In my daily blog last May, I posted a peice which was headed:

Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne and the Convent-Raised Comedian in which comedienne Charmian Hughes remembered now-disgraced British politician Chris Huhne giving her her first snog when she was a pupil at Westminster...

Today is the eighth anniversary of the death by drowning of comedian Malcolm Hardee. His autobiography I Stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake begins:

I was born the first son of Frank and Joan Hardee in the Tuberculosis Ward of Lewisham Hospital in South East London. Immediately...

Last August, Irish musical/comedy duo Rubberbandits won the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality which I organise at the Edinburgh Fringe. They are currently over in Britain performing at London's Soho Theatre this week and next week.

I thought it would be...

Scots comedienne Janey Godley's daughter Ashley Storrie has decided to take up comedy again, after a gap of about 11 years (depending on how you calculate it).

Ashley got her first acting part at the age of three as 'the wee girl in the metal tea urn' in the...

In my daily blog just before Christmas, I quoted nine questions posed in the British Mensa 'Special Interest Group' newsletter called What If?

In doing so, of course, I breached their copyright and, as penance, I have now given them thirteen new questions which they might choose one...

In joke-telling, there is 'The Rule of Three'.

Sometimes, this spills over into real life and overlaps with the saying 'It never rains but it pours'.

In my daily blog three days ago, I mentioned that comedian Martin Soan had broken a rib in a bicycle...

America is often criticised for being insular.

It was said that, in the build-up to the Gulf War, some people in the southern states - genuinely - were nervous because they believed the war would be happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

The blame for Americans' insularity is usually put...

Last night I did something I have only very very rarely done.

I went to the recording of a TV show as a member of the audience and queued up with the audience. It was a pilot for a possible comedy panel show series and was being recorded by an...

Famously self-confident film director Michael Winner has said on more than one occasion that, when he went to parties on his own, he was sometimes almost too shy to go into a room full of strangers.

This came to mind yesterday, when I went to a seminar (I guess that's...

Yesterday seemed a good day to go see Miss D's Silver Hammer, the weekly New Act comedy night in London's Hammersmith, run by Israeli comedian Daphna Baram.

The death toll in Gaza had reached over 100.

Daphna started her career as a human rights lawyer and a news editor...

There has been a lot of talk in the last week of the UK live comedy business facing economic catastrophe. So I asked Noel Faulkner, owner of London's Comedy Cafe:

"Is the UK comedy business actually in crisis?"

"Huge crisis," he said firmly. "I think what's happening to the comedy...

This morning Kate Copstick, doyenne of British comedy critics, flew to Africa for three weeks.

Before she left, at her Mama Biashara shop in Shepherd's Bush, I talked to her about possibilities for the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Show at next year's Edinburgh Fringe.

Every...

"Roman Polanski?" someone said to me yesterday afternoon. "Well, he's not as bad as Jimmy Savile, is he?"

That is like a red rag to a bull.

Was Jack The Ripper not as bad as Adolf Hitler because he did not kill as many people? You...

Robert Ross has written books on the Carry On films, Fawlty Towers, Marty Feldman, The Goodies, Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd, Sid James, Monty Python - the list goes on and on and on.

But his latest book Forgotten Heroes of Comedy is not being handled by a 'traditional' publisher. It is being 'crowd-funded' by...

Last night, a female friend and I watched (on BBC TV) the special Panorama investigation Jimmy Savile: What the BBC Knew - a programme not just about the Savile scandal but about why, last year, a detailed Newsnight programme exposing Savile's crimes had been shelved.

Afterwards,...

As I write this, comedian Frankie Boyle is still in the High Court. He is suing the Daily Mirror for libel after they called him a "racist". His barrister says it is perfectly OK to call him "vile" but not a racist.

His barrister told the...

The BBC is getting blamed for doing nothing about Jimmy Savile, although it seems, over the years, five police forces actually investigated stories about him in some way and did nothing.

I worked in British television from 1973 onwards, though only twice on BBC programmes; the rest of the time,...

A comedian phoned me yesterday evening, angry that another comedian was Tweeting trying to get comedy performers and promoters to sign up for a 'No Rape Jokes' pledge.

The idea is to ban comedians who tell rape jokes.

The first promoter to have 'signed the pledge' appears to be a...

I first met actor Jonathan Hansler a few years ago at one of the late lamented Fringe Report's monthly meetings. He was named Best Actor in their final 2011 Awards. I mentioned him in January this year in a blog about the unveiling of a plaque at...

If you are a performer, reviewers are like Americans. It is difficult to live with them, but it is difficult to live without them.

Getting a bad review can be very upsetting, though.

This week, reviewer Amy Taylor blogged about a theatre/comedy review she had written at the recent Edinburgh...