June 2014
It sometimes feels that Lucy Porter has been doing Edinburgh almost as long as me. And in some ways she has. The first time I met the TV and radio regular I was on the Perrier Awards – remember those? – panel and she was a quietly efficient assistant sorting through the gig diary and arranging tickets for harrassed judges. It is to her eternal credit that the chaos of the Fringe didn't put her off comedy. In fact she threw herself into stand-up with a vengeance.
It is hard to believe that the UK’s first Museum of Comedy has only just opened. There really should have been one for years. Leicester Square Theatre artistic director Martin Witts opened the museum, located between Holborn and Tottenham Court Road, earlier this month. It was a pretty low-key affair but things start to kick in this week. If you have the slightest interest in comedy – particularly the history of comedy – I urge you to get down there. And for reasons that will become apparent, I urge you to get down there quickly.
Update 19/6/14: Interesting update from Paul Provenza overnight. I received a Tweet from Provenza saying "We've resolved our issues" regarding his annoyance with the new Dave series, As Yet Untitled. Here are his joined-up Tweets explaining further: "Had a brilliant Skype with Alan Davies re #Asyetuntitled & Green Room with Paul Provenza. Happy to say we agreed on so much: First, we agreed that we really all should be caring about those still missing girls instead of about any dopey TV shows.
Why do some comedy characters take hold and not others? Why, for instance, did Al Murray’s Pub Landlord play the O2 Arena while Sol Bernstein is only at the Leicester Square Theatre? Don't ask me, I’m just a critic. Pippa Evans started out doing booze-fuelled C&W singer Loretta Maine in short bursts, but she soon started doing whole shows and it wouldn't surprise me if this needy Nashville neurotic grew to epic proportions.
Last year Beyond The Joke talked to Josie Long about Arts Emergency, the charity she has co-founded to support students who may struggle to pay for further education.
If you want to get ahead get a good quote on your Edinburgh Fringe advert. Al Lubel has one from Jerry Seinfeld: “Al has one of the best jokes I ever heard.” When the master of stand-up talks you pay attention. America produces a lot of slick, conveyor belt comedians who have honed their perfect seven minutes for that all important chat show slot. Al Lubel is different. He’s a weird, mum-fixated neurotic with a hesitant, repetitive delivery.
Bec Hill certainly gets around. Over the last year I’ve seen her doing whimsical illustrations to accompany songs and stories and she is also involved in the Pun Run nights where wordplay is the order of the day. And last week I switched on TV channel London Live and saw her teaching a posh dude to be a streetwise rapper in Ctrl Freaks. The fact that he was hopeless was no reflection on Hill’s skills.
Nothing can make you feel old as effectively as seeing a talented comedian who is hideously young. Ed Gamble is that kind of comedian. I saw him supporting Greg Davies last year and it is not easy entertaining a crowd who has paid to see someone else and has to sit through you for twenty minutes. But rather than hurtle to the bar the audience stayed for Gamble’s boyish tales of embarrassment such as buying a belt with an oddly-shaped metal buckle and feeling as if you are being stabbed in the belly every time you take a step.
It has been announced today that UK television channel Gold will be broadcasting the final ever performance of the Monty Python Live (mostly): One Down Five to Go stage show direct from The O2 Arena on July 20.
The ground-breaking event will begin with a live backstage programme and will culminate with the Python’s final ever stage show, aired on the channel for up to three hours live on the night.
Al Murray, The Pub Landlord, has added a further 40 dates to his forthcoming One Man, One Guvnor tour. The tour will now run from September 3, 2014 to May 30, 2015.
The show marks the twentieth anniversary of the Pub Landlord, who first appeared as the host/drummer in Harry Hill’s Pub International band at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1994. Since then the Landlord has become a British comedy institution, playing sold out theatres across the UK, winning the Perrier Award in 1999 and selling out the 02 Arena in 2009.
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