Entertainer Bobby Ball has died aged 76 after testing positive for Covid. One half of TV’s hugely successful comedy act Cannon and Ball, he was a mainstay on British televisions for much of the 1980s. He went on to act in comedies including Not Going O…
Continue ReadingThe comedian’s new podcast is bursting with enthusiasm for poems. If standup forces him to be funny, here he forces himself to be true‘Phwooar – Ginsy Ginsy Ginsy, I love you so much!” You won’t find that in FR Leavis. The “Ginsy” in question is beat p…
Continue ReadingCocoRosie’s call to arms, a mauling from Michelle Wolf, Arthur Jafa’s white supremacy montage and Melania Trump’s gardening … Guardian writers pick the moments that encapsulate Trump’s reign Since he’s a former real-estate tycoon, it seems fitting that…
Continue ReadingBritain’s Got Talent star Myra Dubois turns agony aunt in a show that might raise the roof in a theatre – but not onlineMyra Dubois was a staple of the cabaret scene for years before Simon Cowell came calling. Duetting with Amanda Holden, and cracking …
Continue ReadingNetflix The horizons may be narrow in the British standup’s special but nobody does this sort of material better There’s something odd about watching Michael McIntyre’s first Netflix special. Maybe it’s surprise that it’s taken him so long. Maybe we’re…
Continue ReadingNetflix The Mexican-American comic offers English and Spanish versions of his show, but the sexist fare is depressing however you look at itWith Bad Decisions/Malas Decisiones, Felipe Esparza becomes the first comedian to release simultaneous Netflix s…
Continue ReadingIs performing for young audiences easier? Far from it say the comedians who do clubs at night and CBBC shows by dayWhat do standup comics do in the daytime? A glance at television schedules provides an answer: many hone their craft in the gaily coloure…
Continue ReadingNew director-general Tim Davie will reportedly steer TV comedy to the right to correct years of perceived anti-Tory bias. But it was Brexit, not the BBC, that put a spanner in British humourJust as I couldn’t work myself up over what anyone sings at th…
Continue ReadingNew director-general Tim Davie will reportedly steer TV comedy to the right to correct years of perceived anti-Tory bias. But it was Brexit, not the BBC, that put a spanner in British humourJust as I couldn’t work myself up over what anyone sings at th…
Continue ReadingFor the first minute or so, I try to remember how to deliver coherent sentences – but people are laughingThis is the longest period I have gone without gigging since I started as a comic. It looks as if we’re moving towards indoor performances again, b…
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