Tom Allen gets chatty

Watch out Graham Norton, Tom Allen's electric new chat show comes to London next week. Emma McAlpine speaks to the sharp-witted host about weird guest revelations, stripping 76-year-olds and the shows that inspire him.

The chat show host-off: Eleanor Conway vs Tom Allen

Tom Allen and Eleanor Conway both have live chat shows happening next week, so we decided to put them through their host paces with a chat show host off, showing us how they would deal with some chat show situations from down the ages.

An interview with Tom Allen

Tom Allen is a comedian and writer who won the prestigious So You Think You're Funny award at the tender age of 22, as well as the BBC New Comedy Award in the same year.

Why do gay people make such good talk show hosts? (Link expired)

I happened to notice while flicking through the Fringe programme that this August there are six chat shows hosted by openly gay people, myself included.

How We Met: Sarah Millican & Tom Allen

'Everyone was mingling; we sat in a corner, downing juice and devouring the buffet'

Having built his profile on Radio 4 and TV panel shows, Stephen K Amos gets his own show. Considering that Amos is essentially from leftfield, this should be a good thing. Unfortunately, the edgier side of Amos's work seems largely absent here. Instead, we're offered a mix of standup and sketches that occasionally takes flight - notably when Frank the fashion-conscious security guard vets the audience - but too often seems safe and warm. Guest turns come from the laconic Tom Allen and Lucy Montgomery's Liza-Minnelli-gone-to-seed persona, cabaret singer Candy Karmel.

After his appearances on Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week, as well as at the Royal Variety Performance and Edinburgh Fringe, it was inevitable that someone at the BBC would give Stephen K Amos his own show. To go by this sparky debut, the idea has some merit. For a start, as a gay black comedian he is licensed to make jokes that are off-limits to others. Tonight's sketch involving a spoof Nigerian newsreader is a great example; when would any of the other supposedly "edgy" comics out there risk poking fun at the idea of African backwardness? Amos's other targets are more predictable. It won't surprise you to learn that Americans from the Deep South and Aussies come in for a ribbing. However the gags are delivered in a variety of formats. There are mock interviews, stunts involving members of the public caught on a hidden camera and sketches - such as Amos as a doctor with an innovative method of delivering bad news and another where he dresses up and impersonates his own mother. We also get a fair amount of audience participation. At its best, the show#s lively format and fun, irreverent tone bring back memories of Da Ali G Show. I only hope Amos gets some better supporting acts for subsequent episodes. Though Amos can be very funny at times, tonight's guests, who include comedian Tom Allen, can't match him.

Interview: Tom Allen

Recently banned from bringing a Rottweiler on stage for his Edinburgh run, Tom Allen chats about getting tough in his new show, drawing inspiration from Winston Churchill and dealing with rude hecklers...

Tom Allen's canine co-star evicted from Fringe show

Comedian Tom Allen has found himself in an unexpected confrontation with Fringe organisers at the Gilded Balloon after his co-star Maggie was evicted from his show under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

A freshly minted comedy classic here, as the third series of Mark Evans's Dickensian spoof gets a full commercial release following its Radio 4 run. While strictly speaking it's a literary parody, keen scholars shouldn't expect too much in the way of donnish wit: the focus here is much more on balls-to-the-wall silliness with flourishes of surrealism. Bleak Expectations chronicles the struggles of orphan turned wealthy wastepaper-basket magnate Pip Bin (played by ebullient, talented newcomer Tom Allen) against the villainous activities of his legal guardian and tormentor-in-chief, the inappropriately named Mr Gently Benevolent (a who-knew comic performance of genius from Buffy's one-time mentor Anthony Head). While the show cocks plenty of snooks at costume-drama cliches, bigger laughs come from outlandish moments like the succession of bizarre and ineffectual inventions offered up by Bin's nice but useless engineer sidekick, Harry Biscuit.