Comedy news: All site blogs

Billy Connolly was crowned the top British comedian in a poll by Dave today. It’s vaguely curious, but interesting first and foremost for being full of OLD. Without taking anything away from the Big Yin and his co-listees, is Sean Lock really the only influential stand-up who’s emerged in the last twenty years? How many of them are influential rather than just well-known?

Anyway, our general point is that lists of the funniest comedians of all combinations and ages have been compiled since Bob Monkhouse cracked his first joke (1843) and there are better ones out there. Here’s our rundown of the best.

10. Top 50 British Sitcoms (BBC Two, 2004)

Basically a workaday rundown of what has become G.O.L.D.’s schedule. Only Fools and Horses at number one (YAWN), followed by Blackadder and the Vicar of Dibley. You know a list that lets Goodnight Sweetheart in at 50 was running short of shows, although congrats on letting Birds of a Feather in. WHERE IS HONEY FOR TEA?

9. Top ten comedians of 2011 (The Sun, 2011)

This rundown of 2011 reads like a list of comedians who’ve performed some sort of abrupt right-turn in their life in recent years: Terry Alderton, Mickey Flanagan, Sarah Millican. Ignore where this was published: it’s a sensitive rundown that’s worth a look at who’s making it in to the public’s consciousness at the moment.

8. Top 100 Standups (Comedy Central, 2004)

Comedy tends not to travel across boundaries so if you’ve ever wondered what’s big in the States, this is the list for you. It hits up the classics (Richard Pryor at one, followed by George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen) and eschews stadium comedians like Dane Cook. Odd exceptions to that rule: Roseanne Barr’s at number nine. The only Brit on the list is Eddie Izzard at 75.

7. Top Ten Best Stand-Up Comedians of All Time (Guyism, 2010)

Okay, so we needed some padding to get to ten lists and this US-list contains no surprises (Bill Hicks at one), but gosh it’s a very nicely put together website isn’t it. 

6. Top ten comedians of the decade (Paste, 2009)

Another US list but one that fills in some crucial gaps: for a start, Mitch Hedberg is here, which is more than Comedy Central’s top 100 list manages. Eugene Mirman and David Cross also make the cut, with Dave Chappelly at number one.

5. Time Out reader’s Top Ten comedians (2008)

Time Out readers tend to be an urbane lot, and this list blends the usual suspects (Bailey, Kay) with Janey Godley at three, Daniel Kitson at four, and Terry Saunders at nine. Gervais is at one, Stewart Lee at two. WISE.

4. Best comedy albums of 2011 (AV Club, 2011)

You’re probably thinking, gosh, that’s a bit specific, but the tighter the topic being polled and the smaller the group (this polled just eight writers), the better the results. Current US fav Louis CK came top, with Patton Oswalt and isn’t-it-nice-everyone-loves-him-at-the-moment Marc Marron filling out the top three. Also also: MICHAEL IAN BLACK at eight. Read this list. 

3. Top ten female comedians (The Observer, 2010)

If lists tend to overlook the young, they outright ignore women, so The Observer put together a list of the top ten female comedians in 2010. A fine list it is as well, running from grand dames Victoria Wood and Joan Rivers to then-up and coming talent Sarah Millican and Josie Long. ONE PROBLEM: there’s no arbitrary ordering of them. HOW ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHO TO LIKE? Bonus female gathering: 53 funny women, from the Huffington Post.

2. The Comedian’s Comedian (Channel 4, 2005)

Peter Cook topped a poll of comedians to find their favourite comedian in 2005, followed by John Cleese (tenner says he wouldn't even make the top ten if this list was done again now), Woody Allen and Eric Morecambe. The space on the list for old timers like Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy would suggest, however, that Paul Merton just rigged the vote. Full list on Chortle. 

1. 100 Greatest Stand-Ups (Channel 4, 2007 and 2010)

From Freddy Starr at number 100 to Billy Connolly again at number one, Channel 4 gave their countdown a whopping four hours to do the countdown justice. 150,000 people contributed to the poll (versus 2,000 in Dave’s) which was first conducted in 2007 and updated in 2010, and it’s a nice example of the wisdom of crowds – the top five features Richard Pryor, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hicks and Eddie Izzard. The original edition is all on YouTube, usefully.

IMPORTANT UPDATE ALERT: SSP Tim has pointed out this rather tremendous piece he wrote about the Channel 4 list from 2010, which uses EVIDENCE and COMPREHENSIVENESS to make a mockery of arbitrary lists like this one we just wrote. What's that sound? That's irony, clunking it's way all over the face of this page.

