Bruce Dessau
I've been thinking about Jack Carroll's triumphant first appearance on Britain's Got Talent and have been trying to decide whether it will be good for the 14-year-old's career or not. Plenty of exposure certainly. But could it be too much for someone so young? Looking back on past young comedians, staying power, not wit, seems to be the issue.
Television seems to be going through one of its phases where it gives comedians interesting jobs rather than just going "ooh look, how about a nice panel game/quiz show to be charismatically spontaneous on?" Last week Victoria Wood was poured all over our screens talking about tea. For the next two Sundays Bill Bailey is going to be in the jungle.
It has been a funny few days for me on Twitter. I did not think I have ever been blocked by anyone and then over the weekend I discovered by accident that two comedians had blocked me. I found out about the first when I tried to follow him and the message "you have been blocked from following this account at the request of the user."
The comedy circuit is full of popular Russells – Brand, Howard, Kane – but there is actually another Russell who in ticket-shifting stand-up terms is possibly bigger than all of them put together. Russell Peters was one of the first comedians to benefit from the all-pervading power of the internet.
Frankie Boyle famously once said that comedians should stop doing stand-up when they reach 40. "The focus really goes," he told the Radio Times in 2009. Boyle turned 40 himself last year so maybe he was wearing stronger lenses in his glasses at his recent Comic Relief appearance to help his focus.
Exciting news has come Beyond The Joke's way that Stephen Fry is going to be a special guest at the next revived Establishment Club night at Ronnie Scott's on April 24th. Fry will be talking about his friendship with the founder of the original Establishment Club, Peter Cook, which is certain to be interesting.
Brilliant Harry hill gig at the Hammersmith Apollo last night. This was a show that I reviewed two weeks ago but it was so good I decided to see it again on my night off. Nobody mixes old-school vaudeville and new school surrealism as well as Hill and after a lengthy period away from the stage he was madder and more magnificent than ever.
I try not not to do too much research on acts I'm reviewing for the first time so that I can judge them without any baggage getting in the way.
This article that first appeared in The Times in January 2012 coincided with Sarah Solemani's appearance in the stage play The House Of Bernarda Alba, which was a bit of a U-turn after the grubbily brilliant sitcom Him & Her. Since then Solemani (picture by Kurtiss Llloyd) has firmed up her comedy credentials with a winning performance alongside Jack Whitehall in BBC3's Bad Education and more Him & Her.
I was a little worried when I heard that Harry Hill was going back on the road after eight years away. Would it be a case of a deluded boxer returning to the ring thinking he could still cut it? Would it be like Bjorn Borg making his comeback with an old wooden tennis racquet? I didn't need to worry. I saw Hill's Sausage Time spectacular – and spectacular is the only word for it – on its first night in London a few weeks ago and, if anything, the lunacy was sharper than ever.
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