The Edinburgh Fringe and changing comedy. PR guru Mark Borkowski joins comedy critic Kate Copstick and blogger John Fleming in Edinburgh…

What is good, bad, changed and unchanged at the Fringe? Why agents not PR people are the downfall of the Fringe.

Plus the return of The Establishment Club and Borkowski’s new search for comics, artists, musicians, poets etc for a new TV series on a channel you would not expect.

And Copstick’s attempt to bring vaudeville back to TV.

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

The snooty sneering of the Oxbridge elite and some comics against popular humour. Variable opinions on The Weirdos and the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society. The talent of Luisa Omielan. The irresistible sexual attraction of Italian comic Giacinto Palmieri. The inability of comics like Michael McIntyre, Frank Carson & Matthew Kelly to stop being themselves. Copstick’s work with Basil Brush and her admiration for the Chuckle Brothers. Coughing John’s failure to visit Amsterdam’s red light district and his attraction to heroin + LSD. The success of one Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award. The BBC’s Appreciation Index. Plus Copstick sings.

John’s quote of the week: “Beheading teddy bears! That’s what the public wants!… There was the man who used to eat his brain.”

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

The brilliance of Alan Davies at Pull The Other One. The unfeasible tallness of Darren Walsh. The formidable talent and influence but silence of Richard Herring. How Jim Jefferies did not destroy Piers Morgan over Donald Trump’s ban. How Reeves & Mortimer ‘died’ in Basingstoke. How Rik Mayall & Ade Edmondson (not Ben Elton) ‘died’ on stage in Inverness. Plus Kate Copstick’s pet hates about stand-up comics, Ariane Sherine’s “Love Song for Jeremy Corbyn”, the meaning of Alt Right and Copstick & Fleming’s failure to get talent spotted.

Copstick’s quote of the week: “He doesn’t lick media’s arsehole in an attempt to tunnel his way up to a series of his own. He’s a proper working, clubbing, stand-up comic.”

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Comic Janet Bettesworth joins critic Kate Copstick and blogger John Fleming in the busy Mama Biashara emporium in London.

They discuss the usefulness - or pointlessness - of having an MA course in stand-up comedy, being an aural voyeur and Facebook arguments. Plus Copstick on her plan to become a torch song singer, how she boil-washed her passport and the rules of butt-plug hoopla.

John remembers how he took an elephant up England’s highest mountain and Copstick laments how someone partially stole her idea for killing herself with a rectal thermometer and a bomb.

All this plus Johnny Depp’s $3 million to blow Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes out of a cannon and suggestions on what to do with your own dead body’s ashes.

Copstick’s quote of the week: “Oh, Janet! What kind of woman do you take me for?”

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Thom Tuck joins critic Copstick and an ineffectively interjecting John at Mama Biashara in London in a doomed attempt to plug The Penny Dreadfuls’ new project. Copstick passionately attacks the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society and a female comedian but is clearly now warming to Sarah Millican. Thom talks about his indescribable new show and his ambition to appear in Doctor Who while Copstick wants to play a villain. Thom talks about panel shows. Copstick talks about him performing in her porn movies.

“The one thing comedy can never be is smug” (Copstick)

“The times I have done it, I have both got completely naked and been in a dress.” (Thom Tuck)

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Italian comic Luca Cupani on representing the UK in worldwide comedy competitions. The problems of performing to US and Canadian audiences. Copstick on why English language comedy is more precise. Theresa May’s Brexit speech. New Edinburgh Fringe venues. Copstick offers to marry Luca if he eats her. The sins of the Catholic Church and why anyone who celebrates mass logically has to go to Hell. Plus Copstick and Cupani sing - sort of.

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Ariane Sherine, musical comedy performer, journalist and TV scriptwriter joins critic Kate Copstick and blogger John Fleming in London’s bustling Mama Biashara emporium

They disagree about sex on a first date, discuss hairy men, why sex is like a cup of coffee and why Charlie Brooker is kind. Plus the joys of meeting famous comics on The Guardian’s dating site, Ariane’s upcoming novel, the Simon Singh-along with Tim Minchin and Ariane’s “Love Song For Jeremy Corbyn”.

Then... fear of a bad review by Steve Bennett on the Chortle comedy website; why Ariane is not playing the Edinburgh Fringe this year but is turning to online music videos, the cost of Jeremy Corbyn lookalikes and Ariane’s topless video with John.

Plus Copstick remembers Ariane’s “Beautiful Filth” CD - “So clever. The lyrics were just clever, clever, clever, smart stuff.” And the two of them sing Tom Lehrer’s “Poisoning Pigeons in The Park” etc together, then swap nervous breakdown and prescription drug stories and talk about the benefits of self-harming: “I genuinely think,” says Copstick, “self-harming, up to a point, is a great coping mechanism.”

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Nick Awde - critic, reviewer and author - joins Kate Copstick, John Fleming and a future gag writer aged 8½ in London’s Mama Biashara emporium for an even more-than-usually meandering and annoyingly interrupted podcast supposedly but only marginally touching on comedy amid discussions on linguistics, Ireland’s Black Lodge, Janey Godley’s family dog, Copstick’s family background, Brexit and the cultural influence of France - despite the fact that the French apparently do not have a word for “one man show”.

But we do manage to discuss the comedy circuit in Flanders; the German version of "Allo Allo"; the closure of London’s Comedy Cafe; Eddie Izzard’s Franglais shows; comic Michael Brunström’s financial tragedy; and Ariane Sherine’s planned Jeremy Corbyn music video.

PLUS Good news about the Malcolm Hardee Awards and the Grouchy Club at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Kate Copstick’s quote of the week: “What is it about speaking French that turns people into absolute arseholes?”

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Martin Soan, comedy promoter and creator of The Greatest Show On Legs, talks to critic Kate Copstick and blogger John Fleming in London’s Mama Biashara emporium. Has all the quirkiness gone out of the comedy business? Can Michael Brunström and Spencer Jones save British comedy? Did the Arts Lab start alternative comedy? Memories of The Browns’ double act, the influence of Germany, teddy bear torturing, walking on the ceiling and eating your own brain. Plus political correctness, sexism, the annoying thing about women, how Martin destroyed a kitchen every night at the Edinburgh Fringe and why he now turns down annual vagina requests… And then there’s a long discussion about the unique shape, colour and positioning of vaginas.

Kate Copstick: “There is a fucking tsunami of under-talented people who fondly imagine they can be stand-up comics.. There’s too many people with absolutely fuck-all skill coming into comedy.”

Martin Soan: “There’s something getting rather distasteful about the comedy industry”

John Fleming: “You know when you’re sorry you asked a question?”

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com

Comedy Cafe owner Noel Faulkner reveals the background to the club’s closure and possible re-birth in a perfect-sounding venue in February. Why a benefit show for the club would be “scandalous”. Why Malcolm Hardee’s Wibbley Wobbley is about to sink. The racism and sexism of club owners. How club owners schedule acts. The blame game played by comedians. Why booking women can be sexist. Why Friday night audiences are worse than Saturday night audiences.

Plus rumours of a risk to the Comedy Store, the Night Czar of London and Copstick sings (again).

http://www.grouchyclub.co.uk

You can also download this audio podcast from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/grouchy-clubs-mostly-about/id977279883

John Fleming posts occasional blogs at:
http://blog.thejohnfleming.com