins over the entire audience. His happy, positive personality leaves them feeling uplifted, energised and privileged to have had An Audience With Imran Yusuf” ***** Chortle (Cara Sandys. 17.8.10)

>> “Imran Yusuf’s show heralds the birth of a new comedy star. Intelligent, thought provoking and laugh out loud funny it’s a glorious debut.” **** Time Out (Tim Arthur)

>>> “Imran Yusuf has to be one of the most captivating, energetic, and animated stand up comedians I’ve ever seen. His act is at a mile a minute, and he doesn’t let off for any of it. This show was a slight change on his usual act, focusing much more on his personal life, ideas, and experiences.

His delivery is lightning-fast, and with this show you get a real feeling of ‘getting to know’ him. He describes about his time at an American school, and how he was bullied for being British, patriotism and how we choose ‘British (UK)’ on software installations. Throughout the show he high-fives the front row, blows kisses to the girls, which is a really funny touch.

A highlight of the show is the ‘British citizenship test’, showing words such as ‘schedule’ that are often mispronounced due to things like American TV, which he got a guy in the front row answers with flying colours. Although the Fringe was one of the first public shows of this new material, it is already fairly solid, providing a lot of thoughtful insights into big topics like immigration, religion and culture. The material is very personal, and it’s a great to hear so much about a very interesting character such as Imran.” ***** The New Current (Mark Thomas)

>>>> “The Free Fringe is throwing up some great talent, not least this young Londoner of Asian extraction who has been gigging in clubs for a while but appears to be on the cusp of a breakthrough into the mainstream. Yusuf’s material is almost entirely about being a British Muslim, or should that be a Muslim who lives in Britain – a question he poses more than once in a very well thought-through set that subverts a lot of notions about racism.
He has some great stories about the time he spent at middle school in New Jersey; it remains the only time, he tells us, that he has ever been picked on for being English. “You people complain about being called infidel, but you don’t know what racism is until you’ve been called ‘English muffin’.”

Yusuf has a tendency to be a little preachy, but he’s clued-up enough to draw it back with an unexpected punchline when he feels he is losing the room. When he isn’t talking about racism, though, he’s leering at the women in the front row and suggesting they meet him in the loos. Classy.

He’s a very animated performer and a young man in a hurry; Yusuf references coming back next year and being a big star a few too many times, but there’s is no doubting his talent. As he says, catch him before you have to pay for the privilege. Until 29 August” **** Veronica Lee – The Arts Desk

“Imran Yusuf’s show (Laughing Horse @ Espionage 4 stars) is an hour of cheek and charm that takes us briskly through the Asian comic’s early life at an American school where his peers treated him as if he was in Mary Poppins (”Can you imagine me in that film? Well, maybe as a chimney sweep”) through to his life in Britain as a Muslim. “ **** The Independent (Julian Hall)

“Here we are at the end of the Fringe, and there are so many acts I meant to see but didn’t. I have a ‘would like to see’ list the length of the Mile. Then a couple of days ago, Imran Yusuf graduated from this list to the ‘must see’ list. He was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award.
My head is not usually so easily turned; there have been some truly dreadful winners of what was the Perrier, in its various incarnations. But Yusuf is special in that he is the first winner from the ever-growing free Fringe scene, placing it more firmly on the map than ever.
The place is packed to the rafters, with as many turned away. Whilst desperately wanting such a fantastic success story to come out of the incredible amount of hard work and dedication the that is the Free Festival, I am naturally swayed to distrust such hype and so the bar is set high. As far as I am concerned, he needs to prove himself. Not prove that he is a good free act; prove that is he a good act.
He is a bloody good act. He is so good I want to cry a little at the end. Taking in themes of race, culture and identity, he pleas for peace and tolerance. He would be broadly described as ‘political comedy’, but he in fact comes across not as political but as deeply human. It is his very rejection of such boxes that make him so remarkable. Add to this a tremendous physicality and a joyful glint in his eye, and it’s easy to see why I came out of the show somewhat in love with him.
What simultaneously makes him brilliant, but hinders this from being a 5 star review, is his potential to be better. He has his weak moments. These may pass in poorer performers as strong moments, but they undermine my expectations which, by the end, are still high – not because of the hype, but because of what I have seen him do.
I hope he wins the best newcomer. It would be not only an amazing achievement for the free Fringe Festival movement, but one that is well deserved.” **** The Skinny (Lizzie Cass-Maran)

