'A real nifty gig'

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• 'It's not so much the fact that the compere forgot my name before introducing me tonight and had to ask the promoter from the stage, more the "Nope, never heard of him" blank look when it was shouted out.' Comic Rob Heeney reveals some of the humiliations of the circuit in a Facebook post.

• He might star in Car Share, but Peter Kay took 176 lessons and five tests before he got his licence, he tells Alan Carr on his Channel 4 show tonight.

• John Cleese tweets: 'Piers Morgan writes that I didn't recognise him in a restaurant in New York.I did.I just didn't want to speak to someone I truly detest.'

• An accomplished financial journalist appeared on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver this week – not for his insight into the markets, but because of his awkward prom-night picture from 23 years ago. Jeremy Olshan, editor-in-chief of MarketWatch, was stunned to find the picture of himself as a 'dorky, baby-faced 17-year-old kid with braces and an ill-fitting, ill-chosen white dinner jacket' – with a bag of weed Photoshopped into the pictured for effect. Turns out, as he writes on his website, that the photo has become a stock image after he absent-mindedly signed a release form all those years ago. Video clip.

• If you were excited to spot the long-awaited return of Australian mischief-makers The Doug Anthony All Stars in yesterday's Edinburgh Fringe programme, prepare for disappointment. The trio have had to pull out due to filming commitments down under – although they have promised to return next year. Here is our review of their comeback show from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

• And a strange sort of kudos for the oddly-named comedy show I Hat Lenny Henry for a bold attempt to get around the programme's strict 40-word count by including the following 134-character hashtag in its description, and thus screwing up text formatting everywhere (including here):
#comicreliefwesternphilanthropiccolonialismandpoliticalantipathyinrésistanceanupdatedanalysisofthecomediesofidentityinpopularculture.

• Here's comic Stu Turner's take on the verse on the front of the new Edinburgh Fringe programme, in the wake of the chaos at the Cowgatehead venue:

• The quick-selling success of Dave Chappelle's London gigs inevitably led to touts putting overinflated seats on sale on the 'secondary ticketing' market – sometimes at prices that are more hopeful than achievable. And fans prepared to dig deep for a good seat better beware. Several sites were offering seats in row AA for £299. However at the Apollo, the this is right at the back of the auditorium, not the front, behind the A-Z rows.

• It seems that barely a week goes by without the release of a toy based on comedy characters. This week it's the cast of the Big Bang Theory, who have been made into Lego characters, to be released this summer after fans Alatariel Elensar and Glen Bricker submitted designs to the company.

• John Bishop had his phone stolen in the street by a thief who whizzed past on a motorbike. The comic, who was sending a text in East London when it happened, tweeted: 'He wrote: I have a new phone because mine was nicked by a twat on a motorbike on Tuesday – horrible experience but I did get some jokes out of it for show.'

• Stand-up Maeve Higgins took part in the Dublin Mini Marathon on Monday - but it took her two hours to complete the 10km race.'I trained to run it but then I decided to walk it so I could chat to people,' she admitted.

• Todd Barry made his first appearance on the David Letterman show at the age of 18 – albeit by phone. The precocious would-be comic wrote a hopeful letter to the chat show host in 1982 boasting of his abilities, so Dave called him up on air. Barry has just released the video on YouTube:
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