‘Oh god I’m Sue Gray – don’t, I’m cringing’: comic Emma Sidi brings the embattled civil servant to the stage

After Starstruck and Taskmaster, the new project sees Sidi play a profane, lowbrow version of Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff. She explains why her latest comedy creation is breaking-news proofWhen Emma Sidi was in year seven, a classmate predicte…

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Jerry Seinfeld says he was ‘wrong’ to blame ‘extreme left’ for killing comedy

Seventy-year-old comedian walks back contentious comments about ‘PC crap’, saying: ‘You can’t say certain words about groups. So what?’Jerry Seinfeld has backtracked on comments he made earlier this year blaming the “extreme left and PC crap” for negat…

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How Strictly’s Chris McCausland is inspiring the next generation of blind dancers

Comedian wows BBC show’s judges and fans with confident performances that are helping to upend stereotypesIt may be early days, but Strictly Come Dancing’s breakout star so far this season is also the show’s first blind contestant, Chris McCausland.The…

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How Strictly’s Chris McCausland is inspiring the next generation of blind dancers

Comedian wows BBC show’s judges and fans with confident performances that are helping to upend stereotypesIt may be early days, but Strictly Come Dancing’s breakout star so far this season is also the show’s first blind contestant, Chris McCausland.The…

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Don’t judge Ahir Shah’s Netflix special by its trailer – it’s among the best comedy out there

The British comedian’s show Ends went from a tiny basement at Edinburgh festival to landing its top award – and now it is on Netflix. It’s easy to see whyIf you were to judge Ahir Shah’s Netflix comedy special Ends by its trailer – a middle-of-the-road…

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Michelle Brasier on turning cancer into comedy – and kicking her life into overdrive

After losing her father and brother, the Aunty Donna comedian was told she had a 97% chance of cancer herself. With a new album, musical and memoir to promote, she’s not slowing downGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailAt the end of her first yea…

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Alex Horne looks back: ‘Both my careers – the Horne Section and Taskmaster – are an extension of playing with friends’

Alex Horne, Joe Auckland and Ben Reynolds on being best friends since childhood, their shared love of comedy, and spending their birthdays togetherBorn in 1978 in Chichester, West Sussex, Alex Horne is a comedian and co-host and creator of&nb…

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Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going to Do One (1) Backflip review – joyous and ingenious

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe American standup and sitcom writer delivers a show of ticklish suspense that somersaults with invention and surpriseNot all comedy shows need weighty themes or moments of bare-all vulnerability just before curtain-fall…

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Loud and queer: Gareth Thomas, Rosie Jones and more on the culture that helped them find their true selves

From a rugby great to a former MP, LGBTQ stars spill the beans on the shows, songs and films that made them understand their identityBronski Beat – Smalltown Boy Continue reading…

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On my radar: comedian Sophie Duker’s cultural highlights

The London-born standup on a magical Netflix animation, Joe Lycett’s activist T-shirt, and how she fell in love with pole dancingThe comedian Sophie Duker was born in London in 1990. She studied French and English at Oxford, where she got into improv, …

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