Sir Ken Dodd’s new ‘happiness centre’ tickles me but should be taken seriously | Michael Billington

A £15m, four-storey space in Liverpool is to be dedicated to the man once known as Professor Yaffle Chuckabutty. Let’s hope it will delve as deeply as he did into comedy’s infinite variationsWhat is the legacy of a great comedian? In the past it lay pr…

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A marathon of mirth and stress: comics with chronic health issues on completing Edinburgh fringe

The festival’s relentless pace is demanding for performers, especially with an underlying health condition. Three acts explain how their month has goneAn hour before she was due on stage for the first show of her month-long Edinburgh fringe run, Nina G…

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Reuben Kaye: Live and Intimidating review – the voice of an angel and a devil

Assembly George Square, EdinburghThe mesmerising Australian comic’s song-laced, sassy and polemical set is a clarion call for queer expressionHighest star wattage on the Edinburgh fringe? Give that award to Reuben Kaye right away. Best comedy show? Wel…

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Jobsworth review – caffeinated black comedy with a stupendous performance

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghActor-playwright Libby Rodliffe plays plate-spinning Bea, desperately working several jobs, in a monologue co-written with Isley LynnJobsworth is billed as a riotous comedy about a woman, Bea, juggling multiple jobs, some …

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Wankernomics: As Per My Last Email review – humdrum office hellscape

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThese games lampooning business jargon and CV exaggeration are relatable and initially amusing but soon start to dragA grabby title and a clear concept sell tickets at the Edinburgh fringe. Australian comedy duo James Schl…

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Show Pony review – what happens when the circus says goodbye to you?

Summerhall, EdinburghIn a compelling collaboration with Bryony Kimmings, the German company Still Hungry deconstruct, satirise and celebrate the circusThree women are remembering their introduction to the circus as children. It offered not just a world…

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House of Life review – glittering benediction from a joyously funky double act

Underbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh A sequinned ‘RaveRend’ and his sidekick Trev help the audience banish sadness in this ebullient hourAnointed with glitter paint, taking our seats to a score of dirty funk licks, we are not so much an audience as a congreg…

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‘I wanted to give people hope’: how Every Brilliant Thing became theatre’s best antidote to depression

As Duncan Macmillan’s celebration of the little things in life lights up the Edinburgh fringe, 10 years after its debut, the actors who have helped make it a hit all over the world explain its universal power to connectAn uplifting play about depressio…

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Essentially Edinburgh: dance, drag and plenty of drama at the 2024 festival – in pictures

Photographer Murdo MacLeod covers Scotland’s annual arts spectacular, from a musical Mexican seance to colourful juggling Continue reading…

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Chemo Savvy review – cancer comedy inspired by actor Andy Gray is less about death than rebirth

Gilded Balloon at the Museum, EdinburghAlan McHugh’s play explores grief and the agony of treatment – but also hope and laughter in the face of adversityWhat a lovely thing to have done. When the great actor Andy Gray was being treated for leukaemia be…

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