Ava Vidal

Ava Vidal on performing Christmas comedy shows

Ava Vidal dreads the comedy club circuit at Christmas time thanks to the influx of drunken office parties, where men in the audience often ask her during the break to quieten down so they can chat up the "bit of stuff" they've had their eye on all year.

Ava Vidal: Shooting down evil male hecklers

Male hecklers are a female comedian's worst nightmare. But after a decade's experience in stand-up comedy, Ava Vidal has learned how to shoot them down.

Ava Vidal review

Vidal is engaging and amiable but this "project" might work better as a light-hearted book than a show.

Ava Vidal sorts SSP's relationship dilemmas

The new relationship show from Ava Vidal...

Why was Reg D Hunter ever booked for the PFA awards?

Hunter is a comedian renowned for using the N-word. Let's hope this incident hasn't set back the fight against racism in football.

Interview: Ava Vidal on her break in TV & current tour

After making her name on TV, Ava Vidal is setting off on her first ever solo tour. The prison officer turned comedian talks to Claire Black about family, sexism and a topsy-turvy career.

Ava Vidal talks sex, champagne and Sarafina

An interview with stand-up comedian Ava Vidal.

Raising children is the topic dealt with by Stephen K Amos, with unreliable assistance from fellow stand-up performers Ava Vidal, Howard Read and Smug Roberts. Read is on his specialist subject: he's the star and creator of CBBC's brilliant Little Howard's Big Question.

Radio Times review

Comedian and writer Richard Herring is no stranger to controversy himself and thus makes the perfect host for a series that tries to turn popular opinion about unpopular objects or people upon its head. "I'm going to turn the taboo into the to-do," he quips in his introduction before informing us that the item he is considering as having been on the end of an unfair press is the golliwog.

In a vox pop among Londoners - black as well as white - the overwhelming response to the golly is that it was a harmless toy, a symbol of its time that would not have a place today but was never an embodiment of racial hatred. Herring very cleverly introduces some marvellous examples of why this is not the case, the most appalling being a short story by Enid Blyton in which her choice of names for three gollies is too offensive to print. There's no preaching, just intelligent and extremely funny assessment, ably assisted by black comedienne Ava Vidal who pulls no punches in her views on this sorry doll. It's time to consign the golly to a museum.

Edinburgh Fringe grilling: Ava Vidal

Next up to hop onto Sport.co.uk's groovy grill of gurning grins is prison guard turned comedian Ava Vidal, who brings her Lessons I Should Have Learnt show to The Stand Comedy Club 3 & 4 at 3pm this month...