Comedy and Profile

Interview: Isy Suttie on tea, Technotronic and Ice, Ice, Baby

Stand up comedian, actress, writer and musician

6 Jan 2012

First record you ever bought. ‘This Beat is Technotronic’ by Technotronic. Last extravagant purchase you made My Martin three-quarter-size guitar. First film you saw that really moved you Manhattan. Last lie you told I told the postman…

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…

Interview - Rob Brydon

The comic actor answers our questions ahead of the release of his autobiography, Small Man in a Book

17 Oct 2011

First record you ever bought Apart from Rupert Bear, Propaganda by Sparks. Last extravagant purchase you made A cashmere scarf. First film you saw that really moved you Barney’s Version. Last lie you told I never lie. First movie you…

Five fun facts about Ed Byrne

Some little known facts about the Irish comic's altercations with popes, Perriers and Piers Morgan

17 Oct 2011

Born in the Dublin suburb of Swords, Byrne first got involved in stand-up comedy as a horticulture student at Strathclyde University. As part of the student union, Byrne hosted pub quizzes and karaoke nights which provided him with a taste for showing…

5 Things you might not know about Alan Carr

19 Sep 2011

1 Carr’s distinctive toothy look was due to a childhood accident when he fell and banged his chin on the caravan-towing bar on a family holiday. 2 Before he got proper famous, Carr had a litany of awful-sounding temp jobs: putting shampoo in boxes…

Profile - Sebastian Koch

German star of coming-of-age Brit comedy Albatross

13 Sep 2011

Name Sebastian Koch Born Karlsruhe, Germany, May 31 1962 Background Koch has worked solidly in European films and TV for over 25 years, but it was his terrific performance in The Lives of Others (2006) that made him recognisable to cinema…

Interview - Joe Bone from Bane

The noir shows that have stalked the Edinburgh Fringe for three years

4 Aug 2011

Joe Bone is a busy man. A few years back, he created the hard-boiled character Bruce Bane in the wake of a spate of old detective movies he'd been watching. Fast forward to 2011, and Bane has taken on a life of his own, spawning three stage shows, a…

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…

Profile: Philip Seymour Hoffman, director and star of Jack Goes Boating

The much-respected actor screens his directorial debut at the EIFF

27 May 2011

Born Fairport, New York, 23 July 1967. Background Known as the ‘character actor’s character actor’, Hoffman has been a jobbing actor since the early 1990s. After playing bit parts in television shows, shorts and features, Hoffman got his breakthrough…

Five interesting things about... Dylan Moran

Irish comedian shares hometown with Tommy Tiernan and Pierce Brosnan

23 May 2011

1 Irishman Moran has been living in Edinburgh for some years now, but is originally from Navan, a small, five-lettered palindromic town, like Kivik in Sweden or Catac in Peru. Tiny it may be (according to the 2006 census, 3710 people resided there) but…

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…

Profile: Richard Ayoade

Boosh, IT Crowd and Darkplace star directs Joe Dunthorne adap Submarine

2 Mar 2011

Name Richard Ayoade Born 12 June 1977, Whipp’s Cross, London Background Best known for playing Moss in Graham Linehan ’s hit TV comedy The IT Crowd, Ayoade first came to the notice of cult comedy fans as writer, director and co-star of spoof…

Paul Foot & Noel Fielding

The comedian answers questions asked by his director.

17 Aug 2010

The List asked the surreal and brilliant Paul Foot to complete our First Word interview. Of course, he couldn’t do it normally, and invited Noel Fielding (who directed his Fringe show) to set the questions. Here are the mind-bending results How long…

5 Questions - Patrick Monahan

12 Aug 2010

Comedian Patrick Monahan (winner of the longest kids show title award) takes a break from Stories and Tales for Kids Who Can Run Faster Than Snails to answer our 5 Questions.

