More Comedy News
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John Cleese to tour with The Holy Grail
Posted on Fri 29 May
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Top shows coming to Birmingham Arenas this summer
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Emerging creative talent on show across the city this summer
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Laughter is certainly the best medicine - even if you’re not ill! Why not get your ribs well and truly tickled over the next few weeks by attending one or more of the following laughter-fests...
HOWLING WITH LAUGHTER
This special Wolverhampton Pride edition of Howling With Laughter! is being promoted as ‘a riotous night of comedy, celebrating the very best in LGBTQ+ talent’.
The show sees headline act Rosie Jones (pictured) being joined by fellow talented peddlers of mirth Felicity Ward, Josh Jones, Fab Goualin and Tal Davies.
Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton, Sunday 7 June
AL MURRAY
“I love being a pub landlord,” says Al Murray. “It’s a truly great calling. You’re there to soothe troubled souls, pour balm on troubled waters, make people’s important moments in their lives extra special, and provide a range of snacks. What’s not to like?
”
Al is on tour this year with brand-new show All You Need Is Guv.
Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Sunday 7 June; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Thursday 1 October
JONNY COLE
“It’s difficult for me to put my brand of comedy into an industry-standard soundbite,” says local comedian Jonny Cole. “There are a lot of people who love Black Country humour and who’d love to go into a rough & ready Black Country pub just to listen to the banter - and that’s exactly what I do. I’ve absorbed Black Country humour the whole of my life. I take it out of that pub - where people wouldn’t dare go, in case they got their teeth knocked out - and I put it into a safe, controlled environment where they can enjoy it.”
Brierley Hill Civic, Sunday 7 & Saturday 13 June; Lichfield Garrick, Friday 26 June; Dudley Town Hall, Thursday 9 & Friday 10 July; The Civic, Wolverhampton, Saturday 11 July; The Anstice, Telford, Thursday 17 & Friday 18 July; Lichfield Garrick, Friday 9 & Saturday 10 October; Utilita Arena Birmingham, Tuesday 3 November
ALFIE MOORE
Staunch Sheffield socialist Alfie Moore is a master raconteur and a very funny man.
He also used to be a police officer...
Indeed, back in the days when he was both a comedian and a cop, his website advised that if you wanted to see Alfie ‘live’, you had two options: either catch him at one of his comedy gigs, or drive to Scunthorpe and park on a double yellow line!
With his gag-bag including “I'm in a same-sex marriage... the sex is always the same”, he stops off in Newcastle-under-Lyme this month with latest show Acopalypse Now.
Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Friday 12 June; Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton upon Trent, Friday 3 July; Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa, Satuday 26 September; Lichfield Garrick, Saurday 24 October
BRING THE LAUGHTER
Tez Ilyas’ live standup has been likened to candyfloss with a razorblade hidden inside, while his television work has brought him to the attention of a whole new audience.
The fact that he’s been able to hit the right notes with so many people doesn’t come as any surprise to Tez...
“It doesn’t matter what walk of life we’re from, I think we’re all united by the British sense of humour,” says the Blackburn-born comedian. “Whatever creed, colour, sexual orientation or gender type we are, we have a connection based around a mutual appreciation of that sort of comedy.”
Tez (pictured) is joined for this Bring The Laughter gig by fellow comics Stephen Bailey, Nabil Abdulrashid, Josh Pugh and Lindsey Santoro.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Saturday 13 June
ISMO
Finnish comedians who cause a stir on the UK comedy circuit are hardly ten-a-penny, so ISMO’s mid-month Birmingham gig offers a perfect opportunity to bag yourself a novel experience.
Combining clever wordplay and sharp observational humour with a refreshingly unique perspective on the trials and tribulations of everyday life, the 47-year-old funnyman - full name Ismo Mikael Leikola - shot to stardom in the United States more than a decade ago, emerging victorious from comedy club Laugh Factory’s inaugural ‘funniest person in the world’ competition.
ISMO is touring the UK this month having recently recovered from a broken back.
Birmingham Town Hall, Wednesday 17 June
DANNY BHOY
There can surely be no greater pressure for a Scottish comedian than to be considered one of the country’s brightest prospects since Billy Connolly...
Such is the cross which Danny Bhoy had to bear in the early years of his career...
Blending ironic wit, observational humour and an appealingly laid-back style, Danny is visiting the Midlands this month with Dear World, the show he toured to various festivals last year to great acclaim.
“It’s the sequel to my 2014 show, Dear Epson - my favourite ever show,” explains the 51-year-old funnyman. “It’s a hybrid of standup and theatre, but really that just means I get to sit down for bits of it.”
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Saturday 20 June
GAURAV KAPOOR
One-time corporate retailer Gaurav Kapoor began chiselling out a space for himself in the high-pressure world of comedy more than a decade ago.
Now well established on the circuit, the Delhi-based performer has no regrets about leaving behind his previous, relatively secure career in favour of chasing laughs. “You can make good money in comedy,” says Gaurav, “but the key is to diversify and keep reinventing yourself.”
Gaurav visits Birmingham this month with a show he’ll be performing in Hindi.
The Glee Club, Birmingham, Saturday 20 June
SCOTT BENNETT
The next few weeks see Scott Bennett offering comedy-loving Midlanders plenty of opportunity to find out exactly why he’s such a highly rated (albeit relatively low profile) comedian.
