‘There are dozens of Russell Brands’: female comedians say abuse is rife

Many women working in industry say allegations only scratch the surface of its culture of misogyny“When I was 18 I had an incident with a powerful male comedian in his 30s,” says Lucy (name changed), a female comic in her early 30s. “It was really harr…

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Sex and the smackdown: the crazy world of wrestling cult comic Andy Kaufman

Why did the Taxi and Saturday Night Live star travel across America paying women $1,000 to wrestle him? Could transcendental meditation have had anything to do with it?By the time he died in 1984 of lung cancer aged only 35, Andy Kaufman had wrestled m…

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‘They cheered on Everest when we revealed our catsuits’: the Scummy Mummies on 10 years ​o​f podcasting

The​ duo have amassed more than 5m downloads with their irreverent take on parenthood, divorce and everything in between. They marked their anniversary with a record-breaking live showWhat fun it is to spend an afternoon with Helen Thorn and Ellie Gibs…

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‘My reproductive life is over? That’s liberating!’ Bridget Christie on comedy, TV and the menopause

What’s it like to break into television in your 50s? The award-winning standup talks about her new series The Change, her late-blooming career and her issues with TupperwareThere is a photograph of Bridget Christie and her siblings, she says, taken in …

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Weekend podcast: remembering Paul O’Grady, Marina Hyde on Gwyneth’s trial, and Zoe Williams refutes the ‘men are trash’ narrative

Marina Hyde confesses how couldn’t tear her eyes away from the Gwyneth Paltrow trial (1m32s); from Camden council care worker to trailblazing icon, we revisit an interview with Paul O’Grady from 2017 (9m34s); and Zoe Williams laments the revival of the…

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Judi Love: ‘Working in a hairdresser was the best education’

The comedian, 42, talks about growing up shy, forgetting names, loving being a mum, and getting free haircuts​​I lived in my own world as a kid. I sang Whitney Houston songs to imagined crowds. While watching films, I’d pretend to be the star of my own…

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Kemah Bob: ‘I get so much bad advice from men who’ve never done comedy before’

The comedian and podcaster on the charms of British sitcoms, starting her own club night and hot new talent on the circuitWhat drew you to British comedy?Probably Skins or The Inbetweeners. Growing up in Texas I watched my fair share of BBC America – t…

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‘Night after night I get harassed’: comedians call for safer working conditions

With research showing sexual harassment is a routine occurrence, there is growing demand for arts venues to commit to protecting entertainersPosey Mehta, like many performers at the Edinburgh fringe, has been flyering for her own show. It’s called I Am…

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‘Night after night I get harassed’: comedians call for safer working conditions

With research showing sexual harassment is a routine occurrence, there is growing demand for arts venues to commit to protecting entertainersPosey Mehta, like many performers at the Edinburgh fringe, has been flyering for her own show. It’s called I Am…

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I made a name for myself with ‘sex-positive’ comedy. Then I was raped on a night out. Would my openness be used against me?

I’ve never held back when it comes to talking about sex. But after an attack while on holiday in Las Vegas, going to the police didn’t feel like an optionLast November, after a string of relationships with men had gone wrong, I decided to go to Los Ang…

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