Edinburgh festival kicks off – in pictures
Photographer Murdo MacLeod has been photographing rehearsals and preparations for this year’s much-reduced programme of the Edinburgh festival, which opened on Saturday Continue reading…
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Peter Kay gets standing ovation on return to stage at charity gig
Comedian tells live Q&A in Manchester that comeback is ‘like getting in a hot bath’ Returning to the stage is like “getting in a hot bath”, Peter Kay said at a special charity gig.The Bolton-born comic received a standing ovation as he appeared on…
Continue ReadingEdinburgh Fringe returns with mix of in-person and online shows
Festival is part of world’s largest annual arts season which has been forced to curtail events due to CovidThe Edinburgh festival Fringe returns this weekend with a hybrid programme of nearly 800 in-person and online shows after its cancellation last y…
Continue ReadingGagging order: is it ever OK to heckle a comedian?
A set-ruining act of boorishness, or a vital rite of passage for standups? Often it depends on who’s doing the hecklingIn the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and set…
Continue ReadingTim Renkow: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide made me crash my wheelchair into a ditch’
The American actor, writer, comedian and standup on the things that make him laugh the mostDave Chappelle: For What It’s Worth. I mean that’s not the real answer for a comedian. For a comedian, the funniest standup you can see is always going to be wat…
Continue ReadingMiddle Eastern stand-ups: ‘People assume we only do terrorist jokes’
Tired of racism on the comedy scene, Jenan Younis started her own night Weapons of Mass Hilarity – where gags about body hair and Farsi aboundEvery comedian expects rejection when they’re starting out. But an email mix-up convinced Jenan Younis that he…
Continue ReadingMiddle Eastern stand-ups: ‘People assume we only do terrorist jokes’
Tired of racism on the comedy scene, Jenan Younis started her own night Weapons of Mass Hilarity – where gags about body hair and Farsi aboundEvery comedian expects rejection when they’re starting out. But an email mix-up convinced Jenan Younis that he…
Continue ReadingJackie Mason: compellingly blunt joke-teller who was part of standup history
Though in later years he fell from fashion, his rabbinical style in early routines felt very much like live comedy’s native tongueIf Jackie Mason could speak to us now, he’d surely be reporting back on the amusing ways in which Jews do the afterlife. B…
Continue ReadingJackie Mason: compellingly blunt joke-teller who was part of standup history
Though in later years he fell from fashion, his rabbinical style in early routines felt very much like live comedy’s native tongueIf Jackie Mason could speak to us now, he’d surely be reporting back on the amusing ways in which Jews do the afterlife. B…
Continue ReadingAnia Magliano: ‘Anyone described as a bit of a character is insufferable’
The comedian, writer and standup on the things that make her laugh the mostSam Campbell’s show The Trough was the most chaotic fun I’ve ever had. I got to be an audience plant for a few nights during the Edinburgh fringe, and even after seeing it five …
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