Benjamin Netanyahu, comedian?

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

  • ‘Cleverly placed nudity can be really funny,’ Susan Provan, director of the Melbourne comedy festival... where plenty of comics have been getting their kit off.

  • Robert Newman has revealed he was once chased by uniformed security men at his own show. Although he had sold out the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, the guards didn’t recognise him, so when they spotted him backstage, they thought he was an intruder and came running after him. ‘I was nervous, and I didn’t do what I should have done: calmly introduce myself,’ he told The List. ‘What I did instead was to start running. The chase went on for ages: up and down stairs, along corridors. At last my tour manager Bobby radioed to ask them if they’d seen me anywhere because it was show time and I wasn’t in my dressing room. “What’s he wearing?” they asked. And then they twigged...’

  • David Frost interviewed Stephen Fry for a new TV show about sketch comedy last week – but Fry was less than impressed when the  producer said he was a big fan of ‘A Bit of Hugh & Laurie’.

  • The normally stern Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is few people’s idea of a funnyman; but he tried to show his comic side by taking part in a sketch on the satirical TV show Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country) this week. The scene included jokes about ‘stringing along’ the Palestinians in the peace process, snipes at the expense of his coalition partners, and a reference to a reports that his official residence had a tax payer-funded £1,800 contract with a local ice cream parlour.

  • 30 Rock’s Tracy Morgan has some advice for those who haven’t been enjoying his Australian shows (which includes us): ‘Go home and blog some shit 'cause you ain’t gettin’ any. I don’t give a fuck what you think.’

  • There’s a fine line between being a comedian and just a hateful human being. Ugh:

  • Ray Peacock has been distributing his free podcast with Ed Gamble for years – and now he wants payback. He has published an open letter to fans who enjoyed the shows, urging them to reward that effort by sponsoring his brother in a ‘pretty fucking incredible’ fundraising campaign to swim 100km, run 1,000km and cycle 10,000km over the year, starting with the London Marathon on Sunday. In the post Peacock grumbled that all the work on the podcasts had not necessarily paid off in terms of ticket sales, and added: ‘Not to prey on anyone’s guilt or whatever, but ... [we] worked our arses off to bring you an enormous amount of free content.  It was self-serving, we aren’t being martyrs, but it was free. I will trade off the unpaid hours I put in on the podcast for your donation to this, no matter how small.’ There's more to the story than that, but click here to donate.

  • Russell Brand thinks Tom Cruise is afraid to convert him to Scientology... in case it harms the cult’s reputation.

  • Police have renewed their appeal to try to catch alleged fraudster Peter Stead, 50, who had apparently claimed he was Peter Kay’s brother Danny, to try to trick pub landlords out of cash by offering to put on comedy nights. The incidents took place in Derby in 2009, but they are still no closer to catching him – despite an appeal on Crimewatch.

  • Max And Ivan might have been nominated for a Barry award in Melbourne this week. But it hasn’t been all glamour. They have recalled one show at Edinburgh in 2010 that didn’t sell well. Why? Possibly because someone had taken a shit outside their venue.

  • Tweets of the week (a Thatcher-free zone)
    Silky (@ killforaseat ): "She's got an ass that just won't quit" or to use the medical term, diarrhoea
    Alex Baze (@bazecraze): The Statue of Liberty's torch sure is good at surviving apocalypses.
    Mr Sarcasm Guy (@MoreSarcasm): Every "yo mamma" joke has been done 1,000's of times, by 1000's of different people. Like yo mamma.

Published: 19 Apr 2013

Live comedy picks

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