*sigh*

We half-wrote some notes on the Comedy.co.uk awards which were announced on Monday and then sort of forgot about them, but WE HAVE REMEMBERED THEM AGAIN because (a) they're rather interesting reading, and (b) Comedy.co.uk have the most dedicated fans In The Business who we happen to agree with on about 80% of the awards.

Onwards! 

• This 'BBC is producing inexplicable drivel and Sky is making everything great' narrative in comedy is getting rather hard to avoid, but the best sitcom (Spy) and worst sitcom (Mrs Brown's Boys) seems to encapsulate it rather nicely. Spy nails the family sitcom the BBC can't do; the BBC has to fall back on the comedy output of the nations to plug gaps in its schedules. It only seems a matter of time until old episodes of Man Del becomes BBC One's highest-rating comedy. (That being said, you should totally watch this BBC Scotland series on Late'n'Live.)

• We once tried to write a defence of worst returning British sitcom Two Pints but let's be honest it probably wasn't worth it. Still, it's GONE, which is sort of sad in a way (it isn't really sad in any way). 

• Radio! No offence to John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme but any award where Listen Against is a runner should clearly only go one way. The bit were Harriet Cass flogged CDs of Alan Carr's Worst Sounds was easily the funniest thing on any radio anywhere during the whole of 2011. Also: we never heard best radio sitcom Cabin Pressure but the cast photo nicely shows how much Benedict Cumberbatch needs floppy hair and tighter tailoring to make the nation's women and gays go all a quiver. 

 Wouldn't.

• Best British entertainment show went to Graham Norton, which is quite reasonable, because he really is great at the light-as-air interview. We've never quite bought in to the schtick that he gets interviewees to really open up by being such fun, but that really doesn't matter: it's fun and airy and easy, which is what a Friday night chat show should be. BUT, while the interviewing is great, the opening jokes and other show bits and pieces are so utterly terrible that the show is frankly only watchable on YouTube afterwards to get the half-decent stuff. Basically can whoever used to write all the 'bits' back in the days of So Graham Norton please come back? Thanks. 

• Fresh Meat won what was really quite a weak category for best British comedy drama. It's perfectly serviceable as a show but it is rather Channel 4 comedy drama-by-numbers. Fresh Meat, No Angels, Teachers (well, if you take the first two awesome series out of the equation), the slightly less-decent Sirens: they all operate in such a similar manner that after you've seen one you've sort of seen them all. The very positive critical reaction to the show surprised us a bit; the lukewarm ratings rattled just above the one-million mark and seemed to match what was on offer more tightly. 

• Worst celebrity panel show: Celebrity Juice. And this is why we listen to Comedy.co.uk fans.

It's sometimes easy to forget that Comic Relief and its we-don't-entirely-understand-it younger sibling Sport Relief are actually very funny, given that it gets mashed up in the collective national memory with the godawful skits that get apologetically turned in for Children in Need.

But funny it is, and Let's Dance for Comic/Sport Relief has already brought us such classics as Russell Kane finally putting that face he always pulls to good use as Beyonce, Noel Fielding out-amazing himself as Kate Bush, and the see-it-once-and-never-sleep-again image of Robert Webb in a leotard.

So what can we expect from this year's contestants?

Angelos Epithemiou and Ulrika Jonsson

Having been tending a loving romance at Shooting Stars and now as BBC comedy refugees (read: give it ten minutes and they'll have their own series at Sky) the not-exactly-shy Angelos and Ulrika seem likely to do well. Having said that, we spoke to Angelos at a 'thing' last month where he was in character and to be honest it was bloody hard work. Good luck, Gethin Jones and Alex Jones.

Odds: 4/1

Ava Vidal

Ava Vidal. Mica Paris. Ava Vidal. Mica Paris. Anyone know what Mica Paris looks like when she dances?

Odds: 20/1

Terry Alderton

Terry's been giving some rather lovely interviews while on tour of late about how he's been changing his routine which are worth a read. Would suggest he brings together his finest TV work -  London's Burning and National Lottery Red Alert, co-presented by Lulu – and do Relight My Fire. Actually, is there a dance for that? We keep forgetting this isn't karaoke. 