Imran Yusuf
You Would Never Believe…Imran’s a passionate Video Games Consultant for Midway, Eidos, SEGA & Headstrong Games plus enjoys martial arts, free-running, climbing, football & learning to speak Japanese in his spare time.

Edinburgh Show: An Audience with Imran Yusuf
Where: Laughing Horse @ Espionage
When: 6-30 Aug
Time: 4.30pm-5.30pm
Show Summary: The fast-talking lyrical machine-gun comic slows it down for a deep and meaningful look at life with personal stories and a unique life philosophy. Based
on intense personal experiences, a lot of soul searching, lost friendships and fights, comes a light-hearted hour on our commonalities as human beings.

Imran Yusuf’s Upcoming Comedy Club Gigs

“A compact stage benefits this quintet’s matey charm and it’s refreshing to see improv performed with such a professional lack of corpsing. Audience members are incorporated but not humiliated and there’s a great deal of fun to be had in spotting the impending gags. It’s very rare to see improv comedy so consistently hit the mark.” **** The List

“The Noise Next Door are five hyperactive, hypermobile performers, whose lively and unpredictable show is a exemplar of high-quality, high-energy improvised comedy. In a twist on the usual format, they structure their show around the establishment of an agency to fight evil, asking the audience for suggestions regarding their underground lair, the identity of their nemesis, and the format of a secret mission. It’s a clever set-up, marking their show out as distinct from the many other improv troupes on the Fringe, and – with the help of some inspired audience contributions – they create a brilliantly funny hour of preposterous scenarios and over-the-top characters. The interplay between this close-knit group and their astounding physical, facial, verbal, and lyrical dexterity is impressive and consistently entertaining. Accompanied by a quick-thinking guitarist, they also belt out some musical numbers, in an impressive range of genres, including some lightning-fast freestyle rapping. Overall, this is fun, well-executed and original improvised comedy.” **** Broadway Baby (Beth Kahn)

“The Noise Next Door consist of Charlie Granville, Tom Livingstone, Matt Grant, Tom Houghton and Sam Pacelli, with Nathan Marshall on guitar.

This improvised comedy show from The Noise Next Door is unlike anything you have ever seen before. Featuring some corny pubs and witty one-liners, ‘Chaos Control’ is hilarious and sheer genius, excellently improvised and incredibly well presented. The show follows a vague structure about forming a secret agency, but aside of that relies upon audience input. As such, the show varies greatly from performance to performance, but the key fact still remains, that the boys of this ‘camp comedy troupe’ can tackle almost anything the audience suggest to them; ranging from Viking Techno music about Goblin Ninjas, to Richard Branson being hidden away due to constipation.

At times this show can be incredibly bizarre, but it is in this that it’s merit lies – the way in which all of the performers manage to instantaneously create scenes or vocalise songs is nothing short of impressive and almost unbelievable, this is especially the case with guitarist Nathan Marshall who seems to be able to provide musical accompaniment for anything and everything and in every conceivable style. What makes this show even better is that the boys give you everything – great comedy, stunning improvisation and – described as a ‘comedy JLS’ – they can sing! If their comedy ever fails (which in some ways unfortunately it never will) The Noise Next Door could always form a boyband – maybe an option for next year’s Fringe guys?!

