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Comedy HITLIST THE BEST COMEDY EVENTS
Ross Noble They don’t come much more successfully rambly than the mercurial Cramlington lad. He chatted to us recently about Hallowe’en and his new horror film, Stitches – read about the former in our Hallowe’en feature, page 19, and the latter on list.co.uk. Edinburgh Playhouse, Thu 1 Nov; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Nov.
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Pappy’s The trio stormed the Fringe with their Last Show Ever; now they’re taking it on tour. See feature, page 62. The Stand, Glasgow, Mon 22 Oct; The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 24 Oct. Alexei Sayle The godfather of alternative comedy returns to the stand-up circuit after a very long time away indeed. See feature, page 24. The Stand, Glasgow, Mon 29 Oct; The Stand, Edinburgh, Tue 30 Oct.
Stewart Francis The victor of the best joke of the Fringe (‘You know who gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks.’) delivers some equally excellent one-liners. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 2 Nov; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Nov. Greg Davies Mr Gilbert or one third of We Are Klang (depending on your age and/ or comedy habits) bounds into town for a show about feeling the burn of ageing. See preview, page 63. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 29 Oct.
Kevin Bridges The Clydebank stand-up keeps his comedy juggernaut steamrolling on with more massive gigs. Edinburgh Playhouse, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Nov; SECC, Glasgow, Fri 9 Nov.
Jenny Eclair The former Loose Women panellist prepares to be all Eclairious. Punchline Roisin Conaty, Josh Widdicombe and Nick Helm play one of the grandest
See alternative comedy feature, page 24, and My Comedy Hero, page 65. Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 3 Nov. venues in the country. For more from Josh and Nick, see alternative comedy feature, page 24. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 20 Oct.
list.co.uk/comedy
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5 THINGS
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . . JULIAN CLARY 1 Born Julian Peter McDonald Clary in 1959, he gained his first flush of success as The Joan Collins Fanclub, accompanied by Fanny the Wonderdog, who performed staggering impressions of the Queen Mother. Fanny died at the grand old age of 19.
2 Co-devised with Paul Merton, Clary fronted his very own quiz show in 1989 called Sticky Moments, which served mainly as an arena for a positive glut of innuendo and featured guest appearances from the likes of Harry Enfield, Barbara Windsor, Nicholas Parsons and the Beverley Sisters.
3 He now lives in Kent next door to Paul O’Grady in a house once owned by Noël Coward (for ‘next door’, read ‘an acre or two away’). Clearly this residence got his creative juices flowing as he wrote a novel entitled Briefs Encountered, set in and around the quite probably haunted pile.
4 In 2007, Clary made a cameo appearance in Neighbours, with scenes shot in London, when a character who was having an affair with a English footballer stopped him in the street to use his mobile.
5 While he is a darling of the mainstream press now thanks to shows like Strictly and Celebrity Big Brother (which he won this year), it certainly wasn’t always thus. A notorious live incident at the British Comedy Awards in 1993 when he inserted the words ‘fisting’ into a sentence which also contained ‘Norman Lamont’, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, had tabloids demanding he be sent to a gulag until planet earth froze over. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 27 Oct; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 28 Oct.
18 Oct–15 Nov 2012 THE LIST 61