The week's trivia

• A 24-year-old man who runs a coffee shop in Eccleston, Lancashire is called Michael Palin. ‘It still amuses me,’ he said.

• When it came to choosing tracks for her first solo album, guess who Sharleen Spiteri turned to for advice? Peter Kay. The former Texas frontwoman says the ballad Day Tripping was included on the album, Melody, out on July 21, only on the comic’s say-so. She said: ‘I was still making my mind up about the track listing when I played it to Peter. Then Peter said, “That's not going on? Are ye deaf?”’

• Paul Chowdhry recalls that after his first ever attempt at stand up 'a couple of people held up the comedy club and nicked everyone's wallets while I snuck out the back. I remember thinking, “This is the kind of place I need to be! Forget an office, this is my future.”’

• From film website CinemaBlend: ‘While I have never actually paid money to see or hear Ricky Gervais, I like to think I’m his biggest fan.’ Which must come as great news to Gervais, if his ‘biggest fan’ won’t even pay to see him. Later, the article adds: ‘Gervais is practically a professional comedian.’ Which rather begs the question of just how many millions you have to earn from comedy to be considered pro.

• Meanwhile, here’s Gervais being the mature director on This Side Of The Truth, as published on his own blog.
  

• Omid Djalili is to captain a team of comedians in the Soccer Six tournament at Millwall FC on Sunday, which will feature Noel Fielding, Russell Howard, Dave Gorman, Lee Mack, Ian Stone and Maff Brown. Other players include members of McFly, Babyshambles, Faithless, The Hoosiers and soap and reality show stars. There’s another leg on Bank Holiday Monday at Reading FC. Tickets

• Dave Gorman’s been on the promotional trial for his book America Unchained, charting his drive across the US trying to avoid any corporate restaurants, gas stations or hotels. So where did he stay in Newquay the other night? Only in a Best Western – the world’s biggest hotel chain. But he was forced into it after a cancelled Ryanair flight left him stranded overnight, and it was the only available accommodation in town. ‘What a strange poetic injustice that my book tour should end like this,’ he said. ‘It felt oh so wrong. And yet stupidly inevitable at the same time. Ho hum.’

• Hello! magazine has a couple of pictures of Steve Coogan and Caroline Aherne at work on the new comedy Sunshine. Looky here. And, in case you missed it, James Corden has taken to his new sex-symbol status like a natural, spoofing some classic hunk poses for Heat magazine. Here’s one.

• Sue Perkins has been eating eyes, bladders and testicles – all in the name of good telly. She ate delicacies from history for new BBC Two show The Supersizers Go…, and said: ‘I've eaten pig's nostrils, eyes and tail, raw hare's gall bladder, fish eyes, cockerel's testicles, chick's heads and every gland known to man.’ Yum.

SOURCES: Chorley Guardian, Daily Record, The Guardian, CinemaBlend, rickygervais.com, Chortle, Chortle/The Guardian/News Shopper, DaveGorman.com, Hello!/Heat, Metro

Published: 16 May 2008