Chaos Control is most definitely worth more than the price of a ticket, and I recommend you all pen it into you Fringe planners.” **** ScotsGay

“The penultimate, particularly hectic section of The Noise Next Door’s new show Chaos Control doesn’t work at all. The longer it goes on, the less idea you have what the members of this quickfire improv troupe are trying to achieve, and it exhibits the worst traditional vice of this style of comedy in that the performers seem to be having far more fun than the audience.
Not so the rest of the show, a hodge-podge of off-the-cuff rhyming, (atrocious) dancing and all-round silliness that is often riotously enjoyable. It kicks off with these five young fellows embarking on a “mission”, its various components yelled out in turn from a very willling audience and incorporated with lightning speed into the skit. On the evening I caught them, the result was an agreably surreal adventure in which The Magic Roundabout’s Zebedee led the forces of good against Darth Vader, who was holed up in Worcester Cathedral.

Ok, maybe you had to be there. But had you been, you would have laughed a lot, as well as being treated to — among other things – a hilariously lubricious R&B love song, as well as a mini-musical that incorporated panto, folk and death-metal.
In fact, the death metal vocals sounded very and inexplicably Jamaican. Much as, when we collectively cooked up a drama in which a sausage roll was going to be crucified in the Kellogg’s factory, and four of the troupe gave the fifth punning clues as to what was going on, he came up with the still more improbable: “Are you hiding a sausage-roll that is turning into Jesus?”
The quintet win either way. When they guess correctly, or nail an impression, accent, or rhyme, the speed of thought is both impressive and funny. When they fall flat on their faces, such are the zest and all-round good humour radiating from the stage that, although less impressive, it’s funnier still. That late, scrappable section aside, this is definitely a superior kind of chaos.” **** The Telegraph (Mark Monahan)

The Noise Next Door
You Would Never Believe…Between the 5 guys, one loves mozzarella, there’s a 258 top bowling score, 5 years spent in Kenya, crying on cue, making a belly look pregnant and one has the word ‘flange’ tatooed on an arm.

Edinburgh Show: The Noise Next Door: Chaos Control
Where: 33 Pleasance – Courtyard
When: 4-30 Aug (not 11,18) (Previews 4,5,6)
Time: 7.00pm
Show Summary: Earth-shattering secrets & Impossible odds.  Our mission: Protect mankind, kick ass…and bag sexy chicks. Audience suggestions are transformed into fantastically funny scenes and songs, exposing society’s secrets and unleashing ludicrous characters, witty one-liners and explosive physicality.

The Noise Next Door’s Upcoming Comedy Club Gigs

Edinburgh Show: Life of Si: Si Harder
Where: The GRV
When: 6th-30th Aug (not 18 Aug)
Time: 6.40pm
Show Summary: Sophomoric sofa-mates Simon and Sy escape their shared abode to run riot with new shenanigans, bigger videos, camper haircuts, skinnier jeans and more pressing cohabitation questions like, “Have you washed that since last year?”, “Is this safe to eat?” and “Did you pack the teapot?”

Simon Feilder’s Upcoming Comedy Club Gigs

Ryan McDonnell

Edinburgh Show: AAA Stand-up
Where: 33 Pleasance – Courtyard
When: 4-30 Aug (Previews 4,5,6)
Time: 11.00pm
Show Summary: Bringing his own brand of upbeat Northern Irish banter to the Fringe with a mixture of laughs and charm, Ryan will entertain you with an energetically, unique view of the world and how he survives in it.

You Would Never Believe…Ryan is former print & radio journalist and massive football fan, following the lesser know mighty force that is Glentoran FC from East Belfast.

Ryan McDonnell’s current Comedy Club Gigs

So when Life Of Si heard that Doritos wanted people to make them an advert which might be featured on real actual TV, we lept at the opportunity. They may have also mentioned a £200,000 prize fund, I forget the details…”

Enjoy two comedians enjoying themselves…”In The Bag – Simon Feilder Sy Thomas” from Doritos on Vimeo.

WATCH NOW

New Comic Voice Management Acts Announced.

