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I sympathise with Louise Beaumont: we comedians are truth-seekers | Arnab Chanda

February 22, 2018TheGuardian

Looking for the laughs in painful personal stories makes for interesting subject matter, but emotionally it’s a high-risk path

I don’t really feel comfortable speaking about Louise Beamont’s case, in which Thomas Reay, her estranged husband, is suing her on the grounds that she defamed him in a standup show. Not only have two people’s lives genuinely been affected, but I haven’t even seen the show and, as it’s an ongoing court case, I can’t comment on it too much anyway (being sued sounds super tiring). Also, I’m just a moron comedy writer who never even studied law (I thought My Cousin Vinny was good though).

I can, maybe, try to answer one question, though: where do you draw the line when it comes to writing good comedy versus exposing someone you know or love?

Standup comedian’s husband sues for defamation over ‘provocative’ show

February 19, 2018TheGuardian

Louise Reay says she faces bankruptcy if she loses case that could boil down to judge’s sense of humour

An award-winning standup comedian is being sued by her estranged husband for allegedly defaming him in her show.

The lawsuit, described by a leading lawyer as a test case, relates to a show by Louise Beamont (stage name Reay). Hard Mode was billed as as a “provocative show [that] explores censorship and surveillance”; though one critic described it as being “at its core … about a very recent and raw heartbreak”.

Polski sklep-stick – is Brexit Britain ready for eastern European standup?

February 19, 2018TheGuardian

A wave of comedians from Poland, Hungary, Latvia and Romania are helping to tackle stereotypes about EU immigrants in the UK

It’s not easy being a Polish comedian in Brexit Britain. “I haven’t heard anyone actually say the words, ‘Go back to your country,’” says Mike Topolski, a standup and actor originally from Wrocław in western Poland who moved here seven years ago and is now proudly engaged to “a Geordie lass”. “But I did a gig a couple of months ago in south London and the jokes were not well received at all. I was the only foreigner there and it felt like it was a Brexit crowd. They were just staring at me and I could see them thinking: ‘How are you still here? Should we build a wall or what?’” His signature opener? “Yes, a comedian. But also builder, plumber, electrician and gardener.”

Topolski is one of more than 80 comics in the lineup of the UK’s first Eastern European comedy festival (EEComFest), which opens on Wednesday with 19 shows at venues across London. It features acts from 15 countries, from Bosnia and Moldova to Malta and Slovenia. The festival’s mission statement jokes that this is “another try from immigrants to get control over the United Kingdom and end the British way of life. It will be in London, as it’s the UK city with the biggest immigration problem.” But clearly the aim is the opposite: to use humour to try to improve mutual understanding. It’s like Eurovision, only intentionally funny.

If I say I’m 31 and I live with my parents, in Romania, that is very funny. It’s too late to be living with your parents

The Big Burns Supper – in pictures

January 22, 2018TheGuardian

Dumfries celebrates the birth of Robert Burns with dance, theatre, live art and comedy, turning Burns Night into a festival of contemporary arts Continue reading…

Sophie Willan: who are you calling a northern working-class comic?

January 9, 2018TheGuardian

Her childhood in care, her mother’s heroin addiction, her days as a sex worker … Bolton comedian Sophie Willan is turning the details of her life into dazzling standup

It’s great to have Sophie Willan’s working-class voice in the comedy industry. That’s not (just) me talking, that’s how “loads of people” have greeted the Lancastrian since her standup debut in 2016. “Some people are quite up for being pigeonholed like that,” says Willan. “But I think nuance is important.”

What do onlookers mean when they peg Willan as “northern” and “working-class”? How accurately can those labels describe any of us? Those are the questions posed by her second show, Branded, which tours next month. With it, Willan enacts phase two of her manifesto, as she calls it, to bring authentic working-class voices into the mainstream – while questioning why those voices are momentarily hip again.

Working class may be ‘cool’ now, but ‘they want your identity and your story, but not the personality that goes with it’

Daliso Chaponda: from Malawi to a major UK tour with gags about slavery

December 31, 2017TheGuardian

Daliso Chaponda gets laughs from topics other comedians shun. After a whirlwind year of success on Britain’s Got Talent, he explains why he does it

Jokes about famine and slavery are not the standard fodder of a comedy routine, but Daliso Chaponda revels in crossing the line.

The 38-year-old Malawian was a surprise star of Britain’s Got Talent this year, winning over millions with his cheeky but close-to-the knuckle gags about life as an African in Britain.

People like that I talk about crazy subjects like slavery and colonialism in a way that isn’t guilt tripping

From the time Trump’s tweets disappeared to David Davis’s Brexit diary: satirists take on the news

December 30, 2017TheGuardian

Joe Lycett, Ayesha Hazarika, Gráinne Maguire and Nish Kumar take a fresh look at the year as part of our comedy special

• Read more from the satire special

On 3 November 2017, President Donald J Trump’s Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes. For those moments, the world had no idea what he was thinking or feeling or watching on Fox.

‘Improv saved my life’: the comedy classes helping people with anxiety

December 20, 2017TheGuardian

Once the domain of aspiring performers, improv courses are increasingly being attended by students experiencing mental health problems

“Your heart’s beating faster, you feel all these eyes on you, your body reacts with panic.” No, it’s not the discarded first line of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, but Alex MacLaren’s description of how his students feel in work meetings, job interviews or even the pub. MacLaren teaches improvisational comedy at the Spontaneity Shop in London. At first, its courses attracted performers. Now, he estimates half his students are seeking help with anxiety or confidence.

It’s a trend noted by other improv teachers. In Manchester, Brainne Edge runs workshops as head of ComedySportz UK. In the past five years she’s seen the proportion of non-performers attending her courses rise to around 75%.

It teaches you to have a better link between your brain and your mouth

The League of Gentlemen announce 2018 UK tour

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

The dark comedy foursome are to hit the road, taking new show to ‘all the wonderful local places in our increasingly local country’

Their three forthcoming reunion specials for the BBC are among this Christmas’s most anticipated television shows. Now, the League of Gentlemen have announced that they will be touring the UK for the first time in over 12 years.

The League of Gentlemen Live Again! tour starts in Sunderland on 25 August 2018, offering local entertainment for local people around the UK, culminating in three nights at London’s Eventim Apollo, from 27 to 29 September.

‘Chinese burn? We just say burn’: comics on joking about race and immigration

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

Phil Wang has a messy relationship with the British empire. Evelyn Mok felt dirty joking about her family. Kae Kurd riffs on being a refugee. Aisha Alfa was shocked to find she had a ‘black perspective’. They talk patriotism, stereotypes and stigmas

I’m a sort of half-immigrant. I was born in Stoke, where my mum is from, but we went back to Malaysia, where my dad’s from, a week after I was born. When I was 16 I moved back to the UK and have been here since. I have a complicated relationship with the British empire but I look for what connects us. Commonwealth countries share a certain sense of humour. The empire spread self-deprecation and a self-mocking attitude across the commonwealth – as well as railroads.

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