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AAA Stand-up [2008]
Aardvarks and Carparks
Abando'man: A Hip Hop Comedy
About An Hour
About Benson & Hill
About Comedy: 2 Day Comedy Courses [2008]
About Comedy: 2 Day Compering Course
About Comedy: 4 Week Comedy Course (2008)
About Comedy: Teaching - An Improvisor's Art
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Absolute Best Of Absolute Beginners
According To Jesus [2008]
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Adolf Hitler And Mother Teresa Walk Into A Bar
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After Dinner Society Presents...
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Aging is Amazing - Free
Ahir Shah And Alex Maple: One Boy, One Man, Two Comedians
Aidan Bishop's Bachelor Pad
AL Kennedy: Present Tense
Alcock Improv
Alex Horne: Word Watching
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All Fact, No Fiction
All-Star Magic And Comedy - Direct From San Francisco
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Alun Cochrane. Owner of a shed. And a son. Thinks the world is wonky.Think
Alyssa Kyria: Woman Of The Year
Amadeus Marin And Special P Frederick: Facts Sometimes Based On Actual Events
An American Comedians Loses His Shirt At The Edinburgh Free Festival
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Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective Presents Hans Teeuwen And Micha Wertheim
Amused Moose Comedy's Hot Starlets 2008
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And On Your Left... Ruth Bratt
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Andrew J. Lederer: Anthology (2008)
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Andrew O'Neill's Hour-Long Stand-Up Comedy Show
Andrew O'Neill's Totally Spot On History Of British Industry
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Andy White: I Think Therefore I Joke - Free
Andy Zaltzman Boldly Unbuttons The Cloak Of Civilisation, But Is Perplexed And Perturbed By What He Finds Lurking Beneath.
Angel Delight is a Dog's Best Friend
Angry Little Dropouts
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Angst Of The Not Quite Adult
Anna Keirle: Original Pirate Material
Apes Like Me
Arab, The Jew And The Chicken
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Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive [2008]
Arnold Brown Presents Happiness: The Search Continues
Art Of Dating and Dumping
Arthur Smith's Public Lecture: 'The Toilet Role of Arturart in the History of Western Representation'
Arthurart 2008
Asian Invasion [2008]
Attack of the Soccer Moms
Attention Seeking Phase
Audience With Channel 4...[2008]
An Audience With Mr Methane
Axis Of Awesome Comeback Spectacular
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AL Kennedy: Present Tense
A.L. Kennedy, who is both bloody funny and the current possessor of the Costa (formerly Whitbread) prize for fiction for her novel Day, is probably the only successful comedian / novelist in the world...
Present Tense will be the usual mix of dark, fast-moving, intelligently crafted observational humour.
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Original Review:
Not wanting to judge by appearances, but a swift glance at the afternoon crowd in A L Kennedy’s show suggests they’re a literary bunch, inevitably intrigued by the prize winning novelist trying her hand at stand-up. Unsurprisingly, one talent that certainly reveals itself is her skill with words; a lovely image is created from the allure of alcohol ads, the heady stages of smoking a joint (albeit tainted by the Scottish killjoy in her) are recreated humorously and there are frank tales of sexual awakenings in Dundee. The title of the show Present Tense, she explains, refers not to a preferred use of tense in her narrative but her daily default setting of nervous tension. Her hour trips through the most stressful moments of her life from flying, visits to the dentist that result in numbness to the point of deformity and her ongoing pursuit of loose men and casual sex. Her ideas and comedic notions are well thought-out, but there’s something about Kennedy’s delivery that doesn’t quite gel. She doesn’t make the most of her material, her timing is slightly off in places and she doesn’t always hit the punchline with the correct emphasis. That said, with a bit of work and more practice behind the mic she has the potential to become as fine a stand-up as she has become a writer. Reviewed by: Marissa Burgess |
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