Top Northern stand-up comedian Mike Milligan and rising star Imran Yusuf are hailed as two great acts on the UK comedy circuit. Both available for club, private and corporate bookings, you can find out more on Mike Milligan and Imran Yusuf above.

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Sell Out Fringe 2009

Updates: Geoff Norcott Edinburgh Fringe Festival Sell Out 2009

‘Geoff Norcott is a comedian with a big future ahead of him.’ DAILY MIRROR

‘Master of anecdotal stand up’ Edinburgh Festival Magazine

‘An intellectuall comedian as much as a punch line slinger’ Broadway Baby

‘Geoff Norcott is really hitting his straps at the Edinburgh Festival. Having already performed a total sell out over the first weekend, Geoff is now starting to wow the critics. The Mirror said, ‘Geoff Norcott is a comedian with a big future ahead of him’, while the Edinburgh Festival Magazine proclaimed him a ‘Master of anecdotal stand up.’

Geoff is enjoying the festival as he explained, ‘The show is growing. It’s nice to hear good things from the critics but the only response i’m really looking for is that of the audience and so far they’ve been great.’

Geoff is at the Pleasance Courtyard every night (except 19th) until 31st August at 7:00pm

http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=14995

Rudi Lickwood - 'Food For Thought'

Edinburgh Festival Comedy News

 

RUDI LICKWOOD
B.E.C.A Award Winner (Black Entertainment Comedy Awards)
Awarded status in the ‘Black 100+’ awards for the greatest Black British Achievers

Title Of Show:     ‘Food For Thought’
Venue:                  Pleasance Courtyard – Attic
Time:                    8.15pm
Dates:                   5th – 31st August (except 12th & 19th)     
Previews:            5th – 7th August

Rudi Lickwood makes his full length Edinburgh debut at this year’s festival, the ‘Black Entertainment Comedy Award’ winner brings his show, ‘Food For Thought’, to the Pleasance Attic. A comedy caldron of tasty hilarity – Rudi is a man that speaks his mind, struggling to be ‘PC’ with some very funny and surreal consequences.

Known as Harlesden’s No1 comedian, his parents arrived in the UK in the early 60s from Guyana South America and on tracing back their roots discovered that his slave owner was Scottish and that he is in actual fact of Ghanaian origin!

With insightful social commentary, as thought provoking as a Rene Margaritte painting, Rudi has a realistic look at his national identity.  Through the eyes of a confused citizen he asks many questions including “If England is playing the West Indies in a cricket match who does he support”.  For Rudi, political correctness only highlights Nationality and does not determine cultural identity no matter how many pledges of allegiance one makes to Queen and country!

Rudi left school with no qualifications to speak of and was considered a problem child, he used comedy to cheer up his mother during times of domestic abuse from his father. After losing his job as a general manager of a firm importing foods from the Caribbean he discovered the knack to make people laugh when he became a mini cab driver.

He later set up a school for comedy and has since seen an up surge black British comedians, for every 5 black comics on the circuit today 3 of them would have passed through Rudi’s hands, including MTV Base’s Kojo. Not satisfied with that Rudi quickly realised how powerful a tool comedy could be and took the course into penal system using it as a rehabilitation and educational tool for the inmates. This was proving quite successful until he discovered that one of the inmates on his course was a suspected terrorist and when the Minister of Justice, Jack Straw, found out the course was stopped!

A circuit veteran, festival virgin and a granddad, a man full of contradictions non violent and yet he has performed for the troops in Iraq Afghanistan and Bosnia. He’s a mercenary in search of belly laughs and like the milkman; he always delivers this extremely funny man is a force to be reckoned with!

His TV credits include CH4 ‘Get Me The Producer’, BBC1’s ‘Funny Business’ and also for  BBC 1 ‘Hart Of Harlesden’.