Moira's five ways to ensure you survive the festival

'Falkirk's hardest woman' hands out tips on surviving the Fringe

10 Aug 2010

Being on tour can be a stressful business, what with staying away from home, forgetting your lines onstage and, erm, setting off the fire alarm in the venue. Scotland’s newest stage superstar, Moira, shares her tips on how to survive a fortnight at the…

Jeremy Lion answers questions from kids

The children's entertainer answers the questions that popped into our mailbox

5 Aug 2010

Bumbling children’s entertainer Jeremy Lion has taken time out from being near-permanently soused to explore some pressing environmental issues in his new show. He’s still got time for the kids, however, and was more than happy to answer the questions…

Fringe 2010 cabaret offerings are as colourful as ever

Smoke & Mirrors, Alan Cumming and The Crack

30 Jul 2010

From pared down to jazz-hands up, this year’s variety and cabaret offerings are as colourful as ever. Anna Millar meets the makers to find out why we just can’t get enough It’s a certain man who can shimmy from club door whore to straight-talking…

Lady Carol - Malady

We asked the singing, ukelele playing, dark-humorist five questions

30 Jul 2010

This ukelele lady has an inky-black sense of humour, and can turn the sweetest of love songs into a creepy stalker anthem. Just, please, keep her away from bright light and cakes. Five words you’d use to describe your show Sad songs, silly…

Abandoman - Pic ‘n’ Mixtape

Destined to be among the Fringe’s most popular draws, rapping improvisers Abandoman have to be seen

27 Jul 2010

‘It’s lovely when a hip hop audience sees us,’ says genial frontman Rob Broderick. ‘Two lads wander out, one with a guitar, the other with an Irish accent, and you can tell they’re thinking, “this is going to be a disaster”. But then we start and they…

Radio Hoohah preview

Double act go on a twisted adventure around the airwaves

27 Jul 2010

Dubbed a ‘French and Saunders for the Facebook generation’, Octavia Mackenzie and Ashley McGuire are known in Fringe circles for their surreal spin on the everyday, from death to ‘the absurdity of Britain’s class system’ (find ‘Kensington Rhyming Slang…

Asher Treleaven - Secret Door

A comically theatrical romp against blokishness

26 Jul 2010

Via ‘the sweet filth of John Waters, the dark, strange wrongness of David Lynch’, and a near-encounter with the secret theatre for madmen, Asher Treleaven grapples with the question, ‘what maketh the man?’ This is the core of his ‘anarchic romp through…

Paradis Regained: Heartbreaker

16 Jun 2010

Matching up diminutive Gallic songstress Vanessa Paradis with hunky acting heavyweight Roman Duris may not have been an obvious fit, but the combination has proved electric. Richard Mowe talks to both actors ahead of the EIFF screening of their film…

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…

Q&A: Marcus Brigstocke of Spamalot

14 May 2010

BBC regular Marcus Brigstocke has stepped out of his usually grumpy geography teacher garb to play armour-clad Arthur in the touring production of Spamalot. Here, he talks God, Todd (Carthy) and Rod (Liddle)...

Q&A: Katy Brand

29 Apr 2010

A former theology student at Oxford, Katy Brand is now a queen of the comedy world, having scooped a captive audience through her ITV2 Big Ass Show. Here, she remembers watching My Girl and squeaking at Jay-Z...

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…

Five Things You Might Not Know About: Craig Hill

31 Mar 2010

1: A born entertainer, this East Kilbride boy’s party piece at family dos was singing Stevie Wonder’s ‘Lately’. When his relatives tried to get him to go on local radio and sing the number, he went a bit shy and refused. Very hard to imagine a bashful…

Profile: Cristian Mungiu

A look at the award winning director before his latest work, Tales From the Golden Age

22 Oct 2009

Name Cristian Mungiu Born 27 April 1968 Background The graduate of the Bucharest Film School became the first Romanian director to win the Palme d’Or with his abortion drama 4 months 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Before becoming a full-time director…

