The Guardian du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 100

(siiaed. OOOOOQOO0OO0OOOO0O0QWQOOOC OOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOO00G Kosher club Dead funny duo gives comics aunique view of British daily life. It's always refreshing to find a stand-up with something new to say and a new way of saying it, especially since so many younger wags now favout style over substance. Sec her afloat aboard London's Tattershall Castle not a historic fortress, but a ship moored on The Thames. WILLIAM COOK The Tattershall Castle, two school pals now on the edge of middle age, reunited the night before their mutual friend's funeral.

I t's easy to see why this deftly written, acutely acted two-hander won a Scotsman Fringe First and the Granada Comedy WritingAward. Produced by Paul Merton and directed by Lee Simpson, fellow Comedy Store Players both, its poignant plot reaps regular bouts of regretful laughter, but the gags only ever serve the story, rather than vice versa, and the real appeal is in sensing the balance of power shift beneath this suspended friendship, as both characters are revealed as being very different to the masks they wear, wc Old Town Hall Arts Centre, Hemel Hempstead, Saturday 6 Shappi Khorsandi came second in this year's Hackney Empire New Act Of The Year, but afterherstorming final performance, full of feisty self-mockery that breathed fresh life into all the usual stand-up staples, I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd won. I thought she was joking when she quipped about following her father into comedy, but humour is indeed a family business. She supported her dad on his US stand-up tour, and recently returned fr.om LA, where she performed anhour-longsolo set, hosted two barmitzvahs and ajewish singles night, and played a seven-week sell-outrunwithher brother, in a show called How To Be Iranian. That's right.

Iranian. As anyone who's seen Omid Djalili will confirm, Iran London SWi, Monday 8 Jim Sweeney and Steve Steen have been friends for more than 30 years, but tonight they play two men who haven't seen one another for half a lifetime. During their Edinburgh debut, in 1974, The Scotsman called them "the Morecambe Wise of and last summer they celebrated the 25th annivcrsaryof that first festival by appearing together in Sweeney's theatrical writing debut. Danny's Wake is about Booze to billions The first time I saw unique style is Eddielzzard, the quintessential English, audience was so small his appeal is international, that lie met us in the bar Izzard has neverpandered beforehand and bough us to orthodox fickle fashion, a round of drinks. A and the paradoxical lesson decade later, he became of his success story is that the first solo comic to play it's only the comics brave Wembley Arena, where enough to be distinctive buving abevcrage forevery who experience the punter would have left him ultimate accolade of with a five-figure bar bill, universal acceptance.

This CD release of a San Despite his flamboyant Francisco performance outfits, Izzard's humour shows that, although his is chiefly verbal, and without any visual distractions, this laid-back but ambitious set feels even more intimate. Indeed, eavesdropping on this show from the other side of the world, you could almost be back in that tiny bar 1 years ago, hearing a young unknown comedian askingyouwhatyou wanted to drink, wc Eddie Izzard, Dress To Kill, out on Laughingstock May 6-12 2000 38 The Guide.