Frank Skinner Stand-Up

Published Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 18:25 by Jeremy Austin

While there are many other comics performing in Edinburgh who broke through at a similar time to Frank Skinner, it is Skinner’s show that seems to have aged the most.

Perhaps it is the venue, a venue that looks like a working men’s club with round tables and its own bar, Skinner performing on a small stage, but more likely it is the material.

He talks of sharing a room with a gay member of a film crew and says how he wasn’t worried because there were five other people in the room that could hold the gay colleague back before going on to describe his ‘gay’ snoring.

He admits to not having done stand up for ten years and this shows. His punchlines are telegraphed and his delivery tired. It’s like watching a clip from The Comedians, except nobody’s smoking or racist.

While some material about him being 50 is admittedly good, his final 15 minutes (at least) on how he has started viewing pornography featuring the, ahem, more mature ladies is just uncomfortable. It goes on so long, it’s like a sales pitch and at its heart is the rather disturbing thought that he does actually ‘use’ this granny porn.

Worse, he rambles his way through it. A story about him trying to impress women while speed-dating in Canada by talking about his wealth is only rescued when a punter finishes the story with a gag better than Skinner’s own. When that happens, you know the show’s over.

Production information

Production information can change over the run of the show.

Run sheet

Pleasance Cabaret Bar Edinburgh: August 13-27 2007
City Varieties Leeds: September 9-10 2007
Broadway Peterborough: September 12 2007
Towngate Theatre & Conference Centre Basildon: September 13 2007
White Rock Hastings: September 14 2007
Opera House Jersey: September 15 2007
Assembly Hall Tunbridge Wells: September 16 2007
Civic Chelmsford: September 17 2007
Alban Arena St Albans: September 18 2007
Music Hall Aberdeen: September 20 2007
Princess Torquay: September 22 2007
Royal Court Liverpool: September 23 2007
Opera House Buxton: September 24 2007
Albert Halls Bolton: September 25 2007
Beck Hayes: September 27 2007
Leas Cliff Hall Folkestone: September 28 2007
Princes Hall Aldershot: September 29 2007
Palace Watford: September 30 2007
Corn Exchange Cambridge: October 1 2007
Anvil Basingstoke: October 3 2007
Pavilion Bournemouth: October 4 2007
Dorking Halls Dorking: October 5 2007
Hexagon Reading: October 6 2007
Lowry Salford: October 7 2007
Playhouse Nottingham: October 8 2007
King George's Hall Blackburn: October 10 2007
Corn Exchange Bedford: October 11 2007
Congress Eastbourne: October 12 2007
St George's Concert Hall Bradford: October 13 2007
Grand Opera House York: October 14 2007
Queen's Barnstaple: October 16 2007
Central Chatham: October 17 2007
Hawth Crawley: October 18 2007
Embassy Skegness: October 19 2007
Corn Exchange Ipswich: October 20 2007
Cliffs Pavilion Southend-on-Sea: October 21 2007
Playhouse Oxford: October 23 2007
Swan High Wycombe: October 24 2007
Town Hall Cheltenham: October 25 2007
Guildhall Southampton: October 26 2007
Venue Cymru Llandudno: October 27 2007
Theatre Royal Newcastle-upon-Tyne: October 28 2007
Royal, Royal & Derngate Northampton: October 30 2007
Corn Exchange King's Lynn: October 31 2007
Grand Opera House Belfast: November 1 2007
City Hall Salisbury: November 2 2007
Charter Preston: November 3 2007
Wales Millennium Centre, Donald Gordon Cardiff: November 4 2007
Colston Hall Bristol: November 6 2007
Guildhall Portsmouth: November 7 2007
Pavilion Plymouth: November 8 2007
Festival Edinburgh: November 10 2007
Empire Sunderland: November 11 2007
Auditorium Grimsby: November 13 2007
Dome, Concert Hall Brighton: November 16 2007
Dome Doncaster: November 17 2007
Lyric London: November 18 2007
NIA Birmingham: November 19 2007
Clyde Auditorium Glasgow: November 22 2007
Southport Theatre Southport: November 26 2007
Caird Hall Dundee: November 27 2007
City Hall Sheffield: November 29 2007
International Centre Harrogate: December 2 2007

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