Shows, suds, cider and a soaking: the Edinburgh fringe from my bathtub

The festival may be cancelled but our writer is determined to recreate the experience at home. So she pours a cider, steps into her bath – and logs on to the fringe’s freakiest showsThe Edinburgh fringe is always a highlight of my year. Where else but …

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Jessica Fostekew: ‘Online shows performing to just silence are the hardest’

The comedian and Motherland star on how she’s kept her comedy career afloat during the pandemicMo Gilligan: ‘A lot of us comics do feel like key workers’Mark Watson: ‘The pandemic makes you realise how precarious comedy can be’“I hated the first few mo…

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Mark Watson: ‘The pandemic makes you realise how precarious comedy can be’

The comedian has been finding inventive ways to bring his show to audiences during the crisisJessica Fostekew: ‘Online shows performing to just silence are the hardest’Mo Gilligan: ‘A lot of us comics do feel like key workers’The Bristol-born comedian …

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This week’s best culture, from Beckett to Scottish Ballet

The Observer’s critics recommend the best new arts in galleries, on air and onlineBeckett double billTrevor Nunn’s sell-out productions of Krapp’s Last Tape, starring James Hayes, and The Old Tune, with Niall Buggy and David Threlfall, opened in Januar…

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Fringe of Colour Films: ‘the diversity checklist is discarded first in a crisis’

Created to provide paid work and connect people of colour with audiences during Covid, a new online arts festival aims to be around for the long-term‘You can’t just keep pulling up chairs,” says a character in Joshua Harmon’s play Admissions. “There is…

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Russell Howard walks out of standup gig after audience member films him

The comic, who was testing out new material, said ‘You’ve ruined it’ before leavingThe comedian Russell Howard cut short a standup set in Bristol on Wednesday night after discovering an audience member was filming the performance on her cameraphone.How…

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Forecast is funny: the best comedy shows to stream this summer

The Edinburgh fringe may have been cancelled but there are plenty of online gigs to enjoy featuring Dane Baptiste, Ivo Graham, Sarah Millican and moreThe line between charity gigs and normal gigs has blurred under lockdown: most online comedy now is fu…

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‘It’s a Herculean effort’: UK theatre festivals adapt for summer of Covid

From Brighton to Belfast, socially distanced performances are popping up in unexpected spaces, including the beach, a shopping centre and a church‘Dive in!” commanded the cover of Brighton fringe’s 2020 programme, listing more than 5,500 performances a…

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‘Gloriously daft’: Steve Martin at 75 by Sarah Silverman, Lucy Porter, David Baddiel and more

He’s a master of slapstick, a surrealist clown, the don of comic film roles from Roxanne to The Jerk. As he turns 75, comics including Reginald D Hunter and Rose Matafeo pay tribute to the hilarious majesty of Steve Martin Continue reading…

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Edinblurb festival: the AI bot creating new fringe shows every hour

Edinburgh University’s ImprovBot uses data from eight years of past productions to invent tantalising no-showsYou can see how it happens. The company has yet to start devising the show, but the deadline for the Edinburgh fringe programme is tomorrow. O…

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