Comedian and actor Lenny Henry is working on a play with the National Theatre about the life of legendary stand-up comedian Richard Pryor. Talking to Robert Elms on BBC London today Henry revealed that this is one of the various projects he is currently working on.
It was not confirmed if Henry would play Pryor, but given his stand-up background and his recent acclaimed acting career it seems to be the perfect fit. Henry has previously appeared at the National in The Comedy of Errors.
It’s the final week of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and as well as ongoing shows which are doing well there are some particularly good one-off late-night shows where comedians loosen up a little and have a good time. There are over 600 comedy shows on the Fringe so I'll never see them all, but these are some highlights that I’m determined to catch. If you can’t bag tickets for these stick a pin in the brochure and take a punt. You never know what you might find.
Australian comedian Celia Pacquola has beaten over 100 hopefuls to be named the winner of the Amused Moose Laughter Award 2014 for her show Let Me Know How It All Turns Out.
Laughing Horse @ The Counting House
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Friday night in Edinburgh and the queue of predominantly women stretched down the stairs and out into the street. This was not a club selling Bacardi Breezers at 30p a shot but Am I Right Ladies?! – Luisa Omielan’s sequel to her indestructible smash hit What Would Beyoncé Do? Think Bridget Christie is the funniest feminist? She has competition.
Pleasance Courtyard
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Alfie Brown is certainly a busy little bee. Since his last Edinburgh show the beardy 27-year-old has split from his wife and done another major thing which, if I reveal it here, will simply piss off the kind of people who go through every comedy review with a fine toothcomb just so that they can scream “Spoiler!” into the void as loudly as possible.
Following sell-out shows across the UK in 2013 and earlier this year, Robert Newman’s New Theory of Evolution is back for more dates this autumn. The latest leg starts on the September 13 in Halifax and ends on December 4 in Maidenhead.
Netflix has announced four new exclusive stand-up comedy specials, joining the previously announced Chelsea Handler comedy special, Uganda Be Kidding Me Live. Jim Jefferies, Bill Cosby, Bill Burr and Chelsea Peretti are the latest additions.
Ricky Gervais is developing a brand new movie, based on his creation David Brent, the focus of his global hit series, The Office.
Life on the Road is currently being developed with BBC Films and goes in to production in 2015. We find out what Brent is doing now and what's happened in the last 15 years since his redundancy from his beloved Wernham Hogg. He's a sales rep now, selling cleaning products up and down the country, but has never really given up on his dream of being a rock star.
Before the Edinburgh Fringe Festival started officially on August 1 I couldn’t help noticing how many previews there were in London. There seemed to be more than ever before, with some acts seeming to do previews all over the city at every opportunity. I interviewed Sara Pascoe in June and she mentioned that from July she would be doing nightly warm-ups.
If you aren't partial to baby-killing jokes told by someone who looks like an extra from Grease then it is probably best to give Anthony Jeselnik a miss. The Pittsburgh-born comedian starts his gig as he means to go on with a couple of quick quips about dead infants. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you like your humour dark and pretty relentless and Frankie Boyle is too darn Scottish then Jeselnik may be just your cup of sick.
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