WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• Russell Brand has defended Justin Bieber after old footage of the star cracking a racist joke emerged. ‘Of course it's wrong to say the N-word,’ said Brand. ‘But he is a child.’

• Has alternative comedy established another dynasty? The daughter of  Jim Barclay, one of the now-retired pioneers of the early 80s, has started stand-up and recently celebrated her 100th gig. Ellie Gibson says: ‘He's very supportive but very honest. He's seen so much stand-up in his life, he'll never pretend I've done a great gig if I haven't.’ She isn’t, of course, the first offspring to follow in famous footsteps. For one,  Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson’s daughter Beattie is an established sketch performer.

• So, you’re a magician in a dragon costume with a chihuahua sidekick? Does that impress you much? Apparently so, because in a collaboration you could never have predicted, Piff The Magic Dragon and Shania Twain shared the same stage this week. The Brit comic magician took part in the singer’s Las Vegas show, joining her in a singalong as she held Mr. Piffles. Twain sang the praises of the show that Piff’s in, Vegas Nocturne, to her audience, too. ‘It’s one of the stranger things to happen to me,’ the magical one says.

• Everyone’s looking for originality at the Edinburgh Fringe, so it’s something of a fail for Dannie Gruffery who has titled her four-night run First World Problems – exactly the same as Jason Manford’s immense current stand-up tour…

• And while the Fringe takes its toll on everybody who takes part, one comedian will be putting her body through a different sort of ordeal – by attempting to complete a triathlon before her show, every day for the 15 day run. Sarah Profit will swim 750m, cycle 20km then run 5km before performing Prof’s Olympic Legacy  as part of the Laughing Horse Free Festival. Profit – ‘an unfit smoking, drinking 40 something’ – said she was inspired by Davina McCall’s Sport Aid efforts and will be raising money for leukaemia and lymphoma research in memory of her dad.Donate.

• As if there wasn’t enough competition in the Fringe, the BBC has listed watching ten and a half hours a day of  Commonwealth Games on the big screen in its Potterow venue under the ‘comedy’ section of the programme. Way to support the Fringe, guys…

• And how did the Fringe Society let ‘turning on the telly so we can watch athletics’ qualify as an official event in the world’s best arts festival anyway? We asked, but they haven’t got back to us yet.

• It’s normally considered the height of bad manners to start fiddling with your phone at the opera, but David Schneider was actually paid to tweet at the English National Opera last night. His comments on the premiere of Benvenuto Cellini, such as ‘That awkward moment when a man in a ram’s head mask comes into your room at bedtime’, were intended to ‘demystify’ the opera.

• Tweets of the week
Michael Hogan (@michaelhogan): What's the underneath bit of an elephant called - its chest or its stomach? It's a massive grey area
Twop Tips (@TwopTwips): STATISTICIANS. Switching on 'auto-correct' will significantly reduce monkey-hours needed to knock off some Shakespeare books.  (@phil_carroll)
Glenn Moore (@TheNewsAtGlenn): Girl, you must be Spider-Man: The Movie (2002), 'cos your visuals aren't ageing well.

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Published: 6 Jun 2014