Simon Amstell’s first Fringe headline run since 2009 is two nights long
Two nights, 7pm, McEwan Hall. £24 a ticket or £22 with a concession, 70 minutes, 16+. That’s Simon Amstell’s entire 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, on sale…
BBC New Comedy Awards pulls every 2026 heat to Coventry
Applications for the BBC New Comedy Awards opened on Wednesday morning, and the geography has narrowed considerably. Every heat in 2026 will be filmed in…
Josh Johnson left every topical joke out of his HBO special
Josh Johnson put out 38 hours of new stand-up last year, nearly all of it free on YouTube. Most of it was built around whatever…
Matt Mathews has 15 million followers and four UK gigs
Matt Mathews has more than 15 million followers online and over a billion video views across platforms, and when his first world tour reaches Britain…
Rik Mayall’s festival outsells year one before it even opens
Stuart Panrucker, who runs the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival, reckons last year’s debut shifted more than 10,000 tickets. He points to “audiences travelling from across…
Mock The Week books 17 comics for a five-Sunday TLC summer
“The Prime Minister in trouble, the world running out of oil, and the most chaotic World Cup in history about to start? Well, that sounds…
Sam Campbell casts ‘a bunch of scumbags’ in Make That Movie
Lauren and the scumbags Sam Campbell described the casting on his new Channel 4 sitcom to Chortle on Wednesday. Here is the quote: “We had…
Reuben Kaye and Frankie McNair share Sydney’s $1,500 top prize
The Sydney Comedy Festival handed out four awards on Sunday and split the headline one. Reuben Kaye and Frankie McNair will each take home $1,500…
Cheez-It buys the Joke of the Fringe for a £1,000 prize
The announcement landed with the words “official snack partner” doing a lot of early work. There is a £1,000 prize attached, an Edinburgh Festival Fringe…
BBC brings back Short Cuts a year after axing Josie Long’s show
When the BBC axed Short Cuts in early 2025, the listener petition to save it picked up a few thousand signatures and an angry sub-thread…