Culture to cheer you up during the second lockdown: part two

Following yesterday’s roundup of music, games, books, TV, dance and visual art, our critics continue their picks of culture to lift the spirits during tough timesCulture to cheer you up: part oneBringing Up Baby (1938) Here is the classic screwball com…

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John Sessions obituary

Comedian and actor known for Whose Line Is It Anyway, Stella Street and Spitting ImageThe comedian, mimic and actor John Sessions, who has died of a heart attack aged 67, had trouble being John Sessions. “The hardest part you’ll ever play, honey, is yo…

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Dot. Dot. Dot. review – Daniel Kitson’s unkempt everyman charts the strangest of years

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh/onlineThe comedian – on a solo tour of UK theatres – finds warm and funny layers of humanity in the small details of everyday livesDaniel Kitson doesn’t strike you as an everyman. With his unkempt beard, his pyrotechnic turn of …

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Dot. Dot. Dot. review – Daniel Kitson’s unkempt everyman charts the strangest of years

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh/onlineThe comedian – on a solo tour of UK theatres – finds warm and funny layers of humanity in the small details of everyday livesDaniel Kitson doesn’t strike you as an everyman. With his unkempt beard, his pyrotechnic turn of …

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Russell Kane review – a cathartic shot of Covid comedy

Rose Theatre, Kingston Before live comedy disappears once more, Kane delivers a terrific, barnstorming set sending up the pandemic – and the government’s laughable response to itOn Wednesday, the Rose Theatre, Kingston, finally reopened after seven mon…

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‘It feels good to bring the virus down a peg or two’: should comedians joke about Covid?

Some standups see it as their job to provide collective catharsis for the coronavirus, while others see pandemic gags as off-limits – even ones about Trump “I’ve been getting a lot out of lockdown – boobs, for example.” It’s Monday night at the Amersha…

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Rock on, Bobby: Bobby Ball – a life in pictures

Entertainer Bobby Ball has died aged 76 after testing positive for Covid. One half of TV’s hugely successful comedy act Cannon and Ball, he was a mainstay on British televisions for much of the 1980s. He went on to act in comedies including Not Going O…

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‘Women are tired of having to walk men through it’: the male comics standing up for #metoo

The world of standup has been rocked by allegations of sexual harassment and assault – and finally some men in the industry are vowing to tackle itWhen US comedian Kelly Bachman found herself performing to a bailed Harvey Weinstein at a New York show i…

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Sunday Antics review – gloves-off cross-cultural banter

21Soho, LondonBritain’s Got Talent botherer Nabil Abdulrashid leads an impressively forthright and sometimes edgy night of standup dealing with race and identity Comedian Nabil Abdulrashid elicited thousands of complaints joking about Black Lives Matte…

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Adam Kay: This Is Going to Hurt review – penis gags delivered in full PPE

Apollo theatre, London London’s theatre district reopened its doors to stage an evening of well-aimed wrath that somehow finds comedy in kidney surgery After seven months away, the West End opened its doors again last night with a gala performance for …

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