Going back to the motherland to attend the royal wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle must’ve made James Corden homesick. Corden announced today that The Late Late Show will broadcast special episodes from London’s historic Central Hall Westminster from Monday June 18 through Thursday June 21, with special guests including Cher, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, […]
Continue ReadingWill Ferrell and Molly Shannon are returning as Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan to provide their expert live commentary, this time for HBO. The network announced today that the Funny or Die-produced special The Royal Wedding Live with Cord and Tish! will air on Saturday, May 19th starting at 7:30am and followed by a primetime […]
Continue ReadingA wave of comedians from Poland, Hungary, Latvia and Romania are helping to tackle stereotypes about EU immigrants in the UK
It’s not easy being a Polish comedian in Brexit Britain. “I haven’t heard anyone actually say the words, ‘Go back to your country,’” says Mike Topolski, a standup and actor originally from Wrocław in western Poland who moved here seven years ago and is now proudly engaged to “a Geordie lass”. “But I did a gig a couple of months ago in south London and the jokes were not well received at all. I was the only foreigner there and it felt like it was a Brexit crowd. They were just staring at me and I could see them thinking: ‘How are you still here? Should we build a wall or what?’” His signature opener? “Yes, a comedian. But also builder, plumber, electrician and gardener.”
Topolski is one of more than 80 comics in the lineup of the UK’s first Eastern European comedy festival (EEComFest), which opens on Wednesday with 19 shows at venues across London. It features acts from 15 countries, from Bosnia and Moldova to Malta and Slovenia. The festival’s mission statement jokes that this is “another try from immigrants to get control over the United Kingdom and end the British way of life. It will be in London, as it’s the UK city with the biggest immigration problem.” But clearly the aim is the opposite: to use humour to try to improve mutual understanding. It’s like Eurovision, only intentionally funny.
If I say I’m 31 and I live with my parents, in Romania, that is very funny. It’s too late to be living with your parents
Related: Comedy without borders: Eddie Izzard and the language of standup
Continue ReadingHere’s a clip from last night’s Last Week Tonight, where John Oliver responds to the American news coverage after Saturday’s terrorist attack in London that seemed oddly obsessed with claiming that the city was “reeling” from the attack or “under siege,” which Oliver points out is both irritating and downright insulting. “For the record, in no way is Britain ‘under siege,’” […]
Continue ReadingJames Corden is taking The Late Late Show across the pond. According to Variety, Corden’s late night CBS show will broadcast three episodes from Westminster’s Central Hall from Tuesday, June 6th through Thursday the 8th. Taking late night shows on the road is pretty common for hosts like Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon (whose […]
Continue ReadingThe Late Late Show with James Corden just celebrated hitting 10 million subscribers for its YouTube channel, and now the CBS late-night talk show is crossing another barrier. The show will cross the pond for a week of shows this June in Corden’s hometown of London. Specifically, broadcasting three special episodes from the historic Central […]
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