The Latest Comedy News Options

[rabbit57i]

Frank Skinner Stops Comedy Gig For England's Euro Qualifier

Talking of Skinner, his decision to extend the interval of his show on Wednesday to show the England football match backfired when the dismal squad limped out of Euro 08. ‘The fans were already miserable,’ he later said of his audience. ‘It was like performing on the Titanic. I'm feeling terrible. I’m gutted, actually.

[curtinparloe]

"Fork Handles" Handwritten Script On Auction Block.
Goodness, I'd love to have this.

That's fabulous.

[rabbit57i]

Chortle To Give Live Updates Of Tonight's British Comedy Awards

[rabbit57i]

Stella Street To Return As Online Series

[Jessopjessopjess...]

Stella Street To Return As Online Series

I used to really like that show, but please don't include Ronni Ancona - her impressions are ALL THE SAME!

[rabbit57i]

Jon Culshaw Cancels Dead Ringers Live Tour

[rabbit57i]

What's Wrong With TV Comedy

by a certain Michael J Dolan

[Outatime]

I agree with this fan about Ross Noble

[Ghost_862]

in the last couple of years a worrying trend has started. People (and for ‘people’ read 'wacky types') seem to have decided it's not good enough for Ross to get his comedy from unsuspecting subjects , and they now want to be the 'stars' of the show themselves.

We've seen a marked rise in youngsters in the front few rows sporting stupid hats, knowing full well Ross won't be able to resist the bait. But the ridiculing of someone who wants to be ridiculed isn’t so much fun.

But by far the most annoying trend has started during the half-time interval, where armies of wacky ones leave all manner of shite on the stage: funny notes (I use the word ‘funny’ in the loosest possible way), crappy homemade T-shirts, pieces of popcorn, sweets, you name it… whatever it is, they all have the same thing in common, it isn't funny.

But like a junkie walking out to see 30 lines of coke set up for his pleasure, Ross can't help himself, and will always make a beeline for this rubbish. This tour was the worst I’ve ever seen, the stage was covered, and it took him just over 45 minutes of the second half to work his way through everything that had been left there, each item inducing a rather annoying series of whoops from the contributors, as their tat was picked.

The truth is, it's funny for the one or people who put it there, but for everyone else it’s boring. How funny is someone's bus pass going to be for an audience of 1,500? Of course the owner of the bus pass goes home feeling like Charlie Big Potatoes‚ thinking (wrongly), that he was the star of the show.

The second half of Noble gigs are starting to become a bore, I’m afraid, as he methodically works through these 'gifts', wasting 45 minutes that could have been filled with good material. And each time he does it, he seals his fate, as more fans will try to get in on the act next time around.

How we got in this mess I don't really know. Ross really shouldn't pander to these cretins.

I posted a near identical review on the Chortle board shortly before this one went up.

I don't quite agree with the 'Ross can't resist' line. I think it's more a case of feeling obliged. I've met Ross and he's extremely fan friendly. I met him on a really bitter winter night but he still stood outside and chatted with myself and my friends for a really long time. He's very affable and eager to please. He kept asking us if the show had been good enough

Ross attracts a very similar crowd to Bill Bailey, which is something that's put me off him too recently - emo/goth kids who use the word 'random' to describe things which are quite clearly not random, and consider themselves just as wacky or out there as Ross is. I find them irritating because they don't really appreciate the skill of what Ross does when he gets up there onstage, and just turn up in the hope that he'll say something wierd. I was reminded of it when Simon Amstell said something to Noel Fielding on Buzzcocks recently along the lines of 'Oh is that how it works... You just have to say something wierd and it's automatically funny? It was like a ladybird wearing... dungarees made of... malteser juice?'

I was at a London show in 2005 and as an encore Ross always does a Q+A. Almost every question came from this one line of shrieking emo kids who kept asking him imbecilic questions like 'Have you seen my dodo?' It was fairly evident that he wasn't really appreciating it after a while.

When I saw him this winter in Southend people left all sorts of crap onstage for him, from a tub of hummus with his face celotaped on the lid, to just small change or empty glasses or empty sweet wrappers. What kind of present is that? If anything it's demeaning, walking onstage to a mass of discarded litter, small change and washing up.

Every time he picked something up and cleared it offstage without talking about it, whichever dipstick had left it there would shout out and command him to pay it more attention. I found it extremely tedious, and it's a shame because he's a damn good comedian when left to his own devices.

I agree strongly with the reviewer's assertion that Ross's audience are ruining his shows.

This post has been edited by Ghost_862: Jan 7 2008, 01:19 AM

[Outatime]

I saw him in Newcastle and people were putting stuff on before the show even started and he came on and said "Not many shows you'll go to where essentially the first 20 minutes is a man tidying up". There were also four people dressed up as a cowboy, snow white, that racing man (John something) and someone else. There was another woman in a pvc policewoman's uniform (not a pretty sight). All just to get noticed.

I've met him a few times (I used to get teased by my family that I was stalking him) after Edinburgh shows and like you say he's a nice friendly guy but maybe he should start having people frisked on the door for crap.

[whitey]

I agree with this fan about Ross Noble

Noble attracts cretins shocker.

[rabbit57i]

Some Fun Tidbits in Chortle's weekly roundup.

[Kick in the Head]

Chris Morris talks about his latest project: a feature-film poking fun at terrorists.

More here. Really, really looking forward to this.

[maian]

I've been waiting for someone other than Trey Parker and Matt Stone to take on terrorism in such a way and I'm not even remotely surprised that Morris is the one who has taken up the baton. This will be interesting or bloody awful, but I'm hopeful.

[sleeping_pirate]

Chris Morris talks about his latest project: a feature-film poking fun at terrorists.

More here. Really, really looking forward to this.

So glad to hear about this, I'm currently writing an essay on Morris!