REVIEW: John Crace: What The Hell Just Happened? – Komedia, 18 October, 2026
It’s a curious case when a comedy festival features a parliamentary sketch writer as one of its top billings. But such was the case for John Crace, whose acerbic take on the dire state of contemporary UK politics won him a comfortable place among old hands of the comedy circuit. So while Robin Ince and Joanna Neary did their stuff in the intimate Studio space of the Komedia, Brighton, downstairs Crace packed out the much larger Basement for this year’s Brighton Dome Comedy Festival in partnership with Komedia.
Crace is neither a funny-ha-ha stand-up, nor a funny-peculiar act. His comedy is more funny-boo-hoo, for those of us who are waiting for a return to sanity in public life. His is humour of the life-buoy variety – the sort you grasp on to doggedly as you fight against going down in full despair.
In this show, ‘What The Hell Just Happened?’, he was introduced by host/interviewer Sam Fraser as “President and Recorder of the State of Incredulity” – as fine a description as any for a man who has been entertaining Guardian readers with his wicked humour and sharp observations of the crazy goings on in UK politics since 2014. That’s a 12-year period that has taken in no fewer than four general elections, two referendums and seven prime ministers. He’s had plenty of material to work with then for the day job – and so plenty to draw on for this show.
Crace is one of just four remaining parliamentary sketch writers working on what still goes by the name of Fleet Street. He and his three fellow sketch writers (and they are all fellows) rock along well enough, he said – well enough that they have their own WhatsApp group and a certain honour among thieves that they won’t steal each other’s jokes, though not so well enough that they will stand up for each other if someone is denied entry to a speech or event.
Such an entry ban was apparently quite common for Crace when Rishi Sunak was prime minister. Sunak must have reserved considerable loathing for Crace, one can only presume. On one occasion, when barred from Sunak’s speech at a Conservative Party conference, he simply pointed out that the event was being televised so he’d go and find a TV screen. The Conservative minders miraculously found him a ticket.
Being party to such ‘in the loop’ anecdotes was where much of the fun of being in the Komedia audience lay last Sunday. Anecdotes such as seeing Laura Trott, Shadow Education Secretary, “dying on her feet” as she addressed an audience of 15 at the Tory conference earlier this month. Among the 15 himself, Crace thought perhaps her main audience was online and so he checked out the official Conservative YouTube stream. There were just seven people there. As he watched online, the numbers went down to five, to three, and then to one before his eyes.
“Who’s that dopey twat still there,” he thought. Before realising the dopey twat was himself.
Crace can take credit for coining the moniker “Maybot” for Theresa May, and so perfect was it for the awkward-presenting former prime minister that it spread far beyond the Guardian’s readership. In this show, his pithy summaries and nicknames for politicians came as thick and fast as his ponderous delivery allowed – from his description of Richard Tice (“The ultimate beta male”), to his pleasingly basic take on Michael Gove (“Everybody knows that he’s a twat”), and his tragic-but-true summation of John Healey (“A man born of despair – a walking corpse”). Wes Streeting was “the kind of traitor who would vote to banish himself, treachery runs so deep within him”.
If he makes fun of one MP, then he immediately makes friends with 649 others, Crace told his audience. Most though recognise the sketch writer’s role in democratic politics, he said, a role that lies close to that of the court jester of former times.
But Crace wants to be more than a safety valve that serves to legitimise the status quo, he said. Though his barbs are sent in all directions, there’s no trying to hide where his politics lie. And he’s not afraid to proffer an opinion. He admitted to being a fanboy of Andy “Mr Congeniality” Burnham – not least because, unlike his predecessor, he didn’t “give out on the first date” with Trump. “Everyone knows you shouldn’t do that.”
The first half of the show saw Crace facilitated in delivering his material via gentle probing from stand-up comedian and former weather presenter Fraser. The second part saw Fraser taking questions from the audience (most of whom wouldn’t see 40 again – that in itself perhaps saying plenty about the unhappy politics of the UK today.)
What was Crace’s favourite spitting image character? “Norman Tebbit.”
Who among the current crop of UK politicians did he most respect? “Ed Miliband.”
Will Boris make a comeback? “Not a hope in hell.”
Some relief then at the end of an evening which sought to bring a little levity to the most depressing of landscapes.
Details: John Crace: What The Hell Just Happened? – Brighton Dome Comedy Festival in partnership with Komedia
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