Comedy

The Hairy Bikers’ Big Night Out

19 Mar 2010

Bearded twosome Dave Myers and Si King get revved up to wax lyrical about their cooking and riding exploits. In a stage show directed by funny-man Bob Mortimer the pair mix cooking, chat and more as they meander through the tale of their friendship and…

Extract

19 Mar 2010

(15) 94min After his considerable small screen success with Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, it was clear that Mike Judge’s brand of caustic humour would, one day, enable him to make a great big-screen comedy. Judge’s fans believe he’s…

The Pros from Dover

19 Mar 2010

After delivering some killer sketches at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008, the Pros didn’t bother showing up last year. All is forgiven now, though, as the trio of Glover, Litchfield and Whelans drop by for some skittish clowning. Fans of that previous show…

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…

Perrier's Bounty

18 Mar 2010

(15) 88min After an accidental shooting, charismatic Dublin gangster Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy) goes on the run with his fey neighbour Brenda (Jodie Whittaker) and his coke-snorting, hypochondriac father Jim (Jim Broadbent). Together they have…

The Spy Next Door

18 Mar 2010

(PG) 94min Some years after Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop and Vin Diesel in The Pacifier, Jackie Chan is the latest action star seeking to reinvent himself for a younger generation by portraying himself as a put-upon babysitter to bratty…

Old Dogs

18 Mar 2010

(PG) 88min Having earned his rubbish comedy spurs on Walt Becker’s biker comedy Wild Hogs, John Travolta returns on a fool’s errand to partner Robin Williams in the same director’s follow-up Old Dogs. Via a series of arch plot contrivances that…

Kick-Ass

18 Mar 2010

(15) 117min Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book series is a hilarious, hip twist on the superhero genre. Gone are the superpowers, the 100 inch chests and holier than thou attitude. Instead our hero is an awkward teenager, Dave…

Sean Lock lines up Kings Theatre date

10 Mar 2010

You may recently have been amused by the utterances of comic Sean Lock on Twitter where he’s been testing out his latest surrealist one-liners onto the digital public. But maybe you shouldn’t have been. ‘It’s not me,’ he counters, almost appalled at the…

US comedian Bill Burr set for Glasgow Theatre Royal date

10 Mar 2010

Dragging a heavyweight reputation across with him from the USA, world-weary Bill Burr tells Brian Donaldson that all he wants to be is a better person

5 US comics you might not have heard of at The Glasgow Comedy Festival

3 Mar 2010

Stephen Lynch. This Tony Award-nominated actor can hold a tune and make people laugh at the same time. Hence, his latest job in musical comedy. Though he views himself more as a musician than a comic, he was never set to go far wrong after penning his…

Glasgow Comedy Festival highlights

3 Mar 2010

Frankie Boyle The mighty Boyle – slapper of small animals, biter of the handicapped [imagined details, as opposed to real fact] – was clearly down the pub on the day they were dishing out the decorum lessons. Syringe-sharp, endlessly abusive but…

The Thick of It's Chris Addison plays Glasgow date

3 Mar 2010

Though these days more likely to be recognised as the perpetually put-upon Olly Reeder from The Thick of It, Chris Addison has actually been a fine stand-up talent for many years. Starting out on the comedy circuit back in 1995 in his home town of…

Tommy Tiernan kicks off Glasgow Comedy Festival

2 Mar 2010

It’s not an official launchpad for the Glasgow Comedy Festival but this opening night gig gets the 18-day extravaganza off to a pulsating flyer. On his game, there are few stand-ups alive to beat Tommy Tiernan as he possesses an intelligence and…

Over the Grump: Jenny Eclair

25 Feb 2010

Backed by a new generation of fans Jenny Eclair is arriving into the best years of her career. The Grumpy Old Women star tells Yasmin Sulaiman why she’s now returning to stand up.

If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask for One - Stewart Lee interview

25 Feb 2010

In his new show, Stewart Lee compares himself to a raft of personalities who appear to have let themselves go: Ray Liotta, Morrissey, KD Lang and Terry Christian among them. In the flesh, 41-year-old Lee might be barely recognisable from the comedic…

Carl Donnelly set for The Stand

18 Feb 2010

As a jaw-dropping introduction to the mad old world of stand-up, Carl Donnelly’s second ever gig takes some beating. When telly channel Five were putting together a typically sensitive Race Swap show, it might have seemed like a good idea at the time to…

Five Things You Might Not Know About: Stewart Lee

10 Feb 2010

While at Oxford, Lee first joined hips with Richard Herring in various revue affairs including some critically-unacclaimed jaunts to the Edinburgh Fringe in the late 80s. Al Murray was also part of that gang and later Lee would script edit the Pub…

Limmy and Rab, welcomed onto TV

3 Feb 2010

Are we actually in the midst of a halcyon period for Scottish telly comedy? Or is it easy to get carried away when, to use the vernacular of their main figureheads, two current shows aren’t actually pish. Ringing in the new is Limmy’s Show (BBC2, Mon…

Sarah Millican

3 Feb 2010

The funniest woman in Britain? If you discount Iris Robinson, then surely there’s no contest. A couple of excellent Fringe shows under her Geordie belt, Ms Millican only started telling jokes in public when she split from her husband. And from there…

Huma Dressage - Russell Kane interview

1 Feb 2010

Now we don’t want to suggest that high energy Essex-based comic Russell Kane might be accident prone, but there’s worrying evidence floating around to back up such a theory. In July of last year, just prior to Kane’s latest Fringe show, Human Dressage…

Five Things You Might Not Know About: Dave Gorman

28 Jan 2010

1 Born in sunny Stafford in 1971, Dave Gorman dropped out of Manchester Uni while studying mathematics to get into stand-up. 2 He eventually became bored of the basic set-up/punchline joke form, so set himself projects to pursue and see if comedy…

Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival

American beauties

20 Jan 2010

IT’S been a busy old year for Stand Comedy chief Tommy Sheppard. As director he enjoyed his busiest and most successful Fringe to date, and this year he’s programmed a Glasgow International Comedy Festival that is bigger and better than ever before.

Comedy DVD roundup

19 Jan 2010

They might not quite be the small screen equivalent of The Broons or Oor Wullie annuals, but live DVDs from Jimmy Carr and Russell Brand are close to becoming a festive staple. Indeed, no Christmas morning seems complete nowadays without 75-odd minutes…

First Word - Count Arthur Strong

19 Jan 2010

Radio 4’s belligerent Yorkshire thesp, Count Arthur Strong, is on the warpath with his UK tour reaching Edinburgh this month. Here he talks trousers, Hendrix and offal First record you ever bought A Victor Sylvester 78. I can’t remember the title…