Comedy, David Pollock

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the top creatives in Scotland

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

Hot 100 2012: 29-20

Chvrches, Cora Bissett and Grant Morrison among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

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 Hot 100 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

The Bugle - Podcast of biting political humour

Sharp, incisive satirical podcast from Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver

‘Some people were born to create this technology,’ declared John Oliver to his old shock haired sparring partner Andy Zaltzman at the start of The Bugle’s last weekly edition, ‘and others were born to piss it up the wall. You and I were picked by Team B…

Hot 100 2012: 10-2

John Tiffany, Andy Murray and Luke Fowler among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Hot 100 2012: 39-30

Konx-Om-Pax, Ingleby Gallery and NVA among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Hot 100 2012: 59-50

Billy Connolly, Optimo and Kevin Bridges among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Hot 100 2012: 69-60

Rachel Sermanni, Limmy and Peter Capaldi among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Chris Difford and Norman Lovett: It's All About Me!

Squeeze singer and Red Dwarf comedian in inexplicable team-up

Quite why Chris Difford of highly-successful 70s and 80s pop group Squeeze has chosen to embellish his partial spoken word life story with the presence of miserablist comedian and former Red Dwarf actor Norman Lovett is never explained here, so we can…

Master of brutal deadpan Arj Barker returns to Fringe

US comic backs recent Flight of the Conchords role with Edinburgh show

This will be San Francisco comedian Arj Barker’s first working visit to Edinburgh in a decade, and he promises to pull out the stops for an audience which might only recently have become familiar with his work. ‘The show covers a range of topics, from…

Edinburgh Fringe show based on 7th July 2005 London bombings

Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You addresses 7/7 London attacks

Molly Naylor is nervous, she doesn’t mind admitting. That’s partly because her first ever one-woman Edinburgh Fringe show is nearing the end of its rehearsal period when I speak to her, and is about to be unleashed upon preview audiences within a matter…

Bob Doolally's World Cup Countdown

‘It’s good to see Scotland has a presence at the World Cup this year,’ says Bob Doolally, ‘even if it’s only the haggis-flavoured World Cup crisps that Walkers are selling. I’m not so happy that they’ve started printing the English flag on Mars…

Stephen Carlin Blows the Lid Off the Whole Filthy Business

David Pollock chats to Stephen Carlin, a Scottish comic praised by the higher echelons of UK’s stand-up fraternity. So, why is he more worried about shatterproof rulers? With a title like Stephen Carlin Blows the Lid off the Whole Filthy Business, the…

Marcel Lucont

Gallic arrogance with a passion for the female

‘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.'

Alan Grant, John Wagner and Massimo Belardinelli & Ian Gibson - Ace Trucking Co. Vol.1

Born out of the 70s and 80s-mired misapprehension that CB radio talk was the vernacular of the future (let’s blame Burt Reynolds for that), this weekly 2000AD serial nevertheless became one of the British comic’s best for a while. That’s partly down to…

Profile - Paul Sinha

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…

William Sutcliffe - Whatever Makes You Happy

FAMILY COMEDY (Bloomsbury) William Sutcliffe, Edinburgh-based spouse to Maggie O’Farrell and schoolmate of Ali G, is still best known for his 1997 coming of age debut Are You Experienced? Eleven years and three more books later, his fifth novel…

Les Visiteurs - DVD review

Comedy

As the film which famously out-grossed Jurassic Park in France on its homeland release in 1993, the original Les Visiteurs holds a special place in the hearts of Francophile cinemagoers. It’s really just a reasonably fun slapstick comedy of the sort…

Francesca Martinez

The last time Francesca Martinez turned up in Edinburgh for a full Fringe run, it was a revelation in more ways than one. Her 2002 show I’mperfect introduced us to a bright young comedian whose fame has only increased to this day. Naturally, though, the…

DVD - Aaltra

BLACK COMEDY Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delépine - the writers, directors and stars of this odd but strangely heart-warming Belgian road movie - are comedians in their home country, and quite obviously blessed with the blackest and most…

Ian Pattison

Looking at the Stars (Black and White)

COMEDY DRAMA Judging by the predicaments experienced by the anti-hero of his third novel, Ian Pattison looks to be exorcising his Rab C Nesbitt ghosts. Tucker, a fortysomething one-time screenwriter, currently reading scripts to make a living, lives…