WTF: Weekly Trivia File

•Dawn French on how she might have saved her marriage to Lenny Henry: ‘Maybe I should’ve worn more interesting pants.’

• Third Reich-themed lounge singer Frank Sanazi was dropped from the Cornbury Music Festival in Oxfordshire last weekend at very short notice – after organisers decided the act they had booked might offend their customers. He told blogger John Fleming the ban might be something to do with the fact the festival takes place in David Cameron’s constituency and the PM was rumoured to be making one of his occasional appearances. But in the end he didn’t – and Sanazi got paid for the non-appearance.

• Absurd Australian comedian, and frequent UK visitor, Sam Simmons married his fiancee Roslyn this week. And where else but the Viva Las Vegas wedding chapel, in the presence of Elvis. Watch it here, and be sure to stay around for the dancing....

• Not quite as good as Elvis – but you can now be married by Kramer from Seinfeld. Or at least by Kenny Kramer, the inspiration for the wacky next door neighbour, who in a move worthy of his namesake has become a fully licensed minister. The 69-year-old, who once lived across the hall from Seinfeld co-creator Larry David has previously been a stand-up comic, disco jewellery salesman and reggae band manager – and has run for mayor of New York.

• Stand-up Jeff Innocent  got a surprise when he checked in to a flight to Edinburgh – when he was told he was the millionth passenger to use Southend Airport’s new terminal.  They gave the 58-year-old - whose real name is Geoff Davis – a bottle of champagne, and free EasyJet flights for the family to mark the milestone. Innocent, who was travelling with his eight-year-old son Freddie for a weekend of gigs at The Stand, said he was ‘shocked and delighted’, telling airport staff:  ‘I thought you were coming to tell me something bad about the flight! I have never won anything.’ Though, of course, you can’t take a bottle of champagne into an aircraft cabin...

• Frank Skinner has spoken of his love for Ignatian spirituality. He told Jesuit and Friends magazine that he has developed an interest in silent meditation: ‘Through short periods of time, I developed the ability to stop thinking and clear my mind. Afterwards you feel peace. You start to feel very centred and that starts to inform the rest of your life. I feel that God is in that – in everything – and it’s like that silence can make you feel it in yourself.’

• Cambridge Footlights are very proud that this year’s tour, Canada, is their first show to feature more female performers than male. And it only took them 130 years.

• And two more stories about the voice of God this week. First up, Spamalot is to feature a season of guest deities over the summer, with Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Windsor, Christopher Biggins, Larry Lamb, Bradley Walsh and Simon Callow taking over from Eric Idle as the voice of the omnipotent one for a week each. Meanwhile, Isy Suttie has she’s been cast as God in the Edinburgh Fringe show Superbard: The Flood. Superbard, aka George Lewkowicz, sai:d ‘There's something about a God with a hint of a northern accent that works perfectly.’

• The Get Surrey website used an interesting crop of Andy Parsons’s picture when they interviewed him this week...

• Marcel Lucont has sold his first A La Carte gig, in which he sells a private performance of his Edinburgh show to the highest bidder, who can then determine the set list. Lucont – the French creation of Alexis Dubus – will be performing his first preview for Johnny Thompson and 30 mates in his front room in Falkirk tomorrow, after he stumped up £166.22.

• Comedians often complain there are fewer and fewer paid gigs. Today London’s 99 Club has put out a press release saying it has ‘around 2,500 paid slots A WEEK’ for stand-ups in the capital - or more than 300 every night. We think they might have got their sums wrong...

• Tweets of the week
Joan Rivers (@ Joan_Rivers ): Visited Mount Rushmore with my grandson yesterday. Not for history - I wanted to prove that there are faces that move less than mine.
James Martin (@ pundamentalism ): Just told my mate he does the best A-Team impressions. You should see his Face.
Glenn Moore (@ TheNewsAtGlenn ): I passed my Jackson Pollock exam with flying colours.

Published: 12 Jul 2013