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…
Continue ReadingStage 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…
Continue ReadingCrowdfunding 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…
Continue ReadingThe 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, …
Continue ReadingThe 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…
Continue ReadingThe 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…
Continue ReadingChartreuse 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…
Continue ReadingKyle Gass’s ill-judged Donald Trump assassination jibe has put Tenacious D on ice. Will he be for ever cancelled, or bounce back like Billy Connolly and Jo Brand?On the edge. Walking a tightrope. When we admire comedy for its outspokenness, we make it …
Continue ReadingThe comic on her standup heroes, using depression as an inspiration for laughter and stereotypes about northernersHow did you get into comedy?I’d always wanted to do it but was way too self-conscious. Then when I was very depressed, staying on my frien…
Continue ReadingFashion and music from the 90s are with us again – not to mention a Labour landslide. Next month’s Edinburgh fringe will capture the moodAs Labour swept to a landslide win on 4 July to the sound of D:Ream and chants of “Football’s Coming Home” echoing …
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