5 Things

5 things you might not know about Tiffany Stevenson

The actress comedian from Talk Radio to Show Me The Funny

2 Feb 2012

1 Tiffany Stevenson began her career in the entertainment biz as an actress and has appeared onscreen in The Office, took a lead role in gritty indie feature Spinning Candyfloss and popped up in Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Dirtee Cash’ video [see below]. 2 Her…

5 things you might not know about Nick Helm

The former 'dinner lady' and 2011 Best Joke of the Fringe winner doesn't get on with Alice Cooper

5 Jan 2012

1 Among Nick Helm’s pre-showbiz jobs have been as a ‘dinner lady’ at a secondary school for boys, counting traffic and working in the café of a garden centre. 2 In 2001, he formed a theatre company called Bad Ash Productions whose oeuvre includes I…

Danny Bhoy - Five things you might not know

Scottish-born comedian returns home from Australia for Glasgow show

28 Jun 2011

1: The b(h)oy from Moffat is a fully-fledged Aussie now, though he had a nervous wait to find out if the immigration panel would give his application for permanent residency the thumbs-up after they requested tickets to see his show in Canberra. Despite…

5 things you might not know about... Shappi Khorsandi

Some lesser-known snippets about the British-Iranian comedian

4 Mar 2011

1 Khorsandi grew up in west London in the 1980s after her Iranian family fled in exile to the UK. At the age of 11, she wrote to the Ayatollah Khomeini to ask him not to kill her father, a journalist and comedian whose stock-in-trade was political…

Jason Manford set for 2011 Scottish tour

UK comic on burger chains, not drinking and Bette Midler's heavies

11 Feb 2011

1. At the age of 17, Manford worked at one of those fast food burger chain places for a whole weekend, walking out when he was told he couldn’t have cheese on his burger during a break. He claims to have weighed around 16st at the time and really wanted…

Meow Meow interview

Avant-garde cabaret star ready for Edinburgh 2010

3 Aug 2010

1 rumour you'd like to start about yourself. I don’t need to. I'm much too busy cultivating the ones other people have concocted on the topic of me. They are much more inventive, thankfully. Life should always be that sensational! 2 things we…

5 Things you might not know about.. Roy 'Chubby' Brown

23 Jul 2010

1. OK, this is one you’ll probably all know, but it’s a good one so it’s going in. Born Royston Vasey in 1945, the moniker was used by the League of Gentlemen as the name for their fictional location where all the grotesques come out (or stay in) to…

5 Things you might not know about - Rob Rouse

3 Jun 2010

1. Having trained as a geography teacher, Rob Rouse decided that a career in education wasn’t really his bag and so tried his hand at stand-up, a profession that he describes as ‘easier’. 2. In 1998 he beat off competition from Alex Zane, Dan…

Five great female tribute acts

14 May 2010

Ahead of Misstallica in Glasgow, some all-female metal tributes...

5 Things You Might Not Know About... Paul Merton

29 Apr 2010

1.) Paul Martin (as he was named in July 1957) was inspired to get into live comedy after seeing Alexei Sayle perform in 1981. The tight-suited scouser’s ‘stream of tastelessness’ led Merton to take to the stage with his ‘policeman on acid’ sketch. He…

5 Rip-offs

18 Mar 2010

As Tarantino faces Kill Bill plagiarism accusations, we re-cap on five alleged rip-offs...

5 Things You Might Not Know About... Pam Ayres

18 Mar 2010

1. Her first job was as a clerk in the Civil Service, before joining the Air Force, where she was posted to Singapore. It was there that Ayres first started performing poetry for her mates and when she came home she kept her schtick up by doing shows in…

5 Things You Might Not Know About... Rob Brydon

4 Dec 2009

1. Educated at a private school in Swansea which he described as ‘not posh’ but ‘quite English’, it seems Rob Brydon was not particularly sporty, given that he was stupendously last in the sack race, still hopping on while everyone else had moved on to…

5 things you might not know about Eddie Izzard

4 Nov 2009

1 Born in Yemen, Edward John Izzard spent three pre-school years in mid-60s Northern Ireland. Oblivious to all the politics, he was brought up in a Protestant stronghold in Bangor and loved going out to chuck mud at passing cars. 2 A committed…

5 Things You Might Not Know About: Alistair McGowan

2 Oct 2009

1. McGowan first started impersonating people at school. During an early stage appearance in West Side Story, he went marginally off-script to mimic some of his teachers. 2. He studied English at the University of Leeds, an establishment which has…

5 Things you might not know about - Derren Brown

28 May 2009

1. The man you have to initially blame/thank for the unstoppable rise of Derren Brown is Jerry Sadowitz. They first met in a magic shop in London and after swapping tricks soon became pals, with Sadowitz helping Brown get his first lecture gig for…

5 Things you might not know about - Freddie Starr

30 Apr 2009

1 Let’s get the unpleasantness out of the way first. Back in 1986 came the most notorious moment of wild boy Frederick Leslie Fowell’s showbiz career when The Sun carried its iconic headline: ‘Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster’. He has continually denied…

Five Things You Might Not Know About - Phil Nichol

2 Apr 2009

1. His CV reports: ‘born in Scotland and raised by wild rabbits in Canada.’ One of these statements seems to be half-true. 2. He has something of a streaker instinct. Prior to winning the if.comedy prize for his Naked Racist show, he stripped right…

