What a calamity! Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em turned a bit of trouble into comic bliss

As the hapless Frank Spencer, Michael Crawford brought a light touch to the classic 70s sitcom but the stage version with a game Joe Pasquale feels creakierThink Peckham market traders ducking and diving for a living. Neurotic hoteliers struggling to r…

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C’est Drôle! Netflix’s Standing Up is a love letter to Paris’s comedy scene

The showrunner of Call My Agent! is back with a winning series about France’s young comics and how their onstage routines and real lives intersectIs there a gap in the market for an ensemble TV show about comedians’ lives? At least since Seinfeld, ther…

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Catherine Tate’s The Nan Movie: when sketch characters run out of road

Tate’s sweary grump went from TV to stage show to a misfiring film, proving how tricky it is to keep audiences on a lifelong journey with a comic creation‘Brutally unfunny.” “Lacking in charm and good jokes.” “As interminable as it is revolting.” The r…

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The Guilty Feminist Live review – serious comedy with Millie Bobby Brown

Kings Place, LondonThe Stranger Things actor discusses her experiences on male-dominated sets, alongside hosts Susan Wokoma and Deborah Frances-White’s standup comedySince its first episode in 2015, The Guilty Feminist podcast has explored topics such …

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Brass Eye’s outtakes show the brutal TV comedy was the tip of an iceberg

With rare footage and personal insights, the documentary Oxide Ghosts is a must-see for fans of Chris Morris’s satire, which is 25 years oldIts original broadcast was postponed by a nervous Channel 4, it led to questions in the House of Commons and to …

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Hannah Gadsby on her autism diagnosis: ‘I’ve always been plagued by a sense that I was a little out of whack’

Even as a child, the comedian knew her brain was atypical. But it was only in her late 20s that her anxiety, depression and meltdowns finally made senseYou don’t have to be an expert to know that people with autism don’t get to speak about their own ex…

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Catherine Cohen: The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous review – wickedly funny

NetflixIn the TV version of her hit Edinburgh show, the standup’s charisma, songs and self-absorbed swagger are still sparklingWhen Catherine Cohen’s The Twist …? She’s Gorgeous played the Edinburgh fringe in 2019, I fell hard for its charisma and swag…

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‘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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