Profile

Profile - Orlando Voorn

2 Oct 2008

Name: Orlando Voorn Occupation: Pioneer of Dutch techno, whose early obsessions with electro and hip hop turned into a love affair with the Detroit sound at the end of the 80s. The Detroit sound? So we aren’t talking your stereotypical ‘tops…

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…

Profile - Ulrich Seidl

2 Oct 2008

Name Ulrich Seidl Born November 24, 1952, Vienna Background A graduate of the Vienna Film Academy, Seidl spent the first 20 years of his career making a series of controversial ‘documentaries’ for television, including Animal Love (which Werner…

Profile - Armin van Buuren

18 Sep 2008

Name: Armin van Buuren Occupation: The reigning number one DJ in the world, if you believe the readers of DJ magazine. But of course, you don’t get to such a pinnacle of global popularity these days without playing trance somewhere in your set, and…

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…

Profile: Saul Dibb

4 Sep 2008

Name: Saul Dibb, Born: London, England, 1968. Background: Dibb started his career working on documentaries. Lifters followed a group of shoplifters and 2003’s Easy Money detailed the life of a couple working in the porn industry. He also worked as a…

Profile - Paul Woolford

21 Aug 2008

Name Paul Woolford Also known as Bobby Peru (also Willem Defoe’s character in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart), Hip Therapist (just a pun, really) and more. Occupation ‘Picking the cultural zeitgeist like a bogey’, says his MySpace headline. Ick. We…

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…

Profile - Antonio Forcione

7 Aug 2008

Name Antonio Forcione Occupation ‘The Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar’. What does that involve? Being unutterably talented. The rags-to-riches tale of Forcione busking in Covent Garden while unable to speak English is romantic; it was…

Profile - Gurinder Chadha

31 Jul 2008

Name Gurinder Chadha Born Nairobi, 1960 Background Born in Kenya but raised in England, Chadha began her career as a BBC news reporter, breaking into directing with the 1989 documentary I’m British But . . ., focusing on the life and culture of…

'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

In Which They Serve

17 Jul 2008

The British Film Institute’s re-release of the rarely seen and now beautifully restored David Lean film The Passionate Friends is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the celebration of the centenary of the great British filmmaker’s birth. In…

Pornography - Simon Stephens interview

Shock values - Traverse Theatre

17 Jul 2008

As the Traverse embarks on its first Edinburgh Festival Fringe season under the artistic directorship of Dominic Hill, Steve Cramer talks to acclaimed dramatist Simon Stephens, writer of Pornography, about 7/7 and a new definition of the pornographic

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…

Exposure - Gin Goblins

17 Jul 2008

Gin Goblins are Edinburgh punk legends, having delivered a unique brand of schlocky horror doom hardcore for the last 16 years. When The Horrors were still in short pants, Gin Goblins were getting victimised by Scottish tabloids and banned from…

Overarching drive - Jackie Wylie new artistic director of the Arches

17 Jul 2008

It’s been less than a week since Jackie Wylie was appointed artistic director of the Arches (bringing the grand total of women in that position in Scottish theatre up to three), but the 28-year-old has already jumped in with both feet. ‘I’m excited.

Kenny Hunter: A Shout in the Street

17 Jul 2008

Following the popular success of such major works as Citizen Firefighter and Girl with Rucksack , Edinburgh-born Kenny Hunter returns to showcase his works in Scotland after a hiatus of over four years. Both new and reworked sculptural pieces, as well…

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 - Andrea Parker

3 Jul 2008

Name: Andrea Parker Occupation: Sister, doing it for herself. Doing what, exactly? Building and maintaining a reputation and currently moving swiftly towards the status of ‘esteemed’ with a career in leftfield electronica that stretches back a…

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 - Marco Bailey & Percy X

19 Jun 2008

Names Marco Bailey & Percy X Who that? Bailey is Belgium’s premier techno DJ/producer and CEO of record label MB Selektions. Percy X is Glasgow’s own Soma stalwart, also a DJ/producer, again fronting his own label edit-select. What’s the story?

Profile - Marco Bailey and Percy X

19 Jun 2008

Names Marco Bailey & Percy X Who that? Bailey is Belgium’s premier techno DJ/producer and CEO of record label MB Selektions. Percy X is Glasgow’s own Soma stalwart, also a DJ/producer, again fronting his own label edit-select. What’s the story?

