‘I’m literally an X-Man’ – is trans comic Jordan Gray the next stage of human evolution?

She sings naked, had an epiphany chopping wood in Sweden, came out dressed as a cat, is making a sitcom with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and is helping Matt Lucas to be funny. Meet comedy powerhouse Jordan Gray‘I decided that I wanted to be a comedian o…

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‘I was driven by fear’: how Frayed’s Sarah Kendall fell in and out of love with standup

Nerves nearly kept her from picking up the mic and then she discovered an industry hostile to women. As her hit TV show returns, the star reflects on the thrill and camaraderie of comedy – and its much-needed changeImagine being so uncomfortable in you…

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‘I don’t have penis envy. I have 12 in a drawer at home’ – the fearless female standups of the 60s

They were pigeonholed, derided – and even shot at. With The Marvelous Mrs Maisel back on TV screens, we find out what life was really like for women who dared to be funny in the postwar yearsBack in the days when they were still called comediennes, an …

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‘I don’t have penis envy. I have 12 in a drawer at home’ – the fearless female standups of the 60s

They were pigeonholed, derided – and even shot at. With The Marvelous Mrs Maisel back on TV screens, we find out what life was really like for women who dared to be funny in the postwar yearsBack in the days when they were still called comediennes, an …

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This Is Going to Hurt’s Ambika Mod: ‘Whenever I did a caesarean I was buzzing!’

Playing junior doctor Shruti is a far cry from the standup’s ‘really silly’ sketch comedy but her improv background helped her find moments of levity in Adam Kay’s NHS dramaWhen Ambika Mod was cast in This Is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay’s TV adaptation of …

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Mo Gilligan: There’s Mo to Life review – superstar comic just keeps rising

NetflixThe terrific standup with the common touch remains an engaging everyman even as the material works in his adventures in showbizMo Gilligan performed no fewer than 10 nights at the 3,000-seat Hammersmith Apollo last autumn, a run now captured for…

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Barry Cryer was cheeky, kind and a canny engineer of comedy | Mark Lawson

A generous-hearted jokesmith, Cryer created laughs for generations of comics, was a consummate performer and had a lifelong commitment to wit‘An honorary uncle to countless comics’: Jack Dee on CryerThe best work of Barry Cryer, who has died aged 86, w…

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Barry Cryer: a life in pictures

After a career spanning six decades, the veteran comedy writer and performer has died, aged 86. We highlight his finest hours, from The Frost Report to I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue Continue reading…

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‘The godfather of alternative comedy’: Eddie Izzard, Paul Merton and more on Spike Milligan

He was the shellshocked genius who channelled his anarchic brilliance into The Goon Show. Ian Hislop and Nick Newman explain why they’ve written a play about Spike Milligan – while comedians remember a legendThe tortured lives of comedians form a biogr…

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Ricky Gervais on offence, anger and infuriating Hollywood: ‘You have to provoke. It’s a good thing’

He has made a career out of winding people up in everything from The Office to his Golden Globes speeches – but is the comedian’s bark worse than his bite?Ricky Gervais’s assistant leads me past a huge, empty room to the top floor of an office above a …

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