Comedy
There is no shortage of standup that takes the raw material of hapless, disappointing life and turns it into laughter. That’s a sizable part of what comedy does. But for big, big laughter fashioned from pretty severe instances of disappointment, look no further than James Acaster’s career-best 2018 show, Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999. It takes two low moments in the Kettering man’s life (being dumped by his girlfriend in favour of, er, Mr Bean; and being dumped by his agent after an on-air PR gaffe) and – in two hours of gasp-inducing, gut-bustingly funny standup – recasts those disappointments as mere staging posts on the route to comedy glory. Brian Logan