Odds: 15/1 

Arabella Weir

We were sad to see at the Fast Show return (yes, we're banging on about that again) in autumn that Arabella Weir's bits weren't really laughed at as hard as they should have been, given that they were funny. Actually, we used to keep Weir in the box marked 'uppity Guardian reader comedians who have that slightly unlikeable thing that Meera Syal has going on' but have been gradually chipped down on the not-unreasonable basis that she is funny and seems quite nice really. Still, it's surely going to be some sort of bum-related song, at a guess. Cheeky Girls? 

Odds: 10/1

Tony Blackburn and David Hamilton

Something for the Daily Mail to write headlines about how Old People Show The Young How It's Done if by some miracle they win.

Odds: 30/1

Watson and Oliver

The BBC's campaign to make sure you think that Watson and Oliver are the new French and Saunders starts here. Still, the Two Ladies Dancing Together shtick has plenty to go for – Beyonce and Shakira seems a sold choice, although if they do I'd Rather Jack by the Reynolds Girls then we'll donate £100 to Sport Relief and take the time to work out what it is actually going to do. 

Odds: 16/1

Scott Mills and Jesus Christ Alive It's Olly Murs

Unnecessary. Dance will be something young, presumably. Anyone know what the young people are listening to these days? We apparently got stuck somewhere around Stock Aitken and Waterman.

Odds: 20/1

Omid Djalili

What LDFCR needs is exhibitionists and Djalili can sure manage that when he wants to. Presumably something active so we can laugh at the fact he's a bit fat. Lady Gaga, young people like that and it's all energetic.

Odds:6/1

Patrick Monahan

We were going to say lovely nice Patrick Monahan will presumably be doing something nice off the Radio 2 playlist, but have you seen it these days? It's all Jessie J, Olly Murs and Lana Del Rey. This isn't what my nan signed up for. 

Odds: 25/1

Rowland Rivron

LOOK EVERYONE ROWLAND RIVRON IS STILL ALIVE. He used to drum for Transvision Vamp, you know. Him doing Wendy James would be something if this was 1989 but it isn't so we'll probably have to put up with Jessie J or something.

Odds: 25/1

Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards

Token comedy sport bit, which will presumably be as funny as Gethin Jones and Alex Jones. 

Odds: 25/1

Amy Childs and Herry Derbridge

The Only Way Is Essex 'stars'. Basically the one act that the BBC let ITV join in with. Meh.

Odds: 20/1

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE.

So the Bafta nominations were out this morning and comedy has down pitifully badly, garnering less than ten per cent of the nominations. Take out comedy drama and Bridesmaids, and the comedy presence withers to almost naught.  

Now, comedy films do admittedly turn out a lot more dross than their dramatic counterparts, but not everything was The Dilemma and Hall Pass in 2011. Here's six suggestions for who should have been on the list.

Catherine Deneuve, Potiche

Catherine Deneuve, innit. We never 'got' Deneuve until a film about ten years ago called Kings and Queen, where she played a psychiatrist to a flailing, charming Mathieu Almaric. She was stately; he was heartfelt in his efforts to find a better place for himself in the world. We remembered the film about half way through Potiche because Deneuve manages to pile the two ideas in to one character. This is dramatic farce – a French Alan Ayckbourn that somehow works – and that's thanks to Deneuve holding what had the potential to be a mess together.

Ewan McGregor, Beginners

The idea of Obi Wan Kenobi putting in one of the performances of the year seems to have proven so ridiculous that pretty much everyone has instead fixated on Christopher Plummer's warm and carefree performance, but McGregor really did do some sterling, introspective work here. Beginners also deserves a nomination for Daftest Plot Point Of 2011, as a freshly out Plummer sets up home with ER's Dr Kovac.

Weekend

Two not-getting-any-younger gay men spend a night together in Nottingham, but do they have a spark that can last past the weekend? While The Gays' new darling Tom Cullen dealt with most of the wide-eyed drama side of things, Chris New's brash, knowing turn made this a rom com that took on some pretty brave new territory.

The Future

The love/hate reaction to The Future was inevitable; it's a film that features a talking cat and is based on some emotionally-incompetent pretty folk we would call slackers if they were a bit younger and bit poorer. But the film grabs the idea of being a thirtysomething who's failing to get on with life and throttles it with some true innovation that's wrapped up in some touchingly funny scenes. (FULL DISCLOSURE: this is the sort of film where the loveable/hateable qualities weren't actually nailed in our mind until reading a review, that happens to be over here at the AV Club.)

