March 2013
UK Devotees of Louis CK were surprised when the caustic American stand-up announced that he was joining the big boys and appearing at the O2 Arena on March 20. He later added two further back-to-back shows at the Hammersmith Apollo on March 21, but this is still not much comfort for fans who live a long way from London. Or fans who prefer their bleak, misanthropic observational comedy in a more intimate space.
8/12/18: Kevin Eldon is on Pointless Celebrities on BBC One. Here's some background.
And so the waiting is over. After all the rumour, gossip and on-off-on-ness of the project, the Alan Partridge movie is happening. It was announced today that it will be called Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and will be released on August 7. It may or may not be about a siege at a Norfolk radio station, but that is what the short trailer suggests. As someone has already dubbed it on Twitter, Die Aha-rd.
Steve Coogan is Bafta-nominated for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme for Welcome to the Places of My Life, Sky's revival of the Alan Partridge franchise. Coogan's career is a fascinating case study of the way a brilliant, successful character can be hard to shake off. I first saw Coogan do an embryonic version of sports-jumpered presenter Alan Partridge two decades ago when he won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival.
I've interviewed king of the grumblers Jack Dee a few times and, surprise, surprise, he is always much more cheerful in a one-to-one than he is onstage.
Pippa Evans is part of the improvisation night Showstoppers, but she also moonlights with a showstopper of her own in the form of Loretta Maine, a country rock chanteuse who is vocally a little bit Alanis, a little bit Sheryl Crow, but mentally a car wreck, torn between attention-grabbing and reclusiveness.
It's amazing what you can find when you go rummaging around in your cellar. This feature on Richard Herring and Stewart Lee appeared in Vox (a monthly magazine from the NME's publishers) in May 1995 to tie in with the first TV series of Fist of Fun on BBC2 and was one of the first comedy features I wrote (excuse the clunky bits). It is a real Blue Peter-style time capsule, interesting for all sorts of reasons.
Loretta Maine started life as a tiny part of comedian Pippa Evans' repertoire but has now blossomed into a full blown comedy monster. The kohl-eyed Maine is a Country and Western crooner who when not swigging from a bottle is singing about how life has been cruel to her. It's a cleverly crafted full-on performance that frequently involves sitting on the laps of poor unfortunate gentlemen in the front row.
The docucomedy genre is part of the comedy landscape these days. If Dave Gorman pioneered it with shows such as A Better World, Are You Dave Gorman? and Googlewhack Adventure the format has spread and become a familiar style. It is typified by monologues that tell a personal story, often use powerpoint presentation and end with a dramatic emotional flourish.
A friend saw something I'd written about Will Franken being silly and fun and asked me if his show would be suitable for a 16-year-old's birthday night out with friends. It was a tricky call.
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