Mary Beth Barone review – sex comedy that keeps on giving

Soho theatre, LondonA delightfully silly but sneakily serious take on hook-up culture and its collateral damage, with bonus standup setsComedy show or treatment programme? Mary Beth Barone’s Drag His Ass is a bit of both. The problem it’s treating is “…

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Mo’Nique and Netflix reportedly settle lawsuit alleging discrimination

The Oscar-winning comedian and actor accused the streamer of racial and sexual discrimination over a proposed comedy specialMo’Nique and Netflix reportedly have settled her lawsuit that accused the streaming service of racial and sexual discrimination …

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Brett Blake: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

The comedian shares his favourite online laughs, including an Instagram account dedicated to terrible real estate agents and a rooster attacking a weathermanRead more funniest internet things hereGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email and listen t…

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‘You don’t need to be funny!’: the art of performing standup in sign language

How do you translate a pun into an entirely different language on the fly? What do you do when there is simply no sign for a joke?Many of us have come to associate sign language with serious moments, from emergency announcements to natural disaster upd…

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John Waters: False Negative review – the sultan of sleaze at the Barbican

Barbican, LondonThe veteran film-maker is on fine form in this motor-mouthed show, which mixes slick anecdotes with gleeful transgressionCommon as it now is for well-loved figures to bring their life stories, gossip and opinions to the touring stage, o…

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Boris the Third: new play tells story of clown who became king

Adam Meggido’s comedy considers the PM’s blustering school performance as Richard III, drawing potent parallels to his current political positionIt is the tale of a leader’s ruthless ambition, cynical skullduggery and brash mendacity as his country is …

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Edinburgh fringe 2022: 20 theatre, comedy and dance shows you shouldn’t miss

In the first of our festival previews, we round up some of the best offerings we’ve already reviewed – including Tim Key, Liz Kingsman, La Clique and HungryThis searing, sweaty disco is a heady exploration of identity through dance. Ayden Brouwers and …

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Backstage With Katherine Ryan – the secrets of standups revealed, kind of

A series that promises to expose the offstage antics of comics including Seann Walsh and Jimmy Carr gets off to a slick and intriguing startIs there anything connected to comedians that TV viewers wouldn’t watch these days? They go on holiday: we’ll wa…

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Jordan Brookes review – a disconcerting deep-dive into existential morality

Soho theatre, LondonThe comedian’s latest show is quarried from the darker subsoil of a disturbed soul, delivered by a man whose warmest smile still stirs a tincture of uneaseIt’s quite the project, converting what Jordan Brookes does on stage – experi…

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Bo Burnham’s Inside is a masterpiece – even these outtakes are hilarious

Much of the leftover material from Burnham’s twisted Netflix special sparkles as brightly as the original A year after the release of his Netflix special Inside – by any measure, one of the most iconic comedy works of our time – Bo Burnham has released…

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