Alex Turner, Submarine

If awards don't care too much for comedy, they REALLY don't like music in comedy. Alex Turner was the perfect choice for the premise of a fairly average film: his giddy way with words, and guiding voice, the triangulation between vulnerable youth, adolescent disdain and adult confidence. It's brief, simple and does the trick. 

Tooty's Wedding

Not that we've seen it, but if it's good enough for Sundance, it's good enough for us.

We wrote a frankly delicious piece after the British Comedy Awards over at Digital Spy about how the whole shebang was a major embarrassment for the BBC and rather successful for Sky. Today’s summer roster of comedy announcement for Sky 1 only underlines how that seems to be an emerging trend rather than a one-year wonder. 

The shows announced for summer really are rather an embarrassment of riches. Top of the list is a new comedy with Steve Coogan and Peep Show’s Matt King, Starlings, about an old man having to move in with his family after problems at his retirement home. ‘Grandad has to move in with family’ isn’t the most original of premises, but the calibre of the talent involved surely bodes well.

Gates brings together Joanna Page, Sue Johnston and rent-a-comedy-hunk Tom Ellis in what will surely be the warmest comedy of the summer, while Spy is finally putting Darren Boyd in the leading role he has been destined for since Kiss Me Kate. 

These all sound like they will be very watchable. And crucially, these are shows that are doing tricky things in comedy: nailing the family sitcom market that BBC One is only now scrabbling to fill since My Family finally collapsed of exhaustion. It arguably does a better job at tackling the breadth of Britain too, rather than setting everything in the front room of Middle Britain as Beeb family sitcoms lean towards. From Stella in the Valleys to Mount Pleasant in Manchester, not to mention interesting takes on family sitcoms covering intergenerational comedy and different combinations of family units, there’s a lot of interesting shows on offer.

Any quarms? Well, the obvious one is that there aren’t any new faces on show here. There is obviously This Is Jinsy over on Sky Atlantic, but there is a risk that that could become a fig leaf rather than a proud column of new comedy if Sky isn’t careful. One could argue that Sky is a commercial broadcaster and new comedy is the job of the BBC, but given the scale of their comedy operations, there is surely room for some fresh blood.

(One other criticism here: only yesterday, Sky dropped channel Current from its pay-TV line-up, a channel that gave early breaks in to TV for comedians including Holly Walsh and Jeff Leach. It’s one thing to not get around to creating new stars; it’s another to actively sabotage a route for new ones...) 

And one other bugbear that we’re not expecting to get much sympathy for: covering comedies on niche channels is a rather tricky business. It was very noticeable at the Comedy Awards that no journalist covering them actually knew the Sky shows up for awards or the people involved, and were instead chasing the Fresh Meat cast. Articles on Sky shows don’t pull in audiences for sites or publications that write about comedy. For a populist range of comedies, they are weirdly difficult to bring to the attention of mainstream audiences. 

Still, the upshot of all of this is that if you like TV comedy then it’s worth paying closer attention to what’s on non-terrestrial channels than you may already be doing. And if we’re really lucky, the BBC will properly up its game to match the calibre of Sky, who will (hopefully) not be in the quality commissioning game for just the short time. 

January 11 by Tim,

The hitch-hiker was unexpected. Standing at the side of the road atop a mountain pass between Switzerland and France the female, in her mid-twenties, was about as out of place as you could be at two in the morning.

Whistling past in the car with the stereo playing an African Cafe album at high volume I admit to feeling a more than a little pang of guilt. What was she doing there, who was she with, and how would you fit eight into a strictly speaking six-person car?

Needless to say we ducked the opportunity for adventure (or an Alpine mugging) and carried on since there was no room to fit her in without breaking the law, and it would be difficult to explain to the passport control if anyone happened to be manning the border on the icy cold night.

We were on our way back to Chamonix for a night at our chalet after the gig in Verbier, (or Verbyah as Matt's Gap Yah character would put it) and had just about enough time to take stock of the 24 hours we had spent so far on the road.

I haven't had the chance to be part of many comedy tours, but I have been privy to enough conversations about them to know that the experience can vary from a month dossing in a lackluster version of Premier Inn to a star-studded trip across continents. 

This particular trip through the Alps always would be considered one of the more unique affairs on any touring calendar, and has proved as such. The brief jaunt for an evening into Switzerland was designed to help launch a new comedy in the resort, and the Old Cinema venue is the sort of place which can either be a fantastically brilliant place to see comedy, or a potential disaster.