THE CRITICS:
“…Observant engaging interactive comic whose routines roll out like warm custard over Spotted Dick”                       INDEPENDENT
 
“…He’s an intelligent one of a kind with something to appeal to everyone”   CHORTLE

“…Irresistible he’s going to be massive”       GUARDIAN

www.lickwood.co.uk
www.comicvoice.com
www.facebook.com/people/Rudi-Lickwood/692251419

Geoff Norcott - The Shocking Truth About Men & Women

Edinburgh Festival Stand Up Comedy News

GEOFF NORCOTT
Title Of Show:     ‘The Shocking Truth About Men & Women’
Venue:                  Pleasance Courtyard – Over The Road 3
Time:                    7.00pm
Dates:                   5th – 31st August (except 12th & 19th)     
Previews:            5th – 7th August

We all know men and women are different, but how many stereotypes are actually rooted in scientific fact? Depressingly, quite a few. Maybe the real truth about men and women is so shocking we cling on to the simple versions for a good reason…
 
After deciding not to buy his wife the diamond ring he promised her – instead using the money to fund this year’s Edinburgh Festival show – outstandingly good stand up Geoff Norcott returns once more for the full month at the newly re-opened Pleasance venue ‘Over The Road 3’ with his new show ‘The Shocking Truth About Men & Women’.
 
Geoff has become a bit sexist and isn’t happy about it. A former card-carrying feminist, he abandoned his principles during five years of marriage and dubious TV presenting gigs for Nuts.  It’s time to rediscover the ‘New Man’ he left behind.  He is ready to concede defeat in the battle of the sexes. It turns out that women are just better – and, usually, right.

But we do like different things. Men like shoes and women like fighting…something like that. Men are good at reversing, but rubbish at backtracking.
Women are good at locating small things while big things elude them…

In an age of resurgent stereotypes, do you ever get the feeling that some of this gender stuff doesn’t add up?
 
A former school teacher, everything Geoff does is under-pinned by enthusiasm, optimism and a sharp comic mind. Whether it be on the comedy circuit or on TV or radio, Geoff’s abundance of energy combined with a storming mix of observations, impressions and satire has made him a hugely popular act both in the UK and abroad.
 
Geoff is emerging as a vibrant writer, having written for ‘Parsons & Naylor’ on BBC Radio Two & for Radio 4, MTV and Nuts TV.  His TV work includes BBC1 impressions show ‘Spoof’, presenting on the WKD Shed Sports Show, where his quick witted one-liners became a popular feature of the nightly debates), and BBC2’s ‘My Appalling School Report’. Geoff is also currently involved in an exciting new sketch show project due to hit our screens in late 2009. Radio credits include frequent guest spots on Talksport’s ‘Hawksby & Jacobs Show’ and the Richard Bacon Show for Radio 5.
 
OPINIONS ON GEOFF FROM THE WOMEN IN HIS LIFE:

 ‘Absolutely brilliant, funny, caring, even as a small boy he kept the room laughing, but I do have a bias – I’m his mum. Even so, he is brilliantly funny.’ –
Actual quote from his objective mother posted on www.chortle.co.uk
 
‘We’re kind of hoping the comedy thing is just a phase.’ – His Mother In Law
 
‘Always Trying.’ – His Wife
 
THE CRITICS:
 
‘…Funny, charming and optimistic…’                                           THE LIST
 
‘…This guy is going to be big’                                                     THE STAGE
 
‘..A quick witted and amiable host.’                                             CHORTLE
 
‘..guaranteed to bring the house down at any comedy gig.’        MANCHESTER E NEWS
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Geoff-Norcotts-Edinburgh-show-The-Shocking-Truth-About-Men-and-Women/75008482611?created
www.comicvoice.com

John Ryan - Crackin' Up - Because the mind is important

I often sit with the Comic Voice manager Ian Franklin and throw the names of countries at him. It is my way of trying to get a holiday at the same time as working really.  “What about Tonga, they must have a comedy club there?” I ask “or Mauritius?” He has become more used to me over the years I think. Where most other acts might want to get on to TV I am trying to get a gig in Iceland.. Well, I have never been and it sounds like a nice place and I just want to do different stuff really. He knows that I like a lot of variety in what I do. Just doing the comedy circuit would drive me nuts. Don’t get me wrong, it is great to perform in front of a room full of paying customers in a well run club. But I like a bit of a challenge. He asked if I would be interested in working on a Mental Health project.