Simon Amstell

After a successful Fringe stint, the neurotic comedian returns

15 Oct 2009

Simon Amstell is gifted. Gifted with the sort of comedy head-start that many aspiring stand-ups would swap vital organs for, that is. As a Jewish, gay, hapless, neurotic, slender whippet of a thing, with a tendency to stalk famous people he fancies, his…

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…

Daliso Chaponda

The Malawian born comedian offers cultural ponderings in Glasgow

17 Sep 2009

After snuffling around a myriad of shows on the Fringe this year, witnessing Daliso Chaponda was like finding a truffle. One of the few acts playing The Lot on Grassmarket, his hour, Westerners Calm Down: An African’s Perspective, was an intelligent…

5 Questions: Terry Alderton

Terry Alderton once played in goals for Southend FC before turning to comedy. There’s nothing in our

26 Aug 2009

What five words best describes your show this year? No format, just full on. Can you name a comic who should be more famous than they are now why? Me. What bugs or delights you most about Edinburgh in August? The weather bugs me; it…

Jazz Hans

The highly strung Dutch star Hans Teeuwen has quit comedy back home to bamboozle UK audiences

6 Aug 2009

In Holland, Hans Teeuwen is such a legendary entertainment figure that grown men imitate his comedy routines to the point of driving their daughters mad. Or at least that’s the plot of Just Hans, a forthcoming Dutch film in which Teeuwen appears as a…

Mike Wozniak

Portsmouth Pole ponders perspective, pressure, penis pain

29 Jul 2009

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…

Mini Profile: Simon Munnery

29 Jul 2009

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?

Kiosk of Champions

29 Jul 2009

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…

Laura Solon: Bunny Girl

The last ever Perrier winner returns to the Fringe

24 Jul 2009

As a comedian who performs with a great deal of poise and has a taut, controlled quality about her, I wonder if Laura Solon is going to prove a somewhat distant subject for interview. My apprehension is soon dispelled in our small talk during which she…

Taking flight: Rhys Darby

Free from managing New Zealand's third hottest folk-comedy duo - Darby returns

24 Jul 2009

It’s 9am New Zealand time when Rhys Darby answers the phone. His three-year-old son had just left for day care, and finding the house suddenly peaceful again, Darby was signing up for Twitter. ‘I wasn’t planning on doing Twitter,’ he explains, those…

The beast in Philberto

24 Jul 2009

Portugal’s reality TV legend Philberto is gracing us with his presence while exploring his inner animal this Fringe. Here he picks his top five reality stars

Serf abuse: Jamie Kilstein

The US firebrand comic on mixing politics with comedy

24 Jul 2009

If you haven’t yet, it’s probably time to start getting excited about Jamie Kilstein. For a while, the American has been the comedian that other comedians get excited about: beloved beardie stand-up Daniel Kitson called Kilstein one of 2009’s Edinburgh…

Rebel With a Cause - Jack Whitehall

He's fresh out of his teens, and already onto our screens. Mum still does his washing though.

24 Jul 2009

Given the small screen and stage swagger and poise of Jack Whitehall, it’s hard to believe that this bright young thing of comedy still lives at home with his parents. This startling fact will be centre stage of his debut solo Fringe show, Nearly…

Patrick Monahan

Family-friendly performer exploring our differences

24 Jul 2009

‘My mum’s Iranian, my dad’s Irish and I’m the only one in my house with a northern accent,’ says Teessider Patrick Monahan, explaining how he’s spent his whole life trying to ‘fit in’. Even now, preparing for his eighth year at the Edinburgh Fringe…

Adams and Rea

Well-mannered but occasionally naughty musical pair

24 Jul 2009

‘I do like to get down,’ confesses Leisa Rea, half of the warmly surreal double act, Adams and Rea. ‘So there’s more of my salacious dancing this year,’ she says, referring to their cult internet hit, ‘Stick it in Me Bin’, an anti-litter ragga rant…