READ MORE / LISTEN

Ski tour part one: Rough and tumble in the Alps

Podcast: Mountain Radio's interview with Abandoman

Luckily for us, even though the audience was slightly on the small side on the ground, the gig itself was a success (through no doubt a lot of hard work from the promoter) with Tommy Holgate deciding to re-enact Sherlock Holmes II by incorporating previous audience suggestions during the second half going down particularly well.

Apart from me, Tommy, Matt and cameraman Kenny from Com Comedy, we've spent most of the week in the company of Abandoman - the musical comedy duo comprised of Rob Broderick and James Hancox.

I've known both Rob and James for over three years and though I've seen the act easily over a dozen times, the magic which surrounds the improvised musical act never dims. Word of their abilities has spread as far as the Alps themselves, with many of the audience preparing for their arrival by adding numerous strange objects into their pockets. One man had bought a plant, another what looked like an antique fog horn as well as numerous condoms, and other items from the depths of wallets or handbags.

Tommy Holgate warms up for the gig in Verbier's Old Cinema

Comedians have stages in their careers, and Abandoman are about to go through yet another transition. The last time we saw them in the Alps they were on the verge of breaking through into the mainstream comedy circuit and performed in front of the likes of Al Murray and Marcus Brigstocke for the first time at Altitude Festival 2010.

This coming month Abandoman are due to take their careers a step further by supporting Ed Sheeran on a UK-wide tour. They left us on Saturday morning to head back to London for a rehearsal before their trip to Aberdeen for the first gig of their tour.

From spending this brief time on the road however for me the very nature of touring and the audiences you encounter is one of the more intriguing aspects of the world of live entertainment.

Life speeds up. I write this looking back and in the first 24 hours we had visited three countries, skied on the side of Mt Blanc (ok, close to it) and performed two gigs, filmed a whole chalet sequence and jumped in a car to sample the very best of African beats.

Playing chicken with a snow-mower, I lost, but only just

Yet with speed comes a certain transience. You move between people, overhearing conversations which will never involve – or at their very best briefly involve you – and barely stopping to take in the scene. I can say I have been to Verbier, but I can't describe what the place looks like, I arrived after dark and almost carried my food away in a box as we sped across the border and back to our beds.

The life of any touring entertainer, be they musicians, comedians or actors, can be the same. They may play the Sheffield but the stop is – unless your lucky – only long enough to pick up an anecdote to use on stage before you cast it off and move on.

So apart from the fact that apricots are the fruit of choice for Verbier's particular part of the Alps my lasting memory of the resort is a group of incredibly posh women dancing in their pink moon-boots and an anecdote from Rob Broderick about how he'd been asked to headline a gig to help save pigmy elephants.

The last blog for this trip will be posted tomorrow. We're currently editing up the video coverage for later this year. Thanks for reading!

Thanks to Taking The Piste comedy tours for hosting us for the majority of our stay, as well as Snostation in Chamonix for use of their chalet, and 3 Vallee Transfers for putting up with our in-car jokes. 

Anyone who has seen a London bus in the last two months will already be well-acquainted with Zooey Deschanel's new comedy New Girl, starting tomorrow on Channel 4. If you've seen the above poster, you've basically already seen half the show. Zooey is kooky (she bites her lip at that kooky thing she's just done); Zooey is pretty (in a part-Katy Perry, part-Anna Friel way); Zooey is pretty and kooky (she has one of those fringes that girls tell each other look pretty if they also bite their lip to make themselves look like that blank-faced blow-up doll who starred in 500 Days of Summer).

Zooey is Jess, which you will know because she sings her theme song to herself a lot, like a charmless late-season Scrubs character. She's a post-breakup mess of Dirty Dancing viewings, social backwardness and various other 'adorable' tics that only a man raised on Lynx commercials would think is how a real woman thinks and acts. (Strangely the series was created by an 'Elizabeth Meriwether', but that HAS to be a man with a girl's name, like Viv Richards. It's the only explanation.)

The other half of the show are her new flatmates. There's Douchepipe Alpha, the one who is actually supposed to be a douchepipe, because if he was a real person, you would be utterly unsurprised to discover he was on the Violent and Sex Offenders' Register. There's Douchepipe Spineless, the one who would be a fullblown douchepipe if he got over his low self-esteem following an ancient breakup. And there's Douchepipe Wayans, a Wayans Brothers offspring who's basically a more laidback version of Douchepipe Alpha. (On the upside, he's gone by episode two, so there'll be a whole new sort of douchepipe to look forward to. Exciting!)

