Don't wait for the punchline: Jordan Brookes and comedy's rule breakers
Shows that delight in flouting conventions, like Brookes’s Body of Work, make us question our expectations of standup – including whether it should all be funny
December 2016
Best culture 2016
Brian Logan's top 10 comedy of 2016
Mr Swallow camped it up as Houdini, Isy Suttie looked for Mr Right, while Brexit brought out the angry best in Bridget Christie and Stewart Lee. Our critic picks the year’s best comedy
November 2016
The funniest thing
Hans Teeuwen: 'I once owned a vagina-shaped hat'
From I’m Alan Partridge to The Bonfire Of The Vanities, the absurdist Dutch comic reveals what makes him laugh the most
October 2016
Hans Teeuwen review – anti-PC standup demagnetises your moral compass
The aggressively odd Dutch comedian skirts Bernard Manning territory, but also forces you to interrogate your opinions while you laugh in astonishment
September 2016
Hans Teeuwen: 'It's time for a rebellion against political correctness'
Autumn arts preview 2016
The deranged Dutchman is coming! The finest comedy of autumn 2016
April 2016
Open mic
Comedy is funniest when it's set free from labels
Brian Logan
Italian company TIDA have made one of the shows of the year with Quintetto. It’s not billed as comedy: has that made it more humorous?
Acts on the fringe can change our definition of comedy and show us the funny where we least expected it. These performers rewrote the rulebook
March 2015
Open mic
Is the pen ever mightier than the mic for comedians?
Sara Pascoe, Bridget Christie and Luisa Omielan all have books in the pipeline. Which standups rule the page as well as the stage?
February 2015
Comedy heroes
Bridget Christie on Hans Teeuwen: 'the gold standard of comedy'
The unnerving Dutch comedian defies categorisation and revels in edgy absurdism. Behind the nonsense, he’s hysterically funny and deadly serious
November 2014
Open mic
Critics aren’t comedy snobs – I like Lee Mack as much as Stewart Lee
Brian Logan
Brian Logan: A new book suggests that critics ‘tell people what’s funny’ – and that I personally prefer standup that’s not funny at all. But our role as taste-makers is limited
March 2014
Jon Fosse: 'The idea of writing another play doesn't give me pleasure'
He is one of Europe's most-performed dramatists, and his sparse, Pinteresque drama has led to him being tipped for the Nobel prize. So why has Britain never heard of Jon Fosse, asks Andrew Dickson
August 2013
Edinburgh comedy diary
Why comedy critics aren't always right
Brian Logan: Predicting stars-to-be is a haphazard business – as I know only too well. Plus: a grizzled comic gives us a blast from the past
May 2013
Comedy gold: the best standup on DVD
Comedy gold: Hans Teeuwen's Live in London
A man who takes silliness to a new level, Teeuwen makes us look at normality anew. While doing improvised autoerotic yoga, writes Leo Benedictus
August 2010
Hans Teeuwen
Funny foreigners: how overseas comics are storming Edinburgh
