Category: Comedy

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Ken Dodd photo_by_matthew_willetts

Ken Dodd: Comedy Masterclass

On November 8th, Ken Dodd turned 90 years old. This master of stand-up comedy has transcended generations of comedians, including cultural changes in entertainment from variety theatre (where he started), to the social & cabaret club scene and the now comedy club circuit. Yet he still applies his art today in often packed-out theatres around…
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Comedy writing- Comicus mood

Professional Writing: Comedy Plots From Real Life

A recent real life event drew my thoughts to how writing comedy plots often takes from real life experiences. It was 4:00am, only six people left in the bar at the Metropole Hilton, after a great ‘Hire a Hero’ event. Time to collect my coat from the bands changing room and home. Entering the area…
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Poster Lyric Theatre

Backstage: Tavaré All-Star Comedy Benefit Night

Over 500 people packed into the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury avenue, to enjoy a Comedy Benefit Night show that only comes around once in a lifetime. There seemed more stars than the night sky. All giving their time free to support their colleague Jim Tavare who had been through an horrendous car accident and now faced…
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Jim Tavare

Jim Tavare: All-Star Comedy Benefit show

[slideshow_deploy id=’2695′] We are pleased to announce a Comedy Benefit night for Jim Tavare at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London on Monday 12th June 2017. The support from his colleagues has been amazing and the bill of comics performing that evening reads like a who’s who of modern stand up. Dara O Briain, Jo…
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Comedy Impressions

Comedy Impressions: Making An Impression In The Modern World

Nowadays, Comedy Impressions and Impressionists are a rare sight on stage and screen. This art form has been left behind with flared trousers and the eighties word processor. Comedians are now more observational, chatty, satirical and find no room for impressionism within their acts. A vocal jamboree of celebrity characters is seen as ‘old hat’…
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Best of British Farce

Best of British Farce: Ray Cooney’s ‘Out of Order’

Farce is never an easy form of theatre to succeed in. Yet Ray Cooney has made it his lifetimes ambition and work to create some of our best loved and well written British Farce. ‘Out of Order’ is not one of Cooney’s best (even though it won an Laurence Oliver award for Best Comedy 1991)…
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The-Play-That-Goes-Wrong

Theatre Review: Play That Goes Wrong by Lewis, Shields & Sayer

Following its humble beginning at the Old Red Lion, Islington (2012) ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ is drawing strong audiences in its West End run. It further gained attention after appearing on the Royal Variety Show and has since gone from strength to strength. This is the play that turns slapstick comedy into an intelligent,…
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How To Survive The End Of The World - According To Hollywood

8 Tips On How To Survive The End Of The World – According To Hollywood

In the weekend of the Oscars, millions are glued to their screens awaiting the much-coveted awards. Once a film becomes popular, the genre is often copied by others. In recent years, the human race has become more enamoured with the idea of How To Survive The End Of The World. Survive The End Of The…
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Marcel Lucont (Alexis Dubus) - French comedian

A German Company, A French Comedian & 50 Scots

At the end of a conference it is refreshing for delegates to look forward to the evening dinner and entertainment. At this event, a German company, with a subsidiary in Britain, organised a French comedian to entertain its 90% male UK workforce containing an abundance of Scotsmen, Irish and a some English, all in relaxed…
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liz-smith

Liz Smith: Nation’s Favourite Grandma Says Goodbye

Liz Smith was one of those actresses you immediately recognise, then struggle to think what she has been in. ‘Oh she was in .. that .. er? It is because she appeared in so many parts in TV & Film in the last forty years we don’t always necessarily identify her with just one or…
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Milton Jones

Milton Jones Interview: Keeping Up With The Joneses

Milton Jones Comedian Milton Jones ticks all the boxes to be a great stand up comedian. He is quiet, introverted, unassuming plus when off stage he never does material. He’s not a gossip or seldom speaks unless spoken to, but you know something deep is going on in that head. What comedically comes out of…
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John Lloyd in conversation

John Lloyd: Comedy Producer In Conversation

BBC Programming Those of you who remember ‘Not the Nine O’clock News’ (BBC 1979 -83), ‘Spitting Image’ (ITV 1984 -96) and the ‘The Blackadder’ sitcom series (BBC 1983-89) may not realise what these shows had in common. Well, all of them were originally produced by John Lloyd.  Who went on to make some of the…
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Where Cricket Meets Beaujolais Nouveau 2016

French Beaujolais Meets English Humour

The first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau were gently mixed with some comedy, light music and Camembert cheese at the county ground on Thursday 17th November. This being the first day of the season for such a celebrated French wine, much loved around the world, particularly in its home country where corks were pulled in great…
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Ian Moore

Ian Moore Interview: Moore, Moore, Moore! How Do You Like It?

