Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

How we laughed

Lloyd Evans charts the death of political satire and looks to where comedy is heading next

issue 02 May 2009

Lloyd Evans charts the death of political satire and looks to where comedy is heading next

Live comedy ought to be extinct. For five years the internet has been waving an eviction order in its face, but despite the YouTube menace, and its threat of death-by-a-thousand-clips, live stand-up is blossoming. You’ll have noticed this if you read newspaper adverts. Eighteen months ago they were full of barmy invitations to take out a loan for 10 times the value of your house, or to ‘buy’ (that is rent in advance for 99 years) a room in a boutique hotel in Prague or a glass-box-with-a-view in Abu Dhabi. These schemes have been replaced with full-page ads promoting comedians on nationwide tours. The scale is vast. Stadiums like Wembley Arena and London’s O2 (née the Dome), usually the preserve of rock stars, are being booked by stand-up comics.

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