Essential London blog The Londonist has reviewed some of the shows at The Camden Head. Hooray. Here’s what they said about some of the UK’s best and brightest comedians.

Robin Ince

“Just being in the same room as Robin Ince raises your IQ by about 20 points. He talks of Wittgenstein and evolution and makes passing gags about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, but in a way that includes and embraces rather than snots about your lack of knowledge. Because this year, Ince’s theme is judging and being judged, and how much better life would be if we all had the same carefree attitude as a small child.”

This Is What Chaos Smells Like

The guys are young but their material is fresh, funny and whimsical. Opening with a comedy dance is risky but they’re confident performers and quickly win us over. Take a chance on these boys.

Andrew O’Neill

What he currently lacks in coherence, pace and polish is more than made up for with audience interaction. Despite his proclamation at the head of the show, “I’m a misanthrope… which means I hate about 7 or 8 out of ten people” he is genial and comfortable in front of a threadbare audience (made up of, clearly, the other two out of the ten plus a couple more), always flirting with but never quite dying on his arse. A livewire, he throws questions out like bullets into the audience, “if you could be bitten by a radioactive anything, what would it be?” and is at his best deciding what is ‘goth’ and what is ‘metal’ from whatever the audience threw at him (for reference: he is metal, and the two are completely different). “Chips? Chips are METAL!” he tells us, like some spooky Professor; “Chips with salad – goth.”

Skin Deep

However, the main reason this show is so enjoyable – as well as the tea and jam tarts (tea and jam tarts!) the audience gets on entry – is cast member Mark Hayden. With a gift for over-the-top voices and embodying ludicrous personas, Skin Deep feels a bit flat when he’s not on stage. His ‘Prime Minister’ is a creepily accurate Cameron, we feared he was going to have an aneurysm as a Middle England Angry Man and were gasping for breath as his weird German scientist demonstrated a fetish for S&M chocolate marshmallows. Worth the entry price alone.

Unweaving Rainbows

A stand up show dissecting stand up’s norms, picking over past failures and pushing through expectations and taste to ‘unweave’ the form and still make people laugh is a brave endeavour. Especially when several people sit down and realise they’re in the wrong show and so didn’t even actively volunteer for such comedic experimentation.

For more information on the Camden Fringe and to see what shows are still running visit

The Camden Fringe