Frank Chickens: Edinburgh gods - August 2010 The Observer - August 3rd, 2010

This month, the former Perrier Awards for Comedy on the Edinburgh Fringe have been taken over by Foster’s, the beer company. The main award, which usually goes to an unknown turn, remains. But Foster’s has also invited the public to vote for a “Comedy God” from all the nominees of the last 30 years. This…

Shelves - July 2010 The Observer - July 18th, 2010

“What are days for?”, asks the curmudgeonly poet, Philip Larkin, is his poem, Days, questioning the very point of living. He is unable to offer any real comfort, concluding, “Ah, solving that question / brings the priest and the doctor / in their long coats / running over the fields.” For Larkin, the idea of…

NME SINGLES REVIEWS - July 2010 NME - July 11th, 2010

Villagers – Ship Of Fools Essentially benign, Villagers here lay a tense and never quite consummated Eighties post-punk/neo-psychedelic guitar chug over nautical singer-songwriterly metaphors. Ship Of Fools is sure to comfort morbidly introspective young people who feel adrift, or at sea, or storm-tossed, so to speak, in their daily lives. Sadly, it seems to fade…

Edinburgh Tips - July 2010 The Financial Times - July 11th, 2010

Every year at around this time journalist are asked for their tips for the best shows to see at the Edinburgh Fringe in August. Professional critics can’t just pick all the things they have chosen before and know are the best because, like the low rent entertainers they essentially are, they too need to vary…

Sponsorship Of The Arts - July 2010 The New Statesman - July 1st, 2010

Apparently we must all tighten our belts. That’s easy for David Cameron to say, cycling everywhere and being all trim and fit. I’ve put on two stone in the last three years of constant touring. But it’s not only my waistline that, apparently, needs squeezing. Reading between the lines of The Big Society manifesto, Dave…

Comedy In Opposition - July 2010 GQ Magazine - July 1st, 2010

The sacred clown of the Lakota, The Heyóka, is the perfect comedian. He speaks in gibberish, goes naked in freezing weather, starves when food is plentiful, dances backwards through holy rituals, washes in dirt, and shares his shame with everyone; The shaman-clowns of the pueblos, the koshare, descend from the rooftops, naked and howling, to…