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Comedians say case of sued performer is threat to the art

February 23, 2018TheGuardian

Standups say outcome of Louise Reay case could stop people talking about personal lives

Leading comedians, including David Baddiel, have said the Louise Reay case, in which she is being sued by her estranged husband for allegedly defaming him on stage, should not restrict standups from using personal material.

In what has been described as a test case, Reay, whose real surname is Beamont, is being sued for references to her marriage in her show, Hard Mode, at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London last year.

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Bridget Christie: ‘I am a white, able-bodied, heterosexual woman. Do I have a right to be angry? Yes!’

February 23, 2018TheGuardian

The world’s anxieties are bleeding into her personal life, but the comedian is done with political despair. Ahead of her new tour, she explains why it’s time to bring something new to the table

In Bridget Christie’s first standup comedy routine about feminism, she appeared dressed as an ant. It was 2010. “At that time, it was really quite a hard sell, doing feminism on stage. I came on dressed as an ant, going: ‘Oh no, not another ant, going on about jam and the division of labour.’ And comics would understand what that was. But the audience were like: ‘What’s she going on about? There aren’t any ant comedians.’ And then I dropped the ant costume and went on as a woman, which was much more alienating.”

If it’s no longer a hot-button issue that there’s a woman on stage, talking, there are still frames of perception that are peculiar to women: not unlike the early days of the female novelist, say, in which their work was assumed to be autobiographical. This week, the comedian Louise Reay was sued by her ex-husband for talking publicly about their relationship. This isn’t a women’s issue, for Christie. “A lot of comedians have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about divulging. I’m quite a private person. I might talk about how I’m feeling, but I wouldn’t tell anything that wasn’t my story to tell. I’d be constantly running things past people, if I wanted to do that. I make a lot of stuff up, though. And then people will come up and go: ‘I didn’t know your son did that,’ when he didn’t.”

Bridget Christie: ‘I am a white, able-bodied, heterosexual woman. Do I have a right to be angry? Yes!’

February 23, 2018TheGuardian

The world’s anxieties are bleeding into her personal life, but the comedian is done with political despair. Ahead of her new tour, she explains why it’s time to bring something new to the table

In Bridget Christie’s first standup comedy routine about feminism, she appeared dressed as an ant. It was 2010. “At that time, it was really quite a hard sell, doing feminism on stage. I came on dressed as an ant, going: ‘Oh no, not another ant, going on about jam and the division of labour.’ And comics would understand what that was. But the audience were like: ‘What’s she going on about? There aren’t any ant comedians.’ And then I dropped the ant costume and went on as a woman, which was much more alienating.”

If it’s no longer a hot-button issue that there’s a woman on stage, talking, there are still frames of perception that are peculiar to women: not unlike the early days of the female novelist, say, in which their work was assumed to be autobiographical. This week, the comedian Louise Reay was sued by her ex-husband for talking publicly about their relationship. This isn’t a women’s issue, for Christie. “A lot of comedians have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about divulging. I’m quite a private person. I might talk about how I’m feeling, but I wouldn’t tell anything that wasn’t my story to tell. I’d be constantly running things past people, if I wanted to do that. I make a lot of stuff up, though. And then people will come up and go: ‘I didn’t know your son did that,’ when he didn’t.”

Sandra Bernhard review – swagger, songs and starry stories

February 23, 2018TheGuardian

Ronnie Scott’s, London
The standup and singer has stellar personality, and a few neat lines, but not all of her material lands with a London audience

“If I looked at a crib sheet that much during my show,” I heard one punter complain on leaving Sandra Bernhard’s gig, “I wouldn’t have a career.” Ah yes, one might reply – but you’re not Sandra Bernhard, who is here to sell not her craft, but her charisma. Movie star, singer and raconteur, Bernhard is one of those acts – her compatriot Kathy Griffin, a recent visitor to these shores, is another – who trades less on any one skill than on force of stellar personality. That, and a four-decade career’s worth of names to drop. I give you a typical line from tonight’s show: “Recently both Diane Keaton and Lily Tomlin commented on my height … ” When such names can be rallied to boost your stature, why bother learning lines?

Tom Allen: ‘Well this is all very well but we still haven’t had our soup!’

February 23, 2018TheGuardian

The comedian, actor and writer on the things that make him laugh the most

Maria Bamford. I was at Montreal comedy festival in 2006 and was totally intimidated by all the loud comics. I was on a bill with this comic who showed she wasn’t afraid to be humble and insecure, and suddenly I didn’t feel alone! I think that’s what comedy is: making people feel less alone.

Why are comedians so sad? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Adam Riches

February 21, 2018TheGuardian

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries

I’m a comedian but I don’t think I’m that sad. To be fair, I don’t think I’m that funny either, but that’s a whole other comments section under a whole other article called: “Do you have a receipt for that joke; if not, then I won’t be refunding your ticket.”

So why don’t I give refunds? Sorry, lost my train of thought there. Why are comedians so sad? Well, the majority I know aren’t. Sure, they’re unemployed, they lack sun and they spend far too long waiting to catch someone’s eye in the Soho theatre bar, but sad? Maybe, actually, by the sounds of that breakdown – no pun intended. But any more than anyone else? Surely it’s just that we hear them talk about it more than, say, a shepherd or a leading light in phlebotomy?

It’s not the comedy that makes me sad, it’s the comedy that makes me better. Live and let laugh, that’s what I say

Why are comedians so sad? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Adam Riches

February 21, 2018TheGuardian

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries

I’m a comedian but I don’t think I’m that sad. To be fair, I don’t think I’m that funny either, but that’s a whole other comments section under a whole other article called: “Do you have a receipt for that joke; if not, then I won’t be refunding your ticket.”

So why don’t I give refunds? Sorry, lost my train of thought there. Why are comedians so sad? Well, the majority I know aren’t. Sure, they’re unemployed, they lack sun and they spend far too long waiting to catch someone’s eye in the Soho theatre bar, but sad? Maybe, actually, by the sounds of that breakdown – no pun intended. But any more than anyone else? Surely it’s just that we hear them talk about it more than, say, a shepherd or a leading light in phlebotomy?

It’s not the comedy that makes me sad, it’s the comedy that makes me better. Live and let laugh, that’s what I say

Standups on tour: ‘Why have I left my kids to stay in a rat-infested garret?’

February 20, 2018TheGuardian

How do comics survive life on the road? They rob their minibars, turn roadies into bird-watchers – and read The Da Vinci Code

I once played in a tiny little school hall in a tiny little village called Drumnadrochit, on the shores of Loch Ness. After the gig, the manager came in and said the audience were refusing to leave. When I asked why, she said they were all expecting a raffle. So I had to go back out and conduct the raffle.

Standup comedian’s husband sues for defamation over ‘provocative’ show

February 19, 2018TheGuardian

Louise Reay says she faces bankruptcy if she loses case that could boil down to judge’s sense of humour

An award-winning standup comedian is being sued by her estranged husband for allegedly defaming him in her show.

The lawsuit, described by a leading lawyer as a test case, relates to a show by Louise Beamont (stage name Reay). Hard Mode was billed as as a “provocative show [that] explores censorship and surveillance”; though one critic described it as being “at its core … about a very recent and raw heartbreak”.

Polski sklep-stick – is Brexit Britain ready for eastern European standup?

February 19, 2018TheGuardian

A 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

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