Comedy, Jay Richardson

Rising star Wayne Mazadza on comedy competitions and sidestepping stereotypes

The Harare-born, Edinburgh-based comic is appearing at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival

Wayne Mazadza writes routines to surprise his fellow comedians, ‘with unpredictable punchlines, storylines with surreal endings that really bring justice to the set-up’. Fine-tuning them for up to six months, the Harare-born, Edinburgh-based comic…

Kai Humphries on UK tour

Geordie comedian on Ross Noble's mum & touring with Daniel Sloss

Heckling is a comedian’s occupational hazard. Still, it’s an unfortunate stand-up that suffers verbal from an ex-teacher, even if, in mitigating circumstances, it’s Ross Noble’s mum. ‘Always the mischievous one at school,’ Kai Humphries explains that…

The best upcoming Scottish comedians in 2011

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

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…

Daniel Simonsen, Magnus Betnér and Carl-Einar Häckner represent Scandinavia at Fringe 2012

Decent weather, proper coffee, the joys of education, enlightenment and engaging with your fellow human being. Just some of the benefits of spending time away from the UK. But what’s the point of learning another language now that so many fine foreign…

Interview: Alan Davies brings Life Is Pain to 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

Jonathan Creek star on stand-up, therapy and Hillsborough

Prior to recording, QI’s elves flash interesting facts up on monitors for the audience. What they don’t reveal, as Alan Davies is explaining to me at a café in Highbury Corner, is that budget cuts have meant they’re now shooting two shows a day: ‘a hell…

Humphrey Ker is Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher!

Penny Dreadfuls' Humphrey Ker solo show at Edinburgh Fringe 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…

A selection of the best comedy podcasts

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

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…

'The Comedy Explorers' Alternative Comedy Club' and 'Comedy and Cocktails'

Jay Richardson talk us through the hot new comedy clubs in Glasgow

The current slow-down in gig attendances, suggesting even comedy isn't recession-proof, puts new nights under pressure to be distinctive. Two ambitious ventures launched in Glasgow recently take diametrically-opposed approaches to persuading punters…

Sanderson Jones brings his atheist church services to Glasgow

The innovative comedian is appearing as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival

Sanderson Jones is one of stand-up’s great innovators, an irrepressible ideas man. Over a predictably faltering Skype connection, the strikingly tall, bearded, sometime face of the IKEA ads, admits to occasional gremlins during a tech-comedy gig the…

Comedian John Bishop talks to us ahead of his Rollercoaster tour

The Liverpudlian has spent his year taking on charity challenges and hobnobbing with the stars

‘Two days ago I was sat with Edward Norton, Will Ferrell, Graeme Le Saux and Patrick Kielty,’ John Bishop marvels. ‘Then Edwin van der Sar joined us, then Gerard Butler. We’re having a chat and Kenny Dalglish comes over and says, "Do you want a drink?…

Marek Larwood's Edinburgh Fringe show examines own history of unfortunate roles

Erstwhile member of anarchic sketch trio We Are Klang goes solo

Down on his luck, an insecure Marek Larwood self-Googled, only to find that the top search query was ‘Marek Larwood retarded’. As one-third of the acclaimed, anarchic sketch trio We Are Klang, he’s accustomed to ‘talking ball-bag’ and ‘Gollum after he’s…

The Beta Males Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012

Cold War paranoia, a classified British space programme and morris dancing

Speaking to us collectively from mission control, The Beta Males have successfully channelled their proclivity for ‘watching bad movies and not kissing girls’, with founder member John Henry Falle accompanied by Jon Gracey, Guy Kelly and Richard Soames…

Gavin Webster brings provocatively-titled Bill Hicks Wasn't Very Good to Edinburgh Fringe

Taking a hit for slaughtering comedy’s sacred cow

‘People are already misquoting me, telling me I’m doing a show called Bill Hicks Was Fucking Rubbish,’ Gavin Webster marvels. ‘Comics are posting Facebook updates, saying, “he can’t understand much about comedy if he thinks this.”’ The occasionally…

Interview: The silent comedy of Dr Brown at 2012 Edinburgh Festival

The Californian cult comic returns to Edinburgh Fringe with Befrdfgth

‘You have to let us see you post-coital,’ orders Dr Brown, gently but firmly. ‘When you’re lying there with your lover, dude, and you’re just staring into her eyes, because you just came, you know? You’ve given her everything. You’re not hiding…

The Rubberbandits

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

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…

Interview: Comedian Vir Das at Edinburgh Festival

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

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

The Edinburgh Festival comedy shows incorporating High Art

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

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

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

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…

Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD

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

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…

David Reed: Shamblehouse

Penny Dreadfuls' David Reed brings solo show to Edinburgh Fringe 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

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…

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

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

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…

Top five late-night comedy shows at the Fringe 2010

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

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

‘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…