Rob Newman review – a workout for the mind as well as the funny bone
Newman’s boffin-ish routines reach for huge ideas about humankind and its ancestors via Gary Numan and DH Lawrence
November 2022
Flashback
David Baddiel looks back: ‘My dad was unemployed and angry, my mum was distracted by her passionate affair’
The writer and comic on how comedy let him escape a childhood beset by his parents’ ‘mad lives’
May 2021
Reopening culture
Rob Newman’s Philosophy Show review – a treat for the mind and funny bone
Newman dissects ideas with intelligence, running around the houses and back, on themes from politics and humanity to parenthood
January 2018
Robert Newman: Total Eclipse of Descartes review – philosophical funnies
Unmissable culture of 2018
Flight of the Conchords, Chris Rock and 2018's most uproarious comedy
April 2017
The best original photographs from the Observer
Original Observer photography: April 2017
Artist Chris Ofili, musicians Thurston Moore and Beth Ditto and boxer Anthony Joshua all feature in this month’s showcase of the best photography commissioned by the Observer
Occam's corner
Rob Newman thinks scientists belittle people. I sympathise: science is unsettling
Stephen Curry
Comedian Rob Newman is angry because he thinks scientists are too ready to devalue people and to belittle human experience. And that made me … curious
Robert Newman: ‘Scientists think we’re all stupid. It makes me angry…’
The comedian tells us why Francis Crick, Brian Cox and Stephen Hawking are the butt of his jokes in his new book and radio series
January 2016
Open mic
It's about time comedians asked if science stands up
Notes & Theories
'We know so little about so much': Robert Newman talks skulls, science and psychology
Robert Newman: The Brain Show review – chewy neuro-comedy
The Brain Show review – tartan trousers, agile wit
October 2015
Robert Newman: 'Bill Hicks wanted to support us. I regret not letting him'
The comedian on his odyssey into the human brain, why he never wants to play a stadium again – and the reason he turned down his comedy hero
January 2014
Open mic
Improvathon: the 50-hour comedy marathon that's in it for the long haul
'After 30 hours without sleep, the performers become too tired to censor themselves' … Plus, Robert Newman's evolution, New Act of the Year and more news on live comedy
September 2013
There is no population explosion on this planet
Robert Newman
Robert Newman: Our population problem isn't too many humans on the planet, but too few owning too much of it
June 2013
The Trade Secret by Robert Newman – review
This rollicking Elizabethan yarn has much to say about the origins and nature of modern capitalism, writes Sam Jordison
May 2013
Robert Newman – review
Comedy gold: the best standup on DVD
Comedy gold: Rob Newman's History of Oil
January 2013
This week's new live comedy
Milton Jones | Robert Newman | Nick Sun
April 2012
This is the fracking truth
Robert Newman
Robert Newman: Even if the shale-gas men don't rupture aquifers or pollute our tap water, no politician will be safe
