Thursday, September 22, 2022
Too pricy, too elitist, just too big? After the criticisms of this year’s event, a panel of festival regulars consider the way forward for Edinburgh’s summer spectacular
Katy Koren, co-a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:13AMFriday, September 16, 2022
The Ohio-raised star of movies and TV shows such as Shrill and I Think You Should Leave says comedy is a refuge from the impacts of being trans and that, right now, she’s happy to be in th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:13AMFriday, August 26, 2022
While debates about cancel culture rage on at Edinburgh, a trio of performers are critiquing ‘edgelord’ humour, while still remembering to be funny
‘Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:43AMFriday, August 19, 2022
After lockdowns kept them out of touch with audiences, standups explain their exhilaration at coming together to raise laughs at Edinburgh fringe
The lights go down signalling the start of t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:54AMThursday, August 18, 2022
With research showing sexual harassment is a routine occurrence, there is growing demand for arts venues to commit to protecting entertainers
Posey Mehta, like many performers at the Edinbur…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:07AMMonday, August 15, 2022
Just because a joke works in one country or language doesn’t mean it will in another. Globetrotting standups talk about routines that have bombed – and the changes that saved them
When Y…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33PMMonday, August 8, 2022
Monkey Barrel Comedy, EdinburghFrom relationship recovery to getting her phone messages spoken out by the audience, Koch has charisma and punchlines to burn
The infamous opening notes of Sha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AMSunday, August 7, 2022
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghLeaving no cat-related reference unlicked, Thompson’s show is artfully clownish and funny
The stage is set with a treadmill, yoga mat, step-up box and a big s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:42AMSaturday, August 6, 2022
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghA properly fresh take on quarter-century living, Magliano’s is a charismatic debut moving through divorce, sexuality and cat-buying with ease
Absolutely No W…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54PMFriday, August 5, 2022
Assembly George Square, The Box, EdinburghIn her show Is It a Bird? the comic has the audience on their feet with a nuanced and deeply funny hour of music and jokes
‘This is going to be br…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42PMGilded Balloon Patter Hoose, EdinburghThe US comic plays a fast-talking agent, a straight-talking sex therapist and a six-year-old divorcee in this high-energy hour
Linda Hollywood is an old…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42PMMonday, July 11, 2022
Standups 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 …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMWednesday, June 29, 2022
A scene that started as a counter to straight standup at the end of the 1970s is still hard to peg – but it’s much more than just weird stuff that doesn’t work on telly
A giant sentien…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMWednesday, June 8, 2022
In the first of our festival previews, we round up some of the best offerings we’ve already reviewed – including Tim Key, Liz Kingsman, La Clique and Hungry
This searing, sweaty disco is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AMTuesday, April 26, 2022
Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx spent months researching rightwing comedy and found that whether or not you’re laughing, you can’t ignore its power
In January, Neil Young gave Spotify an …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMWednesday, April 13, 2022
Having defeated impostor syndrome, the standup is taking on Taskmaster and returning to the Edinburgh fringe with ‘sexy and chaotic’ new show Hag
Sophie Duker’s just shared a Taskmaste…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AMTuesday, March 22, 2022
Kings Place, LondonThe Stranger Things actor discusses her experiences on male-dominated sets, alongside hosts Susan Wokoma and Deborah Frances-White’s standup comedy
Since its first episo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PMTuesday, March 8, 2022
She sings naked, had an epiphany chopping wood in Sweden, came out dressed as a cat, is making a sitcom with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and is helping Matt Lucas to be funny. Meet comedy pow…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:03PMTuesday, February 22, 2022
Playing junior doctor Shruti is a far cry from the standup’s ‘really silly’ sketch comedy but her improv background helped her find moments of levity in Adam Kay’s NHS drama
When Amb…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54AMWednesday, February 16, 2022
Soho theatre, LondonKey swerves Covid cliches by recreating his professional crisis in silly poems, poignant prose and punchlines involving his five-foot teddy bear companion
Struggling to a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AMMonday, January 24, 2022
Her scathing, surreal standup wowed audiences – and when she was diagnosed as neurodivergent, it started to make more sense to her, too
In 2018, Fern Brady’s comedy career was taking off…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AMThursday, January 6, 2022
Shaparak Khorsandi and Esther Manito both came of age during a time when women were expect to comform to male stereotypes. To reflect, they did what they do best: wrote comedy shows about it…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMFriday, November 19, 2021
Get Off! was set up by Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Nina Gilligan in order to create safer workplaces within little-regulated industry
An organisation has been established to tackle sexual hara…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMTuesday, November 2, 2021
Duchess theatre, LondonAndrew Doyle’s Twitter creation – played by Alice Marshall – takes predictable aim at Greta, Meghan and trans athletes with jokes that just aren’t funny
Titani…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:03PMWednesday, October 20, 2021
The comic has come blazing out of lockdown fearless and on full throttle, buying a motorbike for her 50th birthday and turning the menopause – along with an incident in a park – into com…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AMWednesday, October 13, 2021
Standups including Suzi Ruffell, Paul Sinha and Lee Peart reveal how hecklers, bookers and ‘the gay slot’ have affected their appearances in the spotlight
The comedian Stephen Bailey was…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:03PMSunday, September 12, 2021
O2 Arena, LondonHis arena show about the global experience of the pandemic – with some added jokes for a UK crowd about footie and Meghan Markle – shows Noah to be a skilled performer wi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMTuesday, August 17, 2021
The trailblazing actor and comedian on asserting her bisexuality in the 80s, misogynistic male comics – and befriending Madonna
During nearly five decades in showbiz, Sandra Bernhard has r…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMTuesday, July 27, 2021
Tired of racism on the comedy scene, Jenan Younis started her own night Weapons of Mass Hilarity – where gags about body hair and Farsi abound
Every comedian expects rejection when they’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMTuesday, July 13, 2021
She sometimes said she’d rather be a hairdresser but Aherne’s cheeky early appearances in the pubs and clubs of Manchester led her to TV fame
In the early 90s, Manchester’s cultural re…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMWednesday, June 9, 2021
Joyce Grenfell inspired her, she wrote her own musical at school and a fringe theatre show with Julie Walters paved the way to TV fame. As Victoria Wood’s Talent returns, we revisit her ea…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AM 