‘Doing the actual job of being a stand up comedian isn’t the problem,’ experienced comic Ian Moore once told me. ‘It’s all the bloody travelling which gets in the way’ he said. Well, have a look at this travel itinerary: Started from Loire Valley (France) at 6:30am, forty-minute drive from Vierzon, an hour half train…
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Jimmy Perry Comedy Writer

Jimmy Perry: Calls Halt on Army of Comedy Scripts

Jimmy Perry was best known as an influential TV comedy writer of the 60’, 70’s and 80’s. His writing partnership with David Croft (1922-2011) formed the backbone of so much of BBC sitcom in that period. The two wrote together Dad’s Army (1968–1977), It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (1974–1981), Hi-De-Hi (1980–1988) and You Rang M’Lord?…
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London Palladium - Beat the clock

Sunday Night at the London Palladium Pt.2

Beat the Clock The ‘Beat the clock’ section of the show was a product of American television. Manager of the Palladium Jack Parnell saw it, liked the idea of audience participation that it involved, and clinched a deal to sandwich ‘Beat the clock’ between the show’s two commercial breaks. The concept was simple but very…
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London Palladium - Beat the clock

Sunday Night at the London Palladium Pt.1

Sunday Night at the London Palladium began at 8:00pm on September 23 1955 with Gracie Fields and Guy Mitchell sharing top billing. The TV audience was estimated at around 350,000 a figure that today would not excite producers of a small cable channel, but then ITV was just three years old and available only in…
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London Palladium

The mecca for entertainers: The London Palladium

A Famous Theatre The London Palladium is one of the most well-known theatres in the world. It is situated in London’s West End, Argyll street, just off Oxford Circus. its proud columns pay tribute to the kings of comedy and entertainment who have worked this now famous grade two listed building which was first built…
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Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder: Wild about Gene

Anyone who wants to perform comedy would dream of having facial features like Gene Wilder, wonderfully expressive with eyes that communicated great emotion often combined with a classical acting technique approach to his in work. Comedian Jim Carrey described Wilder as ‘one of the funniest and sweetest energies ever to take a human form’. Indeed,…
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Martin Beaumont - Chitty, Chitty, Cruise, Cruise

Interview: Martin Beaumont ‘Chitty, Chitty, Cruise, Cruise’

Having been pushed to the back as a child actor during the filming of ‘Chitty Chitty, Bang, Bang’ as he looked too healthy for a starving child in the famous cave scene, Martin Beaumont went on to star on Saturday night TV in the eighties. When the show was cancelled Martin redefined himself as a…
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Classic Quiz Show Contestant Bloomers, Slip Ups & Gaffes #2

Classic Quiz Show Contestant Bloomers, Slip Ups & Gaffes #2

Check out some of the funniest and most comical Quiz Show Contestant Bloomers, gaffes, errors, mistakes and slip ups. LINCS FM PHONE-IN Presenter: Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world? Contestant: Barcelona. Presenter: I was really after the name of a country. Contestant: I’m sorry, I don’t know the names of any countries…
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Richard-Osman

Classic Quiz Show Contestant Gaffes, Slip Ups & Bloomers #1

Check out some of the funniest and most comical Quiz Show Contestant Gaffes, bloomers, errors, mistakes and slip ups. UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (BBC2) Jeremy Paxman: What is another name for ‘cherrypickers’ and ‘cheesemongers’? Contestant: Homosexuals ?. Jeremy Paxman: No. They’re regiments in the British Army who will be very upset with you. BEG, BORROW OR STEAL…
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Arthur Smith: My Name is Daphne Fairfax

Book Review: Arthur Smith – My Name is Daphne Fairfax

Having over five hundred autobiographies on my office shelf of various sports stars, show-business personalities in particular comedians and the odd politician, there is always some book I come across which for some reason has passed me by. One such publication was Arthur Smith’s entitled ‘My name is Daphne Fairfax’ (2009) in reference to a…
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shakespeare

5 Ways to Enjoy Comedy by Shakespeare and His Mates

Richard Inverne visits Straford upon Avon, in search of some Comedy by Shakespeare. 1. Putting on Comedy by Shakespeare The FIRST way to enjoy a Shakespeare comedy… is the play has to be put on! What might seem obvious simply wasn’t the case on Tuesday 19 July when arriving in Stratford-upon-Avon for a handful of…
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