Festival is part of world’s largest annual arts season which has been forced to curtail events due to CovidThe Edinburgh festival Fringe returns this weekend with a hybrid programme of nearly 800 in-person and online shows after its cancellation last y…
Continue ReadingWe asked funny people for their favourite bits of the web. For Scottish comic Daniel Sloss, in Australia for the comedy festivals, it’s mostly on YouTubeI’m a 30-year-old stand-up comedian who has grown up with it and never known anything else, so it’s…
Continue ReadingComedian 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…
Continue ReadingCovid-19 has cancelled the annual jamboree, leaving performers – and our comedy critic – bereft. What does the festival mean to them and how will it change?Meeting Flight of the Conchords and seeing the teenage Bo Burnham. Improvising a musical with Ti…
Continue ReadingWith this year’s Edinburgh festival cancelled, performers including Sara Pascoe, Deborah Frances-White and Gary McNair will be broadcasting live from the tiniest of venuesIt started as a throwaway pun. With the Edinburgh festival cancelled by Covid-19,…
Continue ReadingI’ve been doing standup at the fringe almost every year since 2006. And despite the stress, lousy lodging and worse food there’s nothing I’d rather do It’s the last week of July and, like most comedians in the country, in any other year I’d be about to…
Continue ReadingIn the final part of our series, UK arts figures give the lowdown on the precious places that nurtured their careers‘I’ve wrestled, climbed the walls and got a black eye there’Robert Softley Gale is the artistic director of Birds of Paradise.Laura Carm…
Continue ReadingOrganisers prepare for ‘weird’ visitor-free season including weekly variety performanceEdinburgh festival fringe is preparing for a “weird” visitor-free summer with a package of online initiatives including variety shows streamed every Friday.The world…
Continue ReadingThe 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 ReadingThe festival will roll out a series of ‘artistic interventions’ across the Scottish capital in AugustA series of “artistic interventions” has been announced by the Edinburgh international festival (EIF) to take place across the Scottish capital in Augu…
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