June 2014
A post-mortem into Rik Mayall's sudden death last Monday has proved inconclusive. According to the West London Coroner's Office further tests are required.
There has been speculation that Mayall's death may be connected to the near-fatal quad bike accident he was involved in in 1998. Mayall recovered and returned to work but did have to take medication.
The second series of Comedy Central's Alternative Comedy Experience has been confirmed for transmission in mid-July. The series was recorded at The Stand Club in Edinburgh last summer following the success of the first series.
The format is pretty much the same. Stewart Lee, who "curates" and helps to choose the acts, interviews performers backstage between film of them doing their gigs. As with the debut run it is a little like Granada's old show The Comedians, but cooler and more politically correct.
Simon Amstell has announced a full UK tour of his new show, entitled To Be Free, this autumn. Dates and ticket details here. He had already announced London dates at the Leicester Square Theatre from October 11 - 18.
Let’s declare an interest here. Josie Long is one of my favourite comedians. If she hadn’t existed comedy would have had to have invented her. She is intelligent, enthusiastic, funny and always coming up with something different, whether it is stories about NHS founder Nye Bevan or anecdotes about artists who spent their life trying to paint the perfect horse portrait. You always learn something at a Josie Long show. Yet for some reason she gets on some people’s nerves.
You can’t keep a good cult comedy night down. To mark its 20th anniversary Lenny Beige is re-opening the doors of the Regency Rooms for one night only. The gig takes place on June 20 at the Kensington Great Hall, and features a line-up of classic Regency Room acts, hosted by the high-kicking Mr Beige himself, who is returning from his seaside retreat in Hastings and donning his chunky rings and lucky suit for the soiree.
Following her critically acclaimed sell-out Edinburgh Festival run last year with her debut UK show ‘Boyish Girl Interrupted’, Grammy-nominated comedian Tig Notaro has announced her first UK tour. The tour takes in London, Manchester, Birmingham & Glasgow this September and are her first UK dates outside Edinburgh. Click on "next" below on the right for dates and booking details.
Yesterday I wrote about comedians succumbing to the lure of name-based puns when thinking of a title for their Edinburgh show. It is to Adam Riches’ eternal credit that as far as I know he has yet to do a show called An Embarrassment of Riches. But at the same time it would almost be the perfect title. A Riches show usually involves at least one member of the public being embarrassed.
Update 1pm: Romesh has had to pull out. He is replaced by Jo Lacey and Dan Ward.
As horrible, unexpected news goes, this is both totally horrible and totally unexpected. Rik Mayall was a pivotal figure for a generation of comedy fans. For him to die at 56 is cruel. There was always talk that one day he would revive his partnership with Ade Edmondson and they would make a geriatric version of their uber-violent sitcom Bottom in which they were really grumpy, really old men.
It was announced this afternoon that comedian and actor Rik Mayall has died aged 56. The Metropolitan Police were called to reports of a sudden death of a man in his fifties at 13:19 BST on Monday, in Barnes in south west London.
Mayall played a pivotal role in the early 1980s alternative comedy scene. He was part of the original group of comedians who appeared at the Comedy Store and later on television in the Young Ones and the Comic Strip films.
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