Leicester Comedy Festival line-up announced

Next year's Leicester Comedy Festival will have as many events as ever, despite the headline sponsorship deal coming to an end.

Why don't comedians criticise the monarchy?

It's the job of standups to hold institutions to account - laugh by laugh - so why aren't more of them laying bare the anachronistic daftness of the royal family?

TV review: The Outcast Comic, Sky Arts

Others remember where they were when they heard that Princess Diana had died. I remember where I was when I read Andrew Lawrence's famous Facebook post about the state of modern comedy and the state of the nation in October 2014. I thought it was, erm, interesting, and messaged him quickly to ask if I could post it on beyondthejoke. I then got on a train and when I logged back on he had replied, politely saying: "Good to hear from you, but I'd rather you didn't".

The Outcast Comic review

It's a strange phenomenon of modern times that Andrew Lawrence can foster an edgy, rebellious image for adopting the exact-same reactionary tone of the government and most of the press.

The story of how mid-table standup Andrew Lawrence went from Live At The Apollo landfill to controversy-courting rightwing rottweiler, replete with freshly chipped shoulder regarding "media censorship" of his material. Ignore the almost identical paucity of leftwing rhetoric expressed in current TV and radio comedy and discount Lawrence having his own Radio 4 sitcom, and you could almost have a convincing argument.

After Brexit, the fury of the Fringe

In Edinburgh, liberal comics' contempt for the masses has been laid bare.

After Brexit, the fury of the Fringe

Five weeks before the start of the festival, comedians found all their material to be desperately, pointlessly out of date. Just as Brexit was a bloody nose to a complacent, aloof political establishment, the comedy set also got a knock this year.

Comedians' shows pulled over unpaid bills

Josh Widdicombe, Jeremy Hardy, Seann Walsh, Shappi Khorsandi and Marcus Brigstocke have all had gigs dropped from the forthcoming programme of Secombe Theatre in Sutton because of the dispute with very little notice. Widdicombe was due to play there only next week. Their agency, Off The Kerb, axed the shows in a row over £3,432 of box office money they say they are owed for another of their clients, Mark Steel, three months ago.

Andrew Lawrence on causing offence

Saying the unsayable is the lifeblood of comedy. Giving voice to the unspeakable, the dark and the downright disturbing is a very different prospect altogether. So what to make of Andrew Lawrence, "Britain's most Right-wing stand-up", who is currently playing to outraged audiences at the Edinburgh Festival, and who last month - the day after a lone gunman went on a killing spree inside a fast-food restaurant in Munich - tweeted: "The real tragedy of this is that McDonald's was just starting to get over its run of bad news."

Review - Andrew Lawrence: Uncensored

During the mid-January malaise, we all could do with a bit of a moan, as most of us will have already broke our new year resolutions and dry January will have firmly gone out of the window. So a good whinge and a gripe could do us all good. However if you're stand up comic Andrew Lawrence, you may have slightly more to moan about than most.