Alex Hardy (I)
- Writer and producer
Press clippings Page 2
My Edinburgh: John Lloyd
John Lloyd is a comedy producer who has collaborated on many of the most era-defining and amusing shows of the past 40 years.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 27th August 2015My Edinburgh: Aisling Bea
A comic and actress from Co Kildare in Ireland with an easy stage presence and cracking wit, Aisling Bea has enjoyed a rapid rise.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 21st August 2015My day (and night) as a top comedy scout at the Fringe
Alex Hardy joined comedy agent Cathy Mason on her annual mission to find the funniest folk at the festival.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 20th August 2015The Fringe's five best international comics
Next month, the South African comic Trevor Noah will take up one of the biggest gigs in comedy, as the new host of The Daily Show. So who are the other international stars making their mark? Who is the Belgian Stephen Fry or New Zealand's Josie Long? And why did the poulet cross the road?
Alex Hardy, The Times, 18th August 2015Bridget Christie on Putin, politics and her Fringe show
Bridget Christie has a lot on her mind. The fact that girls aged 11 are having bikini waxes. That she no longer calls the Labour party "we". She's worried about cuts to welfare, education and the arts -- and about town centres changing to look like super-rich European cities, with luxury goods retailers instead of record and book shops. Then, suddenly, she's giggly -- at a cute set of animal prints painted on the children's bench in the cafe where we chat.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 10th August 2015Foster's Comedy Awards Panel Announced
The judges, headed by Lucy Lumsden, are Carl Cooper, Alex Hardy, John Nicholson, Charlie Perkins, Zoe Rabnett, Ben Williams, and public panel winners Dave Deverick, Kate Emmett and Mark Muldoon.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 4th August 2015How the Fringe stage became a comic psychiatrist chair
The day the comic actor Robin Williams committed suicide was the day Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn knew they had to make a show about men and mental health. She was a performance artist and comedian, he was an advertising executive with no performing experience beyond the football pitch and work presentations for his London agency.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 31st July 2015Review: Stewart Francis at The Hawth, Crawley
The most frustrating comedy shows are the ones that have flashes of brilliance eaten up by walls of weakness around them. And so it was with the Canadian comic Stewart Francis, often a fast-minded presence on Mock the Week.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 30th April 2015Dara O'Briain at Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, review
The Mock the Week host has certainly nailed how to name his shows. Dara O'Briain's last tour in 2012 was Craic Dealer, and now he's returned with Crowd Tickler, in which he envelops the audience in his nonsense from start to finish. His front row quickly become his playmates for a series of running gags; by the second half he's chatting to a lady in the balcony about brain biology.
Alex Hardy, The Times, 15th February 2015Review: Count Arthur Strong at Norwich Playhouse
He's an "old-fashioned comic" is how some describe Count Arthur Strong. Well, he might be old-fashioned in terms of the nature of his act. Steve Delaney's character creation is an ageing variety star who is as suited to the modern world as gravy is to ice cream (even when he attempts "topical" humour, he mispronounces it "tropical").
Alex Hardy, The Times, 9th February 2015