‘It was the first time I wasn’t obsessed with food’: comedians mine Ozempic trend for laughs at Edinburgh Fringe

Female comics will confront body dysmorphia by turning the mirror on themselves and then back on societySolo performers on Edinburgh’s fringe are jointly confronting one of the most personally undermining ailments – body dysmorphia. Next weekend a rang…

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Loud and queer: Gareth Thomas, Rosie Jones and more on the culture that helped them find their true selves

From a rugby great to a former MP, LGBTQ stars spill the beans on the shows, songs and films that made them understand their identityBronski Beat – Smalltown Boy Continue reading…

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Eggs, bacon, banter: the Scottish hotel trying to make breakfast the funniest meal of the day

Are you a comedian desperate for an audience – and accommodation – during the Edinburgh fringe? This could be your dream gig Name: Breakfast roaster.Age: As yet unborn. Continue reading…

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Edinburgh festival 2024: six of the funniest comedians at the fringe

Looking for rising stars this summer? Try gossipy standup, an end-of-the-pier homage and a ‘gay witch sex cult’Frankie Monroe, the impish proprietor of a working men’s club who has made a Faustian pact to keep his establishment open, is bound to be a b…

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Must the show go on? Theatre’s plucky motto may be out of step with our times | Arifa Akbar

Stage performances have been disrupted this summer by last-minute delays, cancellations and postponements. Is it just a run of bad luck – or a cultural shift?One theatre audience, already seated, is told that the play has been called off because of a t…

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From OnlyFans to medical trials – the extreme measures artists take to fund Edinburgh festival shows

Crowdfunding and finding patrons are among less painful options as cost of performing at the fringe soarsIn the run-up to the Edinburgh festival fringe last year, comedian John Tothill was having “horrific hallucinations of being pulled into hell by th…

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On my radar: comedian Sophie Duker’s cultural highlights

The London-born standup on a magical Netflix animation, Joe Lycett’s activist T-shirt, and how she fell in love with pole dancingThe comedian Sophie Duker was born in London in 1990. She studied French and English at Oxford, where she got into improv, …

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Daniel Kitson detests audience participation but still manipulates us like marionettes | Brian Logan

The comedian’s show Collaborator involves 160 audience members getting speaking parts – and Kitson has anticipated every possible question, anxiety or misstepWhat happens when an audience participation-phobe makes a show all about audience participatio…

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Daniel Kitson detests audience participation but still manipulates us like marionettes | Brian Logan

The comedian’s show Collaborator involves 160 audience members getting speaking parts – and Kitson has anticipated every possible question, anxiety or misstepWhat happens when an audience participation-phobe makes a show all about audience participatio…

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La Vie Secrète des Vieux review – older people reveal the full glory of their sex lives

Chartreuse de Villeneuve, AvignonThere is gallows humour and unzipped ribaldry as a mischievous group share stories that are joyful, tender and sometimes eye-wateringWarning! The people in this show are likely to die at any moment, we are told. Don’t b…

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