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Rhys James: ‘All my favourite books are written by Steve Martin’

July 28, 2017TheGuardian

The angst-mining millennial standup on the things that make him laugh the most, from Frank Skinner to tight vests

Frank Skinner’s routine on jealousy changed how I viewed standup. It has everything. Rage, empathy, filth, overapplied logic, tragedy and an exceptional amount of jokes. And the pacing is perfect. It’s five minutes long and he spends four of it on his knees barely even engaging with the audience. It’s like they’re not even there. This is one man going through his crisis for his own sake, not ours, but thankfully we’ve snuck into the therapy session.

Stars from comedy’s punk past return to the Edinburgh fringe

July 22, 2017TheGuardian

They were at the vanguard of political comedy. Now Alexei Sayle, Craig Ferguson and Sue Perkins are heading back to the festival, as it celebrates its 70th birthday

Unknown talents and student hopefuls head for the Edinburgh festival fringe at this time of year, aiming to break into the entertainment industry. This summer, however, a loud and anarchic blast from comedy’s punk past is also on the bill.

A slew of stars, including Alexei Sayle, a comic hero of the 1980s, and Sue Perkins, who first made it big at the festival 20 or so years ago, are returning to try their luck as the fringe celebrates its 70th birthday.

Pun for your life! Punsters are rocking New York’s comedy clubs

July 22, 2017TheGuardian

They are the most reviled form of joke, but puns turn out to be comedy dynamite

When I was 17 years old, my classmate Jill O’Doyle asked whether I’d seen Titanic yet. It was the beginning of third period, the movie had just opened and I had opinions about its star.

“Titanic?” I said, my lips curling into the fat-kid equivalent of a Billy Idol snarl. “You mean with Leonardo DiCraprio?” Jill looked about 1,000 detentions exhausted by this response but, to her credit, she ignored what I’d said. Our chat was over. As far as I can remember, this was my introduction to how puns generally go over out in the world.

‘Titanic?’ I said, my lips curling into a fat-kid Billy Idol snarl. ‘You mean with Leonardo DiCraprio?’

Phil Nichol: ‘There’s something strangely emotive about vomiting’

July 21, 2017TheGuardian

The Edinburgh award-winning Canadian comic on the things that make him laugh the most, from suede clogs to Phil Kay

Phil Kay once turned a 700-strong crowd in the Queens Hall, Edinburgh into an improvised wedding. Funniest show I’ve ever seen. We were crying with laughter and in awe of the sheer audacity of this mad mess of ideas. Brilliant.

Phil Nichol: ‘There’s something strangely emotive about vomiting’

July 21, 2017TheGuardian

The Edinburgh award-winning Canadian comic on the things that make him laugh the most, from suede clogs to Phil Kay

Phil Kay once turned a 700-strong crowd in the Queens Hall, Edinburgh into an improvised wedding. Funniest show I’ve ever seen. We were crying with laughter and in awe of the sheer audacity of this mad mess of ideas. Brilliant.

Daniel Kitson can’t reclaim a racist word he’s never been the target of | Nosheen Iqbal

July 19, 2017TheGuardian

Comedian’s use of the P-word was designed to show how attitudes have changed – but standups pushing boundaries don’t have the right to be offensive

Daniel Kitson called me a Paki last week. Well, not literally: he stood up at his sold-out show at the Roundhouse in north London, where he’s in the middle of a three-week residency, and spray-gunned the word six, seven or more times in the space of what might have been 30 seconds, a minute at most, at a room of hundreds of people in which I was very possibly one of only two brown people, the other sitting next to me.

Now, as comedians are wont to obsessively tell you, context is everything. So let’s start again.

Why a standup gig at Edinburgh is the perfect summer job for a jaded MP | Joanna Griffin and Lola Stephenson

July 19, 2017TheGuardian

Canvassing for support, getting heckled, hanging out in bars – it’s all great practice for politicians. And Alex Salmond is leading the way

• Joanna Griffin and Lola Stephenson are a comedy double act

Parliament rises for recess tomorrow and the MPs will swap the daily commute to Westminster for breakfast in bed – whether to opt for soft or hard boiled eggs, their only pressing concern. They can stop worrying about leaky cabinet meetings and finally get round to fixing that leaky tap in their downstairs bathroom, or shoot straight off to their holiday pad in Tuscany. But this August, why not Airbnb their second home, pack their kids off to a Eurocamp (while they still can), and hop on a train to the Edinburgh festival fringe to put on a show?

There’s a risk that a one-star review could crush their fragile confidence before all those autumn coups but a sellout run could boost their popularity and have the masses chanting their name at A Popular Music Festival™.

Why a standup gig at Edinburgh is the perfect summer job for a jaded MP | Joanna Griffin and Lola Stephenson

July 19, 2017TheGuardian

Canvassing for support, getting heckled, hanging out in bars – it’s all great practice for politicians. And Alex Salmond is leading the way

• Joanna Griffin and Lola Stephenson are a comedy double act

Parliament rises for recess tomorrow and the MPs will swap the daily commute to Westminster for breakfast in bed – whether to opt for soft or hard boiled eggs, their only pressing concern. They can stop worrying about leaky cabinet meetings and finally get round to fixing that leaky tap in their downstairs bathroom, or shoot straight off to their holiday pad in Tuscany. But this August, why not Airbnb their second home, pack their kids off to a Eurocamp (while they still can), and hop on a train to the Edinburgh festival fringe to put on a show?

There’s a risk that a one-star review could crush their fragile confidence before all those autumn coups but a sellout run could boost their popularity and have the masses chanting their name at A Popular Music Festival™.

‘We haven’t made a profit for five years’: risky business at Edinburgh fringe

July 19, 2017TheGuardian

Running a festival venue is about more than booking acts and selling tickets. From converting lecture rooms to spending £25,000 on Astroturf, we reveal the costs of putting on a show

Ten years ago, at the Edinburgh festival, Anthony Alderson became the not very proud owner of 44 Vauxhall Astras. Alderson, the Pleasance’s director, had bought 22 of the cars from a scrapyard for a show called Auto Auto, staged in the Grand, the largest of the Pleasance venues. But it turned out they were the wrong kind of Vauxhall Astra. The show turned cars into comedy percussion instruments and these all had sun-roofs. So Alderson had to buy another 22. “I think the scrap dealer thought he’d hit the goldmine,” he recalls ruefully.

One year, a large dance company made back the costs of their entire Edinburgh run with a single gig in South America

It’s tough to run a venue, and it’s getting tougher. People do it because they are addicted to Edinburgh in August

‘I had to relearn how to be funny’: comedian Lou Conran on her show about baby loss

July 17, 2017TheGuardian

Lou Conran terminated her pregnancy after five months when she discovered her baby would not survive outside the womb. Now, she is telling her story at the Edinburgh fringe

“Nobody has cried through the previews,” says Lou Conran, “so it can’t be that bad.” The standup, who has supported Sarah Millican and is an Edinburgh festival veteran, is pleased with the warm-ups for her new fringe comedy show, especially as her subject matter lends itself more easily to tears than laughs.

Just over a year ago, when she was five months pregnant, Conran discovered that her baby had a condition she could not survive. After an induced labour, her daughter was stillborn. “An empowering yet painfully funny show about life and ultimately the taboo of death,” states the flyer. Reactions to the concept, she knows, will be mixed. “My mum just said, ‘Oh my god. What are you doing? How on earth are you going to make that funny?’”

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