Comedy and Jay Richardson

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…

A selection of the best comedy podcasts

Free comedy from Robin Ince, Richard Herring, Andrew Collins and Marc Maron

19 Nov 2010

The explosion in free podcasts has been a boon for comedy fans, delivering intimate interviews, topical improv and experimental sketch shows, all the while plugging audiences directly into the psyches of their favourite stand-ups. US comic Marc Maron’s…

Russell Howard

18 Oct 2007

A regular panellist on BBC2’s Mock the Week, with a Sunday morning radio show and an if.comeddie nomination to his name, Russell Howard recently played the biggest gig of his life, and at 27, his comedy future seems assured. ‘We just almost crashed on…

The best upcoming Scottish comedians in 2011

James Kirk, Chris Forbes, Dee Custance, Davey Connor, Antony Murray

7 Mar 2011

Overlooking the cosmopolitanism of Glasgow’s International Comedy Festival, The List invited five of the best upcoming Scottish comedians to the Stand for a light-hearted debate about the psychological trauma of making drunks laugh on demand. James…

Neil Hamburger descends upon the Fringe with a surprise for his critics

Controversial stand-up talks Tenacious D, hecklers and Mel Gibson

5 Aug 2010

With a characteristically phlegmy cough, Neil Hamburger clears his throat and recalls his last Scottish gig, opening for Tenacious D in Glasgow. ‘I sure got a lot off my chest there,’ he reminisces. ‘Though of course, they got even more off because they…

Des Bishop tells his father's near miss story at Fringe 2010

Irish-American comic presents My Dad Was Nearly James Bond

29 Jul 2010

Des Bishop has wanted to tell his father’s story for a long time. The former model and actor, who had bit parts in Zulu and Day of the Triffids, narrowly lost out to George Lazenby for the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. After…

Stewart Francis hits the Stand

7 Jan 2010

Stewart Francis used to open his set with, ‘Don’t worry, I haven’t heard of you either.’ Between hosting schlocky gameshow You Bet Your Ass in his native Canada, then moving to Spain, his memorable one-liners were an itinerant treat on the UK circuit to…

Interview: Comedian Vir Das at Edinburgh Festival

Household name in India brings show Walking On Broken Das to Fringe

9 Aug 2011

A Harvard graduate and gross-out film star, Vir Das is a household name in India. Jay Richardson met him on his home turf before he tests himself at the Fringe

Humphrey Ker is Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher!

Penny Dreadfuls' Humphrey Ker solo show at Edinburgh Fringe 2011

6 Jul 2011

With a title like Humphrey Ker is Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher!, you might imagine that his show is a Boche-bashing, Boy’s Own-style romp in which our hero takes on Hitler’s war machine. And you’d be right. But it’s also based on the real-life exploits…

Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD

Penny Dreadfuls' Thom Tuck's 2011 Edinburgh show examines Disney sequels

6 Jul 2011

Just as the emotional yearning of The Little Mermaid reinvigorated animated cinema on its release in 1989, Thom Tuck hopes his analysis of that movie’s follow-ups, plus various other Disney sequels, spin-offs and shameless House of Mouse cash-ins has a…

The Swedish and Norwegian comics hitting the Edinburgh Fringe

Magnus Betnér, Dag Sørås and Lasse Nilsen head up Scandinavian invasion

16 Jul 2010

Magnus Betnér is leading a charge of the Swedish and Norwegian stand-ups playing the Fringe. Jay Richardson meets those who are raising the bar of north European comedy

Tim Minchin: Ready For This?

