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…
Continue ReadingShaftesbury 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 …
Continue ReadingFestive 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…
Continue ReadingFrom 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 …
Continue ReadingThe comedian posted a video of the ‘shocking’ amount of litter left behind after his performance in a panto, saying, ‘You wouldn’t treat your own home like that, would you?’“It’s behind you” is the customary cry from the audience during panto season. B…
Continue ReadingWith 10 shows on and 1m tickets sold, Evolution are panto gods. But how do you work a giant? What will 50kg of glitter cover? And why did a bench almost cause a riot? The giant takes a lumbering step forward, her arms swinging heavily like battering ra…
Continue ReadingBloomsbury theatre, LondonThe Hull comic continues to riff brilliantly on her home city’s quirks but you wish she’d reveal more of the ‘small angry woman’ she describes herself asHull is my muse, says the writer of TV’s Hullraisers and Radio 4’s To Hu…
Continue ReadingWatch Mike Birbiglia’s hit comedy about mortality, Colm and Brenda Meaney in Enda Walsh’s two-hander or choose from a flock of Swan Lakes Here’s Mike Birbiglia’s pitch for his Broadway and West End hit: “I wrote a show about mortality and I guarantee y…
Continue ReadingRichmond theatre, LondonPausing her political campaigning to revisit routines that made her name, Izzard seems to be enjoying herself as much as we areEveryone wants rock stars to play their greatest hits. Comedians, not so much – but that’s changing. …
Continue ReadingLyric Hammersmith, LondonVikki Stone’s playful fairytale is staged with fabulous costumes and high-energy songs but falls short of delirious comedyIn 2021, Camila Cabello was a screen Cinderella with dreams of opening a boutique for her dresses. Last y…
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