The late-night hub is replacing its cancelled fringe programme with new virtual offerings alongside archive footage The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh’s uproarious palace of late-night comedy, has announced a season of work to replace its cancelled fringe p…
Continue ReadingIt’s the only place in the world where jokes about local councillors work. But is Belfast’s sharp-tongued comedy circuit becoming less hostile to outsiders?Patrick Kielty’s first Belfast standup set won him a keg of beer. It was freshers’ week 1989 at …
Continue ReadingMy standup career stalled when the pandemic arrived. But I get my kicks as a football manager on Twitch – and giving each player a storylineI began 2020 full of optimism, excited about returning to the Edinburgh fringe in August with a new show and fee…
Continue ReadingAre seatless, stroll-through shows the future of theatre? Can one-way dancing save nightclubs? Could budding indie bands storm Wembley stadium? Scientists imagine the arts after Covid-19The day before museums began closing in Britain, I saw Aubrey Bear…
Continue ReadingThe Observer’s critics recommend the best art, theatre, music and more on TV and online this weekMusicPaul WellerDelayed by the pandemic, On Sunset finally comes out this week, offering both familiarity and experimentation from the restless, evergreen …
Continue ReadingPoet laureate Simon Armitage and comedian Lolly Adefope love the buzz of performance. Here’s what we’re all missingReady, steady… Oh: Olympics, Glastonbury and Euro 2020 stars on the summer we’ve lost There can be no such thing as a socially distance…
Continue ReadingIn our series pairing veteran black artists with younger talents for a frank chat about their experiences, comedians Gina Yashere and London Hughes reveal why they both felt the need to quit Britain for the USBorn and raised in London, Gina Yashere, 46…
Continue ReadingAvailable onlineThe gruff comic from Brooklyn appalls and entertains as he rages against the debauchery of modern AmericaEddie Pepitone’s closest brush with UK fame came in 2012, when the incongruous story broke of Hugh Grant being turned away from the…
Continue ReadingFrom a daft James Bond spoof to reliving a disastrous audition over Zoom, the Upload comedy extravaganza had some delectable momentsAs the black hole left by the cancelled Edinburgh fringe exerts its gravitational pull, the hankering not only for comed…
Continue ReadingWith venues locked down, entertainment-starved audiences are getting in gear for a season of opera, comedy shows and movies experienced from your own car seat – but is it an artistic cul de sac? Britain has never been good at drive-ins. Historically ou…
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