“It would be about Depression and Suicide”. I looked at his face to see if he was being serious. There is comedy in tragedy I suppose but sometimes it is hard to find it. How can you make jokes about people wanting to take their own lives?

 
The people funding it hope that by involving some of their service users and creating a show, they can raise awareness of the problems faced by men who have experienced despair. This is a very difficult thing to do, as ‘madness’ is not generally the sort of thing you would talk to strangers about. Men are reluctant to admit to a problem, seek help and receive treatment. I wondered how hard it would be to get fellas to admit to any problems? The manager gave me some leaflets to read. I read some facts about it. ‘Suicide rates are on the increase amongst Young men and it is now the most common cause of death among men under 35’. The woman coordinating the project rang and told me “Around three-quarters of young male suicides never had contact with specialist services”.  I gulped at the thought of trying to make that fact amusing. I wondered how a group would respond to me turning up. What would they be like, would they want to talk and if I am really honest would they be a load of lads rocking back and forward dribbling in straight jackets? I carried on reading the literature. For some reason men from Irish families are more likely to receive treatment than men from other European groups. That struck me as very odd. Being from an Irish family, this immediately grabbed my attention. I realised I had a lot of reading to do if I am to make this work. He said that the people running the project would want me to go along to a preliminary meeting and then maybe try some workshops. If it went well I would then have to write and perform a solo show about it all. I went along to a day centre to see how I could make it work. There was a group sitting around waiting for me. “Welcome to the funny farm we are the nutters how do you do?” A few of them laughed. I must have looked thrown, as one lad said, “Don’t worry we wont start eating light bulbs till you are gone!” I felt very uneasy. “Relax you will soon get used to the place” said the ringleader. And what a place it is. People are referred by the local health service as part of their rehabilitation. All of these lads had suffered a breakdown, a crisis or an episode and they were no different to any of my mates. Carl told me how he had been attacked on the way home from work. Someone cracked him over the head from behind and he remembers a knife being held against his throat. He said that he spent months having flashbacks. This made him unable to go out of the house and was part of his post-traumatic stress disorder. It led to him having depression and anxiety attacks. He lost his job and was now using the centre to get back into the ‘groove’ as he called it. I was mortified. “It means I can’t go to the shops, the wife does that,” he said before adding with a laugh “I can’t do the washing up or the hoovering either!” The kid that robbed him made off with more than just a mobile phone and twenty pounds. Carl lost everything. Peter told me that he had always been a depressive but had managed to control it by working and drinking. When his business collapsed the drinking took over. One night he decided to end it all and made a noose. He wanted to die listening to a particular piece of music playing, went off to get a CD and ended up in the pub. Meeting an old drinking pal prevented his suicide. The lads then decided to have a big conversation about music to kill yourself to. I got the feeling that they were putting a brave face on things but felt I should let them. Kevin started smoking cannabis aged twelve and then moved on to other drugs. By sixteen he was hearing voices and knew that only fire could make them go away. He began burning buildings and is currently serving a custodial sentence that allows him to visit the centre as part of his rehab. I was only meant to stay an hour but ended up there all afternoon. It was a world I knew nothing of. I sat on the train on the way home feeling very humble. These fellas are working on a daily basis to get back on their feet. I am meant to write an hours worth of material and felt that I had heard a lifetimes worth. The mind is a fragile thing, who knows what may happen to any of us. The manager called to ask how I got on. “If you don’t fancy it I can get you the gig in Iceland?” he said. I told him that Iceland could wait. The journey that we all need to take is the one that makes us question ourselves and our attitudes and it is one I shall be taking. The show will be called ‘Crackin Up’ and If nothing else it will make for an interesting experience.