Comedy and Issue 639

Away we go

11 Sep 2009

After Revolutionary Road, director Sam Mendes takes a turn for the worse with this naff impersonation of an independent American comedy road movie written by publisher and memoirist Dave Eggers and his Mrs (Vendela Vida). Expectant parents Burt (John…

Miss March: Generation Penetration

11 Sep 2009

Crude American teen sex comedy (is there any other kind?) about a kid played by burgeoning talent Zach Cregger who awakens from a four-year coma to hear his once virginal high school sweetheart (Raquel Alessi) is now a centerfold in Playboy. So he and…

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3D

11 Sep 2009

Vivid and likeable animated version of Judi and Ron Barrett’s 1978 children’s book set in the town of Chewandswallow, where the weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan and Bruce Campbell give…

John Hughes - Some kind of wonderful

10 Sep 2009

John Hughes never meant much to me as a kid. Put it down to timing. I was ten when The Breakfast Club came out, the perfect age for Back to the Future, not for a bunch of high school stereotypes hanging out in detention. Sure, I liked Weird Science…

Dave Gorman back in the cycle of stand-up

3 Sep 2009

Dave Gorman rarely takes the easy route to a laugh. Having transformed the comedy landscape with his quest-based, storytelling shows, he’s back performing conventional stand-up. Except that he’s also currently cycling 50 miles a day between gigs as part…

5 things to see at: Merchant City Festival

3 Sep 2009

Kevin Bridges, Scott Agnew, Mark Nelson, Raymond Mearns, Scottish Comedian of the Year

Julie and Julia

3 Sep 2009

(12A) 123min Nora Ephron’s love affair with cookery initially surfaced in Mike Nichols’ 1986 comedy Heartburn, with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson starring in Ephron’s adaptation of her recipe book of the same name. Now Ephron and Streep have…

Hitlist: Comedy

3 Sep 2009

Billy Connolly The legend that is the Big Yin drops by to do a sold-out tour taking in several dates in the capital before doing his thing in Glasgow come October. He once did a joke about jojoba sounding a bit like October. Brilliant, it was. Usher…

Also published: Books

The comedians turn to literature this week

3 Sep 2009

Jack Dee - Thanks for Nothing, Jo Brand - Look Back in Hunger, Dara O’Briain - Tickling the English, Justin Lee Collins - Good Times, Peter Kay - Saturday Night Peter