London Is Funny: Review – Jon Richardson, Funny Magnet

Jon Richardson remains very, very good indeed – but who was that sitting in row G, asks Ben Clover?

If you were going to see one living, working stand-up do an hour show before you were extradited to another country and potentially jailed, which would it be?

It’s a matter of taste, but if your first choice wasn’t Jon Richardson and, due to a mix-up, you ended up going to see him, you’d still have done well. As you heard the prison door close behind you, you’d think: “Well, I saw one of the best live stand-ups there was to see in one of the evenings I had as a free man.”

Read the full review here

BIG NEWS: The Greatest Hits So Far Tour to be filmed for DVD

24 HOUR PRE-SALE FOR JON RICHARDSON'S DVD RECORDING.

Due to an overwhelming public demand, the brilliant Jon Richardson will be recording his debut DVD at The Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue on Sunday 9th September.

The host of Channel 4's Stand Up For The Week and team captain on 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and best-selling author will be taking his show across the UK from July 2012.

To get your tickets for the DVD record at the London Apollo twenty-four hours before general sale click on this link today


"The Greatest Hits So Far Tour" dates


Extra Funny Magnet Date
Sunday 4th November Salford Quays, The Lowry - 0843 208 6010

Evening Standard: Jon Richardson, Leicester Square Theatre - review

A skilfully executed show where an impish Mr Misery picks the scabs of life.

A Twitter rumour was circulating during Jon Richardson’s opening night that Julian Assange was in the audience. If the WikiLeaks honcho was present it would have made perverse sense, one psychologically intriguing character watching another.

Read the full article here

Jon on TV

Catch Jon on the new series of '8 Out Of 10 Cats' and hosting 'Stand Up For The Week' starting on Friday 27th April on Channel Four.

The Times: Jon Richardson at the Leicester Square Theatre, WC2

It’s so easy to hate, isn’t it? But it’s hellishly hard to make your misanthropy as joyful an experience as Jon Richardson manages here. And make no mistake, Richardson has a problem with the messiness of existence. His list of intolerance includes mopey indie rockers, children, billionaires, festivals, Americans, couples, his friends and love. “It’s f***ing exhausting, life, isn’t it?” he chirrups after detailing some Sisyphean task or other — having to pay his bills, perhaps, or trying to persuade his flatmates to wash up properly.

This could easily be smug nihilism. Instead, Richardson lets us take pleasure in seeing our own gnarliest little gripes aired — while never forgetting to mention that his attitude is at least as wonky as the world he’s bemoaning. He sets out his stall at the start, promising us “my comical hatred, not actual jokes”. Yet while there’s nothing here to inspire a bidding war between Christmas-cracker factories, the softly smiling Richardson has the vital knack of making tightly organised, densely inventive lines play with apparently improvised ease.

He refers to his OCD tendencies: he’s stepped on his mike lead with his left foot, he tells us, so soon he will have to step on it with his right foot. Yet, whatever internal stratagems he’s using to keep the world at bay, he’s at ease with his unease. Richardson says he’s trying to be a better person and, crucially, there’s a warped sincerity to everything he says. It doesn’t take much scratching to see the romantic behind the cynic.

Only an idealist would note that the casual drinking sessions of youth become something you have to plan months ahead once you hit 30. Only someone who cared about love would deconstruct Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty so swiftly and acutely. And only a wildly confident comic would tell the best misogynist joke I’ve ever heard — and create the context to ensure it’s more a joke on him than on womankind.

Richardson will be hosting Stand Up For the Weekend on Fridays on Channel 4 from the end of the month. But in this two-hour show he’s got time to create his own slow groove, to mock the world and mock himself too. Catch this oddly warming masterclass in misery if you can.

Box office: 08448 733433, to Sat. Then touring to June 30

The Times - 18th April 2012
by Dominic Maxwell