简介:No music reviewer would make a career writing about pianists solely from repeated performances of a single concerto, nor any pianist out of playing just the one piece. Yet sometimes writing about stand-up comedians can feel worryingly like this. They all hit more or less the same notes: London... young people... children and parenthood... today's dreadful music... religion... growing up in Ireland (obviously not every comic includes this movement, though sometimes it feels like it)... finishing off with differences between men and women, usually with reference to naughty bits and/or naughty business. The difference lies in the phrasing, the flourishes, the individual expression brought to the work by the performer.