Alex and Helen's Radio Nowhere

Footlights duo with Facebook-inspired character tale

24 Jul 2009

Alex and Helen are naive. Their plan to find stardom by broadcasting a radio show to a hamlet of only ten people forms the basis for Alex and Helen’s Radio Nowhere, which, as the writers/performers explain, is off the map in more ways than one. ‘They’re…

Clever Peter

Rude sketch troupe sticking eggs into the appropriate baskets

24 Jul 2009

Despite a widely praised debut, the thrusting chaps of sketch troupe Clever Peter are back at the Fringe with greater ambition, tighter writing and less sexual gratuity, if not crudity. Dental torture and primate anal rape are the abiding memories of…

Marcel Lucont

Gallic arrogance with a passion for the female

24 Jul 2009

‘I am France’s premiere misanthropist and lover,’ persuades Marcel Lucont. ‘You can expect everything that’s important to be covered in my show. Life, love, sex, death, cheese, wine.'

Edward Aczel

Solving the world’s woes in a pleasingly shambolic way

24 Jul 2009

Having performed essentially the same critically-acclaimed non-show for the last two years, anti-comic Edward Aczel is planning something a little different for this Fringe, as he ambitiously Explains All the World’s Problems … And Then Solves Them.

An Hour to Sing fo Your Soul - Kevin Bridges' stand-up show

23 Jul 2009

When comics make their Fringe debuts, many of them are hell-bent on working up the biggest theme their minds and mouths can maintain over the course of an hour. Not such manufactured tosh for a guy like Kevin Bridges, the latest in a long line of great…

Man for all seasons - Phil Nichol at the Fringe

Mark Fisher finds Phil Nichol mining two rich seams of comedy at this year’s Fringe

23 Jul 2009

One is a Restoration farce typically performed by seasoned rep actors on grand proscenium-arch stages. The other is a scabrous heist comedy in which a middle-management executive is kidnapped in a Fife factory.

Surviving the Fringe - Richard Fry

23 Jul 2009

Fringe veteran Richard Fry is performing in a pair of shows in Edinburgh this year. Here he gives up his essential guide to surviving the world’s biggest arts festival

5 Things You Might Not Know About: Janey Godley

23 Jul 2009

1 Having run a pub in Glasgow, Janey Godley was born to tame wild audiences and a stand-up career beckoned. But as well as her progression on comedy stages, she’s a playwright, serial blogger and community worker, having helped kids in drug-rampant…

Edinburgh Festival comedy highlights for a fiver

15 Jul 2009

Ooh, a Fringe in a credit crunch. It’ll be interesting times for all this year, but if you get in quick you can catch some of the best acts in exchange for a mere fiver. We’ve selected fifty of the finest shows you can see for the price of a…

Crying with Laughter

25 Jun 2009

The hot ticket among the Scottish films screening at the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival is Justin Molotnikov’s Crying with Laughter, a thriller starring Scotland’s Stephen McCole. Familiar from roles in Wes Anderson’s high school comedy…

Seymour Mace

25 Jun 2009

In these serious times, comedy can be seen as a force of salvation for those finding life tough. Their choice of fun-seeking though may be informed by the exact feeling desired at the end of a show. If you want a comedy gig in which your political…

5 Things You Might Know About: Jan Ravens

25 Jun 2009

1 An esteemed alumni of Cambridge Footlights, Cheshire-born Jan Ravens was doing sketchy stuff for them in the years which included the likes of Clive Anderson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Douglas Adams. She clearly had something a…

Matt Kirshen

25 Jun 2009

He might look like a little boy lost but the Cambridge graduate in Mathematics quickly worked out that stand-up was to be the tough old game he should be earning his crust in. An impressive showing in US talent show Last Comic Standing in 2007 earned…

