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My top listens
by Romesh Ranganathan

Hello there, and welcome to my selection of some of the best comedy releases available on Audible. There is no exciting way of saying that really. I have tried to choose a range of things, some of which are out and out funny, and others of which are an insight into our best comic performers.

I hope that you find something on the list that you enjoy, as well as telling all of your friends how great it was that I didn’t recommend my own audiobook like some tossers would, but that I possibly undermined that completely by mentioning it in the intro.

Enjoy...

Steve Martin

If you have any interest at all in comedy or even performance, this is an incredible listen. Steve Martin is, quite simply, a comedy genius, and to hear him explain his rise from doing simple magic work for small crowds to performing comedy to audiences of thousands and having them eating out of the palm of his hand and the journey that took him there and beyond that feels like the most exhilarating peak behind the curtain. He is not one for flowery language, and that somehow makes the account of his career, his relationship with his family, and the age that he grew up in an even more compelling listen. The word “essential” is overused, and I would love to do my part to contribute to that by describing this as exactly that.

Born Standing Up

Steve Martin

Katherine Ryan

When I had been doing stand up for a couple of years, I was doing a gig in London and was due to go on after somebody I had heard of but had never seen in action. She went onstage and absolutely destroyed the gig. There was an audience of about 50 people who were all doubled over at a performance that combined attitude, whip smart writing, a unique point of view and funny bones. It was so good that I had to acknowledge it was almost impossible to follow when I went onstage. That woman was Christina Aguilera. No, it was Katherine, and it was very clear we were in the presence of a star. This show is a perfect snapshot of where she was at the time and shows exactly why she is as huge as she has become.

Glam Role Model

Katherine Ryan

The Kurupt FM crew

The best sitcoms introduce you to a world that you want to spend time in, and few did it better than People Just Do Nothing. It was like nothing else on television, and it was a genuine pleasure to see how Kurupt FM were getting on. The podcast is a perfect way to continue to do that outside the confines of a sitcom episode. Where so many podcasts have cashed in on the format’s popularity with lazy chat, the PJDN boys have actually worked on the content, and the effort pays off with something that feels unplanned and loose but is actually packed with jokes and ideas. Their knockabout demeanour belies a shrewd eye for what makes them funny, and this podcast is a perfect example of that. I love it.

The Kurupt FM Podkast (Series 1)

DJ Beats

Lenny Henry

I grew up watching Lenny as so many of us did, and thought I knew everything about him. I even read his autobiographical comic book The Quest for The Big Woof in which his life story is detailed. This book, however, is the most revealing story of his life to date. It takes you right up to the start of his comedy career proper, but does not shy away from the difficulty of his upbringing, talking about the discovery he made about his father, and the racism he experienced growing up. It is a funny book, but also frank and honest. He even goes into the difficulties he faced as a result of taking part in The Minstrels show, a decision that caused strain on even his family relationships. Even if you are not a Lenny fan, it’s a great listen.

Who Am I, Again?

Lenny Henry

Adam Buxton

Audiobooks are normally the reading of the exact text that was released in print, but Adam Buxton has decided to ignore that completely. He has recorded jingles for each chapter and added little treats specifically for listeners, which is typical of a man who does not ever phone it in. He is an exceptional comic mind, and with a unique eye, and this journey through 80’s nostalgia, family relationships and everything in-between could not be further from the books that tend to fall into generic autobiography. It is a hilarious but interesting listen and the fact that Buxton had gone to so much trouble to generate audiobook specific content means you should listen even if you’ve read the book, if only out of respect for the man’s effort.

Ramble Book

Adam Buxton

Frank Skinner

Frank Skinner is one of the main reasons I started doing stand-up comedy so if you hate what I do, a lot of it is Frank’s fault. I have listed this show but in truth you could choose any of them from Audible. Frank is one of the most naturally talented comedians this country has ever produced, and it is an absolute pleasure to listen to him speak. His style is unhurried and relaxed, and like a lot of the very best stand up it sounds so conversational you would be surprised to hear that any of it was planned, save for the fact that it is so beautifully crafted. This show is the one that won him the Perrier in 1991, and you can see why.

Frank Skinner Live at The Bloomsbury

Frank Skinner

About Romesh Ranganathan

Best known for his BAFTA and RTS Award winning series The Misadventures Of Romesh Ranganathan, his weekly topical show Ranganation and his Sky One sitcom The Reluctant Landlord. Romesh has travelled the globe with Rob Beckett in Rob & Romesh Vs, been a regular on A League Of Their Own and starred in the show that first brought Romesh and his mum to the public consciousness, the BAFTA nominated Asian Provocateur. Romesh managed to squeeze in writing his autobiography, the Sunday Times bestseller Straight Outta Crawley: The Memoirs Of A Distinctly Average Human Being and has a second book due for release this year. In 2019 Romesh returned to his stand-up roots, heading back out on tour with The Cynic’s Mixtape. He returned to America at the start of 2020 with a four-night sell-out run at SoHo Playhouse in New York. Amid all of this, he still manages to squeeze in time to record his award-winning podcast Hip Hop Saved My Life.

