Anna Ptaszynski: ‘I dreamed I served a baby for lunch’

The QI elf and No Such Thing As a Fish team member on the things that make her laugh the mostHarry and Paul’s Question Time sketch springs to mind. Their panel show sketch would also be hilarious if I didn’t work on a panel show and thus find it very o…

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Trixie Mattel review – glittering, belittling comedy from Drag Race star

O2 Academy, Newcastle Ill-judged jokes and a lack of wit and grit make for a tedious set from one of the queens on RuPaul’s seriesIn an interview with Rolling Stone, drag queen Trixie Mattel said she was taken aback by the positive response to her uniq…

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Rob Auton: ‘My haircut got comments like – Doth thou playeth the lute, sire?’

The polymath standup, writer and painter on the things that make him laugh the mostBrian Gittins doing his show on the top deck of a bus in Edinburgh. Continue reading…

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Ben Target review – kooky comic wants to send you to sleep

Battersea Arts Centre, LondonTarget’s absurdist show Splosh! – about swimming and his childhood in Houston – cocks a quiet snook at machismoIt’s my dream with this show, says Ben Target, “to send someone in this room – myself excluded – to sleep”. Splo…

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Russell Kane: The Fast and the Curious review – a comedy whirlwind

Wyvern theatre, SwindonCartoonish characters and an operatic vomiting routine animate conventional observations about Brits abroad, marriage and moving to the provinces A “fast, mental, neurotic bastard” is how Russell Kane describes himself – and ther…

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Lee Ridley, Lost Voice Guy: ‘It’s quite ironic if I’m the voice of the disabled’

The Britain’s Got Talent winner, who has cerebral palsy and uses a voice box in his standup act, talks about ditching his day job – and the thorny issue of being inspiringIn April 2015, Lee Ridley wrote an email to his parents and sister. “Hi family, I…

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‘Bill Hicks was a bit misogynist’ – young comics reassess the standup legend

He was the Kurt Cobain of comedy, railing against advertising, politicians, the war on drugs, even waffle waitresses. What do the new generation make of the chain-smoking motormouth?Comedy Central, Channel 4, Rolling Stone: whenever there’s a poll of t…

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David Earl: ‘My mum once baked me a cake like a labrador on wheels’

The actor and comic known for his character Brian Gittins on the things that make him laugh the mostHarry Hill. In the 90s. The Hawth, Crawley. Laughed more that hour than any other. Reason I wanted to get on stage. I secretly blame him for everything….

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My funny valentine: standups on their most disastrous dates

A night in a cemetery, a trip to a strip club, five hours in A&E … comics relive their woeful romantic rendezvousIvo Graham: Motion Sickness is on a UK tour.Ken Cheng: Best Dad Ever is on a UK tour.Sofie Hagen: Bubblewrap/Happy Fat is on a UK tour….

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Miles Jupp: my double life as Mr Banks from Mary Poppins

Having been repeatedly told that he looks like David Tomlinson, Miles Jupp now finds himself playing the mildly aristocratic character actorThere is something unnerving about feeling that someone else has lived through your career before you’ve even ha…

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