5 things you might not know about…Russell Howard

11 Jun 2009

1 Having made a steady name for himself with shows such as Skylarking, Adventures and Wandering, to become an Edinburgh Fringe staple, the Bristolian comic announced last year that he would no longer be doing the August sweatboxes. He felt bad at the…

Will Andrews

11 Jun 2009

Although he first tried stand-up as a 17-year-old in Newcastle, Zimbabwe-born Will Andrews established his comedic reputation in Scotland. Performing live as his alter-ego Tony Carter, a dole-sponging Geordie on a government retraining scheme, he…

First Word: Miles Jupp

30 Apr 2009

First record you ever bought? The first LP I bought was Tony Hancock’s ‘The Blood Donor’. The first piece of music was possibly Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’. I think I bought that at a fête when I was about seven, I’m not sure why. I’ve…

First Word: Chris Addison

16 Apr 2009

First record you ever bought ‘You Can Call Me Al’, Paul Simon. Fall at my feet, ye tastemakers. Last time you were chatted up My wife was very complimentary when asking me to put the kettle on the other day. Is that the sort of thing? First…

Larry Charles: Beyond Belief

2 Apr 2009

‘The controversy of people standing in front of a theatre with placards means nothing to me,’ announces Larry Charles. The Borat director and US comedy colossus, famed for his creative input into genre-redefining TV shows Seinfeld and Curb Your…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Rob Brydon

5 Mar 2009

For the laughter Under the Bruce Forsyth jawline and what he describes as ‘Olympic acne’ the man just has funny bones. Fact. In Brydon’s world, the losers are the real heroes. The pathetic, the blissfully irony-free, the nice guy that always…

First Word - David O'Doherty

5 Mar 2009

First record you ever bought I got Thriller for my Communion, but my first actual purchase was the 7in single of Roland Rat’s ‘Rat Rappin’ when I was six. Last time you were chatted up I can’t remember the last time. Although I get asked if…

Profile - Rhod Gilbert

5 Mar 2009

Name Rhod Gilbert Who’s he? He’s the Welsh comic who created a fictional village of Llanbobl for his early solo Fringe shows. Prior to his solo success, he was one half of the Stereocomics, the other half containing Mark Watson. Who’s not actually…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Joanna Neary

5 Mar 2009

When character comic Joanna Neary worked as a nanny in a previous life, she didn’t let the job stop her imagination running wild. One boy she took to school would be entertained by stories of how he lived in a house where the food would come out of the…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - The Penny Dreadfuls

5 Mar 2009

Conspiring in the darkest bowels of BBC’s Henry Wood House in London, three earnest young men, exemplars of aggressive Victorian ambition, are hatching a dastardly, somewhat far-fetched plot to conquer Edinburgh this August. Beginning with sorties into…

Interview: Anvil - The Story of Anvil

19 Feb 2009

You’ve probably never heard of Anvil, but bands like Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax all cite them as an influence. Formed by childhood friends Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow (on vocals and guitar) and drummer Robb Reiner in 1973, they tasted success in the 80s with…

Profile: Tony Vino

19 Feb 2009

Who’s he then? Tony Vino has been doing comedy since 2005, making the final of the Funny Bones competition a year later against the likes of Wendy Wason and Bethany Black with one Jay Ryan coming out on top. He’s resident compere of Just Fair Laughs, a…

Armando Iannucci - Comedy of Errors

5 Feb 2009

Armando Iannucci has a ringing in his ears. He’s just back from the Sundance Film Festival in the States where his debut feature film as writer and director, In the Loop, had its world premiere. The film’s reception was so overwhelmingly positive that…

Profile - James Dowdeswell

5 Feb 2009

Name: James Dowdeswell Who’s he then? This West Country lad has been on the gigging circuit since the turn of the century, and has a few Fringe shows under his belt, including the critically quaffed Wine from 2007 in which he threw a banana skin…

