After the (non-)scandal of (un-)banned Tube posters, the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder are now well and truly on show at the Royal Academy. Painter, print-maker, illustrator, businessman, propagandist, and huge fan of the female nude, this is Cranach's first major exhibition in Britain. And while you're gazing at all the nakedness, remember; this was a mate of Martin Luther, and those erotic female nudes are all about Protestant devotion. Honest. Openings Ahoy!......

With her comedy partner Joe, Nicko runs the Bad Film Club, a monthly club at the Barbican centre where glorious bad films are watched and laughed at. On Wednesday, the club hosts Jaws: The Revenge (yes, that is the one with a roaring shark who has a personal vendetta). What is this Bad Film Club business all about? It's just a place where likeminded people can gather without shame or the need for explanation......

So this week, we spent all our money on cold remedies and extra balmy tissues for our beleaguered noses. The plan is to be back and fighting fit by Monday so here are some of the things we could all get up to this week for very little wonga. Monday: Call the BBC Ticket Line on 0870 901 1227 and get free tickets for the recording of Clare in the Community - the radio......

That's Tony Cowards's wish as he brings his one man stand-up show to The Offside Bar in Islington tonight. Tony, originally from Suffolk but now living in our very own East End, performed his hour long "Festival of Football" at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer where he mixed tales of supporting Ipswich Town with a selection of unusual football headlines and a sideways look at what it means to be a football supporter these......

Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) is having an unusual autumn. While most performing arts venues start September with a new programme of plays, workshops and special one-off events, BAC is bolting its main doors and sending all those who dare approach through the back door and around each room in the venue for the mind-blowing Masque of the Red Death. We have had a range of experiences in this extraordinary production – and it just......

London has undergone a mass exodus. Unnoticeable to some, devastating to others, the actors, directors, stage managers, comedians and dedicated followers of fringe theatre are negotiating their way north to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, leaving a distinct lack of entertainment down here. Seeing this as an opportunity rather than a threat, the plucky Etcetera Theatre and Liberties Bar in Camden are hosting London's miniature version of the Scottish theatre revels and are proudly presenting......

Mark Watson is a comedian. You may have seen him on the box on 'Nevermind the Buzzcocks', 'Mock The Week' or 'Time Trumpet'. You may have heard his Radio 4 show, 'Mark Watson makes the world substantially better'. You may have seen him live, perhaps on his current tour of his show 'I'm worried that I'm starting to hate almost everyone in the world' or perhaps you attended or have heard of his legendary......

We first saw Caroline Clifford in the final of the Amused Moose new act competition at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, and hers was the best 7 minutes we'd heard all festival. She was also a finalist at So You Think You're Funny 2006. As well as standing up, she draws cartoons. How are you? I’m well thanks – I have a slight pain in my left buttock, I don’t *think* it’s cancer although......

It's been a few months since we delved into the world of comedy when back in the summer we spoke to Richard Herring and comedy troupe The Cowards. This time round we've been talking to comedy writer, performer and former blogger James Bachman. We first came across James in Edinburgh in 2003 and have marvelled at his now nearly constant popping up-ness in some of the best new television comedies including his regular role......

We hope you've enjoyed these few comedy interviews and recommendations. This will be the last one for a while as this particular Londonista (and all the good comedians) relocates to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for August. But fear not, Londonist comedy coverage will resume with renewed vigour and comprehensiveness in September. Cowards formed in October 2004, and following a sell out run at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe, are returning to Edinburgh this summer. They......

Is your February feeling a little flat? Do you long for the endorphine-fueled glow that only a song full of witty hiatuses before the verse hits it's punning conclusion can bring? That unique feeling that you can only get watching a man in drag clutching the pink frills on his toga as he falls for a boyband-member lookalike in dodgy gladiator armour? Then Achilles in Heels is the show for you. Of course, this......

Dudley Moore and Peter Cook will be resurrected to return to the West End where their comedy careers started. Not, we hasten to add, in resurrected corpse / zombie form (though who wouldn't want to see a zombie Dudley Moore choking on brains as an undead Peter Cook tries to make him laugh). Come Again was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer and will open in London at The Venue in......

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs this year from 7th to 29th August. But attending can be a rather fraught affair requiring military precision to ensure all travel, accommodation and theatre / comedy / arts 'n' culture needs are met. There is also the likelihood of accidentally stumbling upon some lingering G8 protesters and wasting a precious afternoon of Edinburgh time with them, believing you are taking part in a ground-breaking bit of interactive site-specific......

The theatre collective Shunt have finished with their show Tropicana, which was performed five nights a week from September last year in the cavernous labyrinth under London Bridge, scaring, baffling and amazing audiences who dared go through the "Staff Only" door in the station foyer. Londonist bought a ticket and tried to describe the experience, but really, you had to be there to believe it. Well, they're doing it again. Shunt are performing their......