Comedian could face prosecution over Isis sketch
Plus Joan Rivers tributes, Rob Brydon lands role in US comedy, Big Yin talks cancer and more.
QUENELLE COMEDIAN Dieudonné M’bala M’bala may face prosecution over his sketch about Isis executions, according to The Independent newspaper. In the sketch, which has now been removed from YouTube along with over 100 of Dieudonné’s videos, the comedian says that beheading has always been a “gateway to civilisation” and compares Isis executions to the guillotining of royalty and aristocrats during the French Revolution. Dieudonné adds that Western media made no fuss about the execution of Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi.
TRIBUTES have continued to pour in for comedian Joan Rivers, who died yesterday aged 81. Amongst those paying their respects are Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld and, er, Prince Charles. The Prince of Wales said: “Joan Rivers was an extraordinary woman with an original and indefatigable spirit, an unstoppable sense of humour and an enormous zest for life. She will be hugely missed and utterly irreplaceable.”
THE US STAR’S autopsy results, however, have been found to be inconclusive. Medical examiners could not find a clear ’cause and manner of death.’
ROB BRYDON has landed a guest role on HBO’s new comedy series, The Brink.The comedian will star alongside Green Wing and Bad Education star Michelle Gomez, who’ll play his wife. The duo play ‘an intelligent, tight-knit, eccentric couple’, according to Hollywood website Deadline.
BILLY CONNOLLY will tackle his battle with cancer and Parkinson’s disease on his upcoming tour of Scotland. Connolly’s wife, Pamela Stephenson, said the 71-year-old was now feeling “stronger than ever” and that his health issues have gifted him a glut of fresh comedy material to work with. The Big Yin begins his High Horse tour in Aberdeen later this month and will play 21 dates also covering Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee.
TICKETS are still available for FC United of Manchester’s comedy fundraiser on 12 September. The show, featuring Brendan Riley, Tony Burgess and Smug Roberts, is at St Anne’s Parish Social Centre in Stretford. Tickets are £10. More info.
