Bake Off Extra’s Tom Allen: ‘I wanted to be an actor – but it turned out I was just gay’

As he publishes a moving memoir, the comedian and Bake Off contestant tormentor talks about homophobic heckles, still living with his parents – and why he’s never been in loveIn a deserted office overlooking the Thames, Tom Allen is admiring the view. …

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From standup to stanzas: Frank Skinner’s terrific guide to poetry

The comedian’s new podcast is bursting with enthusiasm for poems. If standup forces him to be funny, here he forces himself to be true‘Phwooar – Ginsy Ginsy Ginsy, I love you so much!” You won’t find that in FR Leavis. The “Ginsy” in question is beat p…

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Rage, white supremacy and roses: the art that sums up the Trump era

CocoRosie’s call to arms, a mauling from Michelle Wolf, Arthur Jafa’s white supremacy montage and Melania Trump’s gardening … Guardian writers pick the moments that encapsulate Trump’s reign Since he’s a former real-estate tycoon, it seems fitting that…

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‘There’s no such thing as a socially distanced mosh pit’: artists on the thrill of the crowd

Poet laureate Simon Armitage and comedian Lolly Adefope love the buzz of performance. Here’s what we’re all missingReady, steady… Oh: Olympics, Glastonbury and Euro 2020 stars on the summer we’ve lost There can be no such thing as a socially distance…

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Sacha Dhawan to star as a standup in Nikesh Shukla’s lockdown drama

Yash Gill’s Power Half Hour, directed by Milli Bhatia, is among a new batch of Virtual Collaborators films released this weekWith comedy clubs closed by the coronavirus lockdown, many standups have been experimenting with streaming their performances o…

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Edinburgh’s August festivals cancelled due to coronavirus

Fringe joins international, book and art festivals and military tattoo in pulling plugEdinburgh absence will be felt throughout arts worldCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageEdinburgh’s five August festivals, which were due to w…

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Jon Culshaw to play Bill Bryson in Notes from a Small Island adaptation

Dead Ringers impressionist takes lead role in stage version of bestselling book on British identityThe impressionist Jon Culshaw is to play Bill Bryson in a new stage adaptation of Notes from a Small Island, the Iowa-born author’s bestselling book abou…

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From first love to unfollowing – culture that sums up romance in 2020

A book redefining marriage, a riotous show about dating, the secret meanings of breakup songs and a sex show to put your back out … ahead of Valentine’s Day, our critics pick works that sum up passion in our turbulent timesFrom Adam and Eve in the book…

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March of the Lemmings by Stewart Lee review – making Brexit funny

Entertainment and abusive despair … the comedian and columnist dissects his own work in this merciless look at the past three yearsThe American magazine writer EB White once declared: “Humour can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the…

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Jenny Slate: ‘For every bit of garbage Trump spews, I’ll write something beautiful’

The standup comedian is used to writing for public performance, but her remarkable book Little Weirds was written as private consolationJenny Slate is sitting in the middle of a storm. She’s safe inside, somewhere on a Massachusetts peninsula, and it’s…

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