Stand-up comedy is a comedy performance directed to a live audience in which the performer, known as a comedian, comic or "stand-up", stands on a stage and delivers various humorous and satirical monologues, and occasionally physical acts, typically involving no other props except a microphone and a stool. The performance is usually a rhetorical sketch with rehearsed scripts, but many comics employ live crowd interaction as part of their routine.
Eddie Izzard, also known as Suzy Izzard, is a British stand-up comedian, actor, and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.
The Secret Policeman's Ball is a series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but later included leading musicians and actors. The Secret Policeman's Ball shows are credited by many prominent entertainers with having galvanised them to become involved with Amnesty and other social and political causes in succeeding years.
Ana Lila Downs Sánchez is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music. She also incorporates indigenous Mexican influences and has recorded songs in many indigenous languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan, Nahuatl and Purépecha. Born and raised in Oaxaca, she primarily studied at the Institute of Arts by Oaxaca and briefly attended the University of Minnesota, before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She soon began performing in the traditional music scene of Oaxaca City.
Dylan William Moran is an Irish comedian, writer, actor and artist. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series Black Books, and his work with Simon Pegg in films such as Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run. He was also one of two lead characters in the Irish black comedy film A Film with Me in It.
In contract law, force majeure is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, epidemic, or sudden legal change prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract. Force majeure often includes events described as an act of God, though such events remain legally distinct from the clause itself. In practice, most force majeure clauses do not entirely excuse a party's non-performance but suspend it for the duration of the force majeure.
Dress to Kill is the title of a performance by Eddie Izzard, and is a continuation of the British comedian's surrealist, ideas-based comedy. The VHS was recorded during a performance in San Francisco, California, United States. However, the tour was a global one. During this tour Izzard also wrote the book Dress to Kill with David Quantick, published by Virgin Books in hardback in 1998 and paperback in 2000.
Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri is a Greek singer and politician. Over the span of her career, she has released over 200 albums in at least twelve languages, including Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Hebrew, Welsh, Mandarin Chinese and Corsican.
The Lion King is a stage musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and a book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, with additional music and lyrics by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer. It is based on the 1994 Walt Disney Animation Studios' film of the same name. Directed by Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets. The show is produced by Disney Theatrical Productions.
Alan Graham Carr is an English comedian, broadcaster and writer. His breakthrough was in 2001, winning the City Life Best Newcomer of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Awards. In the ensuing years, Carr's career burgeoned on the Manchester comedy circuit before he became known for co-hosting The Friday Night Project (2006–2009) with Justin Lee Collins. This led to the release of a short-lived entertainment show Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong (2008), and he went on to star in the comedy chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man (2009–2016) which aired on Channel 4. Since 2017, Carr often stands in as a team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. In 2019, he became a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK. In 2021, he began hosting BBC One’s Interior Design Masters.
Victoria Hamilton is an English actress.
Dominic Anthony Holland is an English comedian, author, actor and broadcaster. He won the 1993 Perrier Best Newcomer Award in Edinburgh. His BBC Radio 4 series, The Small World of Dominic Holland, won a Comic Heritage Award.
Force majeure is a common clause in contracts that frees parties from legal obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance occurs.
Stripped is the title of a stand-up comedy tour by Eddie Izzard, and is a continuation of her style of comedy, full of "stream-of-conscious banter and predilection for nonsensical detours and frequent tangents." The tour was performed from 28 April to 9 August 2008 with three "warm-up" dates. It has been called "not only hilarious but quite remarkable." As for the name of the tour, Izzard says she called it Stripped because
"The heels got too high on the last two tours. Now I've just gone back to blokey mode, so I've got all this movement back which I couldn't do before. The set is leaner, what I'm wearing is leaner and just focusing on what I'm talking about. I keep talking about God and I come to all these different conclusions. I'm talking about the whole civilization, trying to strip that back, as well. The last 5,000 years we did everything. I put out my idea what we're doing here. I think it's all random. If there is a God, his plan is very similar to someone not having a plan."
Sarah Townsend, known professionally as Sarah McGuinness, is an Irish singer, composer, producer, director, and screenwriter.
Nena was a German Neue Deutsche Welle band formed in West Berlin in 1981. In 1983 and 1984, their German-language song "99 Luftballons" reached number one in the singles charts of countries around the world.
Angela Barnes is an English stand-up comedian, mostly known for her appearances on Mock the Week.
Sabina Margrit Sciubba or Sabina is a singer, composer, performance artist and actress. She became known as the lead singer for the Grammy-nominated electronica band Brazilian Girls. She is also a visual artist. She has a solo career, and also worked as an actress, appearing in a recurring role on the FX series Baskets, beginning in 2016. Sciubba has composed the scores for feature films and commercials.
Force Majeure is a 2014 internationally co-produced black comedy film written and directed by Ruben Östlund. It follows the marital tension resulting from an apparent avalanche in the French Alps, during which the husband prioritizes his escape over the safety of his wife and two children. The title Force Majeure used for the film in some English-speaking countries comes from force majeure, a contractual clause freeing both parties from liability in the event of unexpected disasters.
Ismo Mikael Leikola, sometimes known professionally as ISMO, is a Finnish stand-up comedian, musician, author, screenwriter, and YouTuber. Leikola made his United States debut in 2014, when he won "The Funniest Person in the World" competition organized by the comedy club Laugh Factory. In 2015, he made comedy series ISMO for Finnish television and moved to the United States. He gained more recognition after his appearance on the Conan talk show in 2018 and has since toured internationally. He has a YouTube channel with over 360,000 subscribers.