Scott has been referred to as live comedy’s best-kept secret, with critics praising him for developing a style that comes complete with flashes of Peter Kay, John Bishop and Jason Manford.
Hugely popular on the corporate circuit, Yorkshire-born Scott is using his latest tour to contemplate the way in which people’s liking for ‘stuff’ sits at odds with the looming environmental crisis.
Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, Wednesday 24 June; Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Thursday 25 June; Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek, Tuesday 30 June & Wednesday 1 July; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Saturday 6 February
MATT FORDE
A one-time advisor to New Labour (he gave up his membership of the party when Jeremy Corbyn became leader), Nottingham-born Matt Forde is this month returning to the Midlands with Defying Calamity, a show in which he aims to ‘find positivity in life, despite all the evidence to the contrary in politics and his own health’ (Matt was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in 2023 but is now disease-free).
The Glee Club, Birmingham, Wednesday 8 July
FUN! WITH BARBARA NICE
“In these dark days, we need to find fun whenever we piggin’ can,” says everybody’s favourite Kings Heath housewife, the incomparable Mrs Barbara Nice.
Barbara is taking her latest ‘laugh-out-loud’ offering to venues across the region over the next couple of months.
“Laughter is the noise we make when we make connections,” she says. “It’s like two live wires meeting; two opposing forces or ideas meet head on, and the energy of the clash between them makes a thunderclap of laughter
Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek, Friday 5 June
TOM STADE
Clever, controversial and Canadian pretty much sums up Tom Stade, a familiar face on television programmes including Live At The Apollo and Mock The Week.
Having racked up 30 years on the comedy frontline, Tom is visiting the region with brand-new touring show Naughty By Nature.
Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek, Staffs, Sunday 21 June 2026
KANE BROWN
Parenthood, family life, relationships and British culture are among the subjects to which Kane Brown regularly returns during his live shows. The one-time direct-sales executive kickstarted his current career back in 2006 when he enrolled in a two-week course in standup-comedy, since which time he’s honed his rib-tickling talents to excellent effect.
Kane visits the region this month with Crowd Work King, a show which is described as 60 minutes of purely unscripted and unplanned comedy, entirely based around audience participation.
The Core Theatre, Solihull, Wednesday 23 September; Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton, Sunday 27 September; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Friday 9 October
DANIEL O'REILLY
Daniel O’Reilly reckons his life has resembled a rollercoaster ride - and he’s stopping off in the Midlands this month to tell his legion of fans all about it.
The London-born comic originally made his name over a decade ago as the character Dapper Laughs, but an ill-advised joke about rape put the brakes on what had seemed to be a promising career.
The years which followed saw him battling a drug and alcohol addiction, and fighting hard to reestablish himself on the UK comedy scene.
Now, having been sober for more than 1,000 days, Daniel is out on the road again. He’s performing his latest stand-up show, Let’s Have It, under his own name - and joking that he hopes he gets cancelled, as he could do with a bit of a break.
Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Sat 26 September; Crewe Lyceum Theatre, Fri 2 October
MARK SIMMONS
A runner-up in the Top 10 Jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe competition in 2022 - “Did you know, if you get pregnant in the Amazon, it’s next-day delivery” - Mark Simmons went one better in 2024, emerging from the summertime get-together in the Scottish capital with the Funniest Joke award: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship, but I bottled it.”
And there’s plenty more where those little gems came from, with Mark’s talent for one-liners knowing no bounds.
Stafford Gatehouse, Thursday 17 September; The Glee Club, Birmingham, Thursday 26 November
HANNAH EAST
Brand-new skits, more wigs, celebrity send-ups and laugh-out-loud moments are promised by Hannah East when she visits the Midlands this month with her latest comedy offering, in which she takes a deep dive into the highs and lows of parenting.
Hannah splits her professional life between stand-up and presenting. “After graduating, I competed on the TV show Gladiators,” explains Hannah. “During the semi-final stage, I was waiting for a scene to be filmed with [ex-footballer] Ian Wright when he told me to read Caroline Flack’s autocue. After doing this, he gave me some advice - I should go into presenting. The rest, as they say, is history!”
Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa, Saturday 3 October; Glee Club, Birmingham, Thursday 15 October; Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, Friday 16 October; Kings Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunday 15 November
SEANN WALSH
With appearances on shows including Mock The Week and Strictly Come Dancing to his name - the latter seeing him hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons - Seann Walsh has been likened to the legendary Billy Connolly in terms of his gift for storytelling.
His jokes aren’t bad either. Two examples are as follows... “I don’t understand swimming. You don’t see fish going for a walk.” And “Are city-centre beat officers police who rap?”
Fresh from participating in series two of I’m A Celebrity... South Africa - he also featured in the Australian-jungle version of the series back in 2022 - Seann visits the Midlands this month with his latest touring show, This Is Torture.
The Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton upon Trent, Saturday 17 October
MICK MILLER
It’s a toss-up whether veteran comedian Mick Miller is best known for his comedy or his hair, but the good news for his legion of Midlands fans is that he’ll be bringing both along with him to this Black Country gig.
Tickling ribs for the better part of half a century, Mick is as committed as he’s ever been to keeping his stand-up show fresh and funny. Post-interval in Dudley, he’ll be sitting down with close friend and fellow funnyman Ryan Gleeson to chat about his career in comedy. A good night is pretty much a guarantee.
Kings Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunday 15 November