Comedian Daniel Sloss is one of the stand-up stars of Spiegeltent at Canary Wharf, the multi-genre festival running in London from September 10 - 20. Also on the bill are Alex Horne and The Horne Section, improvisation troupe BattleActs!, the Comedy Club 4 Kids and psychic siblings The Twins Macabre.
Maverick promoter Bob Slayer has challenged other buses in Edinburgh to a race. Slayer is putitng shows on in Edinburgh this year on his BlundaBus, which has recently been a pop-up venue in Croydon. The BlundaBus shows run from August 6 - 31 next to Potterrow Underpass.
Andy Hollingworth has been making pictures of comedians since 1995. I could not run Beyond The Joke without access to his huge archive. One of his first subjects was old school stand-up Charlie Williams who he remembers watching on TV when he presented ITV's The Golden Shot. He has previously had an exhibition at the National Media Museum and on August 13 a selection of his portraits will be on display in Running From Greenbaum at Snap Galleries in Piccadilly Arcade.
Nica Burns, Director of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, has revealed the judging panel for the 35th Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
She said, “I am delighted to announce the 2015 judging panel, chaired by a huge contributor to comedy, Lucy Lumsden, Head of Comedy at Sky.”
As I wrote in my piece on how to get reviewed at the Fringe, luck can play its part as much as skill. About ten years ago I stumbled into a show by the then unknown Michael McIntyre because I was nearby and had a spare hour. And in 2013 I was also at a loose end and wandered into a free package show where Rob Auton was doing a taster of his full show. One of his lines was "I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar.
Sometimes the Fringe coverage is so obsessed with unearthing someone new that polished talent can be overlooked. Tom Allen has seen plenty of Edinburgh action since winning So You Think You’re Funny in 2005 at the age of 22. As well as bringing successful shows to Scotland has also been busy elsewhere, taking his sophisticated, classy comedy to festivals, radio and TV. This lover of Noel Coward is due to appear in Dictionary Corner on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown in August.
I don’t think Taskmaster is the first Edinburgh Fringe show to turn into a TV panel game but I’m pretty sure it is the first Edinburgh Fringe show that I’ve taken part in that ended up as a panel game. A few years ago Alex Horne invited me to join the team. At that time the show lasted an entire year - each month we were given a different task and only found out how we’d done when the results were revealed onstage in Edinburgh. Needless to say, I lost.
Felicity Ward was one of the first comedians to make a splash on The John Bishop Show. I tuned in expecting the usual Saturday night supermarket checkout/airport security blandness and instead got this fast-talking Australian on a roll with material about racism, religion and sexism. I think the audience was a little taken aback too, but thanks to Ward’s sheer force of personality they soon went with it.
I was writing the other day about the way Edinburgh acts can be divided into the mainstream crowdpleasers and arty experimentalists. Of course things are never quite that simple. Where, for instance does Carl Donnelly fit in? On the surface he seems like your tight-trousered off-the-peg gagsmith with a quip for every occasion. But he is definitely no lowest common denominator clown. Donnelly’s stories have emotional depth and heft to them as well as belly laughs.
Actor/comedian MacKenzie Crook has joined the line-up of the first Radio Times Festival, which takes place at Hampton Court Palace from September 24 - 27.
Crook, who writes, directs and stars in the Detectorists will appear alongside producer Adam Tandy, to offer an insight into the programme's uniquely British story of love, companionship and eccentricity.
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