TheGuardian – Page 215 – ComedyNews.Org :: Comedy News Organization

Reginald D Hunter: ‘I’ve saved lives on many occasions’

August 2, 2018TheGuardian

The comedian, 49, on selflessness, why he never panics in a crisis and what he likes about the UK

I go thorough periods of eating healthily. Right now I seem to be interested in these Vietnam noodle soups. Oh man. My friend says, “Not as bad as a three, not as good as a five but definitely a pho”. I used to think that if this comedy thing didn’t work out I’d go to chef school. I used to put garlic powder on my eggs – I used to be very particular about that kind of thing.

I used to bring back a lot of graham crackers from the States when I visited and I still make a tuna fish salad from Georgia that requires a very sweet relish that’s hard to find in the UK. Chicken coconut curry was my signature dish when I was trying to impress someone.

I love talking and I love ideas, but I hate chit-chat

Sometimes you say things that you know might be helpful and you do it in the guise of jokes

Booze, bankruptcy, brain haemorrhage: the comics turning tragedy into laughs

August 1, 2018TheGuardian

A former alcoholic, a cancer survivor and a man who lost all his money in a Bitcoin crash are among the comics coming back from the brink at the Edinburgh fringe

‘I didn’t start drinking until I was 18,” says Matt Rees. “That’s quite a rarity for someone in the UK. But straight away, I recognised that I liked it – and I knew that one day I’d have to stop.”

Rees, who was born in Maesteg, south Wales, is making his debut at this year’s Edinburgh fringe with Happy Hour, a look back at his battle with alcohol. He started performing in 2010 and quickly scooped up some new act awards. Then, two years ago, his comedy career stalled as he experienced problems with addiction.

‘It’s normal to go on stage after a few pints, and it’s fine to be hungover the next day. Someone with a normal job would’ve been fired’

Strewth! Antipodean women deliver summer of laughter to Britain

July 29, 2018TheGuardian

Comics from Australia and New Zealand will take centre stage, from Netflix to the Edinburgh fringeAustralian comedians have traditionally provided British audiences with a slice of unabashed, earthy humour, dating back to the early heyday of Dame Edna …

Sara Pascoe: ‘My greatest fear? Animals choking on plastic I’ve thrown away’

July 28, 2018TheGuardian

The comedian on intimacy, teenage shoplifting and why she hates music

Pascoe, 37, appeared in the BBC series Twenty Twelve and WIA. In 2016, she wrote Animal: The Autobiography Of A Female Body and toured her Animal show. She is now writing her second book, Sex Power Money. From 16 September, she will tour the UK with her hit show LadsLadsLads, inspired by her breakup with fellow comedian John Robins.

What is your earliest memory?
Being in a pram and having a tantrum. I was being pushed and the trees above me were all blurry because of the tears in my eyes.

Mawaan Rizwan: ‘Beyoncé dancing to Thomas the Tank Engine is my religion’

July 27, 2018TheGuardian

The actor, writer and standup on the things that make him laugh the mostFive years ago Josie Long did an impression of Ed Miliband, as if he was a boisterous and cocky anarchist. She broke two massive plant pots and spat all over the stage. I was cryin…

Sean Patton review – sex with Jesus and a burger as big as Texas

July 23, 2018TheGuardian

Soho theatre, London
His shtick is tubby underdog with the heart of a poet – but the New Orleans comic was a bit too hit and miss

Sean Patton is a New Orleans native who made waves at last year’s Edinburgh fringe with a fine hour of storytelling comedy. I missed his raconteurship in this followup, which strings together flights of romantic fantasy and jokes about his OCD but stints on the big-hitting anecdotes that made his earlier set memorable.

We’re left with a slightly disjointed hour that feels like several club sets imperfectly combined, but which Patton holds together with a strong personality and a few choice gags. The shtick is tubby underdog on the outside, wicked poetic dreamer on the inside. He starts with a riff on having his heart stolen by a former love, a metaphor extended beyond all good sense until that disembodied heart is leading a bleak life of its own, selling heart sex and having heart miscarriages.

Can you do comedy about rape? Natalie Palamides thinks so

July 22, 2018TheGuardian

The LA comic, who won best newcomer at last year’s Edinburgh fringe, has tested her electric new material on American audiences. But how will Nate – her ‘douchebag’ male alter ego – go down in Britain?

We should know, after last year, to expect the unexpected from Natalie Palamides. Who could have foreseen that the buzziest comedy in 2017 would come from an unknown LA actor making performance art about fertility, parental anxiety and eggs? But so it proved. In a blizzard of yolk and shattered shells, her show Laid wowed Edinburgh and poached the Comedy award for best newcomer. So we should have been braced for more surprises. But this? A cross-dressing comedy show for the #MeToo era that workshops, with audience participation, the idea of consent?

The show is called Nate, after a male character the 28-year-old has played since college. “He does come off as a douchebag, as we say in America,” says Palamides, speaking by phone from Los Angeles, where she has been developing the show with her director, the cult clown and previous Edinburgh Comedy award champ Doctor Brown. “At first you think Nate’s a jerk,” she adds. “But people warm to him because he’s sweet – a sweet lovable idiot.”

All the fun of the fringe: the best comedy to see in Edinburgh, part two

July 22, 2018TheGuardian

The tricky subjects of identity politics, consent and mental health make for electric shows

• The best comedy to see in Edinburgh, part one

“Unless you can say in one media-friendly soundbite exactly what it is that you’re talking about and exactly what it is that you stand for, people lose interest.”

All the fun of the fringe: the best comedy to see in Edinburgh, part one

July 22, 2018TheGuardian

A drag queen who impersonates Nicola Sturgeon, Gujurati home life and a truly terrible novelist… we meet the comics behind the hottest Edinburgh festival shows

• The best comedy to see in Edinburgh, part two

Some of the most biting political satire at this year’s Edinburgh festival won’t come from ranting, right-on standups in sweaty basement venues. It will come from a 6ft 2in drag queen who occasionally bursts into Steps numbers.

Tom Ward: ‘Shooting Stars is the funniest TV show – Vic and Bob are gods’

July 20, 2018TheGuardian

The standup and 2017 Chortle best newcomer award winner on the things that make him laugh the mostCardinal Burns as Dean and Murf, playing two drug casualties dining out on their minor dance hit from 1993. I actually dropped to my knees laughing. Conti…

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