You may have noticed the highly American name-labelling of douchepiping there, but for however many variants of wankers we may have in Britain, there is something particularly American (or rather, American TV) in the characterless horndoggery on show here. 

It's hard to think of a comedy with such utterly unlikeable characters as New Girl, and the writing isn't enough to keep you coming back. The closest to a good joke in the first episode is a thin rip-off of 30 Rock's jokes that Tina Fey looks terrible when she very clearly doesn't. New Girl just doesn't have the charm to pull it off.

Still, Channel 4 seem to be expecting big things from the show. On top of the most inappropriately-sized ad campaign since the Morgana Show, Deschanel has turned up in general Channel 4 advertising, as if we're supposed to embrace the show to our bosom. 

We're all for light and breezy sitcoms and America knocks Britain into a cocked hat at that particular game, but this is much too thin to qualify. Fingers crossed, this will be abandoned to die in a quiet corner of the E4 schedule before the first season is out.

4 Jan 2012 By Tim

There comes a time when people need to know the limits of their skills - and for one particular Miami-born rapper and his friends that time came at 1am in the Jekyll bar in Chamonix when he decided to take on Abandoman with a rap battle. 

Despite missing the comedy show, which was the first on the tour since we arrived in Geneva on Monday, the gang of inebriated animal-dressed skiers had decided that they had been ordained with the best rapping skills in the world, and needed to share this knowledge with as many people as possible. 

In between rapping their drinks orders and chat-up lines, the bar staff at the Jekyll kindly introduced them to Abandoman, who thought it might be a good time to riff together. 

A friendly rap battle ensued and the boy from Miami was schooled in how to turn a phrase without descending knee-deep into pussy jokes and potentially treat the whole female gender with a little more consideration. 

The comedy tour we are following stops at Chamonix, dips briefly into Verbier, and then on to Meribel for the rest of the week. In between gigs we've been graced with the hospitality of Snostation, whose Chalet in Chamonix was the base for the first two days of the trip and the family home of Richard Lett from Taking The Piste.

With Abandoman taking themselves to the nursery slopes for only their third snowboarding experience ever, Matt Lacey (who plays Gap Yah) chose to partner the MC for the comedy tour Tommy Holgate for the afternoon skiing. Ambitious as ever, the two engaged themselves in a high speed pursuit of off-piste rocky outcrops, descending a closed black run  despite having said how they should 'take it easy' because it's the first day of the tour.

Needless to say there was a fall, a spray of snow, and a camera phone ready to capture the aftermath. What is unique though is how Matt reacted, which on camera at least looks like he took out his wrath on the mountain with laser eyes. Of course it's only a trick of the light, but as Holgate put it, Zap Yah has unveiled his super powers. 

Bravely hobbling on to the stage of the Old Cinema for the gig last night in Verbier, Gap Yah brushed off the fall as 'part of the banter' despite having to convince the crowd that he had actually hurt himself - and wasn't limping for purely comic effect.

Jan 2nd 2012, by Tim

So the time has come at last, the bags are packed, the travel insurance covers 'banter' and winter sports, and bars throughout the French Alps are geraing up to host one of the best acts SSP has ever seen.

Abandoman, while trying to control the outrageous nature of the possibly the worst gap year traveller ever to grace this planet. In between the sets and skis.

SSP has teamed up with specialist comedy tour company takingthepiste to traverse the Alps, with our first gig at The Jekyll in Chamonix tonight and from there we're spending a day on the slopes before heading to Verbier tomorrow night. 

But don't worry, it's not just a pleasure trip, along the way SSP will be setting the comedians a number of challenges on the slopes and blogging for your benefit. If you want to set them a challenege of your own, or just want to get in touch @smallportions and we'll be sure to get back to you, wish us luck!

The preamble

Such Small Portions is hitting the slopes with this coming January with a new work experience seasonaire to help us lug our stuff and show us how to big up the banter on the après ski.

Orlando Charmon – aka – Gap Yah is returning the haunts of his fabulously spoilt Christmas holiday youth in the Three Valleys region of France to live it up between 2 and 9 of January 2012.

Watched over by the Sun Comedy columist Tommy Holgate Orlando and one other top comic will endure a series of alpine challenges including working as a chalet girl for a day, doing a gig in a ski lift, getting some serious speed in a luge race and many more to be crowned winner of the comedy seasonaire of the year 2012. 

