Glasgow Comedy Festival

Interview - Prof Brian Cox and Robin Ince

Two minds talk science and comedy ahead of their Uncaged Monkeys show at Edinburgh Science Festival

24 Mar 2011

Robin Ince: Am I wrong to sometimes be scared of science idiots? I presented a show about Schrödinger’s cat on Radio 4 [Schrödinger’s Quantum Kittens] and the BBC received complaints that it was broadcasting shows promoting killing cats in boxes.

Imran Yusuf - the funniest dinosaur impersonator/mock terrorist around

Comedian set for date at Glasgow Stand as part of UK tour

24 Mar 2011

Whatever he goes on to achieve in his comedy career, Imran Yusuf already has three mightily impressive entries on his CV. Last August he became the first Free Fringe act to gain a spot on an Edinburgh Comedy Award shortlist, ultimately losing out to…

The best upcoming events in Scotland in 2011

Highlights of the 2011 cultural calandar from Film, Music, Comedy, Theatre and Visual Art

3 Jan 2011

Huge gigs, inspiring theatre productions, comedy legends and two cute little waving bears – just a few of the things coming up in ‘11 that we can barely contain our excitement about

Mark Millar's Kick-Ass get the big screen superhero treatment

22 Mar 2010

How come no one has ever ‘done a Batman’? In a world full of disenfranchised youth, disillusioned loners and delusional outsiders, where superhero movies top the box office, comics sell by the bucket-load and Spider-Man is one of the biggest pop culture…

Glasgow Comedy Festival highlights

3 Mar 2010

Frankie Boyle The mighty Boyle – slapper of small animals, biter of the handicapped [imagined details, as opposed to real fact] – was clearly down the pub on the day they were dishing out the decorum lessons. Syringe-sharp, endlessly abusive but…

5 US comics you might not have heard of at The Glasgow Comedy Festival

3 Mar 2010

Stephen Lynch. This Tony Award-nominated actor can hold a tune and make people laugh at the same time. Hence, his latest job in musical comedy. Though he views himself more as a musician than a comic, he was never set to go far wrong after penning his…

The Thick of It's Chris Addison plays Glasgow date

3 Mar 2010

Though these days more likely to be recognised as the perpetually put-upon Olly Reeder from The Thick of It, Chris Addison has actually been a fine stand-up talent for many years. Starting out on the comedy circuit back in 1995 in his home town of…

Tommy Tiernan kicks off Glasgow Comedy Festival

2 Mar 2010

It’s not an official launchpad for the Glasgow Comedy Festival but this opening night gig gets the 18-day extravaganza off to a pulsating flyer. On his game, there are few stand-ups alive to beat Tommy Tiernan as he possesses an intelligence and…

If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask for One - Stewart Lee interview

25 Feb 2010

In his new show, Stewart Lee compares himself to a raft of personalities who appear to have let themselves go: Ray Liotta, Morrissey, KD Lang and Terry Christian among them. In the flesh, 41-year-old Lee might be barely recognisable from the comedic…

Over the Grump: Jenny Eclair

25 Feb 2010

Backed by a new generation of fans Jenny Eclair is arriving into the best years of her career. The Grumpy Old Women star tells Yasmin Sulaiman why she’s now returning to stand up.

2010 preview: Great expectations

7 Jan 2010

Favourite things are ending, exciting things are beginning and old things are coming back. 2010 is already shaping up to be a thrilling year and here are the 30 good reasons why we can’t wait

Jay Lafferty

19 Mar 2009

STAND-UP A competition where the participants are at the mercy of a set of judges is by its very nature a contentious entity. In local stand-up circles, the Scottish Comedian of the Year tournament of 2007 left many people aghast at how the top three…

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…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Tell us a Joke

5 Mar 2009

Bruce Devlin ‘I’m always fascinated by the sign in the Glasgow chip shop: ‘Jack McPhee, Fresh From The Sea. ’Since when did a sausage come from the sea?’ Mark Nelson ‘I recently asked my girlfriend to role play as a nurse. She’s taken it a bit…

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…

Glasgow Comedy Festival

1 Mar 2009

More than most of the big names appearing at this year’s Glasgow International Comedy Festival, Dublin-born Ed Byrne knows how to work a Glaswegian crowd. He did, after all, used to go to the University of Strathclyde in the city (to study horticulture…

Comedy Festival update

19 Feb 2009

Magner’s Glasgow International Comedy Festival has announced a second night for Gavin and Stacey’s Rob Brydon, rescheduled from Sat 14 to Wed 25 Mar. Ed Byrne has also added a second night of his show Different Class due to popular demand. Meanwhile…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Stewart Lee

13 Mar 2008

When a stand-up is dubbed ‘a comics’ comic’, that can usually be translated into: ‘loved by his peers and critics; not quite so loved by audiences.’ Yet, when you look at the career of Stewart Lee, the adulation of comedians and journalists may have…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Omid Djalili

28 Feb 2008

There are a few things guaranteed about an Omid Djalili show. There’ll be spot-on regional accents, plentiful jokes about his Iranian roots, a slap or two in the pug ugly face of British bigotry and, the pièce de résistance, an energetic slab of…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Fat Tongue

28 Feb 2008

Never mind creating characters, pulling off original set-ups and delivering a fine punchline, the toughest thing about being in a sketch show group must be finding a decent name. You can easily picture individuals sitting for hours in a smoke-filled…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Lesbian comedians

28 Feb 2008

Stand-up comedy has always provided a platform for historically oppressed minorities. From the self-deprecatory Borscht belt humour of Mel Brooks and Rodney Dangerfield through Richard Pryor’s fearless exploration of racism to the feminist material of…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Russell Kane

28 Feb 2008

Since the age of eight he has written short stories but has never been published ‘The one creative constant I’ve always had is to write fiction. I read that you should get your rejection slips and decorate your room with them. I literally ended up…

Dame Edna to headline Glasgow comedy festival

26 Oct 2007

Dame Edna Everage is to top the bill at Glasgow’s International Comedy Festival next year in her first visit to Scotland for over a decade. ‘Wait no more my little McPossums,’ she said. ‘I’m coming back for one night only to spread my message of…

Little Howard's Kids Show

13 Mar 2007

GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL Never work with children or animals goes the surely outdated cliché. But what about an audience of children? Or a crowd of animals? Could you tell the difference? In his dual life as a grown-up’s and children’s…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Chris Addison

MISSION CONTROL

27 Feb 2007

When you look back across the shows Chris Addison has brought to the Edinburgh Fringe over the past decade it’s hard to imagine there might be a unifying idea. What link could there possibly be between Atomicity, a show about the fabric of the universe…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Limmy

CAST OF 1000s

27 Feb 2007

Isn’t the internet a remarkable thing? Where else could you find a global car boot sale, an opportunity to hunt down former schoolmates and a place to swap obscure specialist pornography in one untidy portal? And while there are men dressed in rags who…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Josie Long

ONE OF A KIND

27 Feb 2007

Whatever happened to good clean family entertainment? The oldies are right when they complain that comedy just isn’t nice anymore. That Jimmy Carr off the telly’s always bitching, and the mouth on some of the young ‘uns is frankly disgusting. You…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Laugh A Minute

LAUGH A MINUTE

27 Feb 2007

Stewart Lee Quite probably the most intelligent stand-up on the comedy circuit which means he often leaves people behind with his erudite musings. For those in tune with such convolutions, the effort is worth it. The Stand, Fri 9 Mar.

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Comedy Connection

27 Feb 2007

What made you decide to do the Glasgow Comedy Festival?