Comedy can brings us back together (if we'll let it)

I may be biased because yes, I would like to be able to make a living again and feed my family and all that other la di da stuff we middle class performing artiste types bleat on about. But to laugh together is a deep and urgent societal need, says Simon Evans.

Teenage Cancer Trust Comedy Night, review

The evening was a goody bag of talent, brilliantly compered by Romesh Ranganathan.

Rarely Asked Questions - Mike Wilmot

There has been talk recently about the lack of old comedians on our TV screens, but age does not seem to have held seasoned Canadian Mike Wilmot back.

Film review: The Comedian's Guide To Survival

Comedies about stand-up comedy are difficult to pull off. How do you capture the highs and lows of performing live on film? How do you capture the buzz of the good gig, the despair of the bad gig? How do you capture a world that is simultaneously niche and mainstream? The Comedian's Guide to Survival comes pretty close.

The Comedian's Guide to Survival review

Films about comedians are rarely funny, but The Comedian's Guide To Success breaks that curse by taking the angst and insider jokes of Louis CK's Louie and playing it broader, less arthouse. It's flawed, but with the movie taking its own advice about persistence, director and writer Mark Murphy more than gets away with it.

Mike Wilmot - 'We're back into PC World now'

The globetrotting no-holds barred Canadian comic has had enough of censorship but would never say anything bad about his wife. Maybe...

The Australian absurdist shuns all the cosy warmth of Christmas to set his film in a stark, clinical laboratory, where he and his staff (Bridget Christie and Kieran Hodgson) are working on Christmas cracker jokes. Generously, Simmons gives a lot of the best moments to Matt King - channeling his Superhans intensity and oddness into the role of Tall Pall, a mysterious humour troubleshooter. Blink and you might miss Mike Wilmot's cameo contributions to this peculiar scenario.

Something for the weekend, comedy fans?

Here are LiF's top 5 club tips for the weekend - including David Armand, Andrew Maxwell and Mike Wilmot.

There were more than 750 comedy shows on at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. Even if you think you've heard quite enough already on Radio 4 and read too much about them everywhere you have to admire the steely determination of Jason Manford (of Eight Out of Ten Cats) and his producer, Julia Mackenzie, in boiling the lot down to two half-hours. This is the first, featuring Kevin Bridges, Mick Ferry, Sarah Millican and Mike Wilmot, all of whom may have their own shows this time next year. You never know, they might even make you laugh.