‘I walked into the comedy desert and a part of me died’ – the standup who became a therapist

Oscar Jenkyn-Jones was one of the wildest new talents in comedy. But he suddenly disappeared – and reinvented himself as a therapist instead. He explains the joys of swapping the fringe for Freud‘I thought you might have come to kill me,” says Oscar Je…

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Sarah Keyworth on grief and doing comedy ‘when you’re not feeling particularly funny’

The standup’s new Edinburgh fringe show, Lost Boy, is about rediscovering silliness after difficult life events“When bad things happen, there is a lot of comedy if you look in the right places,” says standup Sarah Keyworth. We’re in a bar in central Lo…

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Standing up for asylum seekers: refugees learn the art of comedy

A Greek project is teaching participants the art of standup in order to shine a new light on stories about migrationIn Athens, a handful of novice standups are at the mic after taking part in a series of comedy workshops. One of the organisers, Vasilei…

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Yummy: Iconic review – drag burlesque gets a bit too cheeky

Underbelly festival, LondonThe acrobatic feats of Jarred Dewey go some way to redeem a show that’s way too high on cliches and exposed buttocksEnough buttock already! It’s not a sentiment one is often moved to express, but there you go: well before Aus…

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NewsRevue review – 43-year-old formula is still good fun

Canal Cafe theatre, LondonThis high-energy hour of songs and sketches includes a Conservative leadership medley from The Greatest Showman and Boris Johnson’s Jailhouse RockIn the 43 years since NewsRevue first made merry at current affairs – it’s now t…

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‘Horror and comedy were a saving grace’: facing her anger gave Elf Lyons the last laugh

Scary movies can exorcise the audience’s own demons but silliness can also help you process rage, says the comedian“Stop being hysterical!” “You are over-reacting!” “Put that watermelon down!” If I had a pound for every time I’d heard one of these rebu…

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Rhod Gilbert announces he is being treated for cancer

Welsh comedian becomes patient at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he is a patronRhod Gilbert, the comedian and television presenter, has announced he is being treated for cancer.The 53-year-old from Carmarthen said he was a patient at Velindre…

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Celya AB: ‘I got a couple of laughs and couldn’t think about anything else for weeks’

The standup on who makes her laugh, what she misses most about home, and learning to tune out bad advice from drunk peopleWhat is your new comedy show about?Moving from Paris to Birmingham without a plan in 2014, trying to fit in with “Britishness”, an…

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‘Someone’s making money but it’s not us’ – the comics spurning the Edinburgh fringe

Standups used to think they’d never make it if they didn’t play the festival. But it’s leaving many saddled with debt, stuck in squalid flats and even suicidal. Refuseniks tell us why they’re bowing outRose Johnson has spent eight Augusts at the Edinbu…

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On my radar: Rosie Holt’s cultural highlights

The satirist on her favourite superhero show, her go-to gym motivation music, and why she loves Tim KeyComedian Rosie Holt came to prominence during lockdown with her online political parodies of Conservative MPs. She grew up in Somerset and trained at…

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