The Comedy Café - 04/06/2010

Three decades after the Monty Python team made the silliest film ever with Life of Brian, Eric Idle tells Janice Forsyth how it was reborn as oratorio Not The Messiah. Lippy, opinionated, hilarious - Elaine C Smith still has her feet firmly on the ground despite a stellar career as one of Scotland's best-loved entertainers. She shares the story of her showbiz journey from her memoir Nothing Like a Dame. On an international scale Edinburgh's Fringe Festival is THE comedy showcase of the year - but how well does Scottish talent fare during those 3 weeks in August? Despite playing host to the festival are local acts sidelined in the stampede to see incoming headliners? And do visitors to our capital city have false expectations of what "Scottish comedy" can offer? We put it to comedians Janey Godley and Scott Agnew. From Dave Allen to Ed Byrne Irish humour is world renowned - so we hop across to Kilkenny's Cat Laughs Comedy Festival to find out what new names are coming up through the ranks. And ask could it burgeon to the size - and significance - of Edinburgh's annual comedy extravaganza at the Fringe festival? Comedy critic Jay Richardson reports on the buzz on location. And we continue our weekly series from BBC Radio Scotland's online Comedy Zone featuring the best or our station's comedy archive from down the years. All that plus our Joke of the Week and comedy DVD recommendations.