WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• 'There's something dirty and sleeping-with-a-hooker about comedy. It's an artistic one-night stand. Once you've heard it, it's spoilt. Once you've had it, it's dirty.' Tim Minchin

• Incidentally, Mr Minchin had an unusual solution when he ran in to copyright problems on his brilliant new DVD Ready For This? Although a prolific writer of his own work, in one song he used a snatch of I Will Always Love You – but couldn’t get permission to use it on the disc. Instead of dropping the song, Minchin just faded out the offending lines and explained in voiceover what was going on: ‘Every now and then I quote a popular song in one of my less popular tunes. In this case it was I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton who, it might surprise you to learn, I consider one of the greatest songwriters of her generation,’ he said over images of the audience swaying. ‘Seems like a dumb ending… but what I did, right, is replace the word “you” with the word “boobs”. It was fucking incredible and copyright lawyers are fucking dicks.’

• Ronnie Corbett said he once went to see Ed Byrne’s show in Edinburgh with his grandson – and they were the only two people in the audience. ‘I was a funny moment to see him catch my eye in the empty auditorium seeing my little face,’ Corbett recalls.

• The gossip newsletter Popbitch normally concerns itself primarily with the hedonistic world of music celebrities… but this week who should get a look-in but Bullseye comic Jim Bowen. Apparently, he used to request that all the mail for their house was given directly to him by the postman and never to his wife. What scandal!

• A couple of weeks back we mentioned the portrait of Billy Connolly made out of food – well, here’s how it was done:
  

• Ricky Gervais says security at his Hampstead house is so tight it resembles a giant ‘panic room’. He said: ‘You press a button and steel shutters come down on every window. I have good security. It's fundamental. I'm not paranoid, though. It's more to do with comfort, privacy, security. Fundamental. You can't enjoy your life if you're worrying about other things.’

• Christmas gigs can be awkward at the best of times, but at Brighton Komedia this week, compere Stephen Grant asked someone what they did for a living, to be told they were unemployed. ‘Isn't this a works do?,’ he asked. ‘Yes,’ said the punter, pointing to another man on the table. ‘He made us redundant.’ Turned out the whole table had been laid off – including the boss who had to did the firing. Grant describes on his Facebook page how he found out that they were out together as the company made them buy tickets for the comedy before laying them off. He then said: ‘This will be the last time you ever see each other, then?’ The group nodded sombrely. Merry Christmas.

• The glamour of being a stand-up: Tom Stade got to host the 2010 Dentristy Awards in Leicester this week.

• Dara O Briain on Mock The Week: 'At best, we’re topical commentary; at worst we’re just a bunch of snipey men.'

• Racist, homophobic comic gets his comeuppance:
  

• Peter Kay visited Fazeley Fish Bar in Tamworth this week and ordered a 'mountain of fish, chips, mushy peas and fish cakes', according to owner Zen Joannou. The comic is not the only celebrity to have visited the shop. Sir Paul McCartney popped in some years ago. 'One of the staff still has his autograph on a tissue,' said Zen .

• Tweets of the week
  Danny Wallace (@misterwallace): I think the Wright Stuff's Natalie Pinkham, now that she's talking about murder and manslaughter, might regret that she's dressed as an elf.
  Adam Bloom (@adambloomie): Christmas comedy audiences, my tip for getting the most of a night is to ignore the comedians, then occasionally glance up judgementally.
  Daniel Maier (@danielmaier): And Camilla thought getting poked with a stick and the car being attacked would be the low point of her night. #rvp [Royal Variety Performance]

SOURCES: Independent On Sunday, Chortle, BBC News, Popbitch, YouTube, US Esquire, Facebook, Dentisty.co.uk, Sunday Times, YouTube, Birmingham Mail, Twttter

Published: 17 Dec 2010