5 Things you might not know about - The Mighty Boosh

8 Jan 2009

1 Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt decided to become a double act while appearing as a penis and a whale in Stewart Lee’s 1997 Edinburgh show, King Dong v Moby Dick. Lee in turn directed their ‘99 bonanza Arctic Boosh which was nominated for the…

5 Things you might not know about - Steve Coogan

27 Nov 2008

1 In 1992 Steve Coogan won the Perrier as Alan Partridge alongside his buddy John Thomson. That gong didn’t stop him speaking out in later times against the award’s parent company Nestlé for the whole baby milk scandal. 2 In 1999 Coogan formed TV…

5 Things you might not know about - Tina C

30 Oct 2008

Despite appearances to the contrary, Tina C is not a genteel C&W dame from Tennessee but is in fact a strapping gentleman by the name of Christopher Green, a bloke from Derbyshire. To be more map-specific, Green hails from Matlock, a true hotbed of…

5 Things you might not know about - Lee Evans

16 Oct 2008

1 Before he became a comedic superstar, Lee Evans played drums in a punk band all-too aptly called The Forgotten Five and was assistant to a spiritualist window dresser in Southend. 2 In 1993, the lad who left school when he could barely read won…

5 Things you might not know about - Frankie Boyle

2 Oct 2008

1 Boyle had his first big break winning the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award in 1996, beating off five other comics in the final, including one Noel Fielding. 2 He believes that while he was performing on BBC Scotland’s Live Floor Show, the mic he was…

5 Things you might not know about - Jenny Eclair

18 Sep 2008

1 Having left drama school in Manchester, Eclair started her stage career in an ‘alternative cabaret’ outfit called Kathy Lacreme and the Rum Babas. When the act split, she went solo as a punk poet before eventually going all-out on a stand-up…

5 things you might not know about Pete Firman

4 Sep 2008

Firman was born in Middlesbrough, he made the breakthrough into TV by filming himself doing some tricks in his back garden, he was hugely influenced by Penn and Teller, he once did a trick with an egg and sparkler which went down a storm and his…

5 Things you might not know about - Francesca Martinez

19 Jun 2008

Martinez first came to the public’s attention as Rachel Burns in Grange Hill and claimed that at her real school she had to use humour to make people accept that even though she had cerebral palsy, she was just a regular kid. She got into comedy when…

5 Things you might not know about - AL Kennedy

22 May 2008

The A stands for Alison, the L for Louise. She chose to go with the initials as she was keen on a certain degree of anonymity when starting out as a writer and her favourite authors as a kid were JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and EE Nesbitt. She doesn’t come…

5 Things you might not know about - John Hegley

8 May 2008

As part of comedy group The Popticians, he recorded two sessions for John Peel in 1984. Being a spectacle-wearer has been one of Hegley’s long-term points of reference. Do not get him started on contact lenses. He went off to France to revisit the place…

5 Things you might not know about - Nick Doody

24 Apr 2008

Nick Doody’s debut Fringe show in 2006, Before He Kills Again, kicked off with a disturbing song about clowns. So disturbing that the imagery cannot be repeated in a family publication. He shares a house with fellow stand-up Matt Kirshen. Noam Chomsky…

5 Things you might not know about - Ken Dodd

10 Apr 2008

Somewhat eccentric from his early years, he often walked backwards all the way from school to his home simply to prove that it could be done. When he tried this feat of nonsense while on his bicycle, it proved to be less successful. Legend has it that…

5 Things you might not know about - I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue

27 Mar 2008

1 Humphrey Lyttelton had a top 20 hit in the 1950s with ‘Bad Penny Blues’ and played on Radiohead’s ‘Life in a Glasshouse’. The Humph appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2006. 2 Tim Brooke-Taylor’s grandfather was a parson who played centre-forward…

5 Things you might not know about - French & Saunders

13 Mar 2008

When Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders first met in 1977 at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, they didn’t exactly hit it off. Saunders believed French was a ‘cocky upstart’ while Dawn thought Jen was ‘snooty and aloof’. French is credited…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Russell Kane

28 Feb 2008

Since the age of eight he has written short stories but has never been published ‘The one creative constant I’ve always had is to write fiction. I read that you should get your rejection slips and decorate your room with them. I literally ended up…

5 Things you might not know about - Frank Sidebottom

28 Feb 2008

1 The man behind the big-headed Manc is one Chris Sievey. Frank was initially created to be a fan of Sievey’s group The Freshies, but he became so popular that Sievey soon focused his artistic energies on Sidebottom. 2 Among those who played with…

5 Things you might not know about - Des Clarke

14 Feb 2008

1 In 2000 at the tender age of 19, Des Clarke was runner-up in the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny awards. The victor was one Drew Rokos. He’s Australian. That’s all we know about him. 2 His first major TV exposure was on ITV’s Saturday…

5 Things you might not know about - Jenny Éclair

18 Oct 2007

1 When on Room 101, she managed to get jellyfish thrown down the chute. 2 In the televised cartoon of Sid the Sexist back in 1992, hers was the voice of ‘Cilla Black’. 3 Her first dabble in showbusiness came writing punk poetry and performing…

Reginald D Hunter

5 things you might not know

18 Jun 2007

Being born into a devoutly religious family from Atlanta, it was expected that he would simply follow their path into preaching or teaching. His response was to hop on a plane to the UK and gain entry into RADA before stumbling into a life of stand-up…