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‘My body shall be all yours’: the startling sex letters of Joyce, Kahlo and O’Keeffe

May 2, 2017TheGuardian

An eye-wateringly explicit new stage show celebrates erotic correspondence sent by famous figures through the ages

“I did as you told me, you dirty little girl, and pulled myself off twice when I read your letter.” He might be celebrated for his epic and allusive novels, but James Joyce came straight to the point when writing to his partner, Nora Barnacle. This was the opening salvo of a letter from 1908 and is just one of scores of explicit missives he sent her.

A new stage show is celebrating such letters of desire sent by famous figures through the centuries, whether explicit or coded, erotic or romantic. Theatre-maker Rachel Mars is curating a selection to be read aloud in the performance which is part of the Hotbed “festival of sex” at Camden People’s theatre in London. These will be interspersed with anonymised modern messages: texts, tweets and dating app sexts.

Katy Brand: ‘Victoria Wood’s Two Soups is the funniest sketch ever’

April 28, 2017TheGuardian

The comedian and sketch-show doyenne on the things that make her laugh the most

Simon Munnery’s The League Against Tedium in Edinburgh in the late 1990s. I had never seen anything like it; I became almost hysterical with laughter which he probably found off-putting. He appeared to give no shits whether the audience liked it or not, and I loved that.

Katy Brand: ‘Victoria Wood’s Two Soups is the funniest sketch ever’

April 28, 2017TheGuardian

The comedian and sketch-show doyenne on the things that make her laugh the most

Simon Munnery’s The League Against Tedium in Edinburgh in the late 1990s. I had never seen anything like it; I became almost hysterical with laughter which he probably found off-putting. He appeared to give no shits whether the audience liked it or not, and I loved that.

Hysterical Woman: the standup show blasting sexism in comedy

April 28, 2017TheGuardian

Fed up with heckles, hostility and predatory promoters, Kiri Pritchard-McLean set out to detail the industry’s misogyny in a raucous, revelatory performance

Are women funny? At a time when so many of comedy’s biggest names are female – from Bridget Christie to Katherine Ryan, Sarah Millican to Josie Long – you might imagine that that tired debate would finally have run out of steam. But that would be wishful thinking, according to standup Kiri Pritchard-McLean. The lurid misogyny that she repeatedly encounters has led her to speak out in her touring show Hysterical Woman, which tackles the question – and the zombie sexism it implies – head on.

Pritchard-McLean reports back from the frontline of circuit comedy, where predatory promoters roam and all-female bills are called “paralympic nights”. She details the heckles, hostility and patronising post-show comments to which female comics are daily subjected; the rarity of more than one female act appearing on any comedy bill; and the way scheduling works to position them in less prominent positions on those bills. It reveals as endemic the types of behaviour experienced by comedian Jenny Collier in 2014, when she publicised an email from a promoter who cancelled her gig because “the venue decided that they don’t want too many women on the bill”. Or the Canadian comic Christina Walkinshaw, “fired” from one club, she claims, for complaining about sexist heckling (“Show us your tits!”) at the venue.

Sophie Willan review – tales of neglect and addiction told with good cheer

April 26, 2017TheGuardian

Soho theatre, London
Flashes of tenacious positivity illuminate a gleeful set that ranges over Willan’s troubled early years in care, from teenage delinquency to a run-in with Santa

Rebellious, defiant, rude – words that Sophie Willan has been branded with since infancy. And she’s got the proof, in the form of social workers’ reports handed to her in bulk by Bolton social services when she turned 23. Excerpts punctuate On Record, her standup debut, which you might dub a misery memoir, if Willan didn’t tell this tale of her childhood in care – the daughter of a heroin-addicted mum – with such dogged good cheer.

That upbeat tone can feel contrived: her story seems to demand shades other than bright. But there’s no doubt it’s hard-won, nor that Willan makes of this hard-bitten history a lively hour of autobiographical comedy. Armed with an accent that makes Peter Kay sound like Rex Harrison, a bustling manner and a dash of camp, she relates tales of childhood neglect (“Think Mowgli with a mullet”), teenage delinquency and adult drift (getting sacked from Santa’s grotto was a low point) with gossipy glee. She’s at her funniest off-script, chatting to the audience. There’s not a shred of self-pity.

