Scottish actor who graduated from the alternative comedy scene to become a major performer known for taking on complex and difficult roles Robbie Coltrane, whose acting career spanned everything from Bond films to Cracker to Harry Potter, has died aged…
Continue ReadingThe comedian and podcaster on the charms of British sitcoms, starting her own club night and hot new talent on the circuitWhat drew you to British comedy?Probably Skins or The Inbetweeners. Growing up in Texas I watched my fair share of BBC America – t…
Continue ReadingWembley 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 ReadingThe 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 ReadingThe 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 ReadingThey 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 ReadingIt’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 ReadingRecord 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 ReadingPoetry-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 ReadingIn 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…
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