Full details of the trip are to be announced in early December but what we can reveal is that Orlando will be joined by the kings or improvised rap comedy Abandoman for a series of comedy shows in and around the Three Valleys and La Plagne.

If you want to catch the comedy capers during your stay the tour is stopping at the following places

Monday 2 Jan  Jekyll Chamonix

Tuesday 3 Jan Farinet Verbier

Thursday 5 Jan Jacks Bar Meribel

Friday 6 Jan TBC Meribel

Never Mind The Buzzcocks has been through many phases in its long life. There were the early Lamarr years when the laughs didn't come so thick and fast, but it did feel passionate about music. There were the Amstell years, when the jokes may have become increasingly abusive, but they were damned funny. And then there are the guest host years, where the show is about...well, what IS the show about these days? 

It's not quite in terminal decline, but it is sure going that way pretty darned quick. Here's our four-point plan to stopping the rot setting in.

New host, please

Obvious one, this. The hosts have gradually become less and less interesting, and the show has become more about them than about music (or 'HIGNFY syndrome' as it's also known). The Lorraine Kelly episode felt like the nadir of this a couple of weeks ago, but the nadirs (nadiri?) seem to be coming so thick and fast at the moment, with stilted camera delivery, awkward banter and a reliance on Phill Jupitus to keep the show moving, that it almost seems harsh to single her out.

So who to cast? The guest hosts so far have been fairly uninspiring, but Simon Amstell's guest appearance in the series after Mark Lamarr left didn't really point to the show he would help craft. So what about David O'Doherty? He did a decent enough episode, and also did sterling work on the live show at Latitude. He should also be walk the line between keeping viewers who like harshness interested, and making the show his own.

Quite strangely the guest booking is still pretty good. A couple of weeks ago the bookers really surpassed themselves, coupling Tony Law – an out-there comedian with far too little broadcast time – and Stacey Solomon – a populist celeb who usefully happens to be damned hilarious. It's just the sort of off-the-beaten-track meets low brow collision that Buzzcocks has made great telly from for years. 

Make the writers care about music

Lamarr had a great line in berating the worst excesses of guitar musicians; Amstell could tackle pop like no-one else. The current writers seem to think that making a joke about the Saturdays being a bit dim counts as comedy.

Basically I'm suggesting the writers need to be FORCED TO CONSUME all the music possible. I'm not suggesting that we need to start having jokes about Kuedo and D/R/U/G/S, but it does seem like the one way to force them to start caring about music again and start firing up the musical joke neurons that seem to have fallen utterly dormant lately.

Fresh comedians

While I stand by my point that guest booking is still pretty good, there's plenty of room for upping the comedian count – after all, they normally have to do the heavy lifting on the show jokewise. 8 Out of 10 Cats has proven that the current crop of young comedians can breathe fresh life into a so-so show, but Buzzcocks could have a trick up its sleeve it doesn't even realise. 

The last few years have seen the number of musical comedians who aren't the worst thing ever expand from 'Bill Bailey' to 'lots of people'. As mentioned above, David O'Doherty could do mainstream appeal while giving the show back a BBC Two edge (as in, he wears a cape). Frisky and Mannish are looking for a new gig. Isy Suttie has the mainstream appeal. And there's a whole host of others who could do the trick. Couldn't this be a good way to do something fresh with the show without losing the plot? 

(EXTRA NOTE: Jupitus and Fielding are doing a great job at keeping the show moving whenever there are weaker hosts in the chair, as well as keeping a firm lid on the show returning to the worst excesses of the Amstell years. So hurrah for them, the show would probably be sunk without them both.)

Don't force the rounds

The attempted 'refresh' with the current series has consisted partly of a ropey sketch to open the show. This does not work. Several new rounds have been introduced and either verbose or so flimsy that there is no way to chit chat about music (see above). This also does not work.

We're all on board mixing the rounds up a bit, but why not resurrect some forgotten ones? Unidentifiable Lyrics was a classic round (Cathy Dennis saying 'barrel of fudge' LOL). What Have We Pixellated seems to have fallen into disuse and was never quite as used as it could have been. There's plenty of old material that could be sifted and revived.

So, these are our thoughts. Given the way the show's 'refreshes' have gone so far, it seems more likely that Buzzcocks' will get it's own Star Bar (obligatory Top of the Pops reference). But it's not too late yet. YET.