The week's comedy gossip

• Noel Fielding: ‘Sometimes I look in the mirror and see a woman. My nose has never been broken, but it's a fucking weird shape.’

• Hugh Laurie unexpectedly left the set of House yesterday, telling producers he had to dash back to the UK. He jumped straight on a flight to London, where his wife and three kids live. ‘Hugh had family obligations in England to attend to, but production is continuing in his absence,’ said producers, who hastily rejigged the shooting schedule around him. He is expected back at work Monday, his publicist says..

• Chuckle Brother Paul thinks he once slept with the ghost of a dead prostitute. In Rhyl.

• Gail Porter admits she gets star struck - but only when she meets comedians. She said: 'If I see a comedian I like, I almost melt to the floor. Steve Coogan knew that I liked Eddie Izzard and told me to go and chat him up when I was single. So I walked over and said, "Er, hello" and he was like, "It's Gail isn't it?", and I don't know why, but I replied, "Yeah, I know where you live . . but not that I try to stalk you". And it just got worse and worse. He was just looking at me slightly amused, slightly frightened. It's just awful I can't even think about it.’ Ahh, poor dear.

• Russell Brand wants Asleep by The Smiths to be played at his funeral.

• We hear a lot about fakery in TV at the minute, but what about fakery in stand-up. Word reaches is that if.comedy nominee Ivan Brackenbury, the spoof hospital radio DJ, is faking his Steve Wright-style moustache. The shocking cover-up came after the girlfriend of Tom Binns, the comic behind the creation, shaved off the offending facial hair.

• Who was that heckling Sandra Bernhard at her London gig last night, demanding: ‘Sing!’ as she was mid-monologue. Why, it’s only Chrissie Hynde…

• Office star Mackenzie Crook says he doesn’t mind the way he’s often described because his distinctive look gets him work. So it’s water off a duck’s back when he’s called ‘one of those birds who've fallen out of their nest that you find lying on the pavement ... cadaver-like ... a seagull with thyroid problems ... a meerkat gone 10 rounds with John Prescott.’

• How much would you suffer for your art? Manchester stand-up Barry Dodds agreed to perform at the city’s Frog And Bucket comedy club on Wednesday night wired up to a TENS machine – a medical device that delivers electric shocks. Within seconds he was on the floor, convulsing – and that was only at 40% power. Here goes:

  Dodds was already nursing some quite impressive facial bruising, thanks to a wrestling match with fellow comic Eddie Hoo that got out of hand earlier in the week. You might be able to work out what’s going on in this poor-quality footage of the incident.

• Anyone buying the new Fawlty Towers book that came out this week might notice a remarkable similarity to the cover of the last guide to the show, six years ago. Both use identical pictures of the cast - save for Manuel - below the hotel’s sign. Look see:
  

• Jerry Seinfeld: ‘There's definitely a comedian gene - it's like being gay - and if you're born with it, it's no good to fight it.’

• And just to clear up that Chuckle Brother story – it’s absolutely genuine. He said: ‘Suddenly the room turned icy cold and I felt a presence as if someone was getting into bed with me. Next morning the owner told me in the Twenties the place used to be a brothel, so I might have slept with the ghost of a prostitute.’

SOURCES: The Observer, Variety, thelondonpaper, The Scotsman, Digital Spy, Manchester Evening News, Chortle, Daily Express, Chortle, Chortle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, thelondonpaper

Published: 26 Oct 2007