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…

Profile - Pierre Salvadori

5 Jun 2008

Name Pierre Salvadori Born Tunisia, 1964 Background A former actor and TV sitcom writer, Salvadori made his feature debut with Wild Target in 1993, a deadpan farce concerning a middle-aged hit man (Jean Rochefort) and his young apprentice…

Profile - Booka Shade

22 May 2008

Name Booka Shade Also known as Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier. Occupation Ever-increasingly fashionable Frankfurt electro-house duo, who wrap a measure of typically Teutonic electronic austerity in an often glossy disco-house sheen.

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 - Cajmere

8 May 2008

Name Cajmere Also known as Green Velvet, Curtis Jones (his real name), many others. Occupation Godfather of what broadly, briefly, became the electroclash sound, alongside Felix Da Housecat, Fischerspooner, Larry Tee, etc. Recently rediscovered…

Profile - Gus Van Sant

24 Apr 2008

PROFILE Suzanne Black considers the work of one of Queer cinema’s great auteurs as two of his key films are released on DVD Gus Van Sant is one of a handful of directors to have crossed from arthouse credibility to mainstream pennies and back again.

Profile - Park Chan-wook

24 Apr 2008

Name Park Chan-wook Born 23 August, 1963, Jecheon, South Korea Background While studying philosophy at Sogang University in Seoul Park started a ‘cine-club’ showing films to the students. Then, one day he played Vertigo and it all fell into…

Film Season - Marcello Mastroianni

10 Apr 2008

The son of a carpenter, Mastroianni trained as a draughtsman and served time in a Nazi labour camp during the war. Upon his release, he became involved in amateur dramatics. He made his film début in Riccardo Fredda’s I Miserabili (1948) and, at around…

Profile - Jaume Balagueró

10 Apr 2008

Name Jaume Balagueró Born 2 November 1968, Lleida, Spain Background Having studied media at university in Barcelona, Balagueró worked in radio before cutting his filmmaking teeth on several shorts. His feature film debut came in 1999 with an…

Profile - Krisztina Goda

27 Mar 2008

Name Krisztina Goda Born Budapest, 1970 Background Having grown up in Budapest, where both her parents were doctors, Goda studied directing and editing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, and then won a scholarship to…

Profile - Michael Pitt

27 Mar 2008

Name Michael Pitt Born 10 April 1981, West Orange, New Jersey Background Having moved to New York City aged 16, studied drama, appeared on stage, and been talent-spotted for a part in the TV drama Dawson’s Creek, boyishly pretty Pitt wasted no…

Profile - Hospital Records

13 Mar 2008

Name Hospital Records Occupation Record Label Location West London, UK OK, give me the brief Hospital Records was started by Tony Colman and Chris Goss back in 1996. Today it has grown to be one of the most successful independent labels in…

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 - James Schamus

4 Jan 2008

Name James Schamus Born 7 September 1959, Detroit, Michigan, US. Background Almost uniquely in American filmmaking, Schamus is both an Oscar-nominated writer/producer and a movie executive. In 1991 he co-founded the production outfit Good…

Profile - Laurent Garnier

29 Nov 2007

Name Laurent Garnier Who? Techno DJ and producer Laurent Garnier is one of France’s most successful musical exports. Beginning as a Madchester house DJ he has gone on to rise to the giddy heights of a hugely in-demand globe-trotter, lugging his…

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 - Rigoberto Castaneda

29 Nov 2007

Name Rigoberto Castaneda Born 27 February 1973, Mexico City Background Castaneda was working as a runner in a production house in Mexico City when he was given a book about Alfred Hitchcock and was inspired to take a course in filmmaking. Having…

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…

Profile - The Mighty Tabot Sound System

1 Nov 2007

Name The Mighty Tabot Sound System Who? London/Wolverhampton dub and roots soundsystem featuring dub plate builder Ras Muffet, Ras Gabre on the mic and Ras Kinfe working the system. Ras Muffet was part of Jah Shaka’s crew back in the 70s, supplied…

Tom Phillips

Big picture

1 Nov 2007

Tom Phillips Widely considered a touchstone of postmodernism, Tom Phillips’ artistic project, ‘A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel’, has achieved cult status since its initial publication in 1970. One day, Phillips went into a book shop with the…

Profile - Radioactive Man

18 Oct 2007

Name Radioactive Man aka Keith Tenniswood. Occupation Non-lone member of Two Lone Swordsmen, alongside somewhat legendary house and rock’n’roll producer Andrew Weatherall. Tenniswood is also a DJ for hire whose tastes centre on dirty electro and…

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…

Mind your language

4 Oct 2007

It might seem remarkable that a Booker Prize-winning novelist should be available to write for the stage in Scotland, yet hasn’t been asked to do so for well over a decade. Yet this is the situation James Kelman has found himself in, despite a general…