‘I used to be famous’: a Russian comedian in exile After criticising the invasion of Ukraine, comedian Sasha Nezlobin – Russia’s answer to Michael McIntyre – exchanged arena stages for rebuilding a name in stand-up, performed in a language he is still learning. But his provocative truths about the regime are clear, writes @SimonParkin for @ObsMagazine bit.ly/4qngz9Q

Look who’s laughing now: how Saturday Night Live landed in the UK In the summer of 2024, Emma Sidi was midway through her Edinburgh Fringe show Sue Gray, named for the civil servant who investigated Boris Johnson’s Partygate scandal, when she learned that Lorne Michaels wanted a ticket. Michaels is the impresario who created Saturday Night Live, the late-night American sketch show that launched the careers of Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell. Last year, during celebrations of the show’s 50th anniversary, it was roundly agreed that the 81-year-old remains American comedy’s presiding kingmaker. When Michaels asks a comedian for a seat at their show, they usually find him one. But Sidi, a nimble comic actor who specialises in sharply observed, slightly deranged character studies, was unconvinced the request was real. “Like, I’m not going to be on SNL, am I?” she told her agent. And in any case, the show was sold out. “I told his people, ‘I’m sorry, Lorne can’t get in today and I doubt he’d enjoy it anyway.’” Only later was she told that Michaels was scouting her for a British spin-off. “I was like, that’s cool,” she told me. “You’re saying the words ‘SNL UK’, but I doubt that’s a thing.” But ffter more than half a century, Saturday Night Live, the great American comedy institution, has launched a British version (which sounds like an SNL sketch in itself). Employing 300 people and costing over £2m an episode, it’s a huge gamble. Has it worked? Read @SimonParkin's report: bit.ly/48RGVtg

The man making books sexy again Flirty, fun, fashionable… book events are the place to be. Meet the 32-year-old academic driving a new wave of literary parties, @SimonParkin bit.ly/3MrmriX