Best of 2020: Comedy

BEST OF 2020: COMEDY Outdoor venues and podcasts to the rescue

Outdoor venues and podcasts to the rescue

What a year that was. Live performance was stopped dead in its tracks for most of 2020, and comedy – as viscerally live as you can get in dark and sweaty enclosed spaces above pubs or in club basements – was particularly hard hit. Never again, I suspect, will comedy fans complain about the privations of broom-cupboard venues at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Car Park Comedy, Henley review - Comedy Store's mixed bill

★★★ CAR PARK COMEDY, HENLEY Elegant surroundings for latest drive-in show

Elegant surroundings for latest drive-in show

Hot on the heels of The Car Park Club and @TheDriveIn comes Car Park Party, a series of shows presented in partnership with The Comedy Store. Car Park Party presents an evening of four comics doing short sets, presented by an MC.

@TheDriveIn, Blackheath review - comedy and car-aoke

★★★ @THEDRIVEIN, BLACKHEATH Comedy and car-aoke provide pleasant summer entertainment

Pleasant summer entertainment

Drive-ins are now firmly establishing themselves as the only method by which culture fans can see live arts in person for the future. Hot on the heels of The Drive-In Club comes @TheDriveIn, sponsored by Suzuki and produced by Jericho Comedy.

The producers are staging two kinds of drive-in shows; those mainly about comedy, and others mainly about film, the latter with a broader entertainment vibe. On the evening I went, a couple of comics and a turntablist were the warm-up acts for the main event, a screening of Grease.

Dom Joly / Daniel Sloss, Brent Cross reviews - UK's first drive-in comedy shows

DOM JOLY / DANIEL SLOSS, BRENT CROSS The Drive-In Club makes a little bit of history

The Drive-In Club makes a little bit of history

It was a weary and frustrated Dom Joly (★★) who left the stage after performing the first drive-in comedy show in the UK. Sadly it had been, as he said earlier, “the first car crash at a drive-in”.