Louis CK review – sordid, cynical and queasy comedy

Wembley Arena, LondonThe standup returns to the UK with a set on morality, sex and religion that often excels but also stalls with casual misanthropyThe last time Louis CK performed major UK gigs, he breathed the rarefied air of prestige standup supers…

Continue Reading

Andy Matthews: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

The comedy writer shares his favourite jokes and sets, including a weirdly sexy Grover photo, a modern silent comedy and some badly designed ducksGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailI have a theory about comedy. Or rather, I have a theory about …

Continue Reading

‘I try to be repulsive’: comedian Patti Harrison on why she likes to bait liberal audiences

The Ohio-raised star of movies and TV shows such as Shrill and I Think You Should Leave says comedy is a refuge from the impacts of being trans and that, right now, she’s happy to be in the UKNear the start of Patti Harrison’s untitled live comedy show…

Continue Reading

‘Am I going to get shot?’ Comedy’s wild pranksters on their most daring stunts

They are the shock troops of comedy, pranksters who risk arrest and worse to ridicule the powerful. As two acclaimed practitioners – including the man who threw Nazi golfballs at Trump – hit Edinburgh, they relive their greatest scrapesIt was the polit…

Continue Reading

‘Sketch will never die!’: Edinburgh fringe super troupes Tarot, Sheeps and Britney

It’s a form of comedy that has fallen out of favour with TV, but a trio of fun acts are keeping the sketch flame aliveOne of the pleasures of the fringe is checking in with standups as they first emerge, then break through, then revisit as household na…

Continue Reading

Derry Girls effect boosts Northern Irish talent at Edinburgh fringe

Record number of NI performers at this year’s festival, with C4 comedy hailed for raising awareness of nation’s comic giftsThe biggest ever cohort of playwrights, comedians and artists from Northern Ireland are bringing their work to the Edinburgh frin…

Continue Reading

‘There’s never been a time when you could just say anything’: Frank Skinner on free speech, his bullying shame – and knob jokes

Poetry-loving, religious and with deep regrets about some of his comedy: either the standup comic has grown up, or he was never as laddish as his image suggestedIt was while he was writing his latest Edinburgh show that Frank Skinner noticed a problem …

Continue Reading

Jon Culshaw on Les Dawson: ‘even his most savage mother-in-law lines were written with love’

In his Edinburgh fringe show Flying High the impressionist wants to convey the warmth and affection of the comic and Blankety Blank hostWho knew, growing up in the 70s and 80s, that we weren’t watching mere comedians, but the dramatis personae in plays…

Continue Reading

Rhod Gilbert announces he is being treated for cancer

Welsh comedian becomes patient at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he is a patronRhod Gilbert, the comedian and television presenter, has announced he is being treated for cancer.The 53-year-old from Carmarthen said he was a patient at Velindre…

Continue Reading

On my radar: Rosie Holt’s cultural highlights

The satirist on her favourite superhero show, her go-to gym motivation music, and why she loves Tim KeyComedian Rosie Holt came to prominence during lockdown with her online political parodies of Conservative MPs. She grew up in Somerset and trained at…

Continue Reading