Joel Dommett: ‘Adrian Mole is the funniest book I’ve ever read’

April 24, 2017TheGuardian

The comedian and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! runner-up on the things that make him laugh the most

I remember seeing Frank Skinner do a set at Banana Cabaret in Balham about a year after I started comedy. It was the kind of laughter that stuck with me and made me want to do this job for the rest of my life.

Reginald D Hunter: ‘Getting married, having kids is one ideal. But it’s not my ideal’

April 21, 2017TheGuardian

The American comedian explains how his relationship with his mother affected his life and how you have to leave your home to make sense of it

I’m the fourth funniest person in my family, but No 1 for confidence. For years, Daddy was the funniest, but at 97 his memory is a bit off. I’m the youngest of nine children, although my eldest sister died in 1949 and I had another who died six years ago. My brothers and sisters are so much older than me that they were more like parents than siblings, especially my sisters. They shaped me. They all pitched in to fund my education and decided what experiences I would have, how I would spend my summers.

I grew up in a sleepy place called Albany in Georgia. As a teenager, I played basketball and baseball. I liked Saturday Night Live, chess and girls. My desire to act came from years of watching television. I was a 1970s child and grew up watching Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man and Man from Atlantis. By the time I was 18, I was a good mimic.

The 10 best things to do this week: Machynlleth festival, Arca and Mindhorn

April 21, 2017TheGuardian

Britain’s best standups hit the Welsh town, the Venezuelan producer plays London and Julian Barratt stars as a washed-up former TV cop

From Cradle to Stage
Mum’s the word! Literally, actually, as Foo Fighter Dave Grohl’s mother, Virginia, has gone around the world to interview mothers about their famous offspring, from Pharrell Williams’s ma Carolyn to Amy Winehouse’s mummy Janis for a new book. It’s out on 25 April.
From Cradle to Stage by Virginia Hanlon Grohl is published by Coronet, £20

Joel Dommett review – I’m a Celebrity star’s goofy comedy gets big laughs

April 20, 2017TheGuardian

South Hill Park, Bracknell
Skype sex and confetti cannons are harnessed to full effect by a likable performer who breathes new life into a time-honoured persona

‘Who here saw me on I’m a Celebrity? Who’s seen my penis?” Joel Dommett’s fame is of a very modern variety, the 31-year-old having been propelled into the slightly-bigger-league of comedians by reality TV and an online sex tape. The latter is mined for laughs in this extended touring version of Dommett’s 2016 Edinburgh set – infectiously stoopid entertainment with big payoffs, loosely exploring lies, truth and our host’s accident-prone love life. When it cracks on (in the second half, mostly) it proves Dommett to be no mere gatecrasher in comedy’s upper firmament, but perfectly at home.

The show’s weaker moments come before the interval, and stem, I suspect, from the task of padding out 55 Edinburgh minutes into a tour-friendly two hours. There’s some fine material in act one, but it is attenuated by lots of filler, as Dommett compulsively comments on his own jokes, mannerisms and the audience’s every titter. With a persona built on exaggerating his immaturity and gormlessness, it’s a risky business to perform a first half so thinly stuffed with good jokes – the risk being that we start to think the pretty-boy air-headedness isn’t just an act.

Joel Dommett review – I’m a Celebrity star’s goofy comedy gets big laughs

April 20, 2017TheGuardian

South Hill Park, Bracknell
Skype sex and confetti cannons are harnessed to full effect by a likable performer who breathes new life into a time-honoured persona

‘Who here saw me on I’m a Celebrity? Who’s seen my penis?” Joel Dommett’s fame is of a very modern variety, the 31-year-old having been propelled into the slightly-bigger-league of comedians by reality TV and an online sex tape. The latter is mined for laughs in this extended touring version of Dommett’s 2016 Edinburgh set – infectiously stoopid entertainment with big payoffs, loosely exploring lies, truth and our host’s accident-prone love life. When it cracks on (in the second half, mostly) it proves Dommett to be no mere gatecrasher in comedy’s upper firmament, but perfectly at home.

The show’s weaker moments come before the interval, and stem, I suspect, from the task of padding out 55 Edinburgh minutes into a tour-friendly two hours. There’s some fine material in act one, but it is attenuated by lots of filler, as Dommett compulsively comments on his own jokes, mannerisms and the audience’s every titter. With a persona built on exaggerating his immaturity and gormlessness, it’s a risky business to perform a first half so thinly stuffed with good jokes – the risk being that we start to think the pretty-boy air-headedness isn’t just an act.

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