No, he hasn't ditched Robert Webb and formed a new comedy double act with Jeremy Paxman. But David Mitchell will be temporarily teaming up with the former Newsnight anchor to present an all-night feast of comedy and comment on C4's Alternative Election Night on May 7. Other guests include Romesh Ranganathan, Aisling Bea and Richard Osman. Here's the first trailer for the programme.
I could be mistaken but it certainly feels as if there are more TV comedies with an election theme this year than there have ever been before. Just to pick a few, ITV1 has just launched the topical Newzoids, C4's The Last Leg is running politics-themed shows, BBC2's Jack Dee’s Election Help Desk is like Question Time with laughs and C4'a Ballot Monkeys is providing rapid-response punchlines.
Most cult American stand-ups play the Soho Theatre when they come to London. Not Dave Hill. He has somehow been drawn, like a well-dressed moth to a flame, to the bright lights of Tufnell Park for a short residency at this boutique basement club. It’s a lovely, weird venue and strangely appropriate for this lovely, weird comedian.
Janey Godley’s complaint that she thinks she was ripped off by the people who made the new Irn-Bru ad has caused a stir in comedy circles. It is not the first time a comedian has allegedly had input into an advertising campaign and not been given credit. Or, in some cases, paid.
The Soho Theatre has established itself as London’s go-to venue for both hilarious stand-up comedy and exciting theatre. So it makes perfect sense to stage Owen McCafferty’s play about stand-up comedy here. The trouble is that Death of A Comedian is not hilarious or exciting.
Ria Lina’s 2014 Edinburgh Fringe show, Ria Lina’s School of Riason, is to be turned into a one-off 28-minute special for BBC Radio 4.
The comic and ukelele player’s stage show was inspired by true events. After encountering the inner city London school system, she decided to home-school her children and devised her own curriculum. The show was nominated for the Amused Moose Laughter Award 2014 and contained one of Dave’s top 10 Fringe jokes of 2014.
Just when you think stand-ups have gigged everywhere they find another place to perform. A group of comics have launched a project called Wonky Zombie and are doing gigs on London Underground trains. They did their first gig on a Victoria Line train on March 27 and have just released the footage on YouTube.
Channel 4 has commissioned another series of Friday Night Dinner. Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal will return for a fourth run as the Goodman Family, joined once again by Mark Heap as neighbour Jim.
What’s that old Bob Monkhouse gag? “They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now."
When Madonna told Jonathan Ross that she would like to have a crack at stand-up comedy last month I was one of those cynics who thought she would be rubbish. I even wrote a piece saying that.
In the last few days I’ve heard about Count Arthur Strong being mooted as new host of Top Gear and Alexei Sayle being tipped for the job. At the time of writing Sue Perkins is the odds-on bookies favourite, even though she has tweeted that she is not interested.
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