Comedy, Issue 635

David O'Doherty

The Dublin comic has wooed us all down the years and it was only a matter of time before he’d do the same thing to some judging panel or other. And so it was last August when he waltzed off with what has proved to be the final ever if.comedy main prize.

Plastic Fantastic - GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra

The action figure is now a movie star. But why stop there?

It’s all come a little too late for me. It’s been a long time since I put my armless and legless Action Men (or GI Joes as they were called in America) in a shoebox and sent them back to Palitoy Ltd for repair. You could do that kind of thing in those…

The Ugly Truth

This by-the-numbers romantic comedy from director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster in Law) pairs Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, 27 Dresses) with alpha male Gerard Butler (300, PS I Love You) for a mindless run through of familiar genre…

Bruce Morton’s Pick of the Fringe

Lanky Londoner, Ava Vidal (pictured) joins the Friday night line-up at The Stand, where host Bruce Morton gives a bite-size taster portion of Fringe comedy shows going on at the other end of the M8. The Stand, Glasgow, Fri 7 Aug.

Cult Fiction Movies shop opens in Edinburgh

To a certain type of movie fan, Newington’s newly-opened Cult Fiction Movies is a magical store where a litany of grindhouse double features, BFI Classics and films from America’s Criterion Collection which remain currently unavailable on this side of…

The Bratchpieces reinvent the Humble Pub Quiz

A family guffaw

The Bratchpieces (faither Mark, elder brother David, or Bratchy and younger scion Neil, aka the Wee Man) are well known as Scotland’s only family of stand up comedians. They’ve taken that dynamic into all-Bratchpiece stage shows, and the logical next…

Five festival over-achievers

Robin Ince One can only assume that Robin Ince sits in a thick blue funk for that small portion of the day when he isn’t A) hosting a ‘lunchtime celebration of science and the wonderful’, B) being a ‘bleeding-heart liberal’ or C) opposing ‘the moral…

Alastair Sim season calls at Filmhouse

A season of films celebrating the Scottish actor

The films of (arguably) Scotland’s greatest stage and screen actor (sorry Sir Sean) are celebrated in this superb season. Things kick off with the 1954 adaptation of JB Priestley’s celebrated play An Inspector Calls with Sim masterful in the titular…

Cine Cuba

Fifty years of revolution on film

This season celebrating ‘50 Years of Revolution on Film’ hits its stride with Pavel Giroud’s ageing gangster drama Omertà and the queer politics of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Strawberry and Chocolate. Also showing later in the season are Manuel Pérez’s…

Jenny Éclair for one night only

Laughter saves lives at the Hot Pink Breakthrough Balloon Show

Funny lady Jenny Éclair will host the one-night-only premiere Hot Pink Breakthrough Balloon Show to raise money for Breast Cancer. The comedy benefit will be happening on Saturday 22 August from 3pm–5pm in the Debating Hall, in the Gilded Balloon.

Looking For Eric

Ken Loach does love, delusion and footballers

Last chance to catch Ken Loach’s pleasing comedy of love, delusion and platitude-quoting retired footballers on the big screen. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 7-Mon 10 Aug.

Kids Hitlist

Our pick of shows for the little festival goer to enjoy

Andy and Mike's Big Box of Bananas, Giraffes Can't Dance,Rapunzel and the Tower of Doom, Room on the Broom, Wind in the Willows, Patrick Monahan's Stories and Fables for Kids that like to sit at Tables!

Film: Also released

It's not all wizards and misogynistic headtrips - what else is on at the cinema? Orphan (15) 122min Diverting evil child horror from House of Wax director Jaume Collet-Serra. Grieving parents Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) decide to…

Parade

Released in 1974, the final film by the great French silent comedian Jacques Tati is a typically playful, though also extremely eloquent ending to his quarter-century film career. On the face of it nothing more than a series of circus acts compered by…

Breast in show: WitTank

Among the best new sketch acts around, WitTank are more than just a dodgy pun.

When you’re gathering up your all-shiny new comedy group, a few key questions have to be posed. Do we go for silly or scary sketches? How many members are too many? And most crucially of all, what the hell do we call ourselves? Whatever you may think of…

Mike Wozniak

Portsmouth Pole ponders perspective, pressure, penis pain

Whether you happened to be members of Mike Wozniak’s family or complete strangers, there’s a chance that on viewing his debut solo set last August, much of your time would have been spent clenching or crossing some part of your body. The Wozniaks would…

Figures of Fun

Number shows at the Festival

Brian Donaldson is counting on you to see these five numerically-challenged shows. 2 Left Hands. Acclaimed actors, writers and presenters, Leila Hackett and Charlotte Hudson return with more of their silly yet cerebral sketches, with a show entitled…

Mini Profile: Simon Munnery

He's been a fringe regular for 15 years, and lauded by Stewart Lee amongst others, but he's yet to break through into the mainstream. Just who is this hidden talent?

Comedy Hitlist

Who's making us laugh at the Fringe?

Die Roten Punkte - Robot/Lion Tour, Janeane Garofalo, Laura Solon: Rabbit Faced Story Soup, Mark Thomas: The Manifesto, Rhys Darby: It's Rhys Darby Night, WitTank

Kiosk of Champions

The words ‘Horne’ and ‘Corden’ have struck terror into those preaching good things about young comedy in this country. But Stuart Goldsmith, the Scottish National Busking Champion of 2001, sees some positives oozing out of this pus-riddled BBC3…

Top five free Fringe shows

Free Edinburgh Festival 2009

Jessica Delfino: I Wanna Be Famous She may seek fame but not if the Catholic League have their way. Boy, they’re not keen on some of her naughtier comedy tunes which she once took on her Merry Shitmas Tour. Jekyll & Hyde, 225 2022, 6–25 Aug…

Signspotting Project

Doug Lansky's comedy exhibition of accidental roadside humour is a sign of the times

Doug Lansky might be one of the world’s most respected travel writers, but he is better known as the orchestrator of The Signspotting Project, a longstanding mission to collect images of the world’s funniest road signs. This passionate quest for…

Dixie's Tupperware Party - Plastic fantastic

A ruder version of Dame Edna

Dixie Longate is not your average type of gal. She may be a street-smart, fast-talking belle these days, but life hasn’t always been so easy. Having thrown off the shackles of her trailer park existence back in 2001, she was saved by Tupperware. A life…

Water under the bridge

Former Perrier Award winners appearing at the 2009 festival

Brian Donaldson picks out a quintet of former Perrier Award winners who are appearing again this year without having to worry about all that nomination nonsense

Umbrella Birds - Retails of the unexpected

The ladies’ shop changing room is an intimate space, playing witness to bubbling neurosis and provoking many an emotional breakdown. Wobbly bums poke out from behind curtains as women twist and turn in front of the mirror suffering body dysmorphia and…