Record number of NI performers at this year’s festival, with C4 comedy hailed for raising awareness of nation’s comic giftsThe biggest ever cohort of playwrights, comedians and artists from Northern Ireland are bringing their work to the Edinburgh frin…
Continue ReadingComedians such as Omid Djalili and Rachel Parris are back after festival’s tough two years due to CovidWhen Omid Djalili first performed at the Edinburgh festival fringe in 1993, it was to an audience of three, and they all requested refunds after it w…
Continue ReadingWelsh comedian becomes patient at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he is a patronRhod Gilbert, the comedian and television presenter, has announced he is being treated for cancer.The 53-year-old from Carmarthen said he was a patient at Velindre…
Continue ReadingStandups used to think they’d never make it if they didn’t play the festival. But it’s leaving many saddled with debt, stuck in squalid flats and even suicidal. Refuseniks tell us why they’re bowing outRose Johnson has spent eight Augusts at the Edinbu…
Continue ReadingThe standup on the wisest words ever given to him, his pre-show rituals and how he discovered his vocation at an anarchist vegetarian communeHow did you get into comedy?I grew up in the West Country and there wasn’t much of a comedy scene at the time. …
Continue ReadingComedian says he was asked to explain context of gag to investigating officers, and will keep it in his showThe comedian Joe Lycett has said he was investigated by the police after an audience member made a complaint about a joke in one of his shows.In…
Continue ReadingSaddam gets a Groucho Marx makeover, Gordon Brown sings about macroeconomics – and Cherie is part Lily Savage, part Lili Marleen. The big-collared comic reveals all about Tony!It’s a Tuesday morning and Harry Hill and Steve Brown are discussing their u…
Continue ReadingComedians such as Nish Kumar say they have noticed a change since crowds have returned to clubsIt was halfway through a show in Shrewsbury when Nish Kumar noticed an audience member being disruptive. It became so bad that he asked the man to leave, and…
Continue ReadingGet Off! was set up by Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Nina Gilligan in order to create safer workplaces within little-regulated industryAn organisation has been established to tackle sexual harassment in the UK comedy industry. Get Off! Live Comedy was laun…
Continue ReadingThe Yorkshire cricket race row shows people are still claiming that abuse is just acceptable joshing. It isn’t“I like your handbag!” I say.“It was only a pound, from the pound shop,” she says.Shazia Mirza is a comedian. Her latest show, Coconut, is on …
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