The Incomplete Tim Key by Tim Key

Tim Key is the definition of the comedian’s comedian: a completely original comic voice, that seemed to appear, fully formed, from nowhere, to fanatical cult acclaim. Although now well known to audiences, especially as Alan Partridge’s very own Sidekick Simon, his influence on the UK comedy scene itself has been huge for over a decade.

Having performed in the critically-lauded sketch group Cowards, Tim’s 2009 show, The Slutcracker, won the Edinburgh Comedy Award. It embodied his distinctive, surreal style, combining deadpan storytelling and – most famously - offbeat, miniature poems. These poems have become something of a calling card for Tim, and he published many of them in his 2011 book, The Incomplete Tim Key. It’s a brilliant distillation of Tim’s utterly unique comic style, and as soon as you fall in to the rhythm of his deadpan delivery, it’s an addictive, laugh-out-loud listen.

The Incomplete Tim Key

Tim Key

Straight Outta Crawley by Romesh Ranganathan

Ex-maths teacher Romesh Ranganathan was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2013 Edinburgh Comedy Awards – less than five years later, he released his autobiography, Straight Outta Crawley, having become one of modern comedy’s colossal success stories, and a ubiquitous presence on TV. Having mined some brilliant entertainment from his relationship with his mother in his comedic travel shows, he’s starred in pretty much every comedy panel show going, as well as several of his own TV series, including Just Another Immigrant and Judge Romesh.

He’s also a big hip hop fan – he’s an ex-freestyle MC, and has a hip hop podcast, Hip Hop Saved My Life ( which explains the N.W.A reference of his autobiography title) – a passion that Romesh sets with comic effect against his domestic life with his wife and three children. Sit back and enjoy his warm, curmudgeonly storytelling in these ‘Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human Being’.

Straight Outta Crawley

Romesh Ranganathan

How To Be Champion by Sarah Millican

Sarah Millican’s stand-up career was kickstarted after her divorce in 2004: writing about this experience (and having to move back in with her parents for two and a half years) led to a brilliant debut Edinburgh show, which won the Best Newcomer prize in 2008. Sarah has a brilliantly distinctive comic style, which enables her to give a sweet, homely tone to even the filthiest material… This has won her over to huge swathes of fans, and she is now one of the most popular comedians in the UK, possessing that rare characteristic of having total comedy credibility as well as broad, mainstream appeal.

Her book is filled with relatable tales of finding positivity among occasionally bleak circumstances – as Sarah puts it, it’s ‘part autobiography, part self-help, part confession, part celebration of being a common-or-garden woman, part collection of synonyms for nunny.’ Recommended for anyone looking for a bit of comic uplifting.

How to be Champion

Sarah Millican

Ayoade On Top by Richard Ayoade

Richard Ayoade is probably best known for his BAFTA-winning role as Moss in The IT Crowd. However, he first became a cult name in comedy for his performance in Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place – a sitcom which grew out the Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show he created with Matthew Holness.

Richard is now of course a hugely respected writer, presenter, actor and director of music videos and feature films. He has also produced a series of extraordinarily funny mock-esoteric books… Ayoade on Ayoade and The Grip of Film are both well worth your time if you love Richard’s robustly weird, satirical take on the pretentions of Hollywood. And as for his latest, Ayoade On Top, it’s, well – “the definitive book about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View From the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow.” Hilariously strange, gut-bustingly silly.

Ayoade on Top

Richard Ayoade

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen

Sofie Hagen is a Danish comedian who moved to London in 2012 to perform comedy full time, and from there has had a meteoric rise. She won the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competition in 2013 (the first woman to do so), and her debut 2015 show won the Edinburgh Best Newcomer award – plus she has had huge success in podcasting, including a stint as co-host on The Guilty Feminist.

Sofie has an easy, confessional storytelling style to her comedy, but her material is often rooted in campaigning issues, touching on obsession, mental health, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and feminism. She’s very aware of the relationship between comedy and vulnerability, insisting on making her live shows safe spaces for audiences. Her audiobook, Happy Fat, is no exception to this ethical approach; it’s an uplifting memoir tackling the fatphobia she has faced, offering practical tips to help readers find self-acceptance with their bodies. An impassioned, positive and funny listen.

Happy Fat

Sofie Hagen

What Seems To Be The Problem by Mark Watson and Adam Kay

Adam Kay is well known as one of the most remarkable publishing phenomena of the last few years – his junior doctor memoir, This Is Going To Hurt selling in its millions globally. What’s less well known is that it started life as an Edinburgh show. And it was comedian Mark Watson who took his publisher along to see Adam read from his diaries in a sweaty Edinburgh venue, which lead to the release of This Is Going To Hurt.

Here, Adam and Mark are reunited, to talk about a subject on which Adam has some expertise, and Mark has some squeamishness – the human body. They take us through the past, present and future of all the incredible, and often baffling, ways medical science attempts to make us better. If you want a laugh, but want to learn something on the way (by which we mean pick up some eye-watering facts about how insane much of medical history was), this one’s for you.