John Fleming (I)

Romina Puma interview

Romina Puma used to run a fortnightly Italian language comedy night in London - Il Puma Londinese. I blogged about it in 2014. She stopped in 2016. But now she is back with more than one show.

Death's no barrier for being interviewed for election

Mad inventor John Ward designed and makes the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards. He was also a valued member of the Monster Raving Loony Party under its late leader Screaming Lord Sutch and Minister for Inventions in The Eccentric Party under its late leader Lord Toby Jug. John Ward seems to loom large as a figure of impending death for the leaders of such parties. Anyway, yesterday John Ward received a phone call from an enthusiastic young BBC Radio 4 researcher.

Union JACK wants to hear unusual & innovative comics

"If people say It's safe, that's not really what we want to hear. We want clever ideas which will appeal to a wider audience. We want to hear 'unusual' and 'innovative'. Some people may say: It's crazy. It will never work, but that's fine. We like to hear that. 'Safe' is what everyone else is doing. We are not interested in that."

That's what Donnach O'Driscoll told me when I chatted to him. Strangely, I believed him. He is the CEO of Union JACK Radio. They are now one of the sponsors of the Leicester Comedy Festival and Leicester Comedy Festival boss Geoff Rowe is now part-time Director of Comedy at Union JACK.

Becky Fury + the creepy clown sex cult

So I got an email from Malcolm Hardee Award winning comic Becky Fury. It read: "Do you want to do a blog about this creepy clown sex cult that I narrowly avoided joining?"

Hairy moments for Harry H Corbett filming Jabberwocky

I went to a one-off screening of Terry Gilliam's 1977 movie Jabberwocky. Before the screening, Terry Gilliam mentioned what it was like working with Harry H Corbett.

President Obonjo announces his own chat show

I talked to comedy critic/judge (Scotsman newspaper, Perrier Awards, Malcolm Hardee Awards) and TV producer (Eurotrash and sundry sport and sex documentaries) Kate Copstick and 'President Obonjo' about their plans for next Sunday's recording in Copstick's Mama Biashara charity shop in Shepherd's Bush, London.

What sort of creative creature's comic Dominic Holland?

What is Dominic Holland? A writer of books? A stand-up comedian? The father of Spider-man? Yes to all three.

BBC & E4 'theft': A plagiarist in both their houses?

BBC Studios have become embroiled in what they are claiming is the theft both of one of their programmes and of their name by a company calling itself BBC Stewdios.

Thieves at BBC nominated for a Malcolm Hardee Award

In what could be read as a two-finger sign to BBC Studios, 'President Obonjo' has today made a clean sweep in nominations for the three annual Malcolm Hardee Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Malcolm Hardee - the infamous tractor incident

With the revival of the Malcolm Hardee Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe this week, it is maybe timely to remember the late, great prankster's infamous incident with the tractor... Here is an extract from his autobiography I Stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake...