I’m a comedian and banter is my job – this is the truth about racist jokes | Shazia Mirza

The Yorkshire cricket race row shows people are still claiming that abuse is just acceptable joshing. It isn’t“I like your handbag!” I say.“It was only a pound, from the pound shop,” she says.Shazia Mirza is a comedian. Her latest show, Coconut, is on …

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Ahir Shah: Dress review – laughs about life under lockdown

Soho theatre, LondonCoronavirus and woke capitalism lead to pleasing, if patchy, polemics in the comic’s latest show“A chronicle of everything that’s happened to me over the last 18 months,” is how Ahir Shah introduces his new show, Dress. It begins wi…

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Titania McGrath: Mxnifesto review – Twitter activist misfires on all cylinders

Duchess theatre, LondonAndrew Doyle’s Twitter creation – played by Alice Marshall – takes predictable aim at Greta, Meghan and trans athletes with jokes that just aren’t funnyTitania McGrath, the “radical intersectionalist poet and Twitter activist” cr…

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Brian & Roger: A Highly Offensive Play review – podcast duo’s OTT exploits

Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonThe misadventures of a hapless hero led astray by his false friend are funny but don’t quite fill three dimensionsThere was a setback last month for this play inspired by a hit podcast when co-writer and performer Harry …

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Simon Brodkin: Troublemaker review – quality jokes hide man behind the prankster

Leicester Square theatre, LondonThe comic who showered Fifa’s Sepp Blatter with banknotes reveals little of the person under the character comedy maskWhat a coy coming-out party of a show this is from Simon Brodkin, emerging from behind the character-c…

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Mort Sahl obituary

Comedian and satirist who revolutionised US standup in the 1950s, skewering politicians of every hueThe comedian and satirist Mort Sahl, who has died aged 94, was a combination of Lenny Bruce and Bob Hope – with a little Will Rogers thrown in. Like Bru…

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‘Funniest of them all’: tributes paid to Mort Sahl after death aged 94

Canadian-born comedian who rose to fame in the 1950s credited with ‘yanking comedy into the modern age’Tributes have been paid to the trailblazing standup comedian Mort Sahl after his death at the age of 94.The Canadian-born comic was credited with rev…

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From hilarity to hardback: the comedy shows that became books

Haley McGee, James McNicholas and Mo Gilligan talk about the tricky business of turning stage performances into a reading experienceWhen developing her solo show The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, theatre-maker Haley McGee was struggling for an ending. “A fri…

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‘One of the few things that makes me angry is Abba’: Alex Horne’s honest playlist

Taskmaster’s creator is happy to belt out a tune when fronting the Horne Section. But what’s on his stereo when there’s no one around to judge him?The Loco-Motion by Kylie Minogue. My brother and I were both big Kylie fans and I still stand by it: she’…

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From Dune to Duran Duran: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

Whether it is epic sci-fi, hilarious standup or a new album to listen to, our critics have your plans for this week coveredBigfoot HuntersOut nowHarking back to the days when first-time directors would borrow a camcorder and make an essentially zero-bu…

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