Profile - Ava Vidal

22 Jan 2009

Name Ava Vidal Who’s she then? Possibly the tallest female comic on the circuit, 6ft plus Ava Vidal is a cool and composed performer with an intriguing past. A teenage mum, she earned a living as a prison officer before turning to stand-up, a move…

Jason Cook

13 Nov 2008

Jason Cook is a happy man. Today, he cheerfully tells me, he has purchased a new Xbox game. But Cook has other reasons to feel upbeat; his 2007 début fringe show My Confessions was a critical hit and was successfully followed by a show about happiness…

Tom Stade

13 Nov 2008

With arguably the finest Fringe show name of 2008 (Oh Fuck, Do We Need a Title, Too?), this Canadian comic gave us a sharp, bitter set concerning the oppression of marriage and his relationship to drink and drugs. A shady treat is in store.

Dylan Moran

Good stock

30 Oct 2008

Despite the current economic doom and gloom, or more likely because of it, live comedy is booming, with a host of big names currently touring the UK. And while luminaries like the Mighty Boosh, Sarah Silverman, Steve Coogan and Lee Evans have recently…

Simon Day

30 Oct 2008

From white rapper to alcoholic car salesman, Simon Day has taken on a wide and varied range of comedy personas over the years - most famously getting us giggling with his hilarious skits on successful sketch show The Fast Show. But he's tired of only…

Profile - Paul Sinha

2 Oct 2008

1 The doctor is out He is indeed. Sinha might not be the UK’s only gay GP, but he is the world’s only gay Bengali GP who moonlights as a stand-up comic. This situation, as you might imagine, gives him plenty of material to go on. 2 He’s a Fringe…

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…

Louis CK

Domestic policy

14 Aug 2008

Championed by Ricky Gervais, loved by late-night US TV and censored by his wife, Louis CK is preparing to launch his brand of outrageous confessional comedy on the UK. Claire Prentice finds out just how far he's prepared to go. Louis CK is driving…

Russell Howard

Beat surrender

14 Aug 2008

Russell Howard can't resist a spot of testicular tomfoolery but, he tells Jay Richardson, his new act is less Buster Gonad than Jack Kerouac With his infectious, wide-eyed optimism currently offering a counterbalance to Frankie Boyle's unflinching…

'It’s a comedy colonic!' - David O’Doherty

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

Jay Richardson meets David O’Doherty, the mild-mannered comic whose musical musings and offbeat observations have won him a legion of indie followers. This year he’ll be feeding his insomnia by entertaining kids and adults alike As an award-winning…

Mick Sergeant

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

Touted as the next Steve Coogan, this year marks the first solo show for character comic Lee Fenwick who has previously delighted Fringe crowds as one half of spoof German techno band Die Clatterschenkenfietermaus. For his debut, Fenwick is presenting…

Death in Benes - Carol Leifer

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

Having been convinced that playing a Fringe show in the late afternoon is no bad thing, US comic and Seinfeld muse Carol Leifer is now getting excited about her Edinburgh August. Julian Hall makes sure he doesn’t mention the ‘E’ word You may not know…

Omid Djalili

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

There are several downsides to modern fame. Being hassled in the street by ordinary people and getting hunted down by paparazzi when hanging out the washing are just two celebrity negatives. Having chirpy researchers from celebrity TV shows ringing up…

Saturday’s child - Tina Fey - Baby Mama

17 Jul 2008

America’s newest great comedy phenomenon is Tina Fey. Eddie Harrison uncovers the comic genius in her first big screen adventure, Baby Mama

Profile - Mark Olver

17 Jul 2008

Who’s this fella, then? Having first taken to the mic in 1998, Mark Olver is among that triptych of fine young comics from the west country, which also includes Russell Howard and Wil Hodgson. His style is more conversational than Hodgson’s and less…

Owen O'Neill

17 Jul 2008

STAND-UP The Stand, Edinburgh, Thu 17 Jul An award-winning playwright, poet and subscriber to the theory that redheads are genetic ‘mutants’ (having conducted the required research for a BBC documentary), Owen O’Neill was one of the first Irishmen…

