UK venues are in peril and standups can’t make a living if clubs are closed. Without support, we’ll lose talent as well as theatres I have fond memories of playing Southampton’s Nuffield theatre, which is now closing due to the pandemic – a fate likely…
Continue ReadingThe Glaswegian comedian’s voiceover videos are a lockdown hit – not least with Nicola SturgeonJaney Godley is having a productive lockdown. The 59-year-old comedian has had a run of viral (in the good sense) hits with her sweary and very funny voiceove…
Continue ReadingThe Mash Report has always turned tough topics into comedy. As it returns in lockdown, host Nish Kumar and standups Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Tom Mayhew talk about satire’s role in a crisisWhen Nish Kumar’s political comedy show The Mash Report returne…
Continue ReadingThe star of Father Ted and Death in Paradise on his ‘unstable’ personality, his revealing new standup show – and the terrifying bomb scare he endured as a childArdal O’Hanlon is too embarrassed to have his picture taken in the restaurant where we’ve ju…
Continue ReadingBrighton DomeWunderbar is packed with surreal sugar – delightful animals and gobbledegook – but the pill of messianic politics is hard to swallow‘This is my last tour before politics,” says Eddie Izzard, who plans to stand as an MP at the next election…
Continue ReadingImpressionist Jon Culshaw, playwright James Graham, comedian Bridget Christie and critic Mark Lawson on the prime minister’s opening week in WestminsterI’ve been doing Boris impressions ever since he emerged as Boris the Menace in Private Eye. He stuck…
Continue ReadingThis year’s Edinburgh fringe was full of wokeness jokes from liberal standups as well as a host of conservative comedians who punch downHas there been a rise in rightwing comedy? Or just more acts pinning their colours to that mast? A common claim – fl…
Continue ReadingLast month Jon Stewart went before a House committee and basically shamed the half-empty room into doing what they should’ve… MORE
Jon Stewart now has to shame the Senate for continuing to block the 9/11 First Responders Bill appeared …
Insert seriously, no kidding, or a third thing blatantly acknowledging the stark contrast of a comedian getting into politics. Stand-up comedian Ben Gleib, seen regularly on the fourth hour of the Today show but even more regularly as host of Idiotest …
Continue ReadingThe Stay Awake party, the polling station in an area populated by lions … on the eve of results in India, Anuvab Pal reveals how the biggest election in history – with 900 million voters – is comedy goldI sit down to read the Indian Express and come ac…
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