I’ll warn you now. There will be spoilers in this post. Admittedly there’s not a massive plot point like Shutter Island that I could completely ruin, but there are plenty of twists and turns in Black Swan which you’ll enjoy it a lot more if you don’t see them coming and I am going to talk about them. You’ve been told. Black Swan is the tale of Nina (Natalie Portman) who is a highly accomplished but slightly dull ballerina with a New York dance company. She longs for bigger roles but she lacks the passion and abandonment that the other dancers do so she’s always sidelined in favour of someone...

When X Factor hit our screens last year Simon Cowell made the decision to try and keep away from sob stories and instead focus some of the attention back onto the potential ‘pop sensations.’ However as the class of 2010 were boring to the extreme (apart from Glorious Wagner obvs) this left the story writers and editors with so much time to fill that some of them actually died*.  Instead we ended up hearing about Rebecca Ferguson being a mother and how she missed her kids and blah blah blah. This has become a worrying feature of reality TV. Watching American Idol last night and any female contestant that had forced new life...

American Idol has just started it’s tenth season and as XFactor makes it’s trip over the Atlantic stealing the Cowell and jettisoning the crown princess of the toon into the hearts of middle America, it’s time for a shuffle. The Big Dawg Randy Jackson is the only returning judge now that Paula’s gone proper tonto and Ellen decided she wasn’t keen on being mean. So they’ve brought on two new judges, and bloody well done FOX because these are J to the Lopez and Steven ‘face of a sexy Lion’ Tyler. The new judges have just the right amount of industry klout, rock-star mental and bubbly enthusiasm....

So as you know I’m doing a show at the Leicester Comedy Festival but I’m not the only thing on, even if that is how I make it sound. Here’s a list of 13 (long I know but it could have been MUCH longer) awesome people to see. In ALPHABETICAL order, cus that’s the way the brochure does it. A Abandoman 20:00, Thursday 17 February, Firebug £7/5 Like nothing you’ll have seen before. This two piece hip-hop posse will amuse and amaze you with off the cuff raps delivered with bizarre skill. Really funny, Really awesome. (and they’re bloody lovely) Comedy Festival Listing  Abandoman on Facebook I Iain...