Students on a comedy course devote their every moment to mining material for their on-stage routine in a novel that relies on how much it can make the reader laughFor any standup comedian, “material” is everything. Yes, it will require editing, fleshin…
Continue ReadingThe American humorist delighted the Royal Festival Hall with characteristically disgruntled slices of life – including a brush with cancel cultureIn years to come, I can tell the grandkids I was at the Royal Festival Hall the night Keir Starmer celebra…
Continue ReadingThe comedian on his strangest fan encounter, preshow rituals and his new film with Tom Basden and Carey MulliganHow did you get into comedy?I joined a sketch group, went to the Edinburgh fringe, and then kept doing that for years. It’s a good place to …
Continue ReadingThe late comedian’s son, Bob Cryer, offers an intimate and astute portrait of his father’s skill and wit, and the vulnerability beneathI never met Barry Cryer, but I do have a memory of him, which seems characteristic of those generated by this great l…
Continue ReadingFed up with the white boys’ club of British standup, a one-way ticket to LA finally brought fame to the ‘comedy Beyoncé’. Now she has written a memoir detailing her rise from bullied teen to transatlantic hit“Let me think,” says the comedian and actor …
Continue ReadingImaginary friends, runaway horses and Roger McGough’s take on the Wind in the Willows are among the treats for younger audiences at the festivalSummerhall, 11.30am, until 20 August Continue reading…
Continue ReadingAs British politics has got crueller, our comedy has gone in the opposite direction, becoming a haven of decency and diversity. In this extract from his new book, Different Times, David Stubbs asks if these gentler comics are the new cutting edgeThere…
Continue ReadingGary Gulman is hands-down one of the best joke writers of our modern era. Now he’s taking a stab at… MORE
Gary Gulman announces new book, “Misfit” and stand-up tour dates appeared first on The Laugh Button.
Tara Schuster was a 25-year-old working at Comedy Central who’d worked her way up from interning at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to curating …
Continue ReadingThe comic on hecklers, pre-show rituals, Jane Austen puns and her childhood heroesWhy did you get into musical comedy?I did musical comedy first because that was all I could do! I’d written and performed songs since I was young, so it was the most obvi…
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