Like your laughter with a side of PERi-salted chips? You're in luck. We've teamed up with Nando's to create the Extra Hot Comedy Club, which will see top-tier comedians perform at Nando's restaurants around the country. London's headliner is master satirist (and recent Time Out cover star) Munya Chawawa, alongside the excellent Kyrah Gray and Sikisa as emcee. But that's not all! Two awesome up-and-coming comedians will also perform at each gig. They were selected in a hotly contested judging process that involved submitting videos via Instagram and being chosen by a panel which included Time Out editors, Nando's representatives and the great Munya Chawawa himself. You can check out the full list of winners here.
Further afield, you've got Larry Dean headlining Birmingham on April 7, Chris Hall in Brighton on April 22, and Grace Campbell in Newcastle on April 28.
Now for possibly the best bit: tickets are just £15 and include a delicious Nando's feast, including two drinks. Winner winner, chicken dinner.
Tickets are currently sold out, but more will be released on Monday March 17.
Comedy tribute acts are all the rage these days. First Kenneth Williams, then Eric and Ern. Now it’s the turn of another UK comedy giant, Tommy Cooper, to get the ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ treatment – in this slight but thoroughly likeable show that comes with the approval of the Cooper estate.
At 6' 4", Cooper was a comedy giant in more ways than one. His lumbering frame and granite features (captured in John Claridge’s wonderful black-and-white photo portraits which stare down from the walls of the museum’s tiny performance space) were integral to his act, a perfect counterpoint to the childlike glee of his rapid-fire gags and artfully dysfunctional magic.
With that in mind, first impressions of the new Tommy Cooper – played by baby-faced 26-year-old John Hewer – are not great. However, with a tip of the fez here, a shrug of the shoulders there and, most importantly, excellent comic timing, the legendary Welsh comedian is slowly but surely resurrected, some 30 years after his death. It’s a fine, remarkably faithful performance from the talented Hewer.
So we get ‘spoon jar, jar spoon’, the farcical card tricks, the oddball props and that infectious cackle. At best it’s rather like a Harry Hill show: full of inspired lunacy and deep, belly laughs (in the case of the Cooper diehards in the audience, who know every word to these classic routines, laughter often escapes well before the punchlines). At worst it’s like suffering a string of rotten Christmas cracker jokes from an attention-seeking uncle.
Of course, this avalanche of jokes and magical flubs can be exhausting, and Hewer wisely employs musical interludes to add variety. Unfortunately, despite his obvious skill, pianist Christopher Peters simply performs a pair of lukewarm ditties in the Richard Stilgoe mould, complete with horribly dated Home Counties whimsy. It’s a poor fit and the only real misfire in an otherwise entertaining two hours.
One other thing to note: stick around for the interval, when you’ll be greeted by the awesome sight of a man slowly and solemnly letting the air out of an eight-foot inflatable giraffe, the remnants of some inspired shtick at the close of the first half. If that’s not reason enough to recommend a show, I don’t know what is.