While 15 minutes of fame is sweet enough, the comedy characters of 1998 could end up being developed in the dole queues rather than on screen.. In order to make himself a household name, Izzard employed other media. Not only do his videos, T-shirts and books make the handiest of gifts, the press can't get enough of him. Articles in which he expounds his theories on any topic from lipstick to European harmonisation (thereby successfully avoiding telling any gags) have saturated newsagents' shelves all year.But this eccentric way of circumventing the Catch-22 is not for all. Unfortunately, making the leap into TV presents its own problems.Earlier in the decade, Eddie Izzard identified the self-destruct mechanism implicit in the career development plan of a modern comedian, ie it's easy for the public to assume that comedians are naturally funny people who simply shamble on and amuse off the top of their heads. In fact, it can take months to come up with enough material to generate a few minutes of laughter, and though you can do the same act month in, month out at different venues, do it once on TV and it's dead material; the public can't throw rotten eggs at you, but they certainly won't be tuning in to watch you next week.On realising that by going into TV he could be sowing the seeds of his own demise, the cross-dressing, surreal-monologue-delivering Eddie Izzard hatched a cunning plan to prolong the warm glow of attention He would become the tv who didn't do TV.

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A few years ago no cable company could have expected a terrestrial to go near them, but already 1998 sees Paramount in the confidence of Channels 4 and 5 after the success of such programmes as Armstrong and Millar (Channel 4) and Comedy Store (Channel 5), and it is currently in negotiations with ITV, a channel anxious to add a comedy string to its bow in an effort to lure in the 16-24-year-old age group that the current schedule evades.All in all, the time would seem to be right for young comic talent to get itself an agent, land a spot on a stand-up show and make its mark.

Boys in the Wood, (BBC 2) finds young comedians/ musicians Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt blurring the boundaries between comedy and music Nineties-style, and inhabiting a vaguely Teletubbies- style woodland setting enhanced by a cutting-edge drum 'n' bass soundtrack.The surprising fact that this wealth of new talent doesn't mean that the oldies are left out (Lenny Henry, Alexei Sayle, Ruby Wax, Whose line Is It anyway?, Drop the Dead Donkey and Father Ted all return this year) may seem to pose the question "Where's all the cash coming from?" Quite simply, owing to the growth of the comedy cable channel Paramount, the laughs now come cheaper than ever before.Cost-effective programme-making and a knack for spotting interesting new talent on the booming stand-up circuit means that Paramount has either sold or co-produced more than 10 new comedy programmes this year across Channels 4 and 5 and at ITV. From a chat show with the least personable presenter imaginable, to a sitcom like none seen before ... Poverty is widespread, and prostitution has mushroomed in Havana to breathtaking proportions. The Malecon, the sea wall in the heart of the city, is outlined with girls from dusk onwards, as are the centres of the streets awaiting kerb crawlers.And then there are the clubs. I went to Palacio de Salsa, the famed club, in the centre of Havana. As I entered a girl slipped her arm through mine to gain entry.

Any male, either alone or in a group of other males, finds a girl moves in to sit next to him and asks for a cuba libre, the exotically named rum and coke.Elena is 19, has dyed her hair blonde and wears gaudy yellow platform shoes. She is also working for her diploma in tourism studies and is on an English course at college. Her story is typical: "I live with my mother and my sister," she said. "My mother works in a factory earning the equivalent of $20 dollars a month I'm 19 and I've been doing this for about a year. My mother wasn't wild about it when I started, but she understands.