More Comedy News
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Six great shows coming to University of Wolverhampton at The Halls this spring
Posted on Tue 07 Apr
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Romesh Ranganathan brings new tour to the Midlands
Posted on Thu 26 Mar
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Ed Gamble brings new tour to the Midlands
Posted on Fri 13 Mar
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...
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
The Albany Theatre, Coventry, Friday 1 May; Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek, Friday 5 June
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.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Friday 1 May; The Glee Club, Birmingham, Thursday 14 May; Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa, Saturday 16 May; 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The London-born comic originally made his name over a decade ago as the character Dapper Laughs, but an ill-advised joke about rape put the brakes on what had seemed to be a promising career.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.
Swan Theatre, Worcester, Sat 2 May; Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Sat 26 September; Crewe Lyceum Theatre, Fri 2 October
JOSH WIDDICOMBE
Peddling a nice line in exasperated humour, Devon-raised funnyman Josh Widdicombe pumps out his cleverly crafted gags at a brisk pace, hitting the mark with the vast majority of his observational material.
Widdicombe jokes include: “Hotdogs cause bum cancer - that was the original slogan for McDonald’s before ‘I’m loving it’.”
Josh visits the Midlands this month and next with his new touring show, Not My Cup Of Tea. It’s an endeavour which he describes as ‘shorter and with lower production values than Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but funnier and with more references to tea’.
Birmingham Hippodrome, Tuesday 5 May
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.
Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, Thursday 7 May; Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Friday 8 May; Stafford Gatehouse, Thursday 17 September; The Glee Club, Birmingham, Thursday 26 November
JEN BRISTER
As she attempted to establish herself on the circuit back in the early noughties, Jen Brister received a much-needed boost from a comedy legend. The occasion was the BBC New Act semi-finals in Brighton. The legend in question, Spike Milligan, who was one of the judges. Although Jen didn’t get through to the final, she did find out from the show’s producer that Spike had voted for her. “He’d also remarked that I had ‘a great pair of Bristols’,” she recalls. “So clearly he had great taste in comedy and, er, tits!”
Jen visits Birmingham this month with latest show Reactive.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Friday 8 May
JARLATH REGAN
Although beginning his stand-up career in the early days of the new millennium, Kildare-born comic Jarlath Regan really found his place in the sun a handful of years ago via his Instagram and TikTok videos, since which time he’s been causing a significant comedy splash in countries across the world.
His new show, Gas Man, comprises 90 minutes of jokes and stories never before presented on stage or screen.
Birmingham Town Hall, Friday 8 May
DAVID ELMS
A comedian admired by other comedians is a comedian worth checking out - and David Elms is one such comedian.
“David builds a comedy ‘mind palace’ before your very eyes,” explains fellow comic Phil Wang, “and you’ll want to move in for good!” The mind palace to which Phil refers is a key element of David’s currently touring show, which sees him inviting the audience to dream up and describe the room he’s occupying...
As appreciative Summer 2025 Edinburgh audiences would surely be happy to confirm, the show is a far more enjoyable experience than it sounds...
Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, Saturday 9 May
IVO GRAHAM
Seriously posh and admirably self-deprecating, Ivo Graham won plenty of new fans in 2019 when one of his gags was nominated for the coveted ‘best joke of the Edinburgh Fringe’ award: “I’ve got an Eton-themed advent calendar,” explained Ivo to his audience, “where all the doors are opened for me by my dad’s contacts.”
The Tokyo-born Oxford alumnus visits the Midlands with Orange Crush, a show about ‘hats, haters and hometown heroes’ that also questions whether ‘Hare Krishnas are better than Hobnobs’.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Saturday 9 May
TOM DAVIS
“I've always thought of myself as an underdog,” reveals funnyman Tom Davis to beyondthejoke.com, “though not necessarily in a negative way. I think that's what’s made me. The bulk of my humour comes from constantly feeling like someone who's had a little bit of a kicking.”
Having left school with no qualifications, Tom’s road to comedy success proved to be a long and winding one: “I'd been working on building sites for 20-odd years. I just wanted to do something for myself. I tried stand-up, and straight away I just thought 'Wow! I feel like I'm actually quite good at something: making other people laugh!'”
Tom visits the Midlands with his current touring show, Spudgun.
Birmingham Hippodrome, Sunday 10 May
MARK WATSON
Well established on the UK comedy circuit, Mark Watson was born in Bristol to Welsh parents and initially delivered his act with a Welsh accent, claiming he felt “more comfortable talking in a voice that I didn’t quite recognise as my own”.
“Comedy is certainly a time-consuming element of my life,” he admits, “but then while I’m out touring and on stage, there are people at home doing far less glamorous things. There have certainly been times when I’ve been very happy to say, ‘Of course I’d like to stay and help out with that plumbing crisis, but the Midlands awaits!’”
Stourbridge Town Hall, Friday 15 May; Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, Saturday 16 May
DALISO CHAPONDA
Malawian Daliso Chaponda has blended the slick North American style of comedy he learned while working in Canada with a real talent for brevity, ensuring that his gags, although not one-liners, nonetheless come thick and fast. Like all good comedians, he can adapt his act to suit his audience - on a previous trip to the Midlands, he performed a seriously blue set in a Birmingham strip club, and then headed off to the Greenbelt Christian Festival to regale family audiences!
Jokes include “I moved to the UK because of the BNP - they said the immigrants were taking all the best jobs and all the best women, and I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds like a good deal to me!’”
Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Saturday 16 May; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Tuesday 2 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.
Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Saturday 16 May; Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Sunday 7 June; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Thursday 1 October
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.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Saturday 16 May; The Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton upon Trent, Saturday 17 October
NICK MOHAMMED
He may have been one of the worst contestants in Taskmaster history, but Nick Mohammed has proved himself a winner in pretty much every other aspect of his showbiz career. His success has been due, in no small measure, to his much-loved alter-ego, Mr Swallow, the attention-seeking man-child who he’s been playing for more than a decade now... Nick and Mr S are here making a welcome return in a long-touring show, one which has been described by the latter as “payback for everyone who didn’t come to the last tour”. Expect magic, music, ‘and a whole load of mistakes’.
The Alexandra, Birmingham, Friday 22 May
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.
Birmingham Town Hall, Friday 22 May; 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
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.
Dudley Town Hall, Thursday 28 May; Kings Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunday 15 November
SUZI RUFFELL
Gay, quirky and delightfully self-deprecating, Suzi Ruffell has well and truly made her mark in the challenging world of comedy. Alongside her stand-up shows, she’s written books and contributed as a writer to television series including 8 Out Of 10 Cats, The Last Leg and Stand Up For The Week. She also co-hosts smash-hit podcasts Big Kick Energy with Maisie Adam and Like Minded Friends with Tom Allen, as well as having her very own podcast: OUT With Suzi Ruffell.
Away from comedy, Suzi lists her ‘likes’ as ‘cooking’ and ‘those cats with no hair’.
Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, Friday 29 May
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).
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Thursday 4 June; The Glee Club, Birmingham, Wednesday 8 July
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
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