WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• ‘Comedy is Truth. But it's also a way of meeting Kermit the Fucking Frog,’ Dara O Briain

• Elis James says his worst stage experience happened in Penzance when a drunk woman stripped down to a swimsuit and started ‘swimming’ around the stage. He asked her to explain herself – obviously – and she said, 'I want to be the mayor of Penzance' before swimming off.

• Meanwhile, Danny Bhoy says his weirdest heckle came in Australia. A boy came on stage, handed him a piece of paper and walked off. When he opened it up, the note said: ‘You’re shit’. He said: ‘In the UK, they would tell you to your face. It still makes me laugh.

• Comics on the open mic scene in the US can face a fierce struggle for stage time. But that turned into a rather more physical fight at one club in New Orleans on Wednesday. A fracas erupted at the Think You’re Funny? night at Carrollton Station, when one would-be comic reportedly took a swing at host Scotland Green after being told he wouldn’t appear on stage. According to the local newspaper, The Lens, which was there to review the show, ‘the two wrestled upright and exchanged fierce words for a moment, while other comics joined the fracas. Then the entire group backed through the double doors at the back of the bar and out unto the patio.’ All the while, another poor open miccer called Addy Najera was trying to keep the audience focused on his comedy stylings…

• Too soon? US comic Dane Cook has been cracking puns based on the Denver cinema shootings:
  

• It wasn’t a good start for some of the UK comics heading to Montreal’s Just For Laughs comedy festival this week. A plane from Heathrow carrying Danny Bhoy, Stephen K Amos and others had to make an unscheduled stop in Reykjavik after a fellow passenger fell ill, causing a five-hour delay getting in. Meanwhile, another plane carrying Terry Alderton got stuck on the apron in a storm-lashed Toronto Airport,

• It wasn’t always plain sailing for the comics when they got there. Glenn Wool had to cancel his show after losing his voice. A quick trip to the pharmacy, and they gave him something for it. A suppository. Must have been speaking out of his arse all this time...

• In the preamble to one Just For Laughs gala, festival president Andy Nulman gave the usual spiel about mobile phones, but told the audience: ‘It’s OK to Tweet.’ No. No, it isn’t. Just live in the moment and watch the frigging show

• Here’s where heckling turns ugly... a group of loudmouths is kicked out of Joe Rogan’s show in Calgary, Canada, this week:
  

• When they picked up their Chortle Award earlier this year, Irish plastic-bag-wearing duo The Rubberbandits yelled ‘up the RA!’ [Republican Army] in reference to one of their songs... OK, so that was a joke, but despite their proud Limerick roots the Edinburgh Fringe office have decided they would much rather be English – and have tagged them as such in the ‘country of origin’ line of the festival\s official website. The pair tweeted direct to the festival: ‘As much as we’d love to swear allegiance to Lizzie, could ye change our country of origin from England to Ireland on yere site?’’

• Tweets of the week:
  Tony Cowards (@TonyCowards): I expect my new shadow puppet theatre to make millions, although it's just projected figures.
  Matt Roller (@rolldiggity ): Never try to con a con man. And DEFINITELY never try to milk a milk man.
  David Schneider (@davidschneider): He just couldn't deliver on his promises: Osborne to be replaced as Chancellor by the army.

Published: 27 Jul 2012