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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Baby Reindeer reveals the shame and wonder of performing at the Edinburgh fringe | Georgie Wyatt

As a veteran of the festival, Richard Gadd captures the mix of heady promise and bleak reality that awaits another influx of acts this summerNothing prepares you for performing at the Edinburgh festival fringe. It’s the largest arts festival in the wor…

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‘We write something and it can be in the show that night’: comedy trio Sheeps on the freedom of Edinburgh fringe

The cult heroes are back with their ‘best sketches ever’. After success with Ladhood, Stath Lets Flats and Parlement, are they still hoping for that elusive Sheeps TV series?Fifteen years into a career of joking, what’s the biggest joke of all? To stil…

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Maria Bamford: ‘I want to give Donald Trump a roundhouse to the bread basket’

The comedian and Lady Dynamite creator talks about Godzilla, her deep hatred of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, and living in Australia for a yearIn your memoir Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, you shared your personal email address with explicit encouragement…

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Steen Raskopoulos: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

The comedian and actor shares what makes him laugh online including James Acaster’s cabbage story, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and the madness of Creed BrattonGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailHere’s a selection of some of my favourite clips tha…

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John Cleese cut N-word from Fawlty Towers revival because people ‘don’t understand irony’

Speaking at launch for West End adaptation, Cleese complains about literal-minded viewers ‘not playing with a full deck’John Cleese said that he decided to cut the N-word from a scene in his West End Fawlty Towers revival because in contemporary Britai…

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John Cleese cut N-word from Fawlty Towers revival because people ‘don’t understand irony’

Speaking at launch for West End adaptation, Cleese complains about literal-minded viewers ‘not playing with a full deck’John Cleese said that he decided to cut the N-word from a scene in his West End Fawlty Towers revival because in contemporary Britai…

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