British Comedy Guide
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Jo Brand
Jo Brand

Jo Brand

  • 67 years old
  • English
  • Writer, stand-up comedian and actor

Press clippings Page 23

While one doesn't like to laugh at other people's misfortunes, that was pretty much encouraged during I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down, in which comedian and musician Rich Morton chatted to a variety of stand-ups about those nightmares gigs that remain impossible to forget.

While this was a thoroughly entertaining half-hour, Morton rarely gave any of his interviewees a namecheck, which became frustrating for the listener. At the top of the show, we were told he was going to be talking to Jo Brand, Tim Clark, Jack Dee, Milton Jones, Lucy Porter and Ian Stone. True, it was easy to know when Dee, Brand and Porter were contributing, but the rest of the time it was a bit of a guessing game.

However, aside from this hiccup was a stream of amusing anecdotes about disastrous corporate gigs - prompting one comedian to try to escape by hiding in a dumb waiter - horrible hecklers and that one person in the audience who doesn't laugh.

Dee was in particularly good form, describing how if a Comedy Store gig went wrong in the early days of his career, he would tackle the challenge of walking through the audience in order to leave the venue by wearing his motorcycle helmet, as if he had just delivered a pizza.

Lisa Martland, The Stage, 5th November 2013

Poor, hapless Alan Davies is on the receiving end of a storm of QI klaxons as he good-naturedly lurches from one wrong answer to the next. But it's an honourable tradition and Davies is a willing fallguy - he even fails at a supposedly foolproof experiment involving a broom's centre of gravity.

Elsewhere, guests Danny Baker, Jo Brand and Marcus Brigstocke enjoy a bit of a jolly knockabout that's full of surprises and "well, I never knew that" sort of facts, including the answer to questions such as £what do mosquitos do in the rain?" and which country has the longest traffic jams. At one point it all becomes a bit much for Baker who wails, "On behalf of the audience I have to say, sometimes I hate this programme."

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 1st November 2013

BBC stands by Jo Brand over joke about Prince Harry

Joke read out by Jo Brand as guest presenter of Have I Got News For You draws criticism from government minister.

John Plunkett, The Guardian, 27th October 2013

Prince Harry drugs dig on Have I Got News For You

The BBC is under pressure to apologise after Jo Brand joked about Prince Harry taking cocaine on Have I Got News For You.

Metro, 27th October 2013

So long has QI been going (a decade; we're now up to "K" in the alphabet) that some of the arcane facts presented in earlier seasons of the show (there's no way of knowing how old a lobster is) have since been disproved. That uncertainty forms the agreeable theme of tonight's show ("knowledge"). Here, the guests (Graham Linehan and Jo Brand) not only arrive circuitously at their answers, they also question their legitimacy. Incidentally, should you ever need to age a lobster, you cut off its eye stalks and count the rings.

John Robinson, The Guardian, 18th October 2013

Jo Brand defends Lee Mack's comments on women comics

Jo Brand has defended Lee Mack, who she says was unfairly treated by the press for expressing views on Desert Island Discs recently that women weren't cut out for comedy.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 9th October 2013

Alexander Armstrong to host Battle Of The Ages pilot

Alexander Armstrong, Jo Brand and Dave Spikey are involved in the latest pilot of the TV stand-up format Battle Of The Ages.

British Comedy Guide, 28th August 2013

Jo Brand & Jessica Hynes perform in Big Comedy Special

Jo Brand, Jessica Hynes, Richard Herring and Jon Richardson are to appear as part of a charity comedy night at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Matthew Hemley, The Stage, 5th August 2013

Comedy gold - Jo Brand's Barely Live

Behind the man-baiting facade, you get the feeling that all this brilliantly funny comic wants is for everyone to get along.

Leo Benedictus, The Guardian, 12th July 2013

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