On Russell Howard's Good News

March 2011

More Dan Atkinson videos

Following a five-year residency hosting The Other Side in York, Dan Atkinson debuted at the Edinburgh Festival as part of the long-running Comedy Zone mixed-bill showcase in 2006, returning the following year with his solo debut: Dan Atkinson Knows That He Knows Nothing

He also works as a TV warm up act, having bantered with audiences on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

He was nominated best compere in the 2010 Chortle awards.

Greenwich Comedy Festival: Tim Minchin etc
Live Review
Old Royal Naval College

There are few better ways to get a party started than with Tim Minchin, so what perfect choice to kick off the third Greenwich Comedy Festival, another week of top-drawer comics in the glorious and historic Old Royal Naval College.

There were, however, a few teething problems with the 1,800-seater marquee. The gig was half an hour late starting, Minchin's radio mic gave up the ghost midway through his first song, and some lighting cable came untethered and fell (harmlessly) on to the audience. Such drama.

Luckily compere Dan Atkinson guided us nimbly through such palavers. He has something of a chaotic demeanour himself, but is surprisingly, and reassuringly, controlled with it. In a similarly contradictory manner, he's quirkily idiosyncratic, but easily to relate to – at least if you’re not a primary school teacher, an occupation he has tremendous fun baiting. A couple of his left-field lines are near the knuckle, but always delivered with a cheeky glint that makes them instantly forgivable.

Festival bookers didn’t look too far from Atkinson on the A-Z list of comedians for opening act Dan Antopolski, who was visibly put on the back foot by the size of the audience, and admitted as much. Still, being in awe of the crowd rather suits his man-child persona: awkward, hesitant and clad in awful knitwear. His set was faltering, not quite building momentum, even though his impressively agile wordplay drew sold laughs – even if you also grimace through some of the more torturous examples. His quiet, eager-to-please charm goes a long way, too.

After the first interval, sublime anti-poet Tim Key delivered an all-too short set of his finest work, applying decidedly un-poetic language to mundane situations, and creating fragments of hilarious beauty because of it. His ‘harrowing’ war verse, with its blindsiding punchline deserves special mention, but his unique style of writing and delivery, part-naturalistic, part-affected, was as richly rewarding as ever.

Holly Walsh got a good reception, too, playing up her South East London connection as a resident of nearby Peckham, rough but battling valiantly to gentrify. Her nuggets of personal observations are of variable quality, with the best conjuring up moments of strange embarrassment, but she delivers with such enthusiasm and emphasis as to win the crowd over. She even gets laughs out of two very similar payoffs about pregnancy testing kits, even though, in theory, the routines should have been much further apart.

After a second interval, the man everyone came to see, Tim Minchin, with some greatest hits including Rock And Roll Nerd, Prejudice and the awesome Pope Song – although muted call-and-response sections seemed to suggest this crowd weren’t entirely au fait with the barefooted Australian’s back catalogue.

There were, too, a couple of more recent numbers, including the unflinchingly honest, if creepily unpalatable, lullaby to his daughter; plus daring Cont which pushed to the limit the audience’s confidence in his motives, before the silly reveal.

Impressive musicality aside, Minchin’s chief skill is the depths to which he will drag the audience down some apparently serious path, delivering with such apparently earnest, heartfelt emotion that natural cynicism is demolished, before he release the comedy pay-off to now devastating effect.

His stand-up matches the skill of the songs, too, with some A-grade material about ‘guilty pleasures’ or a trip to the barber’s, while his army of nerd followers are not neglected with some cheekily geeky discussion about the statistical measure known as the p-value.

This was a rare back-to-basics gig for Minchin – if you can call any set which involves a grand piano ‘basic’. But away from the arenas and full orchestra back-up, he delivered as funny, thoughtful and barnstormingly powerful performance as ever. It was an impressive start to an impressive festival.

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Nearly a Paul Merton.

Rose, March 2011

Something from Dan's Edinburgh show last year, to me (after a conversation I have since forgotten) "Remember, if you don't like it, your mum's the c*nt that brought you here." Priceless stuff. I'll never forget that. And now it's on Chortle, nor will Dan!

F, August 2010

If I'm honest I wasn't really familiar with Dan as a compere or standup, only as a writer for Russell Howard's Good News. I saw him as part of the GIT show and he was absolutely brilliant. He had some banter with members of the audience and had you laughing right from the beginning. I would definitely love to see him on stage again, he's definitely worth watching.

Rebecca, June 2010

Great compere, got a really cold crowd going at Haywards Heath, and then picked them up and got them going again after Miles Jupp dropped the ball. So popular by the end some of the crowd tried to keep him from his train. Top bloke.

Adrian Breeds, February 2008

Exellent, some of the best gags Ive ever heard.

Barry Dodds, January 2007

Bloody funny! An amazing compere, had the audience laughing throughout the night. Spontaneous, hilarious, and lovely

Ian Smith, July 2006

Saw him at Red Rose on April 1 - a very lacklustre night all round . Dan seemed not to have prepared at all, and to lack spontaneity too. A few bits were good. As MC he perhaps didn't want to outshine the acts...?

Iain, April 2006

Extremely funny.

Fran, March 2006

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