Profile - John Gordillo

3 Jul 2008

Name: John Gordillo Who’s this fella, then? You may have seen the name ‘John Gordillo’ somewhere in your house, but perhaps you just can’t quite place it. No, it’s not the name of a brand new kitchen product (the ‘Gordillo grill’ does have a certain…

Profile - Wendy Wason

5 Jun 2008

Name Wendy Wason Who’s she then? An Edinburgh lass, she was educated at George Watson’s before heading west to attend Glasgow Uni. She got into acting and took roles in Taggart, High Road and some ads before dipping her toes in the film world with…

Eilidh MacAskill and her Daily Ukulele Ceilidh

8 May 2008

MUSICAL COMEDY Last year, one woman set out on an incredible journey. There were tears. There was laughter. There were good times, there were bad, and there were midnight YouTube sessions in front of her cat, as Eilidh MacAskill attempted a…

Profile - Dave Ward

4 Jan 2008

Who’s he then? A self-confessed fibber, Dave Ward has gone through quite a few career shifts. He’s been a professional golfer and a waiter at a celebrity hang-out, before spending a period of time behind bars due to his extreme gambling addictions. At…

Profile - The Wee Man

29 Nov 2007

Who’s he then? Creation of Neil Bratchpiece, smallest comedy member of the not very tall Bratchpiece Family, The Wee Man is a pure wee basturt Burberry fiend whose stage demeanour ranges wildly from quite threatening to really very threatening…

Profile - Matt Berry

15 Nov 2007

Who’s he then? You may recognise Matt Berry from his role as aristo explorer type Dixon Bainbridge in The Mighty Boosh or for his parts in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and the recent second series of The IT Crowd. No, there’s somewhere else... Then…

Michelle Monaghan

4 Oct 2007

Background Monaghan studied journalism for three years at Columbia College in Chicago. To earn pocket money she worked as a model and ditched the typewriter to work as a fashion model when she quit her studies. What’s she up to now? Having…

Profile - Joe Rogan

20 Sep 2007

Name? Joe Rogan Who’s this guy then? Just having passed his 40th birthday, Rogan has built a successful career as an outspoken comic in the Doug Stanhope-ranting vein and has even landed himself the odd TV gig such as being the host of Fear Factor.

Franz Kafka Big Band

2 Jul 2007

RADIO SHOW There’s no such thing as bad publicity, as the old adage more or less goes. So, when the papers got wind of the Franz Kafka Big Band’s proposed radio sketches, the most controversial of which was dreaming up a scenario where Rolf Harris…

Peter Powers

Profile

2 Jul 2007

Name Peter Powers Who’s he then? Dubbed as a ‘hipnotist’ and the ‘Ali G of stage hypnotism’, he has the ability (or, I suppose, power) to have a man standing about in women’s underwear or find a cure for the most acute of phobias. His TV work…

Hitlist - The best comedy

2 Jul 2007

• Improbabble The crazy gang brings us some more games and skits and general larking about in their own inimitable Whose Line Is It stylee. The Brunswick Hotel, Glasgow, Fri 6, 13 Jul. • Jo Caulfield One of the more solid performers on the circuit…

Profile - Heresy

Profile

9 Apr 2007

What’s that then? Every Thursday the Jekyll & Hyde basement on Edinburgh’s Hanover Street is host to a censor-free night of comedic devilment. Ooh, that sounds cheeky It is indeed. Resident MC Rick Molland (pictured) touts the proceedings as a ‘dark and…

Profile - Keir McAllister

Profile

26 Mar 2007

Name Keir McAllister Who’s he then? This Glasgow-born comic has been performing since 2004 when he entered a stand-up competition in Dundee, only to go on and win the darned thing. He has worked closely with Paul Pirie (runner-up in the Scottish…