The week's comedy trivia

• ‘It was just a means to an end, a way to still be drunk and lazy and be able to earn a living.’ Rhona Cameon on why she started stand-up.

• Roseanne Barr appeared to be completely pissed when she wrote her MySpace blog this week, ranting: ‘I still fucking hate tom arnolds fucking guys and everyone in show biz is a cocksucker too. I should not drink so much, as my own grown children say, but what the hell...I LIKE RED WINE!!!! I have always peed my pants since a kid...I have little control over it when running too...people say that you can get vaginal rejuvenation operations that will help you not pee so much, but I don't think I could get a laser up in my bladder without freaking totally out...I would rather just smell like pee, like old ladies are meant to do. Aloha!’ But, it turns out her account was simply hijacked by a disgruntled ex-employee…

• Jim Davidson calls his cock ‘Little Mr Davidson’

• When Johnny Vegas played the Gilded Balloon, he got caught short, so had to improvise a toilet. The venue’s artistic Director Karen Koren told Amnesty International’s Fringe podcast: ‘Backstage at the Gilded Balloon Studio there’s no toilets, so Johnny found an empty Pringles tube and used that. For a number two. He then put the tube back where he found it, went onstage and did a brilliant show.’

• Ricky Gervais has hit back at criticism of his shambolic appearance at the Diana concert last month. ‘There was one guy who works for a tabloid, and he wrote that the crowd booed - they didn't boo, they loved it. People love it when something goes wrong. But this guy wrote, “He's rubbish, everything he's ever done is rubbish and it's all over for him.” That week I got nominated for four Emmy Awards, sold 100,000 DVDs of Extras and signed up for two Hollywood movies. So bring on the backlash… I want him writing about me every day.’

• Is this wishful thinking? Producers of the Fringe show Romeo & Juliet: A Rock and Roll Love Story have ordered 500 condoms for their cast. But it turns out the contraceptives (at least the non-lubricated kind) are used to protect their radio mics’ battery pack from sweaty performers.

• Russell Brand says: ‘The two stars I would most like to get drunk with are Scarlett Johansson and Caroline Aherne: one younger, one older. For me, getting drunk could lead to heroin-using and suicide, so it might as well be with someone I could have it off with.’

• You might think that Fringe comics already lose enough money at the festival – but Sucker for punishment will be taking part in a charity poker event on August 21. But it’s only £20, and the winner will get half the pot. (Interested comics should email smartandy@mac.com)

• Mark Watson: ‘There is an automatic assumption that if you can make comedy about something it will make it better, but I've come to feel that taking a light-hearted look at everything is dangerous.’

SOURCES: The Scotsman, Heart FM, The People, Amnesty International, MySpace, Chortle, Grazia, Chortle, Ham& High

Published: 10 Aug 2007