They move in mysterious ways: the delirious thrill of Figs in Wigs

The identically dressed quintet combines dance, comedy and DIY electro-punk in a world they have created for themselvesHow to describe the joy of watching people dancing in unison? Anthropologists talk about synchronous activities leading to a sense of…

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Eddie Perfect gets introspective: ‘I had some success and some pretty epic public failures’

Broadway critics sneered at Perfect’s ‘Australian-bred’ musicals Beetlejuice and King Kong, but in his new stage show he has the last laughThey say the best revenge is a life lived well, but Eddie Perfect has trumped that. The savage theatre critics we…

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All the fret of the fringe: Annie Griffin’s cringe-filled trip to the Edinburgh festival

Our series on films about theatre continues with a boozy, darkly funny comedy that captures the event’s pick’n’mix qualityNo matter how much you miss theatre, you still wouldn’t want to see Lakes Sister, an earnest one-woman show about Dorothy Wordswor…

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Leicester Comedy festival review – gags, groans and heckling gremlins

Available onlineFelicity Ward and Tony Law star in the event’s opening cabaret, First Night Funnies, with false starts and flat-out laughs“Thank you all so much for coming out,” is how Prince Abdi greets us at the top of his set. If only it were so! I’…

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Leicester Comedy festival review – gags, groans and heckling gremlins

Available onlineFelicity Ward and Tony Law star in the event’s opening cabaret, First Night Funnies, with false starts and flat-out laughs“Thank you all so much for coming out,” is how Prince Abdi greets us at the top of his set. If only it were so! I’…

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Tim Key review – banter, bathing and terrific poems about our new normal

Angel Comedy onlineKey and sidekick Edward Easton deliver a delightful housebound hour of shtick, backchat and verseTake a supercilious comedian, let him deliver live comedy without leaving the house and what do you get? Something like this live-stream…

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The History of Sketch Comedy review – Keegan-Michael Key’s love letter to laughter

Podcast The comic actor’s exuberant 10-part history unpicks the nuts-and-bolts of what makes sketches funny, from overlooked past acts to SNL, and British favourites including the Two Ronnies“The sexy dangerous first cousin of standup,” Keegan-Michael …

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The Virt Locker review – new comedy show addresses the elephant in the Zoom room

Available onlineBanter and live laughter help NextUp’s show – featuring a grumpy Jen Brister, a lovable Sarah Keyworth and more – replicate in-person comedy“What is this? What are we doing?” Jen Brister is going off on one. “This is our career now!” Ma…

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‘I was pretty crushed’: Mitch Benn wrote two novels – then stopped. What happened?

The standup won a book deal after an idle tweet. Two books later, his love for publishing was over. He talks about why he’s persisting with the third book in his scifi trilogyA decade ago, a bored tweet landed standup comedian and singer Mitch Benn a b…

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Hot property: Jamie Demetriou on the rise of Stath Lets Flats

In the first of a series exploring the stage origins of hit comedies, the actor remembers creating the delusional letting agent at Bristol University“For a lot of series one, I don’t like Stath as a character,” says Jamie Demetriou, the comedian, actor…

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