BBC Comedy On The Fringe 2011

With Elis James, Frisky & Mannish

More Joe Lycett videos

Former drama student Joe Lycett's first gig was at the Comedy Store in Manchester in February 2008, and later that year was a finalist in the City Life North-West Comedian Of The Year.

The following year he won the Chortle Student Award and was runner-up in the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year.

In 2010, he was named best newcomer in the Chortle Awards, and the following year he received his first TV break, as a regular panellist on Alexander Armstrong's primetime Saturday night BBC 1 show Epic Win.

Joe Lycett: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Pleasance Courtyard

Joe Lycett is the very picture of an up-and-coming comedian. He has the laid back delivery and confidence of an old hand, with the mischievous material of a young stand-up.

Overly keen to share the intimate details of his life, he begins by expressing hatred towards his own penis. He's young and it does nothing but misbehave and ruin his day. He follows up with some highbrow toilet humour, throwing some crowd work into the mix.

Softly spoken with an absurdly unusual accent, Lycett is hard to pin down. He's new age camp, with some of the barb of Julian Clary but none of the flamboyance, instead exhibiting an everyman tone with a metrosexual lack of masculinity. His armoury consists of wit, charm, and the enviable ability to elicit laughs through cadence alone.

A bisexual, Lycett apparently prefers men but stops short of announcing his score on the Kinsey scale. This crops up with a routine about Grindr (a gay phone-based social network), as well as jocular lechery towards the older male audience members.

His interaction with the audience is a pleaser, with him questioning the sexuality of at least two punters (all in good fun) and an ad libbed running joke about couple who run a bed and breakfast. Lycett is not afraid to leave the stage and get up close and personal for an interrogation, which can be overkill.

Over the hour, it becomes clear Lycett is a mischief-maker and a rebel, with a penchant for writing humorous letters. This has been done before but never as well. Lycett's deliberately naive yet sadistic style is more reminiscent of Australian humourist David Thorne (the man who tried to pay a bill with spider drawing), as shown in his letter disputing a parking ticket where he threatens to starve a child at his orphanage.

While the letters get big laughs, the rest of the set is only passable. Observational comedy isn't Lycett's forte and he's yet to master the balancing act of mixing surrealism with banality. There's also too many easy jokes and obvious punchlines with charisma outweighing the content. But there are glimpses of brilliance here.

The bastard son of Kenneth Williams and Julian Clary - but in a nice way! A commanding, nay imperious performer; with sparkling original material, and a joyous use of language. An engaging, natural comedian.

Stephen Hobbs, July 2012

I saw Joe last night at the Comedy Carnival in Leicester Square. His middle class bisexual take on stuff was original and very funny.

Ad, March 2012

I saw Joe in Brighton last night and am now a firm fan!

Violet, May 2010

I saw Joe last night at The Glee in Birmingham and he was really excellent. Very confident and extremely well received by the audience.

George, May 2010

Nowhere near as funny as he thinks he is. Stephen Fry has the monopoly on 'gushing, posh know all'. Try something a bit different.

Tom, April 2010

Bleeding hilarious

Jayne Evans, March 2010

Excellent Very funny and has great warmth on stage. Looking forward to seeing more.

Andrew Ryan`, June 2009