... Dan Freedman Pleasance Some comics are sharp and sassy, some surreal, while others try sarcasm, satire or various words beginning with s. The laconic Dan Freedman is a young comic who sometimes mean ders on to the dark side while lacing his act with a generous helping of terrible, old gags. A definite slow-starter, it is only when he abandons his guitar pos turing and the stand-up kicks in, ...

... More Than Kisses Gilded Balloon In a block of London flats, bored, lonely Miriam sits dreaming of her Mr Right. Then, like the proverbial knight on a charger, arrives Peter, a new neighbour, and one bearing all the right qualifications. Unfortunately for Miriam, Peter's interest is boys rather than girts. He needs and finds in Miriam a mother figure, who offers emotion al security rather than ...

... I Was An Alien Sex God Hill Street Theatre While in Colwyn Bay in 1969, John Crow, sometime member of the North Wales Regional Drug Squad took his first tab of LSD. Unsurprisingly, strange things started to happen. Looking into the cover of a David Bowie album he heard the words When you and I come together, the earth moves. John Constable's semi autobio graphic one man play follows Crow's ...

... Sexual Perversity in Chicago Gilded Balloon Obsessive sexual mores dominate the prognosis of the single bar culture in the seventies in David Mamet's satire Sexual Perversity in Chicago, presented by the Arches Theatre Company under the director of Andy Arnold. The script is extremely witty but on occasion embarrassing with its depraved, explicit street sexual language. It opens with ...

... The Lottery Ticket pleasance In a working class Irish flat, hard times are beckoning. So hard, in fact, that daughter Sissy has to sell off her seventh child for the price of a Lottery ticket. Niall McDevitt's black satire leads the family to the brink of fame and fortune and back again with a joyful disregard for any sort of moral stance. His cast of six, ably led by Joshua Cohen as the ...

... Cluub Zarathustra Pleasance Comedy as art? It may seem like a strange idea but the guys at Avalon have been working on this concept for a while now and the end product is one of the most bizarre comedy shows in town. The brainchild of Simon Munnery, Cluub Zarathustra takes its inspiration from a vast number of sources. The Fluxus Movement, Dadaist art. Expressionism, Goethe, Film Noir and ...

... Stretched to the limit Fortune Theatre Hertfordshire Theatre School Graduate Showcase '95 In just its sixth year of training, the Hitchin based drama college's Third Year Graduation Showcase at the Fortune Theatre provided a big stage for a small school and one which this year's class was to prove worthy of during an enjoyable afternoon. The nine company members were described as being a ...

... Dominic is a high flyer Polka The Magic Circle Young Magician of the Year Competition 17-year-old Dominic Wood from Exeter beat six other finalists to become The Magic Circle's Young Magician of the Year at the Polka Theatre, Wimbledon on Sunday, June 25, This biennial event for the 14- 18 age group was first started in 1961 when a red-haired teenager by the name of Johnny Hart won the title. ...

... Eighth Annual Carling Black Label Layton Institute Talent Show Blackpool What a difference a day makes. Just 24 hours after winning Blackpool's Alabama Showboat talent final and delivering an equally good set in probably less challenging company-- London born rising star Michael Rowe was pipped to the post at Layton's talent search. I Victory on this occasion went instead to vocalist Nyree, ...

... LAUGHING STOCK Compiled by Phil Gibby It is not-- and I accept this-- common practice to devote a comedy column to travel exploits in Scandinavia. But sometimes, it just has to be done. Let us begin in a remote part of northern Sweden. I have roamed the majestic plains of Lapland and watched reindeer mi grate north for the sum mer. It was nice, but it did not make me laugh much. Had I headed ...

... Crown Jools, sparkling night Preston Jools Holland There was a time when I thought the Jools Holland band only existed in the TV studio. That misconception has now been dispelled by the band's recent tour which brought it to the cavernous Preston Guild Hall for a concert of its explosive brand of R & B. It was a boogie-woogie num ber featunng the frock-coated leader on acoustic piano with just ...

... No gag wasted with Connolly Blackpool Billy Connolly Things have certainly changed since Connolly's first Blackpool visits, when he arrived by motorbike, and camped and drank in Marton. These days, home is Los Angeles, the world is his oyster and stand-up comedy tours are presumably his pocket money. Not that Connolly has entirely kissed his roots goodbye. Lord knows, if he tells us once I'm ...