Bruce Dessau's titter feed: this week's comedy news (Mon Apr 14)

Comedy critic Bruce Dessau on the latest gigs, gags and gaffes from the world of comedy
14 April 2014

Kill billed

BBC3 recently scored a hit with Killer Magic, in which five young magicians attempted to out-stunt each other, the loser having to perform the infamous Bullet Catch, which has already killed 12 magicians. A series has now been commissioned and will be broadcast in the autumn before BBC3 does its own disappearing trick and moves online.

If you can’t wait that long to see some devilish deception, one of the quintet, Chris Cox, is performing his solo show at the Udderbelly (udderbelly.co.uk) on May 3.

A trio of Tangentlemen

Strangely addictive podcast of the week is The Tangentlemen, with Ben Van Der Velde and Paul Duncan McGarrity. The duo claim to be trapped in a post-apocalyptic library and are trying to rescue the sum of human knowledge but keep getting distracted by shiny things and end up gossiping about tattoos or the Hebrew word for fish.

If their podcast title sounds familiar, that is because Ross Noble’s next UK tour is called The Tangentleman. Van Der Velde explains that this was a weird coincidence and they were terrified that Noble would make them change their name. In fact he was so cool about it he appeared on their podcast himself.

Download the new episode from thetangentlemen.com

Kiefer’s comedy interest

Fans of the Kiefer Sutherland thriller 24 probably know that the ninth series, 24: Live Another Day, due on Sky 1 on May 7, is set in London and currently being filmed on our doorstep. But does everyone know that co-star Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays geek-turned-action-woman Chloe, initially made her name as a stand-up and has been guerrilla gigging in the capital’s comedy clubs by night?

She recently performed at The Hideaway in Tufnell Park, The Cavendish Arms in Stockwell and even had a crack at the Comedy Store’s King Gong show.

Follow her on Twitter at @rajskub for her next date.

Football crazies at London Live

When the Evening Standard’s sister TV channel London Live announced its comedy programming earlier this year one particular pilot caught our eye. Titter feed has just caught a preview of the one-off soccer mockumentary Grass Roots, which follows strugglers Greystone Athletic and stars comedian Ed Aczel as downtrodden manager Harry Pickles, and it lives up to expectations, mixing the cringe-factor humour of David Brent with the irreverence of Spinal Tap.

“There’s nothing here but talent,” says a desperate Pickles as a striker fluffs another shot. Meanwhile team nutritionist June (Gillian Pittaway) serves chicken dippers and disses Heston Blumenthal: “Sticking sausages in ice cream. Why would you want to do that?”

Shaun of the decade

Hard to believe, but it’s 10 years this month since zombie romcom classic Shaun of the Dead was released. To mark the occasion the screenplay, alongside the scripts of the other two films in “The Cornetto Trilogy” – Hot Fuzz and The World’s End – are now available to download free from the director’s website, edgarwrighthere.com, complete with unseen sketches and background trivia. The team have fared well since that first film: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are major stars, while Wright’s next project is a film version of the Marvel comics character Antman, featuring This Is 40’s Paul Rudd. Sadly the years have not been so kind to The Duke of Albany, which doubled as the Winchester Arms in the movie’s bloodsplattered showdown – the New Cross boozer has been converted into flats.

Twitter: @brucedes

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