The Australian musical comedian returns to Scotland

1 Oct 2009

I’ve interviewed Tim Minchin several times, but never in the surprisingly big, hairy and hungover flesh before. ‘I’m totally comfortable on stage but I like to appear discomforted and vulnerable because it works with my material. I’m surprised how…

Ross Noble - Things Change

19 Mar 2009

Despite just losing his farm in Australia to the recent bush fires and flying into the UK on the morning of this interview, Ross Noble maintains he’s completely primed for questioning. ‘Oh, wait, I’ve put too much pressure on myself,’ the Geordie comic…

Janey Godley

28 Feb 2008

STAND-UP Jongleurs, Glasgow, Thu 28 Mar; The Garage, Glasgow, Thu 6 Mar; Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 9 Mar ‘I read an article about Josie Long and Kristen Schaal saying, “Isn’t it lovely that female comedians are returning to being quirky and nice?”…

A Light-Hearted Look at Murder

16 Jul 2007

BLACK COMEDY MARK WATSON A Light-Hearted Look at Murder (Chatto & Windus) (Image: © Emilie Fjola Sandy) Mark Watson has been described as ‘a Will Self with dignity’. Admittedly, it was in his spoof biography for the BBC2 comedy Time…

The Rubberbandits

The musical comedy pranksters are coming to Glasgow, and they've got a horse outside

15 Nov 2011

Last year, they just missed out on the Christmas number one in their native Ireland, with the brilliant ‘Horse Outside’ notching over 8m views on YouTube (see below). And now gangster rap scamps The Rubberbandits are filming a series of online sketches…

The Edinburgh Festival comedy shows incorporating High Art

Hannah Gadsby, The Horne Section, New Art Club and Vikki Stone

29 Jul 2011

Sean Lock once likened media coverage of comedians to that of strippers, none too respectful of something that involved divesting so much. Despite comedy’s current boom, scrutiny still tends to focus on comics’ television careers or transgressions…

Frisky and Mannish interview - Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

Infectious pop parodies via the twisted side streets of camp cabaret

8 Jul 2011

It has often been remarked that in times of recession, we all seek reassurance from flamboyant pop parody duos. Hence the buzz around Frisky and Mannish's creation for the 2011 Fringe, Pop Centre Plus, which after School of Pop and The College…

Tom Green interview - Canadian comedian brings stand-up show to Edinburgh

Shock humour actor from internet show and Freddy Got Fingered

6 Jul 2011

When the bestiality-heavy, incest-evoking, gross-out cult Freddy Got Fingered won Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst On-Screen Couple at the Golden Raspberry Awards, Tom Green became the first actor in history to…

David Reed: Shamblehouse

Penny Dreadfuls' David Reed brings solo show to Edinburgh Fringe 2011

6 Jul 2011

‘It’s not the best PR being called “the middle one”, is it? “The most castable one”? “The handsome one”, would you say? “The funny one” would be good, wouldn’t it?’ David Reed is giving his profile some thought. The Yorkshireman seems to have cynically…

John Cleese - interview

The legendary ex-Python talks to us ahead of his wide-ranging Alimony Tour

23 May 2011

Condemned to perform until he dies, till he is an ex-Python, till he has ceased to be, John Cleese is remarkably sanguine about his current Alimony Tour, necessitated by the comedy legend’s $20m divorce from his third wife. A retrospective of his life…

Top five late-night comedy shows at the Fringe 2010

Late ‘n’ Live, Lach’s Antihoot and Spank! deliver the goods past midnight

4 Aug 2010

Late ‘n’ Live Still one of August’s hottest tickets, this booze-fuelled behemoth of a night retains less of the volatile anarchy of its Cowgate heyday. Nevertheless, it remains a tremendous opportunity to see some of the festival’s best comics in a…

Sketch team Delete the Banjax return after success of 2009

Word-of-mouth comedy hit of 2009 return for more

29 Jul 2010

‘We came up with a bit of a reputation and it just went off!’ recalls Sam Champion, in a pub similar to the Free Fringe Royal Mile watering hole where Delete the Banjax established themselves last year. ‘We loved doing the Free Fringe and agreed with…

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…

Stewart Lee - How I Escaped My Certain Fate

23 Jul 2010

(Faber) Like Ezra Pound’s notes on The Waste Land if they’d been more cutting, self-critical and in awe of Johnny Vegas, Stewart Lee here transcribes and annotates the three stand-up shows that brought him back from disillusioned retirement in 2001…