The Horne Section’s Christmas Shindig review – peas and harmony from Taskmaster star

Indigo at the O2, LondonAlex Horne’s musical comedy band serve up peachy and puerile puns in an endearing, occasionally festive showThe Horne Section. A Christmas show. You can see the logic. They’re a jolly bunch, Alex Horne is forever pulling goodies…

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The Horne Section’s Christmas Shindig review – peas and harmony from Taskmaster star

Indigo at the O2, LondonAlex Horne’s musical comedy band serve up peachy and puerile puns in an endearing, occasionally festive showThe Horne Section. A Christmas show. You can see the logic. They’re a jolly bunch, Alex Horne is forever pulling goodies…

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Ania Magliano: ‘I have quite a lot of jokes about men being violent. There’s a dark undercurrent’

The comedian has turned her traumatic experiences into an Edinburgh comedy awards-nominated show – with a little help from a Thai boxing retreat and a botched haircutI’m with the comedian Ania Magliano for the afternoon. First, a cup of chai latte (“I’…

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‘I experienced everyday sexism while reading Everyday Sexism’: how Katie Arnstein turns anger into laughs

She started out doing panto tours of northern garden centres. But Arnstein is now emerging as a thrilling performer, turning the shocks of her life – sexual harassment, her mum’s cancer – into bracing solo showsKatie Arnstein greets you at her theatre …

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Pandemonium review – Armando Iannucci’s furiously funny takedown of No 10

Soho theatre, LondonBoris Johnson and his successors Less Trust and Riches Sooner are satirised in a superb political pantomime directed by Patrick MarberKeenly anticipated since its summer announcement, Pandemonium finds the last seven years of Britis…

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Pandemonium review – Armando Iannucci’s furiously funny takedown of No 10

Soho theatre, LondonBoris Johnson and his successors Less Trust and Riches Sooner are satirised in a superb political pantomime directed by Patrick MarberKeenly anticipated since its summer announcement, Pandemonium finds the last seven years of Britis…

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Sukh Ojla: ‘When I was on the dating apps, I never told men that I did comedy’

The actor, comedian and novelist on being a positive aunty role model and taking unsolicited advice on how to be funnyWhy did you start standup?It was by accident. My background is in acting and when I was coming up to 31, the work kind of dried up and…

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Viggo Venn: British Comedian review – BGT champ is a clown prince enjoying his moment

Shaftesbury theatre, LondonHi-vis hijinks are here aplenty as the Britain’s Got Talent winner revisits his triumphant routinesIt’s been quite the year for Viggo Venn. Twelve months ago, he tells us, he was playing in a pub across the street to a crowd …

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Richard Curtis’s Christmas Actually raises the ghost of ropey light-entertainment past

Festive variety show hosts Sanjeev Bhaskar and Jayde Adams are stodgier than Christmas dinner, with all the chemistry of a broken Bunsen burner To those of us of a certain age, few things are more Christmassy than variety. It’s the cultural memory of M…

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Heard the one about the 80 banana skins? The chaotic world of comedy props

From Bill O’Neill’s slippery skins to Grubby Little Mitts’ ping-pong eyeballs, performers explain why their comedy leans on more than a mic stand‘I have this illusion that I’m in charge of what’s going on, but there are all these bananas on stage, and …

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