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Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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Opening in London this week

12.10.09

Leona Lewis showcases her new album at the Hackney album, A Christmas Carol premieres and Architecting comes to the Barbican.... more

Janeane Garofalo is compelling company

10.08.09

Edinburgh Comedy: American Janeane Garofalo's run is selling out thanks to her appearances in hit sitcoms such as The Larry Sanders Show.... more

Denise Van Outen has a dig at Blondes

10.08.09

Edinburgh Theatre: Denise Van Outen's show turns out to be an astonishingly mean-spirited dig at nearly every blonde who isn’t Denise Van Outen... more

Let’s go. We can’t. Why not? ... We’re still waiting to perform Godot in a public loo

23.07.09

When Harry Michell was refused permission to stage Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot in a public lavatory by the playwright's estate he wanted revenge... more

Udderbelly will have us laughing all the way to Southbank

27.05.09

A new comedy festival in a cow-shaped tent by the Thames aims to bring some Edinburgh spirit to London.... more

Anglo-Irish madness in Walworth Farce

25.09.08

Mikel Murfi's chronically boisterous production of The Walworth Farce remains true to the title with its characterising notes of grotesquerie.... more

Eurobeat is popfest parody par excellence

04.09.08

Whether you are a Eurovision fan, you will love this spoof: Eurobeat, coming to the West End after being a huge hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe.... more

Jason Byrne levels things out

28.08.08

Jason Byrne was on showstopping form with his reflections on the problems of keeping romance alive on the opening night of Pimms Summerfest.... more

Alan Carr: I couldn't come out to my football boss dad - I've never been in!

22.08.08

His soccer boss father wanted him to be a footballer, but Alan Carr always knew he was different. Now Britain's campest comic is making millions. ... more

Did you hear the one about the Edinburgh comedy prize?

20.08.08

There was an Englishman, an Irishman, a Welshman and a couple of Americans on the shortlist for the Edinburgh Fringe's top comedy award ... more

Something has gone wrong with Brendon Burns

04.08.08

On the opening weekend of the Edinburgh Fringe, Brendon Burns' show was not exactly end-to-end giggles, says Bruce Dessau.... more

All in the title for Deborah Frances-White

09.07.08

Calling your show How To Get Almost Anyone To Want To Sleep With You: The Advanced Class sells tickets, as Deborah Frances-White proved. ... more

Playing the tables

07.11.07

The Tricycle is hardly the ideal venue for an intimate show like The Table, but this Polish conceit is still a clever, surprising delight.... more

Critic's choice: top five comedy shows

30.08.07

A seriously weird American family, inventive stand-up Dan Antopolski and two successful acts returning from Edinburgh make up Bruce Dessau's comedy picks.... more

Laughs a plenty, but not a sniff of nudity

14.08.07

Based on the 1970s porn flick, Debbie Does Dallas is very funny with heaps of smutty jokes and superb performances from an enthusiatic cast.... more

Ants that blow you away

09.08.07

Idiots of Ants are not sick, dark or fashionably twisted, they are just very, very funny, says Bruce Dessau.... more

Close encounter with a Rolling Stones obsessive

06.08.07

If Phil Nichol's latest Edinburgh set does not top last year's turbo-charged tale, which culminated in the sweaty Canadian body-surfing naked over the audience, it is a pretty serviceable sequel.... more

Critic's choice: Top comedy shows

02.08.07

Edwardian-themed sketches from The Ornate Johnsons, the Camden Fringe and Mock The Week's Andy Parsons are among the top comedy choices.... more

Do you Adam and Eve it...?

30.07.07

Don't worry if you cannot make it to Edinburgh this year, there is always the Camden Fringe: a month-long mixed bag of stand-up, sketch, character comedy and theatre acts.... more

Edinburgh Festival highlights

24.07.07

From theatre to comedy, music and film, our critics pick the best of the Edinburgh Festival.... more

Is Edinburgh killing comedy?

24.07.07

With a record 2,050 shows this year, Bruce Dessau asks if The Edinburgh Fringe has become a victim of its own success.... more

Comedian offers a sneak preview

22.06.07

Funnyman and presenter of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Simon Amstell, previews his Edinburgh Fringe routine in the capital on Monday June 25... more

Making fast work of the Bard

22.06.07

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) moves at a cracking pace which sees 37 plays covered in just 97 minutes... more

Critic's choice: top 5 comedy shows

31.05.07

Spikey Jo Caulfield, Jo Brand, John Hegley, Shappi Khorsandi, John Shuttleworth - there's loads of great comedy around this weekend.... more

Critic's choice: top comedy shows

17.05.07

The godfather of modern character comedy, John Shuttleworth, Alex Lowe's phone-in obsessed Barry, and flame-haired Aussie Sarah Kendall all perform this weekend.... more

Horrific breakdown is not as funny this time

21.03.07

Australian loudmouth Brendon Burns' show, Sober Not Clean, might be a flawed comic postcard from the edge, but at its best it is also chillingly compelling.... more

Italian is still in fashion

30.10.06

It's remarkable that up-market Italian Quirinale has survived as long as it has, but this is one of the few institutions in the Westminster Village that deserves to stay in fashion.... more

Top 5 comedy nights

07.09.06

Aussie Steve Hughes gets his teeth into Israeli foreign policy, Scotsman Geoff Boyz impersonates Robert De Niro and Harry Hill keeps his funny bones in shape.... more

Shortcomings without the genitals

25.08.06

Phil Nichol may be a great storyteller, but it wasn't clear whether it was talent or his willy-waving antics that gained him an if.comeddies Award nomination this year.... more

Show needs kiss of life

07.08.06

Fringe review: The star of This is So Not About the Simpsons is Harry Shearer, the voice of the reptilian Mr Burns. Shearer and his Welsh wife sing songs and tell us things about America that we already know and their ditties left Bruce Dessau in need of medication.... more