Pun fights in boxing rings, nine-year-old standups and a 19-day joke-a-thon … anything goes in vibrant, diverse Leicester, finds our writer as she continues her comedy tourIt is the home town of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, Adrian Mole author Sue Tow…
Continue ReadingBridget Christie pokes fun at Madonna, Suzi Ruffell talks smear tests and John Robins is heckled about Butlins. Our critic’s first standup gig in months is a riot of joy and tension‘This is my first gig since March the 18th!” says John Robins, the host…
Continue ReadingNew director-general Tim Davie will reportedly steer TV comedy to the right to correct years of perceived anti-Tory bias. But it was Brexit, not the BBC, that put a spanner in British humourJust as I couldn’t work myself up over what anyone sings at th…
Continue ReadingNew director-general Tim Davie will reportedly steer TV comedy to the right to correct years of perceived anti-Tory bias. But it was Brexit, not the BBC, that put a spanner in British humourJust as I couldn’t work myself up over what anyone sings at th…
Continue ReadingShakespeare at a cricket ground, a festival in a bombed-out church and park-bench drama – plus more socially distanced shows to enjoy this monthAugust is over but there’s still time to enjoy open-air theatre season. Presented in York’s Rowntree Park, M…
Continue ReadingFor the first minute or so, I try to remember how to deliver coherent sentences – but people are laughingThis is the longest period I have gone without gigging since I started as a comic. It looks as if we’re moving towards indoor performances again, b…
Continue ReadingThe writer, director and Zach Galifianakis collaborator on the things that make him laugh the mostI’ve seen a LOT of standup. But I still think one of my favourite sets I’ve seen is one I wasn’t there for personally: John Mulaney’s Kid Gorgeous at Radi…
Continue ReadingAudiobook, available onlinePenguin’s fine pandemic audio festival delivers hours of laughs from comics including Jordan Brookes, Glamrou, Mo Amar, Michelle de Swarte and Sheeps‘I’m just imagining a world in which, I’m going to the fringe, the highlight…
Continue ReadingJohn Godber’s B&B drama – performed by the playwright, with his family – launches programme that includes one-woman Christmas showA play written by John Godber during lockdown is to be performed by the playwright, his wife and their daughter at the…
Continue ReadingPodcast There are secret recordings, spoof calls and cringing reflections in the performance artist’s attempts to find meaning in life‘I used to be a comedian,” says Kim Noble in part three of his new podcast. Comedy barely describes what he’s up to in…
Continue Reading