Features

Cultural Life: Tim Minchin, comedian

Friday, 15 April 2011

Books: Christopher Hitchens's autobiography, 'Hitch 22', is a poignant read, and very interesting because I have a very poor knowledge of recent political history – or for that matter distant political history. I'm also reading 'Jasper Jones' by Craig Silvey, about an Aboriginal kid and a white kid who find a dead woman, hanging from a rope. I was completely sucked in.

A winning formula: Comedian Robin Ince is heading out on a nationwide tour with a group of scientists

Thursday, 7 April 2011

In the last few weeks I have been asked 11 times, "is science the new rock'n'roll?" As we know, in the last 20 years, anything that starts to play to audiences above 17 can be classed as the new rock'n'roll.

There are heroes of comedy... and there's Frankie Boyle

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Matthew Norman: It takes a bespoke brand of mental infirmity to confuse courage with a penchant for bullying.

My Secret Life: Richard Herring, comedian, 43

Saturday, 2 April 2011

My parents were... My dad was my headmaster and my mother also taught me at school. I did a whole show about whether it psychologically scarred me, but when I look back, I think all the bad things about me were already in existence. I was in a fortunate position where I had a very solid family – my parents have been together since they were 13. It's almost hard to live up to that!

Cultural Life: Frank Skinner, comedian

Friday, 25 March 2011

Comedy: I liked Roisin Conaty at the Soho Theatre. She won Best Comedy Newcomer at Edinburgh. She was her own support act, so supporting a character she played who was nothing like her real self.

Red nose... ears, arms and legs: Ronni Ancona joins Comic Relief's desert trek in Kenya

Thursday, 17 March 2011

My involvement with Comic Relief over the past 10 years has always been in a comedic capacity, but I'd always wanted to visit one of the regions where they spend the money that's raised.

The Timeline: Comic Relief

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

1985: Birth of a charity

The Diary: Woody Allen; Stephen Merchant; DC Moore's Honest; Ai Weiwei; Róisín McBrinn

Friday, 4 March 2011

Tickling schtick: The wit of Ken Dodd

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Who says variety is dead? Ken Dodd has been on the road for six decades and can still slay a crowd. Michael Coveney meets him on his marathon tour

Aziz Ansari delivers a lot of bang for your buck

Friday, 18 February 2011

The lithe and livewire US comedian Aziz Ansari arrives in London next week to play five nights at London's Soho Theatre. Though this run doesn't quite have the ring of playing the Carnegie Hall back in New York, as he did in January, Ansari's already sold out Soho dates are another sign of the growing interest in this business graduate-turned-comic, who will have just turned 28 when he lands here.